Formerly CTI� Magazine

January 2000

placeholder

ARTICLES
Communication SOLUTIONS™ Magazine's Product Of The Year Awards
Outstanding specimens from the burgeoning ecology of convergence — and a new taxonomy to impose a sense of order over the teeming multitudes.

The PBX In The New Millennium
David Laughland, The Phillips Group-Info Tech
When switching went digital, the industry underwent a transformation, as the new technology enabled new features and functionality. And now, as switching goes IP, the industry braces itself for an even more profound transformation.

Taming Media Stream Processing With M.100
Mike Coffee, Commetrex
OpenMedia, an implementation of the MSP Consortium’s M.100 media processing API, separates media processing software from the underlying hardware. With initiatives such as OpenMedia, M.100 may accomplish at the board or host level what MVIP accomplished at the PC level.

Application Flow Management: At Last
A Useful Model For The Enterprise
Theresa McGuire, Paradyne, and Eileen Haggerty, NetScout Systems
Your end users complain that e-mail is slow, and you have to determine what this means in terms of your network. Do you have the tools you need to take in the big picture?

DEPARTMENTS
EDITORS' NOTEBOOK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Analytical Views: IP Telephony Jumpstarts IVR
Brian Strachman, Cahners In-Stat Group
Did you think that IVR had been permanently relegated to the sidelines? Think again, as IP telephony and ITSP business strategies give IVR a jolt.

On The Horizon: QoS Sets The Stage
For IP Telephony Applications
Brough Turner, Natural MicroSystems
Is it … All About QoS? Bypass may play Margot Channing to application development’s Eve Harrington — which is to say, with bypass’s star power seemingly on the wane, new applications, bolstered by QoS, may steal the spotlight.

Inside Networking: Convergence -
The Payoff Behind The Hype
Tony Rybczynski, Nortel Networks’
Enterprise Solutions
While convergence is often characterized as a cure-all, it is more appropriately viewed as the culmination of an individual enterprise’s unique business strategy.

EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
After The Gold Rush
By Kevin Mayer, Executive Editor
Will the scramble for riches in the communications space yield unexpected benefits? Just as the original gold rush hastened the consolidation of East and West, the current communications gold rush may hasten the convergence of voice and data.

TOM KEATING'S CC:
Leaping Over H.323 Hurdles
By Tom Keating, Executive Technology Editor
Is H.323 interoperability an oxymoron? Tom Keating takes a look at the state of the IP telephony union and explains why you can’t always believe the hype.

REVIEWS
eVoice Communications’ evoice3000 Communication Server

InfoGear Technology’s iPhone

Callware Technologies’
Callegra Version 5.51

SilCom Manufacturing Technology’s
Freespace Turbo

Enabling Technologies
Chris Donner, Associate Editor
Regarding the neon-emblazoned heights of today’s communications solutions, Chris Donner dons his sunglasses, rolls up his sleeves, and explains the importance of inspecting the foundations that would support all the glitz and glamour.

Customer Contact
Grace Pisano, Assistant Editor
Still in the front lines of customer contact, IVR is even being deployed by unusual venues with specialized needs. But with increasingly complex call centers, it’s crucial to know where IVR fits.

Next-Gen Networks
Carol Drzewianowski, Assistant Editor
The ground might be frozen solid, but wireless LAN technology is starting to bud. This month’s section examines recent developments in this area, as well as other wireless news.

Next-Gen Services
Kevin Mayer, Executive Editor
Broadband telephony — specifically, voice over DSL — promises to shake up the status quo in the communications services market, with the greatest impact reserved for small to mid-sized businesses.