R E V I E W

Plugging the Communications Time Drain

February 20, 2003
By Sean Doherty

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Cisco Systems Unity 4

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	In this article
	Introduction
	RFP Deliverables
	Interactive Intelligence Communité version 2.2
	Cisco Systems Unity 4
	THe Benefits of SIP
	Complete Responses to RFI
	If Not Sans SIP, Avaya Coulda Been a Contender
	IP PBXs Going Strong
	Hey Buddy, Got Speech?
	Report Card

Cisco's Unity came in second by default. But that's saying a lot, looking at the large number of vendors that did not meet the minimum requirements for this review. Unity easily cleared the bar with SIP support but fell short of the features and functionality provided by Communité, and Cisco came in long on price. But if you have a Cisco-supported infrastructure, the single-vendor approach may be the way to go.

Unity is a component of Cisco's IP Communications portfolio for enterprises. That portfolio also includes Cisco IP Telephone, IP Video/Audio Conferencing, IP Video Broadcasting and Cisco Contact Center Solutions. Like Communité, Unity provides e-mail, voicemail and fax in the inbox of the supported mail application, and end users can view inboxes from multiple devices, including a Web browser. It also supports SIP and provides integration with SIP-based proxy servers, media gateways, phones and clients.

With Cisco's CallManager acting as a PBX, Leagles would have its IP-enabled UM solution. Alternately, Unity can work with CallManager and a traditional TDM-based PBX in a "dual switch" configuration that would wean Leagles from its legacy PBX without the pain of an in-place upgrade. Unity also supports a wide number of fax servers, including Captaris's RightFax, Biscom's Faxcom for Exchange, and Topcall's eponymous product. But unlike Communité, fax support requires a third-party solution.

Cisco, like Interactive, recommended that Leagles use its data network also to transmit voice and call-control protocols. It also recommended Cisco IP Phones 7905G, 7940G or 7960G for the desktops at a cost of $165, $395 and $495, respectively. These phones will interoperate with IP telephony systems such as CallManager or systems using H.323 and SIP. The high-end 7960G and 7940G are programmable; the low-cost 7905G offers a core set of business features and four interactive soft keys to configure call features and functions using an LCD. Because Unity does not provide a softphone for the PC, as does Communité, these phone sets would be necessary for end users to receive the full benefits of UM, and the low cost of $165 per phone would make a compelling argument to include them in the Oakland implementation. But note that the price of phones was not included in the price comparison.

Cisco also recommended its MCS7827 server configuration for Unity. It supports as many as 32 ports on a single 1.13-GHz Pentium III with 512 MB of RAM and a 40-GB ATA drive. Like Communité, Unity runs on Windows NT 4 or 2000, but Unity does not support LDAP. Its directory support is limited to Exchange 5.5 (X.500), Active Directory and Domino. This would take care of Leagles' East and West Coast offices, but Chicago would be left out in the cold.

Unity supports e-mail clients for Outlook and Notes; it leverages these familiar interfaces with an embedded VCR-style interface for voicemail and traditional e-mail. Unlike Communité, Unity has a speedup/slowdown feature in its RealSpeak TTS engine that lets users configure the speed at which messages are read through a computer or telephone interface. However, Cisco requires an add-on product (Personal Assistant) to access Outlook contacts and calendar information through a TUI. These features are standard in Communité, and we added them to the cost estimate provided by Cisco.

Users also can access their single message stores from a browser. And as with Communité, Unity's client application supports handheld devices powered by Pocket PC. Although it does not support Palm OS or RIM Blackberry, Unity has additional support for Windows CE. However, there is no PIM (personal information manager) integration with Act! or Goldmine, as is found in Communité. Unity PIM support is limited to Outlook.

Once you have the supported platforms down, Unity delivers UM in fashion comparable to Communité. You can listen to e-mail over the phone, check voice messages from the Internet, and route and screen calls to remote professionals based on conditions such as subject matter or sender.

Cisco provides network managers some powerful tools to monitor the Unity system's health. It uses detailed log (.csv format) analysis through a Unity administration tool to monitor health and diagnose problems. The administration interface can also generate reports on call handling and system usage and export them to HTML or Crystal Reports. In addition, Cisco has an ITEM that includes a suite of management applications for AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video, and Integrated Data). ITEM can track and monitor Unity's health and alert administrators to potential problems to minimize service interruptions. It generates synthetic traffic to replicate network activity and presents the information in a dashboard view of gateways, switches and IP phones. NetIQ's suite of management tools for VoIP also can monitor Unity's health, but ITEM and NetIQ are add-ons to Unity that would increase the TCO for UM.

Unity's list pricing starts at $5,000 plus $132 per user for the UM server. That amounts to $31,400 for 200 users. But that's just the start. Sufficient resources for 200 users (approximately 16 ports) and two sessions of RealSpeak TTS total $31,000. Then there are the necessary IVR functionality in the Personal Assistant for 20 users and four-port speech recognition, which come to $8,445. This all adds up to $70,845. With a one-year service and support contract of $10,626.75 (15 percent of the software total), Unity weighs in at $81,471.75, or $407 per user.

Unity 4. Cisco Systems, (800) 553-6387, (408)526-4000. www.cisco.com

Sean Doherty is a technology editor and lawyer based at our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. A former project manager and IT engineer at Syracuse University, he helped develop centrally supported applications and storage systems. Write to him at sdoherty@nwc.com.

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