After a successful implementation of UM in Oakland, Leagles will investigate UM for its other locations. We sent our RFP to Alcatel, Avaya, Captaris, Cisco Systems, Comdial, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, Nortel Networks, Siemens and Vertical Networks.
Alcatel, Avaya, Interactive and Cisco responded, but only Interactive's Communité and Cisco's Unity met Leagles' minimum requirements for unified messaging: IP-enabled solution with SIP support; single message store for multiple message types (e-mail, fax and voicemail); single point of administration; and Web-based access. (Check out our complete RFP and responses)
Alcatel's Unified Communication system is still in beta and will not be available until later this year. Avaya's Unified Messenger, like Captaris's CallXpress, Comdial's Interchange, Mitel's NuPoint Messenger, NEC's NEAXMail AD-120 and Siemens' HiPath Xpressions, lacked SIP support (see more on Avaya). Vertical Networks declined to participate, without offering a reason, and Nortel could not free up the resources to participate. Microsoft responded that its UM solution is offered via partners.
The UM RFP embodies Leagles' goal to enhance message management for staff and client communications both in and out of the office. By giving mobile professionals access to e-mail, voicemail and fax, Leagles can deliver relevant information to clients and employees regardless of their location. The RFP also detailed a number of objectives to achieve the goal, which became the grading criteria.
Each vendor was asked to detail the message-management features and functionality of its product. This category included the TTS (text-to-speech) functions of UM servers that let end users manage their messages from a TUI (telephone user interface). Speech commands let mobile professionals access a variety of tasks from any telephone (wireless or wired). With a TUI, users can access e-mail, fax, voicemail, contact lists and calendars. And in the near future such access may also drive business applications to wireless phones. It was interesting to note that both Interactive Intelligence and Cisco provide a rich set of TTS features with only slight differences between them.
Message-management information also included descriptions of AA (autoattendant) and IVR (interactive voice response) features. AA provides DID (direct inward dial), DNAS (dialed number authentication service), and ASR (automatic speech recognition) for caller ID. DID lets callers ring an internal telephone extension without needing an operator; DNAS enables authorization of a connection attempt based on the number dialed, such as an 800 number. IVR provides callers with voice-menu trees for call routing. Interactive's IVR is built into Communité; Cisco requires an add-on product.
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