Is Exchange 2010 a Replacement for Legacy Voicemail?

One of the great things about my job as a Technical Trainer is that I get to test drive, then use, some of the newest and coolest software packages. And, to the annoyance of my friends in the IT field, I mostly don’t have to deal with the problems in deployment or the day-to-day drudgery of managing an enterprise. I guess that’s a nice way of saying I understand their pain, without having to endure any of it myself.

I recently attended Exchange 2010 Ignite training. Three days of test driving the latest and greatest iteration of Microsoft’s email system. It’s quite an impressive product, loaded with new functionality and redesigned for unbelievable degree of robustness. While there I spent some time exploring something near and dear to my heart, their implementation of Unified Messaging (UM).  It was great to learn a bit about deploying Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging in the context of a legacy voicemail replacement – an area where I spent a considerable amount of time.

The last slide of the last lecture had a fascinating bullet point – “A  Natural Replacement for Legacy Voicemail”. What you’ll find while comparing a legacy voicemail to Exchange is that a lot of those “Legacy Features” such as voice distribution lists and cascading pager notifications are missing. This may not be a huge deal, since your company may not use them anyhow. However, it suffices to say that it’s not a voicemail system but an implementation of voice into a more email mail centric system. It’s a tradeoff -  legacy functionality for more a more modern feature set. Assuming  of course that you want those new features and can live without the legacy ones such as voice mail networking with legacy systems via VPIM or AMIS or replacing a familiar telephone user interface (TUI) with an unusual version.

Upgrading to Exchange 2010 requires a fork lift upgrade. There is no process to upgrade your existing 2003 or 2007 systems. However,  Exchange 2010 is 2003 and 2007 capable. Meaning, you can have both 2003 and 2007 systems in your Exchange 2010 enterprise. So you don’t upgrade, you add the new system then move the users over . Although you can go right from 2007 to 2010 in controlled manner,  you cannot upgrade your 2007 UM though, only move those users.

One thing I found vexing in both 2007 and now again in 2010 Unified Messaging is how tedious it is to manage voice features for an Exchange user. Although the management interface has been streamlined and improved I found it tough  to go back and view or make changes once I set up a voice user. Near as I could figure, I could enable or disable UM for a user, anything else, I’d have to use a wizard again.

The last two criticisms I have deal with Speech. Speech recognition is a processor intensive function, not only on Exchange but on a CallXpress system as well. Speech also has a few subtleties that one should think about in an administration context (Hence, it makes sense to be able to make user changes easy). Take name changes for instance. What happens when “Holly Holt” gets married and now is Holly Smythe, only pronounced “Smith”. What if she wants her old name, her new name, and maybe “Holly Holt-Smythe” as well? We can do this. We can also handle both Holly Smythe and Olly Smith by a few tweaks in administration. By the way, I asked that exact question in the class.

I got the reaction I probably deserved by asking such a thing at 4PM on a Friday. I’ll blame it on that rather than any product deficiencies. I spent  a bit of time trying to explore this further on the web and couldn’t land anywhere that described sizing, speech recognition, and disambiguation.

MS Exchange 2010 also supports Speech to Text. The caller leaves a voicemail message, and Exchange converts it to a text email. Very slick. We’ve had that with our “got-voice” integration for some time. We were given what I’d describe as an oblique warning that this is processor intensive and we shouldn’t give it to every user. Suffices to say, too much of a good thing here is probably a bad thing. I couldn’t find much info anywhere on that either, other than everyone agreeing it was cool. I’m guessing that since I’ve heard that it’s speech to text transcription accuracy is less than 50%, the more users added means the less likely the messages will be transcribed properly.

Not that I’m trying to be mean, these two features are very cool. There are, however, a lot of problems that pop up during speech deployment. CallXpress has the tools to deal with these issues and without making light of the complexities, they are pretty straight forward.

Make no mistake, it’s a cool system with lots of other cutting edge features such as Rights Management, Exchange Online (Cloud access),  a very cool new look and feel to both Outlook and OWA, and awesome high availability and archiving capability. The way Microsoft has redesigned the architecture, with it’s resulting many-fold increase in hardware efficiency, probably makes the upgrade worthwhile.

However, Unified Messaging was disappointing. With it’s ability to integrate to all versions of Exchange (2010 soon to come, no doubt) CallXpress allows you to add UM capabilities as awesome and rich as these new features while at the same time providing true legacy voicemail replacement and continuity during an upgrade.

What the iPad Means to Unified Communications

I’ll be the first to admit that making any sort of broad statement about Unified Communications based on some new whizbang gadget is a stretch. The iPad isn’t a game changer. It’s got that amazing Apple touchscreen and some really cool UI enhancements (have you seen the page turning graphics?), but it’s essentially a more human version of a laptop. Or a more computerized version of an eReader, depending on your perspective. And like the first iteration of anything, it’s got a lot of holes to fill.

But what is does say to Unified Communications is that devices are 1) continuing to converge, and 2) becoming more humane. As working minds, we weren’t really tethered to office desks until the typewriter became a mainstay. Then they transformed into PCs, and now we have dockable laptops and/or separate netbooks. None of these options really fit the fluidity of a body in motion, shifting from one context/environment to another.  Smartphones come close because they’ve evolved into mini-PCs that are ultraportable, but you still can’t get much work done on them. Even browsing a webpage can be quite a challenge on small devices.

The first time I held a friend’s iPhone, my immediate reaction was, “Wow, this would be perfect if it were just a little bigger.” Meaning, I wouldn’t need a laptop and a cellphone any longer. I wouldn’t need a physical keyboard or a separate monitor. I wouldn’t need a separate zipper compartment in my backpack to carry it around. Instead, it would fit into my lifestyle without me needing to adapt to it. Just a single, slim device that could do everything: phone, apps, movies, internet, e-mail, games, music, and photos.

Okay, the iPad can’t do all of that…yet. Give it a year or so. Watch its competitors launch similar devices. Watch us all start to shed the extra weight of technology and move from situation to situation without checking battery life, undocking, wrapping up cables, or even thinking about a wi-fi connection. You’ll be checking your morning news and e-mail over coffee, driving to work with a Bluetooth headset, stepping into an early meeting, flipping through some family photos at lunch, giving an afternoon presentation, filing a report, stepping onto an airplane and watching a movie–all without switching devices or giving a second thought to the technology required.

So what does the iPad mean to Unified Communications? It means things are still getting simpler and more portable. Devices and applications must evolve to do both effortlessly.

Chris Sullivan is the Director of Training and Documentation for AVST and also on the CallXpress Customer Advisory Council.

UCConnect launches as part of AVST Developer Network

What is UCConnect™?

UCConnect is a Microsoft® .NET development framework (SDK) for CallXpress 8 used to create custom UC solutions including call processing applications, notification and alerting applications, and other customer or vertical market-specific information access and delivery applications commonly referred to as Communication-Enabled Business Processes, or CEBP.

Access to UCConnect is limited to members of AVST’s new Developer Network (full program launching Q1/2010).

To join the AVST Developer Network, complete this online form and an AVST representative will contact you with full program details. For more information, please contact AVST at ucconnect@avst.com.

• Full Program Launching Q2/2010 – Register now and be the first to reap the benefits:
• FREE to join for developers, customers, resellers, technology partners and consultants
• Utilizes Microsoft .NET development tools to create custom UC applications for CallXpress 8
• Downloadable code samples
• Training – tips and tricks + online training videos
• Developer’s community to share ideas

Click here to learn more about the AVST Developer Network.

Legacy Voicemail Users – Know Your Options

Many IT professionals today are advocating the replacement of older voicemail systems that don’t support the mobile work force or are based on obsolete proprietary platforms or technology. Others, unfortunately, continue to bear the burden of the increased maintenance and support costs of legacy voicemail systems that simply do not integrate with new technologies within the organization, nor meet the needs of the modern enterprise.

If you are charged with researching a replacement solution for your first‐generation voicemail system, make sure you KNOW YOUR OPTIONS!

Look for a replacement to your current voicemail system that offers a flexible solution for integrating, automating and improving your business processes. CallXpress was built to achieve maximum return on investment by:

• Minimizing training by mimicking the Telephone User Interface (TUI) of your Nortel Meridian Mail, Octel Aria, Octel Serenade, and other popular first generation voicemail systems
• Leveraging the global administration capabilities of the CallXpress platform to reduce administrative cost
• Automating information delivery accessible to customers 24 x 7
• Allowing for customized IVR applications such as bank by phone, financial reporting, campus directory, 24-hour technical support line, and employee locator
• Providing notification to customers of timely information
• Intelligent routing of calls
• Streamlining message management through unified messaging

Related Links:

• AVST On-Demand Webcast – CallXpress 8 – Ideal Legacy Voicemail Replacement Solution
• Datasheet – CallXpress Legacy Voicemail Replacement
• Nortel Investment Protection Program Resource Library

10 Key Advantages of CallXpress

1. Legacy call processing…If you are looking at replacing a legacy voicemail system, CallXpress offers two advantage sets. First, since CallXpress was on the market when the legacy system was originally purchased, it’s safe to say CallXpress can duplicate all of the functionality in use on the older legacy systems. When most of the new generation of voice messaging systems were created, little concern was given to matching the older legacy feature sets. With CallXpress, all of those features are still on the system. It’s nice to know there won’t be any nasty surprises when the system goes into service.
2. Legacy voicemail retraining…One of the barriers to replacing legacy systems has always been the need to retrain the users with a new telephone user interface. With CallXpress, emulation interfaces are available for the legacy systems you might replace allowing for a smoother transition.
3. Disparate PBXs…Customers with multiple locations face even more challenges then single-site customers. The flexibility you’ll find in CallXpress will make it easier to satisfy the needs of multi-site customers. For customers with more than one type PBX in their network, CallXpress’ ability to integrate to any type of telephone system will make early standardization possible.
4. Multiple and disparate e-mail environments…For those companies with multiple types of e-mail technology deployed, or those who forsee a migration to a new platform in their future, the fact that CallXpress integrates to all e-mail systems can make it easier to start the process of replacing their voice messaging infrastructure.
5. Centralized administration requirement…Those same multi-site customers will benefit from CallXpress’ ability to maintain multiple systems as if they were one using the system’s Global User Administration capabilities, as well as the fact that multiple systems deployed remotely now can be consolidated at a later date if the customer moves to a new centralized telephony infrastructure.
6. Transitional IPT deployment…Particularly, for those customers looking at a current or future migration to an IPT infrastructure, the fact that CallXpress not only integrates to the older TDM systems as well as all of the IPT systems, but that it can also support both system types ay the same time, makes it easier to plan and execute those types of migrations.
7. Unified messaging retention issues…For many customers, the prospect of implementing unified messaging brings with it concerns over the implications of storing voice messages on the e-mail server. With the flexible unified messaging architecture in CallXpress, customers can have complete control over the architecture used to deploy unified messaging.
8. Virtual desktop…For those customers with a mobile workforce, concern over how to increase the productivity of those workers can be addressed with the new presence and mobility features now available in CallXpress. CallXpress offers the most robust mobile presence and productivity package on the market today. 
9. A la carte feature delivery…Unlike many of the competing systems, the CallXpress licensing scheme allows for a truly a la carte approach to selection of solutions and features. Customers need only pay for those features they wish to deploy.
10. IT flexibility and economics…Throughout the process of selecting solutions and configuring deployment architectures, the IT departments will find that CallXpress is the most ‘LAN-friendly’ product on the market today. When it’s deployed in an enterprise, it fits into the environment like any other application server on the customer network, matching the IT department requirements for security, control and monitoring.

Speech-to-text is a great timesaver technology

In this 2 minute video you’ll hear first hand how speech-to-text has helped our Director of Sales, Denny Michael not only access important messages, but also become more efficient in the process!

Here’s an excerpt from Denny’s video blog:

Suppose you are in a meeting and you are expecting a very important voicemail. You know you can’t call in to retrieve the message because you are in a meeting, but you can read it on your Blackberry or iPhone or other device.  Just having that alone saves you time than having to go back to your voicemails and read it. The other thing, that is interesting about it, is that some people never get to the point in a voicemail, so you’re listening for maybe minutes before they get to the point. With text you can simply look at the message and scan right to the most important piece of information, and you are there.  You’re done. It transforms the way people shave time and be more efficient.

Click on the play button below to watch the entire video.

Related Links:

• AVST Enhances CallXpress with Speech-to-Text blog post
• AVST Enhances Speech-to-Text Technology from GotVoice press release
• GotVoice Enterprise Solutions Datasheet

CallXpress Training and Documentation Gets an “Upgrade” too!

What’s new to CallXpress 8 Training or Documentation – for AVST Resellers and CallXpress customers

CallXpress 8 has been out for just a short time, and already I’m hearing rave reviews from our students and end-users about the breadth and quality of enhancements we’ve made to the product. No doubt Speech sparks the most interests in our classes, as students can’t wait to start playing around with the speech-enabled call processors and the voice recognition. We now train Speech in our Administrator and Core Technical courses, rather than separately like we did for the previous version. So if you’ve been wanting to see Speech in action and learn more about it, get signed up for one or both of those courses.

Also new to CallXpress 8 Training is our FastTrack course, which is designed to bring reseller technicians up to speed on the changes since version 7. A passing score on the accompanying exam allows students to become certified on CallXpress 8.

Please note: the FastTrack course is recommended only for reseller technicians who are already certified on version 7. A current certification is required in order to become recertified.

The course is broken out into seven lessons:

1. Introduction to CallXpress 8
2. Upgrading from 7.91 to 8
3. Understanding the new Interface
4. Working with Speech
5. Devices and Availability
6. Multi-Server Configuration
7. Upgrading from Web PhoneManager

So far, we’ve had a few hundred technicians take advantage of this course. If you haven’t enrolled yet, please download the latest training registration form from PartnerXpress and send it in!

New to CallXpress 8 Documentation we have a number of items:

• CallXpress Editable Pocket Guide – created as a request from our end-user community, this tri-fold document covers the telephone user interface menu. It’s delivered in Microsoft Word to allow you to make your own customizations and edits as you see fit.
• Voice User Interface QRC – with Speech integrated into CallXpress, this quick reference card shows the most common commands.
• Mailbox Archive Utility OLB – this online book explains how to backup and maintain mailboxes in CallXpress
• System Backup and Restore OLB – this online book covers everything you need to know to keep your CallXpress system backed up and safe.
• CallXpress Automatic Speech Recognition Guide – this guide covers everything related to Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), including concepts, licensing, requirements, installation, and troubleshooting.

And as always, we’ve updated and rewritten many of the legacy documents to address the numerous enhancements in CallXpress 8. If you have any comments, questions, or recommendations for our Training or Documentation, please send me an e-mail.

Related Links:

• CallXpress Online Technical Training Datasheet
• CallXpress End User Materials

Inside Look at CallXpress Digital Networking

Re-engineered with CallXpress 7.91, Digital Networking has evolved to provide an even more robust and reliable voice messaging network.

What is Digital Networking?

Digital networking is an advanced CallXpress application that allows telephony servers to exchange voice and fax  messages over any network based on the TCP/IP protocol—a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet.

Digital Networking allows you to combine a number of CallXpress servers into a single, coordinated messaging system that serves an entire enterprise. Easy to view progress bars keep you updated when activity is underway between the master server and other nodes in the network.

In his second video blog documentary, Chris Sullivan interviews software engineers, Timothy Blaisdell and Bill Matzen to get an inside look at how Digital Networking works.

 

Related Articles

• Solution Brief: CallXpress for Large and Multi-Site Enterprises
• Press Release: Manatee County Expands Deployment of CallXpress® to Support Network Disaster Recovery Strategy

Sneak Peak of CallXpress 8 Web PhoneManager

Earlier this year I sat down with software engineer, Adam Warbington to discuss his role in the highly anticipated CallXpress 8 release.

In the following 3 1/2 minute video blog, Adam gives viewers a sneak peak at the newly designed Web PhoneManager (WPM) in CallXpress 8.  You’ll definitely want to check it out and watch as Adam highlights the cool new availability settings included in CX8.

What is Web PhoneManager?
WPM allows subscribers to manage their mailboxes through their preferred web browser, through the company’s intranet or possibly from outside the office through an Internet connection. This web-based utility is available through any web browser that has access to the server on which it resides. Within WPM, subscribers can also create and update name and greeting recordings for their mailboxes, and send new voice messages.

CallXpress 8 Web PhoneManager
With the release of CallXpress 8, WPM has been greatly enhanced with JavaScript/AJAX support for much improved usability when managing messages. Also, playback of messages using streaming audio has been changed to use MP3 audio through Adobe Flash Player for faster playback, greater browser and operating system compatibility, and greatly simplified installation and configuration.

 

Why upgrade to CallXpress 8?

So you’ve heard the buzz….CallXpress 8, AVST’s next generation feature-rich Unified Communications platform delivers high availability, scalability, centralization, cost savings, mobility and more.  But what does this mean to you?

It means that CallXpress 8 delivers the mission critical functionality you have been looking for while protecting your current and future communications infrastructure.

Here are the some of the highlights of CallXpress 8:

• High Availability and Disaster Recovery – New, multi-call server architecture delivers continuous high availability and avoids system downtime.   A multi-server architecture combined with Neverfail®, a fully synchronized hot standby, provides IT administrators with the peace of mind that CallXpress is running 24×7.
• Centralization – CallXpress 8 provides customers with the ability to centralize messaging and call processing applications by using their existing voice or data networks and deploying AVST’s survivable call server technology or SIP gateways.
• Speech -  CallXpress provides speech access to your company’s communication infrastructure and real-time call connectivity. It also offers hands-free mobile management of telephone calls, e-mails, fax messages, contacts and calendar and complies with the hands-free mobile phone laws enacted in many states and countries.
• Personal Assistant - Provides Find-me/Follow-me capabilities to automatically route calls to the most appropriate telephone based on their current presence as well as Calendar and Contact management for users of Microsoft® Exchange and IBM® Lotus Notes®.  When combined with existing mobility applications such as unified messaging, voice user interface, and single number/single mailbox, CallXpress 8 becomes the most mobility-enabled solution offered by AVST to date.
• Scalability – Now able to scale up to 384 ports and 40,000 users, CallXpress 8 doubles the scalability of previous versions and can be networked for larger capacity.
• Interoperability – CallXpress 8 is compatible with more than 250 TDM, IP-PBX, and Centrex integrations with the ability to support up to 10 switches on a CallXpress system.
   

Understand the Benefits of Upgrading to CallXpress 8

AVST believes it is critical for customers to continually utilize the latest version of software. Proactive upgrades ensure optimal performance, continued feature enhancements, increased stability, and ongoing compatibility with emerging communications technology. Click here to view a feature matrix that lists many of the features available with recent versions of CallXpress.

Related Links:

• CallXpress 8 Unifying Communications Brochure
• High Availability Datasheet 
• Personal Assistant Datasheet 
• Legacy Voicemail Replacement Datasheet

 

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