| Before the 1990s brought us an onslaught of
luxury cars named Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti, the best products and
services were called "The Cadillac" of their class. But the
current times are about function and usability, not excess, so perhaps the
best plug-and-play products should be called "The iMacs" of
technology.
Regardless of what you nickname it, the Bizfon 680 lowers the voice
mail and auto-attendant high-jump bar to an altitude appropriate for even
the most fearful of technophobes -- or for my mother, whichever is lower.
Such products are usually simple to install, but plenty of them can
give you enterprise-scale agita. The Bizfon 680 represents extreme of
ease-of-use, with the more advanced features configured by remote login
from Bizfon's customer service department. Users can configure eight
telephones with unique extensions, plus 14 additional "virtual"
extensions with an optional memory card. There's also a failsafe extension
for placing calls during power failures, fax extensions, unique "BizTouch"
2500-series telephones, and room for six trunk lines. There's even a
translucent blue-green case, reminiscent of an iMac.
INSTALLATION
The Bizfon 680 is one of those products for which you don't have to read
the manual to install. Really, we're not joking! Removing the plastic
cover reveals five port types, each labeled with a text- and color-coded
sticker. There is yellow for extensions, a purplish-white for network,
green for expansion, red for failsafe, and blue for trunks � the 17"
x 22" color poster makes it quite clear. When the cabling is
complete, you read the case's sticker, which is the same yellow-orange
color that you find on road construction signs. The instructions say
things like "press the big blue button" -- not a difficult task,
because the unit's "big blue button" is its only button.
Pressing the button starts a configuration sequence. The device plays a
welcome message over its speaker and informs you of the diagnostic status
throughout the five-minute test. All the user has to do is push the button
a few more times when the message tells you to do so. Next, we configured
extensions and the BizTouch telephones. Each of the eight extension ports
detects when a telephone attached to it is picked up for the first time,
and runs a TUI-based setup menu. This menu takes just a few minutes to
complete, which is something that mildly technical end-users can do
without any assistance. The final installation steps are the processes of
configuring the actual system options, which we describe in the
Operational Testing section below.
DOCUMENTATION
The 80-page owner's guide that comes with the Bizfon 680 is written in
plain English, and we found that a typical MIS employee will easily
understand it. Fortunately, Bizfon's "customer care" option and
their professional installation options mean that system administrators
will only have to worry about system maintenance when a major change needs
to be made. Although the manual explains in detail the product's features
and how to configure them, self-installation is overlooked entirely (Bizfon
recommends professional installation, but in our opinion, it couldn't be
much simpler as a DIY product if they tried.) There are several minor
documents as well. There is a seven-page manual for the BizTouch phones, a
rather large reference card for standard telephones, and a wallet card for
using the TUI.
FEATURES
The Bizfon 680 has a solid feature set, but it is a hodgepodge of sorts.
Inbound calls can be routed to standard or after-hours auto-attendants.
Once calls reach an extension, they can be rerouted to other extensions or
to external telephone numbers. Pager notification is another option, along
with personalized greetings, extensions groups, do-not-disturb status, and
distinctive rings for internal/external calls. There is a "meeting
room" feature, where five callers can conference in a
password-protected area.
TUI users are provided with an additional feature set. Included are
access to all of the Bizfon features (functioning as if the user were
on-site), plus remote disconnect (to place multiple calls from a single
remote session), and remote transfer.
The feature list goes on. There is a public address interface, a
music-on-hold interface, analog fax machine support, and multi-language
support (although English and French are currently the only choices).
There is also automatic fax detection, caller-ID, and a user directory.
The BizTouch telephones have their own features, including a
speakerphone option, battery-powered amplification, desk/wall mounting
options, customizable buttons and LCD, a message-waiting lamp, and a
time/date message.
OPERATIONAL TESTING
Although the Bizfon 680 is simple from an end-user's standpoint, we do
not like the system from an administrative standpoint. We particularly
dislike the limitations caused by the customer care system, where dialing
"299" from any extension connects you to the vendor's technical
support number. Administrators can disable this option, but we feel that
the long list of features that are only configurable by customer care
should also be available for local administrative control. Configuring the
extensions, virtual extensions, and basic system parameters is not
difficult, but administrators are limited in what they can do without
Bizfon's handholding.
End-users will have a more pleasant experience, especially if the
company is so small that they've never had such a system before. The
various features are simple to learn, and the reference cards are quite
helpful. Overall, the system works quite well, so the real issue is
deciding whether or not you want a more expensive system with more power
and scalability.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
As you know by now, we dislike the customer care feature. We also wish the
system had more extensions available without having to buy the option
"Voice Vault" card. Advanced rules, filtering, and notification
would all be great features to have, as would a volume adjustment for the
system's built-in speaker.
CONCLUSION
This SOHO voice mail system is inexpensive, relatively easy to configure,
and offers a decent feature set. However, it's clearly an entry-level
system, and for just a little more money, much more powerful products are
available. The Bizfon 680 may be appropriate for certain organizations
where cost and simplicity are the main factors, but we would not recommend
it for companies of five or more users who want a better feature set and
room for growth. |
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