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R E V I E W

Centrex, IP Style

July 10, 2003
By Darrin Woods

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GoBeam vPBX

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	In this article
	Introduction
	GoBeam vPBX
	ICG Communications VoicePipe
	MCI Advantage
	Executive Summary & Web Links
	Don't Want Centrex?
	The Business Case
	Report Card

GoBeam not only snagged our Editor's Choice award, it did so handily. Note to GoBeam's CEO: The folks who designed the service's Web front-end applications deserve a lot of the credit. Accessing the features of our phone was quick and painless. Everything is set up clearly with tabs, though we got a little lost while configuring the phone. Once the configuration was completed, we found using the phone less complicated.

GoBeam sent us a Cisco 7960 IP Phone connected to GoBeam's own phone system. The 7960 came up on the first try without any help from us. GoBeam was a bit concerned that our public address was assigned via DHCP by our broadband provider, but this didn't seem to bother the phone at all. The company also thought we might need to place the phone in the firewall's DMZ, but we didn't. Our first call was to GoBeam to tell it we were good to go!

GoBeam calls its Web application the Dashboard, and we logged in directly from GoBeam's home page--no need to remember a long URL. Once logged in, we could access all the phone's features with just the click of a tab. (Having a large screen helped too--we didn't have to scroll all over the place.)

The main tab presented us with the most-used features: How To Reach Me, access to contacts, conference calling and call logs. The How To Reach Me feature was especially well-thought-out: Depending on who was calling, it could be configured in different ways by instructing the softswitch what to do with calls. For example, you can have all calls sent directly to your voicemail. You can even leave a list of numbers for the service to try if you're not at your desk. This eliminates having to change your voicemail message every time you step out of the office.

GoBeam Interface

click to enlarge

Conference calls also can be set up from the main page of the Dashboard. We quickly created conferences by manually entering the phone numbers of the attendees, but we could have pulled them from our directory. Once all the participants were entered, initiating the call was as simple as clicking the Join All button. (The next sound you'll hear will be your own phone ringing to include you on the call.) GoBeam also has included Latitude Communications' Meetingplace for creating and attending scheduled calls. Conference calls can be created quickly by setting the date and time. You can also choose to have them recur on a regular basis.

Unified messaging is not forgotten in the GoBeam world. A Messages tab keeps track of your voicemail, e-mail and faxes. Each message can be deleted or forwarded. If the message is voicemail, you can click on the caller, instructing the phone to dial and connect to the person who left the voicemail.

For breaking down service utilization, GoBeam's vPBX service provides separate usage logs for each employee or telephone; an administrator can check these logs from his or her administrative account.

On the directory front, GoBeam provides a form that let us quickly add contacts to our personal or corporate list. For those who rely on Microsoft Outlook for e-mail, GoBeam has an Outlook add-in that connects the Outlook directory to your GoBeam directory--saving you a lot of work if your contact list is large.

GoBeam operates its own data network and has connections to major long-distance carriers. Office-to-office voice calls are kept on the GoBeam data network, while calls to external or non-GoBeam sites are converted to TDM traffic and placed on a long-distance carrier network at the first opportunity. GoBeam says it has plans to provide unlimited domestic long distance or included long-distance minutes per month, with usage over the included minutes billed at reasonable per-minute rates (see rate info at www.gobeam.com/html/service/flat.html).

GoBeam vPBX, unlimited local and long distance starts at $36.95 per user for 100 users. GoBeam, (800) 278-7114. www.gobeam.com