Telstra came to us in 2009 to build on-hold for TIPT
TIPT is Telstra IP Telephony — Telstra's hosted phone service, built on the Cisco BroadWorks carrier platform. When Telstra needed the on-hold experience built for it, they engaged Captivate Connect, and what came out of that work was the first interactive on-hold service in the world. Callers stopped being an audience and got something they could answer back to.
What TIPT actually is
Most people arrive here having searched the acronym rather than the product, so it is worth answering plainly before anything else.
TIPT stands for Telstra IP Telephony. It is a hosted phone system: instead of a PBX sitting in a cupboard at your office, the call handling runs inside Telstra’s network, and your handsets, softphones and apps connect to it over the internet or a Telstra connection. Hunt groups, auto attendants, call queues and voicemail are all configured centrally rather than on the hardware.
Underneath, TIPT is Telstra’s build of Cisco BroadWorks — the carrier-grade platform that started life as BroadSoft and is now part of Cisco. A number of carriers around the world run their business voice services on the same foundation. That matters for on-hold audio, because the behaviour you are dealing with is BroadWorks behaviour wearing a Telstra badge, and it is nothing like a key system with a CD player wired into it.
It is a genuinely good platform — reliable, versatile and long proven. We have worked on it since 2009 and have never had cause to say otherwise.
Where hold audio lives on TIPT
This is the part that catches people out, and it is the reason a box of CDs in the comms room is no help to you.
On an old on-premises system, hold music came from a device in your building. Something played a source, the phone system bridged it onto the line, and if you wanted to change it you changed the disc. On TIPT there is no such device and nothing to plug in. The audio file lives with the service, and Telstra’s network plays it to the caller from there.
Three consequences follow, and between them they account for most of the frustration people have with hold audio on a hosted platform:
- Nobody can change it from their desk. It is an administrative change against the service, not a setting on a handset. That is a feature — it is also why the office Christmas message is still playing in March.
- Different queues can play different things. Hold audio is generally set for a group and can be overridden for an individual queue, so your sales line and your service line do not have to say the same thing. How many levels you have depends on how your business was built on the platform.
- The file has to suit the platform. A carrier platform will not simply take whatever a laptop exported. The audio has to be produced to the format the service expects, at the right level, or callers get something quiet, distorted, or nothing at all. Getting that conversion right is unglamorous and it is most of why on-hold audio sounds bad when it sounds bad.
What interactive actually meant
On-hold audio in 2009 was a recording. It played, it looped, and a caller's only two options were to keep waiting or hang up. The brief Telstra gave us was to make the wait something a caller could act on instead.
Jukebox
Custom Callback
Text-a-Link
That work was the first interactive on-hold service in the world, and it was built for TIPT specifically. Everything we have built on other platforms since started here.
How a change gets made
- 1
Write it
Draft the script in the Kiosk, with help if you want it.
- 2
Produce it
Pick the voice, pick the bed. A finished file comes back about a minute later.
- 3
Approve it
Nothing reaches callers without sign-off.
- 4
It's playing
The approved audio uploads itself and is on hold immediately. What used to take days takes a minute.
Also worth knowing
- Optional content items — On This Day, Famous Birthdays, Motivations, Riddles — sit between your promotions and change daily on their own
- The integration has run on TIPT since 2009, and has grown into two-way conversational products since
- The same interactive features run on other carrier platforms we support, so moving off TIPT does not mean starting again
Telstra TIPT has been running interactive on-hold since 2009. Worth checking what yours plays now.
TIPT questions we get asked
- What is TIPT?
- TIPT is Telstra IP Telephony, Telstra's hosted business phone service. Rather than a phone system in a cupboard at your office, the call handling runs in Telstra's network and your handsets and apps connect to it. It is Telstra's build of the Cisco BroadWorks carrier platform, which is the same underlying technology a number of carriers worldwide run their business voice services on.
- Is TIPT the same as BroadWorks?
- TIPT is Telstra's version of it. BroadWorks is the carrier-grade platform underneath, originally BroadSoft and now part of Cisco. Telstra packages it, operates it and decides which features are turned on, so TIPT behaves like BroadWorks in shape but is not identical to another carrier's build of the same platform.
- Where does hold audio live on TIPT?
- On the platform, not in your building and not on the handset. The audio file sits with the service and Telstra's network plays it to the caller. That is why nobody at a desk can change it from their phone, and why an on-site music player or a CD system has nothing to plug into.
- Can different queues play different audio?
- Yes. Hold audio on a platform like TIPT is generally set per group and can be overridden for an individual queue, so a sales line and a service line can play different things. How many levels you have available depends on how your business was built on the platform.
- Can we use our own audio?
- Yes, and most businesses should. The platform plays a file you supply, which means the recording, the voice and the script are yours to decide. The file does have to meet the platform's audio requirements, which are narrower than a normal MP3 from a laptop — that conversion is part of what we do.
- How long does a change take?
- With the Captivate Connect Kiosk, about a minute from writing the script to callers hearing it. You draft, pick a voice, approve, and the approved audio uploads itself. Without that, a change is a production job and then an administrative one, which is how it used to take days.
- Where do I log in to TIPT?
- Through Telstra, not through us. TIPT is Telstra's service and the management portal for it is reached through your Telstra business account. We are the on-hold audio on the platform, not the platform itself, so if you are looking for the login you want Telstra.
- Who do I contact for TIPT support?
- Telstra, for anything to do with the service itself — handsets, call routing, billing, outages. Us, for what the caller hears while they wait. The two rarely overlap, and knowing which one you need saves a long hold of your own.
- What happens if we move off TIPT?
- The interactive features run on other carrier platforms we support, so the scripts, the voice and the setup come with you. Moving platform does not mean starting the on-hold work again.
Talk to us about your TIPT queues
Tell us how your call flows are set up and we will show you what your callers could be choosing from.