April 1999

Price: 24 trunks, 48 extensions, with boards and system software ($21,600); with CTI ($350 per seat); with Internet Telephony ($1,000 per port).

[View a feature comparison table of Comdial's Impact FXS and other PC-PBXs.]

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 4.75
Documentation: 3.75
Features: 4.75
GUI: 4.5
Overall: A

Comdial, known for high reliability and excellent CTI support of its line of PBXs, is currently the only major traditional PBX manufacturer to create a PC-based PBX system. Comdial's decision to manufacture a PC-based PBX is a major development in the CTI industry. It reinforces the idea that PC-PBXs are a reliable alternative to traditional PBXs. Although Comdial has no plans to discontinue its popular DXP and DXP Plus digital switching systems, the company does anticipate sales of these 1992-1995 vintage systems will decline over time as dealers focus on its new PC-PBX.

The Comdial FXS Series, is actually a hybrid between a PC and a traditional PBX, since both a PC backplane and a telephony backplane exist on the same FXS server. On the PC side, Dialogic hardware is used for the voice mail system. In addition, a Windows NT Server runs on the PC backplane, along with all of the Windows-based CTI applications, voice mail software, and GUI-based administration tools. On the telephony backplane, Comdial's proprietary bus resides for installing T1/E1 cards, as well as the extension boards. Currently, the two buses communicate with each other via an RS-232 interface, but in the future the two backplanes will communicate via the SCbus. Also, the Comdial FXS is fully Y2K compliant.

The FXS System switching architecture provides a non-blocking switching array that gives all ports simultaneous voice and data transmission using 2B+D (signaling specification for basic access data transfer rate for ISDN on a single twisted pair). The FXS System supports Comdial's digital proprietary telephones which include either a two-line LCD display, or a much larger LCD display on the higher-end model. As an added convenience, application software is pre-installed, allowing users to realize productivity gains simply by entering a "magic number" or "key" to enable each application. Dealers can even call into the system to enable certain applications, or to configure the system. If the PC (Windows NT) crashes, all the phones will still work, which certainly provides peace of mind.

The Comdial FXS series targets small- to medium-sized businesses as well as the call center market. Featuring up to 112 trunks and 544 extensions per chassis, it is very scalable into mid-sized call centers. Multiple FXS servers can be interconnected via a T1 or a SCSI connection (if servers are in close proximity), or in the future using Fiber SCSI for campus environments.

INSTALLATION
Comdial brought a turnkey Comdial FXS system to TMC Labs, which is about the size of a RAID file server (roughly 2 feet high, 1 foot wide and 1.5 feet deep). We began by connecting all the appropriate wires and cables, which were labeled clearly. The mouse, keyboard, all of the COM ports, and all of the telephony cards were labeled for easy connectivity.

The FXS Series comes pre-installed with a Digi ClassicBoard which allows for more than the standard two physical COM ports on PCs. The Digi ClassicBoard, which provides up to 12 COM ports, was necessary for several of the FXS system's modules, including the QuickTrak Tracker (paging system), Wideopen.Office, pcANYWHERE, QuickQ ACD, and others.

We first cut off one end of an amphenol cable to punch down the wires onto one of our punch-down blocks in TMC Labs' telecom room. We decided to use the same row on the punch-down block where the Artisoft TeleVantage system (our corporate phone system) was also punched down. We figured we would use some ports/extensions which were not in use by the TeleVantage system. Several of these free ports were conveniently installed in the TMC Labs testing area for just such an occasion so we wouldn't have to draw phone wire each time we needed to test something.

In any event, the other end of the amphenol was plugged directly in the FXS system. Simple. Or so we thought at the time, but we would soon discover that the Comdial FXS was interfering with our corporate PBX's DID functionality. We discovered the problem when someone from our other office tried to reach one of our engineers via the DID (Direct Inward Dial) number, but was cut off after just one ring. However, when they called via the main auto-attendant number and then entered the engineer's extension, the phone call went through fine. Suspecting that Comdial was interfering with the Artisoft TeleVantage system, we disconnected one of the amphenol cables from the Comdial FXS, which was on the punch-down block at the other end. Sure enough, the problem disappeared. Comdial and TMC Labs determined the problem was that the Comdial system was sending out 30 volts and the Artisoft TeleVantage system operated at 24 volts, standard for analog lines.

At first, we didn't think Comdial was the cause, since its digital phonesets were performing perfectly, and we suspected it might be a hardware problem with the TeleVantage system. We thought we had disabled the TeleVantage extensions we were using for the Comdial phones. However, it seemed just disabling the extensions in the TeleVantage software does not stop the hardware from sending out a steady 24 volts to those extensions. Apparently, the Dialogic hardware in the TeleVantage system didn't appreciate having 30 volts coursing through its veins!

We could have snipped the wires on the punch-down block for the extensions running into the TeleVantage system. Doing so would have stopped the interference, but we wanted to keep those wires intact, in case we needed more analog extensions in the lab. Another alternative would be to use the unused outside pair of wires (pin 1 and pin 4) in the extension outlet, instead of the usual inner pair (pin 2 and pin 3), which is the standard pin assignment for a single analog phone. That could have put both TeleVantage and Comdial on the same extension outlet, and we would just need a special phone cable to "split out" the two pairs into separate RJ-11s. TMC Labs has plenty of miscellaneous phone wires, including phone cables which split out the 4 pins into two separate RJ-11's so that you hook up two analog phones to one outlet. However, we decided to save time and just hook up Impact FXS to an unused punch-down block, preventing any possible interference with our corporate PBX.

DOCUMENTATION
The documentation included several large (and heavy) three-ring binders, users phone manuals, and users voice mail manuals. The administrator manual is comprehensive, including actual pictures of the inside of the FXS server, with accompanying arrows to describe various items. The manual is broken down into five tabbed sections. Each went into great detail, explaining many concepts specific to the Comdial system. The five tabs themselves were not very descriptive or helpful - they only stated "Section 1," "Section 2," etc. Descriptive keywords for what is contained in those sections should replace the generic tabs. We'd also like to see more tabs, preferably color-coded to make finding things easier.

We commend Comdial for including Adobe Acrobat.PDF files (on CD-ROM and also installed onto the FXS system for online viewing). Although the printed documentation is very thorough, it was hard to find information we were looking for. For instance, there was no "main index" at the back of the administrator manual to refer to keywords for the entire manual. There should at least be an index or table of contents at the end of each section. In several instances, it took us a while to look up a certain feature. We could have opened the Adobe files and let the computer do the searching for us, but there are over a dozen files, each of which would have to be opened individually.

We did find some mistakes and omissions in the documentation. For example, the port density was misstated, as well as the number of lines. One of the manuals had two of the exact same pages in a row, explaining how to hook up each of the COM ports. Unfortunately, one of the pages was wrong, stating the QuickQ ACD should be hooked up to COM3, when it should have been COM5. The previous page had it right, but when we moved the server and reconnected the COM ports, we referred to the page with the error, which threw us a curve.

Finally, the online help for the CTI applications was excellent. Both the Impact Group and Impact Attendant had excellent online help. We did not use online help for the VCM (Visual Call Management) program, which allows you to manage your voice messages from your PC, since the program was very intuitive with a user-friendly GUI.

Essentially, the documentation was thorough, including everything from screenshots to wiring diagrams for punch-down blocks, but the information was very difficult to locate. Thus, the documentation earned a 3.95 rating.

FEATURES
The FXS System includes up to 32 hunt groups, up to 90 park orbits, and support for analog loop start, T1/E1, Centrex, DID, ANI, caller-ID and DNIS. The Comdial FXS Series also supports "whisper mode," which Comdial refers to SOHVA, which enables a user of the system to "whisper" to a user who is on the phone.

The FXS Series has an optional module called ctvoice, an Internet telephony gateway scaling from 2-60 ports. To ensure voice quality and reliability, ctvoice incorporates compression, dynamic jitter buffer management to minimize latency, and lost packet regeneration to reduce "chop."

The FXS ships pre-loaded with several new and enhanced feature packages.

• VVP-NT - Voice processing and auto-attendant software developed by Comdial's Key Voice Technologies subsidiary.
• Visual Call Management - Messaging software giving LAN users a GUI for managing voice and fax messages.
• QuickQ 4.0 - Comdial's latest automatic call distribution software runs on a Windows NT platform, allowing other Windows applications to run simultaneously.
• Impact Attendant - A new PC-based call-handling package that lets operators see at a glance the status of all telephones and active lines. Busy parties can be discretely alerted to priority calls, and on-the-go office workers can be tracked via messages to their pagers.
• Impact Group - Groupware that shows the status of all telephones in the group. It allows call processing from PC screens, including screen pops for inbound call handling.
• Impact Integrator - A client-based TAPI service provider enabling CTI software to run behind the scenes, allowing third-party TAPI (Telephone Application Programming Interface) applications from the desktop.
• WIDEOPEN.office - runs on the FXS server and enables TAPI/TSAPI CTI applications to communicate with the FXS system.

Other features include:

• CFOS (Call Forward Off System).
• Dial-by-name.
• Call forwarding, call parking, call costing and SMDR reports.
• Music-on-hold.
• Programmable Class of Services (COS) settings.
• Listen in on a call.
• Station speed dial.
• Tie lines.
• Ring No Answer Call Forward.
• LCD digital display phones.
• Station hunting.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
We're pretty familiar with the Comdial DXP, since that's the PBX we use in our headquarters. So when we looked at the administrative interface (VMMI) for the Comdial FXS, we were certainly in our element. Several items there looked very familiar to us. The organization of the "tree-like" structure and the corresponding menu options under each branch resembled the menu structure of our Comdial DXP's administration program.

However, we should note that our Comdial DXP requires you to dial into the PBX via a modem through a terminal program (such as HyperTerminal) to administer the PBX. Also, you need to use hotkeys via a menu-driven, text-based GUI. In contrast, the FXS Series has a much more user-friendly, Windows-based application, so managing and administering the FXS is much easier.

We could see how the menu structure of the old terminal screen method was ported over to the Windows VMMI application. This organization carried over because it was much easier, from a programming point of view, than starting from scratch. But the organization also keeps things simple for customers, interconnects, or VARs who need to install or manage these systems.

In any event, the VMMI interface was very easy to use. Our only complaints are that you must double-click on the plus sign to expand a tree heading. We would just having to single-click instead, a la Windows Explorer and many other programs. Also, some of the descriptions for tree headings are not very descriptive. For example, under Station Programming, there are three subheadings titled "Options 1," "Options 2," and "Options 3." We would have preferred better descriptions, thus avoiding a search through each options screen to find a particular item.

To be fair, however, each options page included a varied array of options. It would be hard to find a label both descriptive and succinct. Nonetheless, we would preferred something like "Options 1-Forwarding/Attendant/Consoles," "Options 2-SOHVA/PickUp groups/Misc," and "Options 3 - Other." Or, all the least frequently used or "uncommon" features could be put into the Option 3 page, titled "Option 3 - Other."

The Class of Service programming within the VMMI application has a similar problem. Here, options are spread out over four pages, discretely labeled Page 1 - Page 4.

We were a bit concerned that after selecting a COS number, if we then selected another page number for setting the various COS options, the GUI would default back to selecting the first COS number (1). Fortunately, our concerns were allayed when we determined that if you switch pages within the COS tree, it does keep the sAME COS group from the previous page.

The VMMI application pretty much does it all. You can even program the button mappings for each of the digital phones. TMC Labs would like to say the online help here was very good. We weren't sure what some of the feature codes were, and the online help from this page brought us right to where we wanted to go to look them up. Saving the changes from the VMMI was very easy, and the interface does give you the option of undoing the page if you made a mistake.

After configuring the FXS system, we decided to test the CTI applications, including Impact Attendant and Impact Group.

Impact Attendant
This feature gives attendants real-time, visual status of all the phone activity in their group. They can see who's on the phone, what number they're connected to, and how long they've been on the phone. Each phone icon is color-coded to indicate the status of each agent. New tabs for organizing individual phones into phone groups, for group monitoring, can be created to reduce screen clutter. Thus, tabs for "All phones," "Accounting," "Sales" and the like can be created. In addition to the phone monitoring capabilities, an attendant can answer the phone, transfer calls, or conference calls either with a mouse or via intuitive hotkeys.

One neat feature we tested allows an attendant to type a message for an agent and send it to their PC or internal pager while the agent is on the phone. Another nifty feature was the ability to quickly minimize and restore the application using the rarely used "Pause" key on the keyboard. This worked no matter which application you were in. Thus, you can be working in Microsoft Word, decide you want to call someone, and hit the Pause key, which will bring up the Impact Attendant program.

Conferencing Hell
Many people fear accidentally hanging up on one or more parties when they attempt to set up a conference call. TMC Labs engineers are told about five times a day - from tech support reps or from public relations reps - "Hold on while we conference you. If you get disconnected, we'll call you right back." Ughh! Where's the faith in your phone system? You'd think PR and tech support people would be experts at conferencing since they use it so often! The problem is that conferencing is far from simple on many PBXs. With Comdial's FXS product along with either Impact Attendant or Impact Group, dropped conference calls are a thing of the past! We were very happy with the intuitive nature of both of these Windows applications. There were several conference set-up techniques, including drag-and-drop or hotkey approaches.

Impact Group
Impact Group is very similar to Impact Attendant. This application also has hotkeys for performing various call control functions. The Pause key feature, for minimizing and restoring the application, is included here as well. Impact Group displays the real-time status of other call stations in your workgroup. A green icon means they're on the phone. A red light means they have voice mail. To call one of the members, we simply clicked on their name.

Impact Group allows you to send messages to the LCD of someone's phone as well as give them the option of responding to a yes/no query with their LCD soft keys. This is a very useful feature for asking a busy agent or supervisor a quick question. Similarly, Impact Group integrates with Comdial's Tracker paging system, allowing you to send text messages to alpha-numeric pagers carried by fellow employees. (Note: We didn't have the serial key to enable the Tracker feature when we prepared this review).

Impact Group has very nice integration with popular PIMS forscreen pops via caller-ID, although at first we couldn't get GoldMine to work, even though we picked GoldMine in a drop-down box. Instead, we had to use keyboard mapping, which was fine by us. In fact, we liked the keyboard macro recording utility, which essentially records your keystrokes and pastes the phone number. After recording the macro, we were able to have GoldMine perform a screenpop on the very first try.

A short list of Impact Group's features include: call history, call parking, caller-ID, its own contact management, DID, directory information, DNIS, group monitoring, headset compatibility, keystroke macros, LCD messaging, reports, screen pops, speed/auto-dialing, TAPI support, Tracker integration and TSAPI support.

Call Center Queuing
QuickQ is Comdial's call center application for queuing callers, and it helps make the most of the agents' time. It was originally a DOS-based application, but Comdial has rewritten the code and developed a Windows NT version. Within QuickQ, you can program the system to use more or fewer agents depending on call traffic, and you can have up to 101 agents active at one time. When call traffic is extra heavy, you have 16 overflow and escape extensions to make sure you don't miss a call.

Based on a Microsoft Access database, QuickQ's reports help you manage your call center. It even informs staffing decisions, since over 63,000 statistical events and 96 different report formats are included. Popular reports such as historical hold times and abandoned calls are readily available, and users can take a quick snapshot of real-time activity. The new system-wide, real-time graphical screens allow managers to monitor all of your call center activities at a glance. TMC Labs was very pleased with the queuing capabilities as well as the real-time monitoring capabilities of QuickQ, which certainly make this product a good choice for the call center.

The last client-based GUI is the Visual Call Management screen, where you can visually inspect and play your voice messages. This GUI had easy-to-read icons and a clean, uncluttered interface. We had no problems getting it to work on the first try. One feature of note allows you to be notified via a pager when you receive a message, according to specified schedules.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
There isn't much to complain about regarding the Comdial FXS Series PC-based PBX. It's a very feature-rich system. Some minor complaints include getting rid of the confirmation dialog box ("Are you sure you wish to Exit?") when exiting the Impact Attendant program. We tried and failed to find a way to shut it off.

Another minor issue is the keyboard shortcuts window. If you happen to close it, you have to click on the menu option "Help" and then on "keyboard shortcuts." We felt a more intuitive place to put keyboard shortcuts would be under the "View" menu option. In fact, the View menu was where we originally looked (in vain) to reactivate the keyboard shortcuts. After searching, we eventually found keyboard shortcuts under the "Help" menu option. Also, regarding the View menu option, there should be a check mark next to the menu option currently selected, whether it is "Large icon," "small icon" or "detailed icons."

When programming buttons for the phones within the VMMI program, you can't double-click on one of the feature codes on the left to automatically insert the code into the currently selected button field. Instead, you must type the feature code into the button field. Drag-and-drop capability might be useful here as well.

Also, while we worked with the VMMI GUI, we were unable to resize the left pane, where the main tree structure resides. The right side of the screen was cut off when we changed from 1024x768 to 800x600 resolution. So we tried to get the cross-hairs to shrink the left pane down a little, but it doesn't appear to be resizable. To get around this, we were forced to go to a higher resolution (1024x768) to see everything. Then we noticed a quirk. If we exited the program, changed back to 800x768, and then went back into VMMI, the problem corrected itself - we were able to see everything. Still, we would like to be able to resize the left window pane.

CONCLUSION
Comdial is probably the leader when it comes to CTI-enabled PBX products. Indeed, Comdial's commitment to CTI has helped make it one of the premiere switch manufacturers in the industry. TMC Labs was very impressed with the ease-of-use, scalability, CTI functionality, overall architecture, and excellent feature set of the Impact FXS PC-based PBX. Being able to buy this system without CTI functionality, then later remotely enabling CTI applications via a license key, is a very good competitive advantage. TMC Labs highly recommends the Impact FXS to any organization looking for an affordable CTI-enabled switch.