Isn’t this intriguing… Hosted/cloud contact center provider Telax made an announcement about the release of an HTML5-based agent desktop software, Call Center Agent (CCA), with an emphasis on its ability to run on Apple Macs.

Of course, if it’s HTML5 then it can really run on any modern browser, including those found on mobile devices based on Google Android and Apple iOS. According to the press release, the technology behind CCA is Websocket which provides bidirectional full-duplex communications over one single socket. Users can enjoy this technological wonder on the latest browsers such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

Has anyone seen this in action?

Traditionally, contact centers (and enterprises in general) have shun Macs because of unfamiliarity and cost, but recently IT has been more receptive to Macs, especially now that they’re all Intel-based and can run Windows natively or virtualized. The popularity of Web-based enterprise apps also makes moot the argument about operating systems.

Have a look at the press release:

Telax Hosted Call Center, a leader in cloud contact center solutions, announced the release of its HTML5-based Call Center Agent (CCA) today.  Key to the development of the browser-based CCA was Websocket, a component of HTML5 that provides a bi-directional, full-duplex communication channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) socket. Websocket is currently supported by the latest versions of Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Firefox, making Telax’s new CCA compatible with the most popular browsers in Mac environments.

“We’re pleased that Mac infrastructures are growing so strongly in business environments. It allows us to develop contact center tools that have capabilities beyond what they’ve traditionally had,” said Vladimir Pereira chief architect at Telax. “The adoption of Websocket by most major browsers is a huge step towards scalable real-time web applications. Our ultimate goal is to provide reliable and scalable solutions that are both easy to use and easy to deploy. This one is as easy as pointing a Mac browser to a url.”

Before HTML5, real-time unified communication software was better served as a client because its browser-based counterparts were unable to deliver an acceptable user experience. Some browser-based clients use 3^rd party software such as Adobe Flash or Sliverlight to operate adequately, but both solutions require software installation and are not mobile friendly.

Telax Hosted Call Center for Mac OS contact centers is the first web-based application that allows contact center agents to work from any location without needing to install software or suffer with an application that provides only partial functionality and unstable connectivity. This advancement in contact center software gives IT staff in Mac environments the opportunity to concentrate core competencies while significantly improving the customer experience.

About Telax Hosted Call Center:

Telax Hosted Call Center is North America’s leader in hosted call center solutions. Based in Toronto, Canada, Telax has been providing cloud-based business solutions to prominent public and private sector organizations since 1999. The simplicity delivered by Telax services enables clients like Best Buy, Northrop Grumman, Johnson & Johnson, CI Investments, the Globalive Group of Companies, Health Canada and the GSA, to reduce costs and improve efficiency, so that they can do more with their most critical resource: people. For more information, visit http://www.telax.com. For the latest Telax news, visit http://www.telax.com/category/news

I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon to find out that Google Voice has a brand new web app for the iPhone, and it is a beautiful thing.

Kudos to Google engineers for making such a great looking and usable web app with HTML5:

Today, we’re excited to introduce the Google Voice web app for the iPhone and Palm WebOS devices. This HTML5 application provides you with a fast and versatile mobile experience for Google Voice because it uses the latest advancements in web technologies. For example, AppCache lets you interact with web apps without a network connection and local databases allow you to store data locally on the device, so you don’t lose data even when you close the browser.

It took a while, but I’m glad I didn’t go the jailbreak route just to get a third party native Google Voice app on my iPhone. This web app is very close to the performance and features of a native app.

Are you also a Google Voice user, be it iPhone or Android? Do you think it’s ready for prime time?