2009 got off to a good start in January, when Vail updated its Reservationless Conferencing application. And in June, Vail released Whistle, a SIP-based Internet calling network. With this phone service, Vail also made available its own soft phone for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac OS X.
June saw the launch of Vail's first major Routing and Call Control (RACC) client-giving customers, via the web browser, total control over their complex calling network. Later that year, Vail also brought a new data center in Aurora, Colorado, online.
A third data center was added to the Vail network in March, this time in Southfield, Michigan. Soon afterward, Vail introduced an automated system to continuously test each application, according to a set schedule. Total call volume passed four billion minutes.
Vail brought both a platform-level call-recording-and-storage system and a new state-of-the-art conferencing system online. In April, Vail introduced Multi-Fault-Tolerance, and implemented the policy of running all applications on at least two data centers in different locations. The company resolves to never break full redundancy.
In September, Vail introduced the policy of volume-testing all major new applications at 150% of the expected production volume. November saw the company upgrade the VXML interpreter to 2.1 and introduced CCXML 1.0.es.
2005 was also the advent of the generalized computer telephony integration (CTI) service, allowing customers to carry out strategies for a fully-integrated call center and IVR applications.
Vail completes four million calls in a single day.
Vail saw tremendous growth in the speech-enabled IVR market in 2003. The year was marked by several large application developments for major accounts. In summer, Vail announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft Speech Server and joined the MSS Partner Program. As part of this alliance, Vail added SALT application support to the Vail Voice Platform.
As the demand for individually-customized speech applications grew, Vail recognized a need for a new type of provider- one that would consult with enterprises about every factor which impacts cost-effective and successful speech strategies. Vail decided to build a company with the skill set and focus to deliver end-to-end speech solutions that were economically feasible, but friendly to customers. Versay® Solutions was founded by Vail as a wholly-owned subsidiary in February, 2002..
Vail converted the underlying framework of the Vail Voice Platform to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based Voice-over-IP (VoIP), and added a VoiceXML programming interface.
The conversion began a new chapter in Vail's history. The company's commitment to open standards and next-generation network devices was very much to the customer's benefit, and the switch to SIP only improved matters. Using VoiceXML, the Vail Voice Platform became home to a new class of speech application-programs that could be developed in a customer's own network. The SIP platform opened a huge array of options in both flexibility and scalability. These changes allowed customers to save money while enjoying special services, like audio conferencing and voice IVR applications.
Vail opened the Vail Network Operations Center (VNOC) in June 1999 to provide round-the-clock network, platform and application-level monitoring and testing. VNOC staff members routinely check all production applications, and monitor critical network and platform elements to prevent failures before they occur.
Building on its reputation as an innovator, Vail developed the Vail Voice Platform and launched its first speech recognition application in 1996.
In October of the same year, conceptual and application development began on the Webley Personal Assistant®. A logical extension of the plug-and-play functionality of Vail's pioneering Voice Platform, Webley was one of the industry's first speech-enabled unified communications services, and certainly the first featuring a virtual butler. It gave clients' single-phone-number-access to a wide array of calling and messaging services. In early 1998, Vail spun off this technology into Webley Systems.
In order to ensure application reliability, and to expand call volume capacity, Vail opened a second data center in 1994. The data center was on a separate power grid and was considered fully redundant.
Vail developed a call processing platform that integrated telephony-grade Intel®-based hardware, open-source operating system software, and Vail-developed software that was based on industry standard protocols. This platform continues to operate today, never once having had a system-wide failure, and is still steadily growing to manage higher call volumes and new generations of applications.
Vail was founded in 1991 with one essential belief: problems with interactive voice technologies would be easier to manage and solve by selling services, rather than products.
Those were the days of expensive products and big carriers, but Vail stood out as a service provider. The company soon became an industry leader in developing computer telephony applications and providing state-of-the-art hosting services.
