VSR'S COVOICE

A BRILLIANT AUTO ATTENDANT FOR MITEL PBXS

By Ron Acher

If you have a Mitel PBX, here's a super auto attendant that is based on the best PC-to-PBX integration available; lets you control the PBX from the auto attendant in a way that no other auto attendant can; gives Mitel's smaller PBXs some of the power of the more expensive, higher level PBXs; enhances the call routing capabilities of even the top-of-the line Mitel PBXs; and is priced attractively. To put VSR's (Voice Systems Research, Rocklin, CA - 916-624-6300) COVoice through its paces, we put a 12-port system (about $17,000) on the front end of our phone system, which includes a Mitel SX 2000PBX and flexible setup of auto attendant / voicemail systems from other vendors. INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY About a year ago, PIKA Technologies (Kanata, ON< Canada - 613-591-1555) released a new interface card for Mitel PBXs called the TRANS-4M (literally - transformer for Mitel), which provides a nearly 100 percent-complete virtual SuperSet 4 phone at each of its four ports. VSR jumped on this card, combining it with Rhetorex (Campbell, CA - 408-370-081) Quartet or 432 voice cards, to create the integration between the PBX and the PC on which the auto attendant / voicemail application runs. VSR used its knowledge of the internal working of the Mitel PBX to add functions of internal working of the Mitel PBX to add functions normally available on a site-based SuperSet 4, but not previously available from an auto attendant. Some of these include: scheduled day/night mode changes; automatic reprogramming of station sets; ACD group activation; and selective inbound routing and extension-specific all processing. The call rerouting features in COVoice are broader than even those available in Mitel's top-of-the-line SX 2000, and are made available by COVoice to even Mitel's lowest level switch, the SX-20. By adding all this functionality to all levels of Mitel PBX, COVoice potentially enhances the market value of the whole Mitel PBX architecture. Testing, Debugging and Custom Programming PIKA also built COV Test, an on-screen test program that presents for each COVoice port a live, interactive, image of the virtual SuperSet 4 for that port. You can actually interact directly from the COVoice keyboard with the screen image of the virtual Superet 4 to process a real call. This is invaluable for debugging. It saves technicians from having to specially modify a SuperSet 4 for testing, and allows COVoice to debug a problem live via remote maintenance over a modem. It also enables VSR (and users) to see exactly what characters flow between the PBX and the PC under any call processing condition. The TRANS-4M card also provides a faster and cleaner response by COVoice to inbound calls and to disconnects, between 23 and 30 percent faster in our tests. The calls flash by on the monitor screen - one-two-three, and they're gone. (But they go by with PIKA response codes attached, just in case you ever need to see them.) This faster response can translate into higher average port availability for the same number of ports, which means that a COVoice can handle a higher inbound call volume than other systems. A Schedule-Oriented Approach VSR designed COVoice to put incoming calls through an up-front "schedule processor," called Channel Control, before sending them anywhere else.There COVoice reads - and completely "understands" - all the COV signal information in the call, checks its scheduling module for any related conditions, and only then processes the call. There is no limit to the number of possible schedules, whereas in the usual "mailbox" architecture, there may be three or four possible schedules, but more than that is impractical. Calls coming in on a particular trunk can be routed in a particular way specific only to that trunk. Or calls coming from the Operator console can be recognized and processed much more quickly because they are being forwarded directly to a mailbox. Because scheduling tests are done first and all in one place, it is also much easier to check the programming of your auto attendant call processes in COVoice than it is in many other systems. Complementary to Channel Control is COVoice's extension editor, called "Extension From" in the Mitel-speak familiar to dealer technicians. The extension editor is similar to Channel Control, in that it looks at the extension number for which the call is destined, then checks for a variety of logical conditions programmable by the user, and then routes accordingly. Conditional routing in the extension editor will be very familiar to people who have used the first and second alternate rerouting features of the SX 2000PBX. However, the VSR system is more flexible - for example, the number of first and second reroutes are unlimited here, unlike with the SX 2000. Result: SX2000 users have their choices expanded. Users of systems below the 2000 level are empowered with SX 2000-type routing which they would not otherwise have available. Calls destined for mailboxes also pass through an editor, where they can be logically tested and processed based on programmable conditions. Essentially, everyone can have their own dial plan in their own mailbox. The system allows notifications to up to 10 different destinations, each with different schedule options, different handling depending on message priority, different numbers of attempts at each option, and a different number of retries of the whole sequence. For messages to be sent to pagers, COVoice can enter the PIN number and send a count of the number of each type of message waiting to be picked up in the mailbox. VSR has very carefully designed the outdialing functions to prevent phone hacking through the auto attendant. COVoice can also broadcast overhead pages of different prerecorded messages at different times, and can provide an overhead paging option in a user's mailbox. Using this, we set up Harry so he can now call in from the outside and get to those poor editors or artist working on the weekends who are unlucky enough to be momentarily away from their desks when he calls. Installation and Setup VSR's automated installation is a breeze, and its documentation is clean and straightforward. It uses the Mitel type terminology that dealer installation technicians will be comfortable with - forms, class of service, CDE (for Customer Data Entry), etc. Our system, a 486/66 running MSDOS 6.22 with 4 Meg or RAM and an 850 Meg hard drive on a passive backplane, came with all software preinstalled y VSR, along with a backup CD-ROM in case of trouble. The software contains complete user selectable preconfigurations for every type of Mitel PBX, and in some cases different configurations for different software revisions. The "Quick Setup" installation routine consists of about 8 steps with prompted choices for key overall parameters, such as normal business hours, system type, notification options, mailbox password types, duration of supervised ring-no answer,, and extension and mailbox number ranges. No specific name or other information needs to be entered in order to get the system up and running. All other data can be entered later. This entire process took about twenty minutes to run through to get a generic system loaded. More detailed configuration is performed at a maintenance screen which comes up next. The options are presented in a series of drop-down menus reminiscent of the programming "forms" found in a Mitel control terminal. This is where you get to the channel control, extension editing, mailbox editing, and notification options. These areas are where the real power of the system lie, and for installer appropriate training is needed, although user administrators can get most of what they need from an hour or two with the manual, which is very complete. Other Features VSR has designed COVoice to be especially useful in the hospitality industry, where Mitel's PBX presence is particularly strong. In addition to its features allowing it to control and program the PBX in the hotel / motel environment, VSR has devised an inexpensive way to link COVoice to the hotel's Property Management System, by piggybacking on the direct connection made by the PBX itself. What's to Like COVoice is one of the best auto attendants for Mitel PBXs. It's a simple, clean and quick product. We like its scheduling and PBX control capabilities, its ability to make people reachable under unusual conditions through up to 10 notification choices, to overhead page from the outside, and to easily follow and check a planned call process sequence. One drawback is that once the system is configured and up and running, routine changes such as adding, deleting or changing mailboxes, extensions, or notification options can only be made through the administrator's voice mailbox over the phone, rather than directly at the voicemail PC, without taking the system off-line. Changes to Channel Control, Menus and one-keys can only be made by taking the system off-line. This is not normally a big inconvenience because taking it off and putting it back are short, few-keystroke processes, but VSR is addressing it in the next software release, where all maintenance will be on-line. The benefits of the system in its current release will outweigh this minor disadvantage. Overall, the speed with which COVoice processes calls, the rock-solid feel associated with its integration based on the PIKA card, the multitude of features not available through any other system, and the slick way in which most of the interface is constructed, make this a number one choice for voicemail/auto attendant system for Mitel PBXs.

Teleconnect, October 1996