It's not often I haer the word mashup and profitable in the same sentence, but the winners of the Telephony Mashup Challenge look to be just that. The challenge was hosted by Sylantro and The Thomas Howe Company and was designed to find innovative telephony applications-using Sylantro's applications programming interface (API) of course. It's also to prove innovation doesn't need a traditional carrier, and as Thomas Howe writes, "not involving (the traditional carriers) was a good thing for all concerned."

The CallPal technology developed by Infosys Technologies Ltd. routes calls to the phone of your choice based on time of day, your schedule, and your availability. Sounds a bit like iotum's technology, actually, but instead of being based on Asterisk, CallPal is based on Sylantro's softswitch.

Evoca was the second-place winner. Evoca used Sylantro's APIs to record calls and make those MP3s available via other web services. The possibilities with this are endless!

VoIP Logic's mashup tied their Cortex System Management Portal deeper into the Sylantro APIs. One cool thing they are able to do with their mashup is control various calling features via SMS from your mobile phone. Sign me up for that!

Full press release after the jump.

Sylantro Systems and The Thomas Howe Company

Announce Telephony Mashup Challenge Winner

Voice Mashup Could Result in Millions of New Dollars in Revenues for Carriers

SYLANTRO GLOBAL SUMMIT- LAS VEGAS (Oct. 3, 2007)-Sylantro Systems, the leading multiplay application feature server, and The Thomas Howe Company are proud to announce Infosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) as the winner of The Telephony Mashup Challenge, which took place at the Sylantro Global Summit 2007 in Las Vegas, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.

Infosys Technologies Ltd. developed "CallPal" an innovative and intelligent mashup of a subscriber's personal information management system (like Calendar, Contact address book, etc.) and Sylantro Synapps Web Services. CallPal delivers incoming calls to a home, business or mobile phone based upon caller identity, time of call and availability. The caller identity is received from the Sylantro contact address book and availability from the user's calendar. CallPal is capable of proactive and automatic scheduling of appointments, notification of availability and integrated messaging. In addition to providing a creative mashup of voice technology, the Infosys team identified how this new application service could generate millions of dollars in revenue for carriers by improving the call completion success rates and providing new monthly revenues for value added services.

"Our goal in launching this contest was to demonstrate the power of our Synapps web services in enabling mashup applications with real business value for operators and end users," said Shirish Andhare, vice president of product marketing at Sylantro Systems. "Infosys demonstrated a highly creative and business focused use of the Synapps platform in conjunction with other public APIs."

"Our judging criteria were heavily weighted towards the impact these mashups could bring to the carrier's bottom line," said CEO Thomas Howe of The Thomas Howe Company. "These types of applications have been developed in various forms, but have never before been available to carriers on a mass scale and on multiple devices."

Evoca and VoIP Logic came in second and third respectively. Evoca's mashup used the Sylantro Synapps API to record a single or multiparty call, convert it to MP3 recordings and integrate these services with other web applications. This allows for user generated audio content using Evoca's Phone-to-Web Media Services to attach audio content quickly and simply to any Web site. The recording and converting capabilities of this mashup help attract, retain and convert more visitors to a Web site by building community using the spoken word.

VoIP Logic's mashup further ties its Cortex System Management Portal into the Sylantro API allowing a user to perform various aspects of phone management. Users can send commands to their phone system using SMS. These SMS messages enable any number of functions including call forwarding to landlines or mobile phones, forwarding all calls to voicemail or starting a conference call. This mashup provides value-added features to mobile users and world travelers looking to bypass roaming charges.

Seven finalists began development in early September and were judged with a 50/50 weight based on presentation of technology and a business use case. Contest entrants were required to use the Sylantro API. Use of other suggested APIs including Voxeo, Amazon Web Services, and OutboundMessaging.com were optional. Entrants were required to demonstrate that their application made businesses faster, more efficient or created happier customers.

Sylantro's Synergy platform and Synapps Web Services provide a carrier-grade, feature-rich, web services-enabled common capability for creating new converged experiences for business and consumers.  The Synapps Web Services enable mainstream web developers to leverage voice as a key enabler in their applications.

The Sylantro Global Summit is an annual gathering of service providers and communications executives from around the world focused on addressing carrier transformation.  Attendees will hear the latest on hosted voice, mobility and Web services from service providers and Sylantro partners and see the latest in applications and listen to real world case studies all in an intimate, high touch atmosphere. For additional information on the Sylantro Global Summit, please go to
http://www.sylantro.com/gs2007/

 

About Sylantro Systems Corp.

Sylantro Systems  offers the leading multiplay application feature server enabling rich hosted IP communication services across fixed, mobile, and cable networks. Sylantro customers include AT&T, China Netcom, KT, Nuvox, QWEST, StarHub, Swisscom and others. Sylantro is headquartered in Campbell, CA. For more information on Sylantro please visit
www.sylantro.com

Copyright © 2007 all rights reserved. Sylantro is a registered trademark of Sylantro Systems Corporation.  Multiplay application feature server is a salesmark of Sylantro Systems Corporation. All other products and brands mentioned are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners.

About The Thomas Howe Company

The Thomas Howe Company (THC) is an application development company focused on creating communication solutions for clients in healthcare, financial services and other industries. Thomas Howe works closely with clients to give them thoughtful and honest third-party advice, and to show them how THC applications can be integrated into their business processes for exceptional payback.

The company offers custom software development and hosting services to exploit every possible benefit of Web 2.0, as well as consulting services to educate clients to the heightened potential and lowered costs of mashup application development.

Founded in 2007 by Thomas Howe, a veteran telephony software engineer, the privately held company is headquartered in Osterville, Mass.  For more information on The Thomas Howe Company, please visit
www.thomashowe.com
.