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  Funneling The Messaging Flood In Your Network |
 CallXpress automatically installs special fax drivers in any Windows application, such as Word or Excel, with print capabilities (CallWare also performs this capability). After selecting the CallXpress fax driver from our application's print utility and specifying some options, our document was sent to the fax server with a cover page for distribution. The system let us choose recipients from the Exchange address book or enter a fax phone number; assign an urgent priority; and delay sending the fax until a selected date and time. CallXpress also let us add a voice comment to a fax to explain its contents. The system also shows how long a fax will be retained in the message inbox before being automatically deleted.CallXpress let us manipulate faxes as if they were e-mail attachments, so we could send them to numerous recipients via distribution lists. However, we could not create our own voice distribution lists. Applied Voice Technology says administrators need to control the system numbering plan, and once they create the initial distribution list, users can add or delete other users. We found this unnecessarily constricting because administrators can assign a block of numbers specifically for distribution lists. As an alternative, CallXpress should offer multilevel administration, separating the group maintenance function from general system administration. CallXpress was the only system that did not implement true clustering capabilities. While servers are clustered from a networking perspective, individual server administration is performed separately. CallXpress supports remote administration and management with Microcom's Carbon Copy 32 utility, which is bundled with the server. A new digital networking module lets you implement digital networking throughout the system, including providing ISDN all the way through to the desktop for real-time call-control functionality. CallXpress' Extension Specific Call Processing feature let us prompt incoming callers to press a certain number to receive a fax, ring our cellular phone, page us or transfer to our backup--all without revealing the actual telephone numbers to the caller. This built-in privacy feature is practical and essential. Both CallWare and CallXpress let the recipient control the volume and the speed of the voice message in playback mode from the PC user interface. Unified Messenger does not offer this capability. CallXpress provides client-level integration, and messages are integrated at the client instead of in a single object message store. In this way, voice and fax functionality are not dependent on the message store in the event of a messaging system shutdown. Applied Voice Technology will include an optional unified message store with the next version, 5.1, which will ship this summer. CallXpress didn't modify our Exchange inbox toolbar or message form as much as Unified Messenger did. Under Exchange's Compose, we created a voice message. Under Tools, we modified our telephone server settings (call blocking, call screening or extension-specific call processing) and changed our personal recordings. CallXpress also doesn't put New Voice Message under the New area of Exchange's File menu. CallWare Technologies CallWare 5.3
We were impressed with CallWare's comprehensive integration with Novell's NDS. It provided the only multilevel system administration capability in this review. With CallWare, the mappings to the PBX are completed in Hex. A handy Hex converter is provided, but CallWare needs to work on the product's ease of use. CallWare also lacks text-to-speech conversion. When we accessed our GroupWise mailbox over the telephone, it could not read our e-mail messages like CallXpress and Unified Messenger did.
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Other Reviews Making H.323-to-H.320 Connections With Two Videoconferencing Solutions By Dave Brown Easing the Transition to Remote Access: SOHO ISDN Routers Make It So By Jeff Newman |
CallWare Technologies' CallWare offered the best value of all the products we tested. At just $9,500 for 50 users, the system smoothly integrated all message types--voice, fax and e-mail--within the GroupWise 5.2 universal mailbox. CallWare supported all major e-mail systems, as well as more than 300 PBX systems. Its ability to perform server clustering let system users access their voice messages and faxes remotely over the Internet via Novell's IP tunneling, reducing long-distance charges.
