Employer: Chromatic Software Inc (website)
Period: April 2001 - May 2003

I moved from the UK to Canada to work for Chromatic Software as an IVR software developer. Initially I worked on enhancements to their chat/date line products which operate in hundreds of cities across North America. The company's products are amongst the top 3 nationally and in many markets the number one brand of choice. LiveLinks is probably the best known product.

I went on to rewrite and enhance the local number locator service, firstly improving the responsiveness and search time, then implementing smooth phrasing to make the readback of local numbers sound more natural. Callers dial a toll free number and are then given the local number to call in their area based on their area code. You can call 1-888 245 4545 for a demonstration. Because the service runs on a toll free number and receives thousands of calls per day, there are massive savings in toll charges for every second that can be shaved off the duration of the call. By implementing the changes above, typical call durations were reduced from over a minute to less than 30 seconds.

Call-Fusion is an audio teleconferencing product aimed at the business market and has grown quickly to become the Conference Service Provider of choice amongst small to medium sized enterprises. I was responsible for designing and developing the product, continuing to add new features during my time with the company. The Call-Fusion business unit now offers web conferencing as well as the traditional phone-only teleconferencing. The original product has been renamed from Call-Fusion to CFAudio so as to align with the naming of the web conferencing offerings.

During my time with the company I also worked on a number of product enhancements that provided internal benefit, such as the introduction of event logging for product performance statistics, and the creation of real time status displays allowing monitoring of all IVR systems in the network (20+ systems, 7500+ phone lines). These browser based displays show the number of callers on any given system, broken down by type, the number of lines in use on a per T1 span basis and also allows monitoring of call volumes, tracking usage statistics down to an individual trunk level (identifying when a call was last made or received on any given channel). These tools proved invaluable to the Operations Team in the daily monitoring of systems.

In 2002 the IVR Team was Team Of The Year in the annual Presidential awards. Additionally, I was Team Player Of The Year within that team.

NavPath: Self Employed