OVERVIEW
If it’s a challenge to manage today’s high volume of messages, an estimated daily 200+ per employee, handling the same emails, voicemails and faxes while on the road can lead to downright frustration.

Close to 100 New York-based regional managers with the Open Society Institute (OSI) are familiar with frequent flyer issues. They spend almost half of their time traveling overseas to visit non-profit Soros Foundations. As such, the OSI New York office set out to find a solution that would speed communication both in the office and on the road.

BACKGROUND
The Soros Foundations network consists of autonomous institutions to initiate and support open society activities in more than 50 countries, including locations in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The network includes these foundations and the Open Society Institute, a non-profit organization that provides administrative, financial and technical support and operates OSI and U.S. Programs initiatives.

Nearly 20 initiatives cover a range of activities aimed at building free and open societies, including the strengthening of civil society; economic reform; education; human rights; legal reform and public administration; media and communications; public health; and arts and culture. Most of the initiatives are administered by OSI in New York or OSI–Budapest and are implemented in cooperation with the various Soros Foundations worldwide.

THE CHALLENGE
As a grant-giving organization, OSI is driven by a different type of financial bottom line. “Success is partly dependent on how quickly we can give out money,” Horace Chang, OSI-New York Systems Director, said. “The more efficiently money is dispersed, the more quickly positive change can come about.”

Funding approval for new initiatives must be obtained from regional directors—close to 100 professionals who are on the road almost half of the time. Whether it involves monies to promote women’s rights or other reform, the requests are timely, even urgent in nature. Unfortunately, OSI professionals found reaching traveling managers with such requests was a difficult and time-intensive process.

“The countries managers travel to often have a poor or non-existent communications infrastructure,” Chang said. When connections were available, directors would sometimes find themselves trouble-shooting expensive hotel modem connections before they could download emails. Faxes, on the other hand, would have to wait until the director returned or had time to call the office for details to be read over the phone.

“We wanted to improve the communications capabilities for all these travelers,” Chang said.

Even with consistent international travel, directors maintain base operations in the New York office while another 200 employees man the office on a consistent basis. Chang estimated 7,000 emails—along with numerous voicemails and faxes—pour into the office every day. Thus, an effective solution would help employees manage messages more quickly both on the road and in the office. Chang and his team also looked for a reliable product that would integrate with existing OSI technology solutions.

THE SOLUTION
OSI-New York implemented AVST CallXpress® Unified Messaging on trusted advice from CORTEL Business Solutions, Inc., its communications provider of eight years. Using CallXpress, directors accustomed to spending half of their time away from the office are now saving half of the time needed to manage messages on the road, according to Chang.

CallXpress Unified Messaging provides access to all messages—voice, fax and email—in one location, whether it is from the telephone, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), computer or Internet. “Compared to previous methods, traveling directors and managers have cut the time it takes to check messages by 50 percent,” Chang said.

Among the results of using CallXpress Enterprise for Microsoft Outlook®, OSI employees now have the freedom to handle messages from any location. Rather than searching for a compatible and working connection to download email via laptop, users have the option to call their Unified Messaging Inboxes to listen to voicemails and—via text-to-speech technology—emails or fax header information. In response, users may employ LiveReply as an instant method to contact message senders via phone. Or, they may record voice messages that are sent as .wav attachments via email. If needed, the business travelers can automatically send email attachments or faxes to nearby printers, such as a hotel fax machine.

Substantial time savings lead to similar reductions in related costs, Chang said. “With Unified Messaging capabilities, directors spend less time gathering messages via phone rather than laptop,” he explained. “There has to be a telecommunications savings of close to 50 percent since users no longer spend twice the amount of time retrieving messages online at a hotel that charges an ‘arm and a leg’ to connect via modem.”

Chang is excited to add other mobility enhancements through another product, Infinite Mobile Delivery. The mobile solution provides wireless access to voice, fax and email messages along with critical corporate data. With Infinite Mobile Delivery, OSI directors would be able to leave heavy laptops behind all together.

“They would have everything on handheld devices that are portable and easier to move around,” Chang said. While traveling users would still have the ability to manage messages via phone or laptop, Chang said using Infinite will add convenience since wireless communication enables users to download and see data and messages anywhere.

Chang expects another AVST technology to impact mobile users, specifically speech-enabled access via AVST Speech. When implemented, the speech application can allow users to access and manage voicemail, email, fax, contact lists, calendar information and corporate data from any phone, using simple voice commands. “If users are driving, they won’t have to hit the key pad,” Chang said. “They can just say what they need and get the answers.”

Overall, CallXpress fits OSI’s needs for a Unified Messaging solution that leverages other technology investments. At the top of OSI’s needs list was integration with its Microsoft Exchange® platform and existing Mitel telephone (PBX) system.

“Something we purchase for the PBX side, we buy for many years,” Chang said. “We don’t want a product that returns problems.” Since CallXpress “pretty much works with anything,” according to Chang, he said it was an easy decision.

While integration with Mitel was a top priority, pricing was a secondary consideration. “In this situation,” Chang related, “CallXpress is less expensive than other solutions and it works well with Microsoft and Mitel. It’s a win-win.”

Chang is also impressed with the integration between CallXpress and RightFax, the proven market leading enterprise fax and e-document delivery solution. “CallXpress and RightFax work well together and integrate perfectly with Microsoft Outlook,” Chang said. “Users can see voicemails, faxes and emails in one familiar interface.”

Voicemails and faxes, denoted by appropriate icons, are viewed alongside emails within the Outlook Inbox. Chang said office workers see up to 30 percent time savings by accessing all their messages from one screen.

“With CallXpress, there is a visual display of who has sent voicemails, faxes and emails,” he said. Users have eliminated trips to the fax machine to pick up papers as well as the requirement to listen to voicemails only via phone and only in sequential order. Instead, employees can easily view faxes electronically and sort all messages at the desktop by various parameters. “For instance,” Chang said, “they can easily select and view any voicemails, faxes or emails from their boss first.”

Chang reports users would complain if they had to go back to the old system for retrieving messages.

“Users love the capabilities,” Chang said. “CallXpress and RightFax have become office necessities.”

As an administrator, Chang also appreciates CallXpress functionality. “It has definitely made administration easier than previous installations,” he said. “The interface is so easy to set up and manipulate.”

THE RESULTS
“Using CallXpress, OSI employees can handle messages more efficiently,” Chang said. “By improving communications they are able to deal with issues more quickly and get money to the people who need it.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (“AVST”) is a leader in the unified communications (“UC”) marketplace uniquely combining the strengths of its world-class messaging platform, CallXpress®, with its speech-enabled call management module, Seneca™, to create a powerful, next-generation unified communications solution. The Company’s products are designed to scale and support organizations of all sizes. For more information please contact us at: www.avst.com or +1.949.699.2300.

ABOUT CORTEL BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
CORTEL Business Solutions, Inc., is a leading regional full-service communications provider that develops, installs, and maintains integrated voice and data systems and worldwide networks. Its general service territory spans approximately 100 miles in radius around the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia tri-state area.

CORTEL works to market and maintain quality communications products and services that meet or exceed the expectations of its customers. It does this by staying ahead of the technological curve, building long-term relationships and using a consultative approach to partner with customers. For more information visit www.cortel.com and contact info@cortel.com or 212.627.4200 ext. 2214.