Sharp HealthCare Selects CallXpress 8 for Centralized Communications Network

Replaces End of Life Octel^® System and Achieves High Availability

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., February 10, 2010 – Communications solutions innovator Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) today announced that CallXpress^® 8 was selected by Sharp HealthCare (Sharp), San Diego’s largest and most comprehensive healthcare organization, to centralize its infrastructure.  Sharp selected CallXpress due to its ability to centralize three standalone Octel voicemail systems onto a single system, while offering dual survivable call servers to protect against critical network failures.

Sharp is a not-for-profit integrated regional health care leader with more than 12 facilities including seven hospitals, two medical groups, medical clinics, urgent care centers, skilled nursing facilities as well as a variety of other community health education programs and related services.  Sharp serves more than three million people, operates 1,870 beds and has approximately 2,600 physicians on medical staffs, more than 1,000 physicians in affiliated medical groups and more than 14,000 employees.

Sharp needed to replace three Octel voicemail systems that were announced ‘end of life.’ The main objective was to identify a solution that offered centralization, thereby eliminating the required maintenance for those Octel systems, and the risk of end users being without voicemail service in the event of a critical system failure.  Sharp conducted an extensive review process with a Technical Review Committee tasked with identifying the right solution.  AVST’s CallXpress was selected in large part for its high availability and the ability to support its mixed TDM/hybrid switches and IP PBXs.

Sharp took great care to ensure the transition from Octel to CallXpress was a smooth process for end users and cites the ease of use in CallXpress as instrumental in the process. “The migration from Octel to CallXpress was one of our biggest implementations and the transition was virtually unnoticeable to our users.  They didn’t need much training since the CallXpress system mimicked the command structure of the Octel telephone user interface (TUI). On the day of the CallXpress cutover, our support staff team members were waiting for help desk calls that never came,” said Steve Cates, Sharp HealthCare Telecommunications Manager.

Today, the Sharp network has three major hub PBXs that are fully redundant and CallXpress supports nearly 4,000 voicemail users and handles approximately 495,000 calls per month.  Outside callers utilize more than 70 system-wide automated attendant menus in CallXpress that efficiently route them to the physician, hospital, department or employee they’re trying to reach.

With call volumes of this magnitude, and with physicians and hospitals relying on uninterrupted communications, CallXpress provides the high availability that Sharp demanded. Sharp now achieves high availability by utilizing a system server and two call servers. In this configuration, if either of the call servers fails, the other is able to answer and process calls, as well as record messages, without the loss of CallXpress application functionality.

Cates added, “Before CallXpress, system maintenance was a real challenge.  We had three separate systems that had to be maintained and everything had to be done after hours to ensure that physicians, staff and other essential personnel had access to voicemail during business hours.  If one system went down, we had a critical situation on our hands with no backup in place and thousands of messages that could be lost.  The CallXpress multiple call server architecture has brought us peace of mind.”

In addition to centralization, CallXpress offered Sharp HealthCare a robust platform with features that make users more accessible and mobile.  CallXpress comes with multiple mobility features, including unified messaging, personal assistant, message notification, single number, and speech recognition for hands-free communications.

Sharp worked closely with Advanced Call Processing (ACP), a trusted partner and AVST reseller, to identify the right solution.   “We have a great deal of experience with CallXpress and understand the needs of the Sharp team,” said Rob Simpson, President of ACP.  “CallXpress is a robust solution that can support, with ease, a high call volume, centralized network like Sharp’s.  The Sharp team needed a solution that offered the next level of reliability and CallXpress was a perfect fit.”

“CallXpress was designed to support the exact scenario that the Sharp network presented,” said Denny Michael, AVST Vice President of Marketing.  “They needed a seamless replacement of their legacy voicemail system, centralization to provide cost savings and high availability for application resiliency. We look forward to supporting Sharp HealthCare as they expand their network and deploy some of the additional functionality available in CallXpress.”

CallXpress 8 delivers a powerful suite of Unified Communications applications including advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities to help businesses become more productive.  For more information about AVST’s products visit the company’s website at www.avst.com.

About Sharp HealthCare
Sharp HealthCare is San Diego’s most comprehensive health care delivery system. It is recognized for clinical excellence for services in cardiac, cancer and multiorgan transplantation, as well as orthopaedics, rehabilitation, behavioral health and women’s health. Sharp HealthCare has been widely acclaimed for its commitment to transform the health care experience for patients, physicians and staff through an organization-wide performance improvement initiative called The Sharp Experience. The Sharp system includes four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals, two affiliated medical groups and a health plan. To learn more about Sharp, visit www.sharp.com.

About Advanced Call Processing (ACP)
Advanced Call Processing (ACP) is a comprehensive provider of telecommunications services and solutions with a customer base spread across the United States and throughout the world.  Established in 1990, ACP has enjoyed exceptional growth, while supplying customized solutions for hundreds of businesses and government agencies.    ACP has assisted hundred of companies to achieve their business goals while controlling costs through the effective deployment of communications technology.

About AVST
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of communications solutions with over 10 million users that rely on its products and services to maximize their productivity. With nearly 30 years of innovation excellence, AVST is focused on delivering solutions that increase user and business productivity. Its flagship Unified Communications platform, CallXpress®, offers unprecedented interoperability and delivers advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities. With CallXpress, an organization can protect and extend its existing data and telephony infrastructure investment — now and into the future.

Headquartered in Orange County, Calif., AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, Wash. and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices across the United States. AVST’s Unified Communications solutions are sold and supported internationally by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. For more information contact Denny Michael, Vice President of Marketing, at 949-699-2300 or access the company’s website at www.avst.com.

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.

General Availability of CallXpress 7.92

AVST is pleased to announce the general availability of CallXpress 7.92. CallXpress 7.92 builds upon CallXpress 7.91 by:

• Combining all of the updates that have been released for 7.91 into a single install
• Adding support for Lotus Notes 8.5
• Updating the Mitel MiTAI SDK for improved performance and stability in certain customer environments
• Updating the Dialogic software for improved performance and stability on systems with quad-core processors

Customers may upgrade to CallXpress 7.92 through December 31, 2009. After that, CallXpress 7.92 is End of Sale and will only be available to XpressCare covered customers already at 7.9 or 7.91.

Please refer to the AVST Customer Product Bulletin #128 for additional details including CallXpress 7.92 product lifecycle information.

CallXpress 8.1 Announced

Continuing on the success of the CallXpress 8 platform, AVST is pleased to announce CallXpress 8.1.

Feature highlights:

• Tertiary System Server for CallXpress high availability solution to meet organizations’ disaster recovery initiatives
• Enhanced unified messaging for IMAP to support Google Gmail and other secure IMAP e-mail servers and services
• Lotus Notes 8.5 support for unified messaging users
• Windows 7 Professional support for end-user and administrative client applications
• AVST Developer Network featuring UCConnect, a Microsoft .NET development environment used to create custom applications. Click here to learn more or join the AVST Developer Network.  

In a recent report entitled “Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony,”¹ leading industry research firm Gartner identified architecture, scalability, high availability, and UC integration capability as the primary critical capabilities for building next generation corporate telephony.  These four critical capabilities are also the core framework of the CallXpress 8 platform.  To learn more about the CallXpress platform, visit the AVST website, or read CallXpress 8.1 news release.

CallXpress 8.1 is scheduled for general availability in Q1 2010 through AVST’s established reseller channels.

¹ _{Gartner “Critical Capabilities for Corporate Telephony”, by Jay Lassman and Steve Blood.September  11, 2009}

Tune into AVST Channel on YouTube

In addition to our online presence on AVST Blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, AVST has also branded a channel on YouTube to share videos with the AVST Community.  Over the past two months, over 10 new videos have been uploaded to the AVST Channel. 

 Watch AVST on YouTube

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We at AVST are committed to creating an ongoing, shared social space for people who are geographically dispersed. We believe the benefits of connecting people and building relationships across boundaries of geography or discipline will not only stimulate the capture of ideas to better our product offerings, but it will also improve the peer-to-peer collaboration and satisfaction of our loyal customers. Read the AVST Social Networking Blog Post

 

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.

Easily create a new group of CallXpress mailboxes

Did you know you can easily add a group of CallXpress mailboxes using the Administration utility’s Mailbox Import and Export commands?

The CallXpress Administration utility lets you create mailboxes from the System Server or a client workstation. The utility also lets you create mailboxes individually or across a range of mailboxes for a specific type.  In the following 7 minute video, Pat Haney will show you the step-by-step process for easily adding a group of mailboxes using the Mailbox Export and Import commands.

During his demonstration, Pat uses the Administration utility’s Mailbox Export commands to export the information from an existing mailbox on the telephony server to a text file in comma-separated-values (.csv) format. He then edits that text file to add a group of new mailboxes and then uses the Mailbox Import command to create the new mailboxes on the same telephony server

 

 

Important:  Mailboxes are updated according to the information in the Mailbox Import file. If there are errors in this file, they are displayed in the Import Errors box that replaces the Import Contents box.

Do not create a mailbox import file by hand without familiarizing yourself with the online help topic “Mailbox import file.” This topic contains current information about the structure the telephony server requires the file to have, the data fields it can contain, and the data formats and dependencies of those fields. The telephony server may not import the contents of a file that does not meet these requirements, or it may import only parts of the file. 

AVST: The Future Proof Choice

In the wake of Nortel’s recent news, now more than ever, it’s important to invest in applications that can support your existing Nortel^® circuit-switched PBX solution and IP-PBX solution, as well as the solution you choose in the future. While you can’t afford not to think about your future Nortel replacement strategy, performing a massive technology refresh overnight is probably not an option. CallXpress^® facilitates a painless migration with the following benefits:

• Name your telephony system — CallXpress integrates with it. CallXpress offers the broadest interoperability of any enterprise class solution with over 250 TDM, IP-PBX, and Centrex integrations to Nortel, Avaya^®, Alcatel^®, Cisco^®, NEC^®, Siemens^®, Mitel^® and more.
• AVST offers a Future Proofing Guarantee. We understand the PBX you have today might not be the one you have tomorrow. Our Future Proofing Guarantee provides a free PBX software integration when you are ready to transition to IP or planning a change to your existing switch.
• CallXpress uniquely supports up to 10 different telephony integrations on a CallXpress system.

The following limited time future proof incentives are being offered to Nortel customers who want to enhance their communications infrastructure with CallXpress.

Stimulus Package Pricing

CallXpress offers stimulus package pricing including advanced call processing and voicemail functionality, plus 50 unified messaging and personal assistant user licenses.

Free Alternate Telephone User Interface (TUI)

Select from a variety of TUIs that mimic the Nortel Meridian Mail, Octel®, and other popular first generation voicemail systems to minimize re-training.

Free On-line Administrative Training Course

Administrators can quickly learn to configure and maintain their CallXpress system in this self-paced web training course.

Future Proofing Guarantee

Unique lifetime Future Proofing Guarantee provides, with certain limited exceptions, an IP or TDM software integration at no additional charge when a customer is ready to transition to one of the many industry-leading IP and TDM telephony solutions that AVST supports.

To learn more about the Nortel Investment Protection Program from AVST, please visit the Nortel Investment Protection Program website.

Related Links:

• Nortel Investment Protection Program Brochure
• AVST Announces Nortel Investment Protection Program Press Release
• Free educational webinar hosted by Voice Report titled “The Nortel Auction: Get Ready for an All-New Enterprise PBX Market"

Creating Multiple CallXpress Mailboxes with Ease

Did you know the CallXpress Administration utility lets you create and edit mailboxes individually or across a range of mailboxes for a specific type?

In the following 3 minute video, Pat Haney explains how to create copies of one mailbox to all available numbers in a specific range.   He then demonstrates how to easily edit the range of mailboxes using the range edit/template edit commands.   By editing multiple mailboxes at one time, CallXpress administrators can save time and maintain accuracy.

 

 

 

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