November 2000

Price: $3,295

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: N/A
Documentation: 5
Features: 4.75
GUI: 4.75
Overall: A-

Fortunately, Vitel Software's VMACS-Plus comes to the rescue for those owning one or more Lucent Technologies messaging platforms, such as AUDIX, DEFINITY AUDIX, and INTUITY AUDIX. Featuring a Windows graphical user interface, VMACS-Plus is a management tools, that can effectively manage multiple voice messaging systems. By automatically retrieving data from one or more systems into a centralized database, VMACS-Plus can organize and store information and then provide centralized reporting, including graphs and statistics for the entire enterprise.

For our testing purposes, TMC Labs decided it was best to see the software "in action" at a customer site. After talking with Vitel Software, we decided that the Museum of Modern Art in New York City was a good candidate. It was only a short train ride into the city from our lab, and we could expand our artistic horizons after testing the product.

INSTALLATION
Since the system we examined was a "live" system used in the Museum of Modern Art, we couldn't uninstall the software and reinstall it to check out the ease of installation. The customer told us that it was as simple as inserting a CD, installing the software, configuring the connection (serial/COM port, modem), dialing into the phone number for modem connections, and then configuring various options, such as the polling schedule. However, because we ourselves did not perform an installation, we didn't rate it. Hopefully the customer's experience gives you an idea of the installation process.

DOCUMENTATION
The documentation was very good. We had a copy of the Acrobat file, which was tabulated into eleven chapters, an appendix, and an index. Simply by clicking on any of the chapter headings, we were able to skip ahead in the electronic documentation. Of course for those that prefer the "touch and feel" of a printed copy, the Acrobat file is certainly printable. We examined the manual and found it very readable and well organized. Screenshots were plentiful, and "helpful hints" in special gray call-out boxes were also available.

FEATURES
The VMACS-Plus features on-screen view forms with extensive filtering and sorting capability. Using this software you can identify break-in attempts, perform system audits, report on active alarms, port usage, call volumes, disk usage, and more. In addition, you can report on the system auto-attendant to determine which IVR trees are "hit" the most and where people get stuck and "zero out" to the operator. Using this information can be incredibly valuable when redesigning the IVR/auto-attendant to improve customer service and satisfaction. Also, as previously mentioned, VMACS-Plus currently supports several Lucent messaging platforms, including AUDIX, DEFINITY AUDIX, and INTUITY AUDIX.

Over 80 reports and graphs are available. Here are a few of the more interesting ones:

• Voice mail directory by name -- useful for printing out corporate directories.
• Full mailbox -- reports on full mailboxes.
• Subscriber list by COS -- reports on all subscribers and their assigned Class of Service.
• Feature day summary -- summary totals for selected traffic categories for each day.
• Subscriber disk usage -- displays users using the most disk space.
• Charges by cost center (optional module) -- depicts charge back totals for each extension in a cost center for accountability.

Other features include SMTP (e-mail) alerting, traffic statistics, scheduled polling of data off of voice messaging system(s), reporting on fax, and batch scheduling of reports to run.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
When we arrived at the Museum of Modern Art, we were greeted outside by picketing employees who were on strike. Interestingly enough, the fact that union employees of the Museum of Modern Art were on strike actually was relevant to our testing process. The telecom manager who managed their auto-attendant/voice mail system told us that the VMACS-Plus system actually detected a "spike" in the number of break-in attempts into the voice messaging system during the strike. After several failed password attempts, that particular voice mailbox is locked out, which prevents a temporary employee from checking any voice messages. Fortunately, with VMACS-Plus installed (along with its alerting capabilities), the telecom manager was able to proactively unlock voice mail boxes as well as change passwords.

In any event, we proceeded to test the VMACS-Plus by first examining how the system is configured to work with an existing voice messaging system in place. The software communicates with the Lucent voice messaging system (Intuity in this case) via a serial connection through a PC's serial port, but can also dial into Intuity's internal modem for communication. Currently displayed in this figure is the voice mail form screen for defining modem parameters, password, phone number, and other settings.

The system can be configured to automatically "pull" data from one or more voice messaging systems at scheduled intervals (daily, weekly, etc.). Since there was already some existing data "pulled" into the VMACS-Plus database, we proceeded to run some sample reports. When executing reports you can create filters to sift out unneeded information. We were pleased to find that creating filters was very easy to do.

The VMACS-Plus features a built-in Telnet client, which allowed us to connect to the Intuity system if we desired. Another useful feature was the "batch scheduling" of reports to run. You can schedule a report to execute when network traffic is low, such as late at night. Then the report(s) will be waiting for you first thing in morning. We could change the sort order (ascending/descending) and sort by many various fields, such as COS, subscriber, name, extension, and more -- this sort feature is a nice touch in our book.

TMC Labs determined that with just a small learning curve we could use the VMACS-Plus system to perform trend analysis, capacity management, system monitoring, and forecasting. Forecasting is important for answering such questions as "Will I need to add more voice ports soon?" and "When will I run out of disk space?" Overall, we were very pleased with our tests and didn't find any glaring bugs or flaws with the product, though we did have some suggestions.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
We'd like to suggest the option of a Web-based interface so telecom managers can administer the system and look at reports anywhere they have an IP connection. Also, concerning usability when running reports: -- we'd like to be able to double-click on a report to execute it. Currently, users can't do this. Instead you must go to the "Report Details" tab, which we found to be a bit of a nuisance due to the extra mouse clicks required. One other minor usability issue is that you have to close any open windows before you can execute another command, such as running a report.

Although the report printouts are quite readable with the fixed font, we'd like the option of choosing a font, as well as font size. Although creating powerful filters is very easy in VMACS-Plus, we know that often techno-savvy IT personnel want to write their own SQL queries. We determined that the current version did not support SQL queries. We inquired if VMACS-Plus was going to add SQL functionality and were told this would be in the next release.

CONCLUSION
TMC Labs was impressed with the VMACS-Plus's extensive number of built-in reports and ease of use. We were able to quickly figure out how to navigate through the software without having to refer to a manual. Those looking for a Windows-based voice mail management solution for their Lucent voice messaging system should seriously consider VMACS-Plus.

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