Prompt and Collect Applications inherit their naming from conventions associated with the still very common Signalling System 7 (SS7) Telecommunications Core Carrier Network. In the "prompt and collect" scenario the network is aware that before further call handling or presentation be possible that the caller or calling party respond to a question, typically using DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) key presses in the form of the "collect" - and the network makes a decision on how to route or present the call based on the result.

A common scenario could be a reverse charge platform where the caller is prompted,

      "Please enter the full telephone number including local area code that you would like to call after the tone"

Whereupon the caller enters the telephone number via their telephone keypad or dial. Other typcial scenario's include Telephone Voting, where the choices for the vote are presented in audio form, "Press one to vote now for Ananarama or Press two to vote now for Ramaanana"  By simply prompting and the "collecting" the calling parties choice a wide variety of very nimble and innovative mass call handling scenario's can easily be handled right in the carrier core network.  This lends itself to incredible call handling volume capacity as well as very efficient and effective handling of any form of mass-response scenario.

Anana uses best-in-breed Next Generation Voice, signalling and Media platform elements to plug extremely advanced Prompt and Collect applications directly into the Core Carrier Network.  These solutions are not limited to DTMF based inputs back can also be powered by Advanced Speech Recognition (ASR) or even voice-biometrics, e.g.

    "Please say the name of the artist that you would like to vote for now..."

or

    "Please confirm your identity by saying your passphrase at the tone....."

The capability to extend prompt and collect beyond its traditional intelligent network peripheral capability with DTMF based inputs offers incredible flexibility and allows the carrier to show thought leadership in innovation whilst offering telecoms grade and reliable user interfaces to products and applications.