November 2000

Flexion Systems
San Francisco, CA
P: 415-864-0847
F: 415-864-5329

Price: $6,000 -- 8 users, a WAN card (ISDN PRI, T1, ISDN BRI, ATM T1, or analog), the voice/data switching card, an 8-port voice card, the NT/2000 server, software, and the user desktop clients

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 4.5
Documentation: 4.5
Features: 4.25
GUI: 4
Overall: B+

INSTALLATION
We received a BusinessGuardian X300 that consisted of an eight-port analog voice card, a four-port ISDN-BRI card, a T1 WAN connection, and an Ethernet card. Depending on the network you are setting up, the card you use will vary. Since TMC Labs uses a private LAN for our network, all we needed to do was connect an Ethernet cable from the X300 to a hub, connect some analog phones to the voice card, and plug in the power cord, and we were ready to configure the system and install the software.

We also connected an NT Server (with a Microsoft Exchange server already installed) and a client PC to our small network. We connected a serial cable from a COM port on the server to the X300 (the serial port is located on the Ethernet card) and used HyperTerminal to set the X300's IP address via the command line interface. After that, we were not required to use that interface. Instead, we just typed our server's IP address into our browser so that we could configure administrative settings for the system. These settings are for the PABX (which includes voice mail and audio settings), routing, reports, and also for the users.

Install The Server Software
First we entered the user information for our system, selected the software components required, identified our network's IP address, and selected our fax modem. We discovered a problem, however, when we tried to access Microsoft Exchange running on our NT Server. An error message displayed, telling us that setup failed to create the correct permissions on our Exchange Server, and that setup could not continue. After trying numerous setting changes on our Exchange Server, we still could not figure out the problem. As the old adage goes, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. We reinstalled the Exchange Server, but the problem persisted. We began to suspect the NT Server was the culprit because of tests that had been installed on it in the past.

We decided to start fresh, so we "fdisked," formatted, and reinstalled the NT Server and then installed the Exchange Server one more time. This solved our problem, and we were able to proceed with the server installation. After that, we were able to install and configure the auto-attendant, operator, voice mail, e-mail, telephone extensions, user information, and other configurations quickly and with relative ease. Since the installation involved integrating with Microsoft Exchange, administrators should be familiar with most of the configuration process.

Finally, we added a Windows 98 PC on to our little network and installed Flexion's client software. This just entailed logging in as the administrator, and going through a few short steps. The process was done in minutes. We should note that Microsoft Outlook must be installed before installing the client software in order for it to work properly. We also tried to install the client software with Outlook Express as the mail client, but the X300 client software refused to install using Express instead of Outlook.

DOCUMENTATION
The Installation & Configuration Guide and the User Guide make up the printed documentation for the Business Guardian X300. Between the two guides, there are fewer than 200 pages, but the information is detailed, there are plenty of screen shots, and both indexes are complete. Even a non-technical person should be able to follow the given instructions, and the guides help with installing, configuring, and understanding the functionality of the system.

In addition, the guides and a glossary are available in PDF format off the BusinessGuardian CD-ROM. We have one small complaint about the Installation and Configuration Guide, though. We would like to see a bit more troubleshooting information. Also, on rare occasions, the information does not seem to be located in the right place. For example, the country setting information is located after the information about changing the IP address. That does not follow logically in the installation process.

Even though the printed documentation is admirable, help files should be available. At the moment, there aren't any meaningful help files for either the client or the server software. When possible, the help files should also be context-sensitive.

FEATURES
The following is a list of the major features of Flexion's BusinessGuardian X300 version 2.0:

• ISDN, T1/PRI, ATM T1, or analog connections.
• Web-based GUI for administrative configuration settings; client GUI with MAPI/TAPI functionality.
• Voice mail and auto-attendant features.
• True unified messaging capabilities.
• Support for LDAP.
• Remotely access voice and e-mail messages via the phone.
• Caller ID, operator console, and call conferencing for up to 16 meetings by phone.
• IP routing and filtering, least cost routing, remote access to office, DHCP, and Network Address Translation (NAT).
• Remote monitoring and diagnostics via BusinessGuardian Insight software.

Version 2.2 (which should be released by the time you read this review) has the following major additions:

• Distribution Groups/Hunt Groups -- treat any phone extension as part of any single or multi group, dictate sequence in which calls are routed, group pickup, and group voice mail.
• Windows 2000 Server support and new telephony client.
• Night service and client login/logout -- can forward calls to a pre-configured extension, direct to voice mail or to a group.
• Speed up call handling for operator through "drag and drop" transfer, queue visibility, direct transfer to voice mail using a handset, track held calls, and filter entries on the Busy Lamp field.
• Multi-way conferencing.
• Additional set of Wave files, and voice mails can now be stored in GSM format.
• Access voice mail from any extension.
• Alarm state temperature threshold and server detection alarm (alarms you when unable to establish TAPI services with the NT Server).

OPERATIONAL TESTING
First, we tested the basic telephony features, such as dialing other extensions and transferring calls. Then, we called up the voice mail system of one of the users we had added into the system. We also faxed and e-mailed this recipient. Afterwards, we opened Microsoft Outlook to see whether all of our messages were there. We saw messages for all three forms of communication, thereby verifying that the BusinessGuardian X300 was indeed a true unified messaging system.

We read our e-mail, checked the fax via a fax viewer, and listened to the voice mail over the speakers of our computer. We could also play the voice messages over the phone and remotely access the voice mail. Text-to-speech functionality allowed us to listen to our e-mail over the phone. The voice, however, sounded like a robot but was clear enough for us to understand.

When we examined the client graphical interface, we came across a strange anomaly. We were testing the TAPI functionality of the client software by picking up the handset of the user's phone and seeing whether or not the client graphical interface appeared on the screen. It did so for all the users except for one. Just to see what would happen, we picked up the phone for a different user, and the interface appeared. How could this be? This user's phone was connected to a different port than what was assigned to the user logged on.

We checked the telephony rights for the logged-on user and found the configuration to be correct. It appeared that there was some type of misconnection for those ports, allowing one port to handle two users and the other to handle none. We logged off and then back on as the administrator, and checked the Busy Lamp field, which shows all of the users on the system. Unfortunately, the user that was assigned the questionable port was not listed for some reason. Obviously, this wouldn't do, so we changed the telephony rights for the user that was assigned that port. We then plugged the user's phone into the new port, and the client GUI appeared.
Just in case this anomaly had been the act of a misguided server, we rebooted it, changed the telephony rights back to the original port, replaced the analog line back to that port, picked up the phone, and saw no client GUI appear. However, we also checked the other user's phone, and the client GUI still did not appear. Now, it seemed that we were most likely only dealing with a bad port on the voice card of the X300, but we had our doubts because the problematic port did give us a dial tone and would even work on occasion. The misconnection, or perhaps more appropriately termed "double connection," was no more, thanks (we guess) to rebooting the server or powering on and off the X300 itself, which we had also done. We also checked the Busy Lamp field and saw that our unfortunate user was finally listed.

After our little anomaly was settled, we tested the TAPI functionality of the client GUI. Everything we tried worked fine: dialing, picking up, transferring, holding, forwarding, conferencing, and dropping calls as well as sending calls to voice mail. We were also able to view our recent calls as well as see whom it was that we were currently calling. 

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
While the Flexion BusinessGuardian X300 does have most of the functionality needed for small businesses and is improved with the new features in version 2.2, we still have some improvements to suggest, some of which may have already been addressed in the new version but are worth mentioning anyway. We had a few logistical issues in the set up of both the administrative and client interfaces. For example, the ability to change the administrator password is hidden under Reports in the Web User List section when it probably should have its own heading. On a similar note, the client GUI hides the conferencing functionality. Currently, you have to right-click to find that option when there probably should be a button for it. While the client and administrator interfaces are not difficult to use, they are not especially intuitive either. Help files would assist to those ends, as would a little redesigning. There has been some redesigning of the client GUI in the new version of the BusinessGuardian X300. We hope to see an improvement in its appearance and usability.

For future releases, it would be beneficial for the BusinessGuardian X300 to have the ability to screen calls and provide urgent message notification. Multilingual support and support for unified messaging through other means other than Microsoft Outlook, such as Lotus Notes, would be beneficial as well. There also seemed to be no symbol associated with a fax when one is sent to Outlook (it looks as if it were an e-mail). To avoid confusion, there should be a separate symbol used for fax messages. Even though the X300 is designed for small businesses, the addition of ACD functionality would be of service, and mainly because the X300 is designed for small businesses, a VoIP module should be implemented.

One last suggestion involves a Web-based client GUI. It would be nice for users to remotely listen to voice mail via the Web instead of the phone as well as read faxes and e-mail online. There are methods to retrieve all these forms of communication remotely via the PC, but it would be easier for users if that functionality were already incorporated into the system.

CONCLUSION
Even though it does have a few hiccups, any small business of more than eight employees would benefit from Flexion's BusinessGuardian X300. Certainly small companies will like the ability to go to a single solutions provider, such as a VAR, that need only install BusinessGuardian to provide both voice and data features. Because of its unified messaging, Internet access, voice mail, desktop call control, auto-attendant capabilities, and other features, it is certainly worthy of consideration.

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