Business communications glossary

10-digit long code — US system for registering businesses that send A2P SMS from local numbers.

Automatic Call Distributor — routes inbound calls to the right agent or queue.

Average Handle Time — talk + hold + after-call work per interaction.

Average Speed of Answer — mean time callers wait before an agent answers.

A virtual receptionist menu ("Press 1 for sales") that routes callers.

Bring Your Own Device — employees use personal phones/computers with business apps.

Contact Center as a Service — cloud-hosted contact-center software.

Algorithm that compresses audio/video (e.g., G.711, G.729, Opus).

Communications Platform as a Service — APIs to embed voice, SMS and video in apps.

Customer Satisfaction score, usually from a post-interaction survey.

Dedicated Internet Access — uncontended, SLA-backed business fiber.

Direct Inward Dialing — a phone number that rings a specific user or device directly.

Enhanced 911 — sends a caller's registered address to emergency services.

Unit of telephone traffic: one Erlang = one line continuously busy for an hour.

First Contact Resolution — issues resolved in the first interaction.

A set of phones that ring in a pattern until someone answers.

Interactive Voice Response — automated menus using keypad or speech input.

Variation in packet arrival time; high jitter causes choppy audio.

Key Performance Indicator — a metric tracked against a goal.

Delay for data to travel between endpoints; under 150 ms one-way is recommended for voice.

Local Number Portability — moving your existing number to a new carrier.

Mean Opinion Score — 1–5 rating of perceived call quality.

Share of logged-in time agents spend handling contacts.

Unified handling of voice, chat, email, SMS and social in one queue and history.

Data packets that never arrive; over 1% degrades call quality.

Private Branch Exchange — the switching system behind business phone extensions.

The process of transferring a phone number between carriers.

Outbound dialer that calls multiple numbers per agent and connects answered calls.

Public Switched Telephone Network — the traditional global phone network.

Quality of Service — router rules that prioritize voice/video traffic.

Several extensions that ring together for one number.

Session Border Controller — secures and manages SIP traffic at the network edge.

Software-defined WAN — intelligently routes traffic across multiple internet links.

Percent of calls answered within a target time (e.g., 80/20).

Paid agent time not available for contacts (breaks, training, absence).

Session Initiation Protocol — the signaling standard behind most VoIP calls.

A virtual line connecting a PBX to the PSTN over the internet.

Service Level Agreement — contractual uptime/support commitments.

A software app that makes calls from a computer or mobile device.

Carrier approval process required to send SMS from toll-free numbers.

Unified Communications as a Service — cloud phone, messaging, video in one platform.

Delivers voicemail audio/transcripts to your inbox.

Voice over Internet Protocol — phone calls carried over data networks.

Browser standard for real-time voice/video without plugins.

Workforce Management — forecasting, scheduling and adherence for agents.