An "over-the-top" application is perhaps best described by its very namesake. It implies a solution that can ride on top of existing infrastructure, rather than require heavy integration to get its value into the hands of end users.Therein lies the real value of these. Developers and marketers of over-the-tops can truly focus their efforts on problems end users are challenged by. The result: applications that bring significant change to a given user experience.
In the voice world, the maturation of APIs and open development platforms are encouraging more of these. Ribbit Mobile--an offering that goes "over-the-top" of your mobile service to enhance its value through better online call management, among other features--is one example. Fonolo (disclosure: they're a client)--a call center solution that goes "over-the-top" of IVRs and ACDs to empower the end user with a better experience--is another.
And recently, I read about Poketypoke, a new service by Ditech Labs released last week at CES in Vegas. Poketypoke aims to solve the long-standing problem of missing or arriving late to conference calls because of dial-in code issues, user error or plain-old bad memory. And yes, is going over-the-top to do it.
Poketypoke is the brainchild of an entrepreneur who applied the same method to conceive it as he did to birth PhoneTag (recently sold to Ditech): found something that drove him crazy and set out to fix it. In the case of PhoneTag, he wanted to read his voice mail. With Poketypoke, he saw a very sub-optimal process in place in a huge market--conferencing.
The service works like this. A user forwards an auto-generated email from a conference bridge, to Poketypoke. The application scrapes the emails for the relevant information--combining automated and, where necessary, human processes--to insure the system confidently grabs the key data (dial-in, pass codes, etc...) it needs to dial the user into a conference call on their behalf. On time, of course.
Like the others I mentioned earlier, Poketypoke is focused on fixing an end user experience that is highly repetitive, but that needs work. My point: surely there are user experiences out there in the voice world that could be improved, and going over-the-top is great (somewhat new) way to get there.
