Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Voice over IP Systems: Page 8 of 21

Alcatel's presence application, My Phone 4980, lets users dynamically route calls to their preferred locations based on the caller, time of day and calendar status. It also can monitor whether users are at their PCs based on the presence--or lack--of keystrokes. The presence application can be integrated with Lotus Notes, which can provide calendar-based updates to the system. Alcatel's unified messaging is tightly integrated with e-mail, and lets you delete and forward e-mail messages from the phone. It includes support for Exchange, Domino and IMAP4 but lacks IVR and speech recognition.

Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise 5.1.2. Alcatel Internetworking Enterprise Solutions Division, (800) 995-261, (818) 878-4500. www.alcatel.com

Zultys, like Interactive Intelligence, provided a pure SIP proposal, but there were a number of differences in its approach. For example, Zultys delivered much of its functionality on an appliance, whereas the Interactive Intelligence product is software-based. Zultys makes its own SIP phones, which it proposed as part of the package, and made it clear that it also supports third-party SIP phones. The Zip 4x4 phones are full featured, with 25 buttons and 11 LEDs, and include three more switch ports than are usually included with a VoIP phone. Given Zultys' openness to third-party phones, we were surprised that it proposed a Zip 4x4 for conference phones and not a SIP version of Polycom's Soundpoint.

Zultys' PBX includes mirrored disk drives, but it lacks trunk-callback queuing and class-of-service capabilities. These let administrators restrict calling privileges on certain phones, which is especially useful for restricting long distance on public phones. We dinged Zultys in the ratings for that.

Zultys' telecommuting proposal, on the other hand, was as impressive as those from Avaya and Mitel. It proposed $392 Zip 4x5 phones, which provide a VPN that is terminated on the MX250. It also includes a firewall, support for Bluetooth wireless headsets and an analog port as a simple solution to maintaining accurate 911 information. The Zip 4x5 is a great example of the innovation that's possible when standards compel vendors to compete on functionality instead of vendor lock-in.