May 1999

Price: $20,563 for the 24 � 48 configuration (boards and software).

[View a feature comparison table of this and other PC-PBXs.]

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

Artisoft, well known for its application generator tool Visual Voice, is making plenty of noise in the CTI industry with its TeleVantage PC-based PBX. Designed for small to medium-sized businesses and branch offices, TeleVantage is a software solution that delivers the capabilities of a conventional PBX, but with the power, flexibility, and openness that come with a PC-based PBX.

TeleVantage has several traits that are common among PC-PBXs. For example, it is based on the Windows NT platform. In addition, it works with ordinary analog phones instead of expensive digital phone sets. However, TeleVantage also has some distinctive features. Chief among these, perhaps, is the product's very powerful and user-friendly interface, which is modeled to resemble Microsoft Outlook's familiar interface.

INSTALLATION
We had already installed TeleVantage from scratch a couple of times in TMC Labs. In fact, our experiences with successive versions of the product (including versions 1.0 and 2.0) were so positive that we decided to use TeleVantage as the phone system in our new offices.

When the time came to set up our new phone system, we made a point of examining every step in the installation, which was carried out by DAC systems, a local VAR. DAC used a variety of hardware, including a passive-backplane server and several Dialogic boards. These components were purchased from a well-known CTI reseller and manufacturer, Alliance Systems.

The Alliance Systems backplane server features dual hot-swappable power supplies, and enough cooling fans to chill the island of Aruba. DAC Systems handled the installation of the Dialogic hardware and the TeleVantage software. (We recalled from our own experience that installing the TeleVantage software is easy.)

Since our T1 and extensions were terminated on a plain-old punch-down block, we didn't use Artisoft's BCP connection panel for installing the trunks and stations. Instead, we cut up an amphenol cable and punched down the wires accordingly.

Our only problem during the installation had nothing to do with the Artisoft software or the Alliance Systems hardware. We had ordered our T1 with specific signaling, which our provider (WorldCom) had provisioned incorrectly. We were able to get partial functionality by hacking some of the signaling settings within the TeleVantage software. However, after a few hours, WorldCom was finally able to resolve the signaling issue, and we could dispense with the hacking, and really get our system up and running.

Setting up the mailboxes was a snap, thanks to Artisoft's extremely user-friendly administrator program. We were able to add our entire list of employees to the system in less than 10 minutes! Overall, installation was extremely easy. We could not have asked for a simpler or more straightforward installation.

DOCUMENTATION
TeleVantage was shipped to us with installation, administration, and client manuals. All of the manuals had plenty of screenshots. We were especially pleased with the TeleVantage client manual, which explained, in layman's terms, how to use the system. We did notice, however, that the documentation didn't include the usual wallet-sized "Quick Reference Guide." Usually, these cards describe how to traverse the voice mail system.

This installation manual was also well done, and even discussed, in fine detail, how to install Windows NT, the service pack, the Dialogic boards, the BCP connector, and (of course) the actual TeleVantage software. Installing the system should be a snap - provided the installer follows the installation manual.

Finally, the manual for the administration program was excellent. It covered all the system's basics, and much else besides. Topics included trunk line maintenance, auto-attendant configuration, server basics, user/mailbox management, and system monitoring.

FEATURES
With TeleVantage, you can manage multiple incoming calls, transfer calls, and set up conference calls quickly via the GUI interface. You can access your voice mail messages in the order you want, since the grid control lets you click on headings such as From, Received, Length, and Number. With a single click, your messages are resorted according to the heading selected.

On an incoming call, TeleVantage tells you who is calling, letting you screen low-priority calls. You can easily forward calls to an internal or external number, or have TeleVantage's powerful "Follow Me" call routing try to locate you as you travel. TeleVantage even lets users create rules based on caller ID or PIN information. These rules can also depend on the time of day and many other user-defined parameters.

TeleVantage can have up to 9,999 auto-attendants, each with up to 12 options. Also, TeleVantage can automatically detect when an incoming call is really a fax call. You can configure TeleVantage to route all fax calls to a particular station, where a fax machine or LAN fax server has been installed.

The client program is very powerful, and includes many features, including:

• Do-not-disturb button.
• Contact manager compatibility (contacts importable from any standard contact manager).
• Caller "announcements" (associating incoming callers with .WAV files).
• Toggle button (outputting voice message audio through PC speakers or the telephone).
• Customizable telephone ring tones (reserving special tones for specific events).
• Textual reminders/notes for voice mail messages.
• Remote access to dial-out functionality (allowing privileged users to dial out of TeleVantage from remote locations).
• E-mail and pager notification of all or selected incoming messages and voice mail.

The administrative software was equally powerful. It included an intuitive user management interface, easy trunk and extension setup, as well as the ability to determine how much hard disk space should be used, on a user-by-user basis, for voice messages. Other administration options included:

• Device monitor.
• Station sharing (multiple users can share one station).
• Simple audio-on-hold connections (devices attach via RJ-11 connector).
• Customizable voice prompts.
• Full range of available dialing prefixes.
• Year 2000 compliance.
• Automatic archiving and purging of old files.

Other options included T1 support, DID support, enhanced call queuing and ACD support, ring multiple extensions, enhanced Centrex support, numeric paging, and TAPI support

OPERATIONAL TESTING
We thoroughly tested the TeleVantage system, examining virtually all of its features. We especially liked the call log and user interface features.

User Interface
If we had to choose the best feature of the TeleVantage system, it would have to be the TeleVantage client program, which is modeled after Microsoft Outlook and is very user-friendly. Changing greetings, playing back voice messages, and switching between playing back messages via the phone or over the PC speakers was very intuitive.

Our only criticism of the TeleVantage client is that it is a bit of a resource hog. For example, on one PC, while running the TeleVantage program along with other programs open, the resources were as follows: System Resources, 22 percent; User Resources, 31 percent; and GDI Resources, 32 percent. After closing just the TeleVantage client, the resources jumped to 50 percent, 51 percent, and 50 percent for the System, User, and GDI Resources respectively. (For more information on System Resources, and how they affect your PC's performance, see Tom Keating's CC: column in the January 1999 issue of CTI� magazine.)

Although we were impressed by the power of the TeleVantage GUI, we couldn't overlook its high resource utilization. Accordingly, we lowered the GUI rating slightly. The final score for the GUI was 4.75.

Contact Management
To enter contacts, you simply choose "New" from the menu and key in the appropriate details. A contact PIN can be assigned to each contact. Essentially, a contact PIN is a unique number that you give out to a contact, who enters it after dialing your extension.

A contact PIN provides a guaranteed way for TeleVantage to positively identify a caller, no matter what phone number he calls you from. For example, suppose your extension is 149, and you give Mr. Smith a contact PIN of 21. Mr. Smith calls your office, and when prompted to enter your extension, he types in 14921. TeleVantage identifies this as a call from Mr. Smith.

There's even a nifty voice title option that lets you capture a person's name in a .WAV file when they call TeleVantage for the first time. Users can assign that .WAV file to the contact's personal code, so TeleVantage can announce repeat callers in their own voices, not yours. Because of this PIN code/file association, callers needn't say who they are every time they call you.

Device Monitor
Using the device monitor, you can see which stations are idle, on-hook, or off-hook. The device monitor also shows trunk activity and trunk status, and whether in-use trunks are accepting inbound calls or making outbound calls. You can also install the Artisoft Administrator program onto another PC to manage the TeleVantage system, including the ability to access the Device Monitor.

Remote Access To Call Forward
One feature that many users want is "remote access to call forward," or RACF. This feature allows users to remotely log into their voice mail box on the road and then get a "second dial-tone" to make outbound calls through the voice mail system. TeleVantage supports this feature nicely.

After you log into voice mail (and after the system confirms you have the appropriate privileges), you can actually make an outbound telephone call through TeleVantage system. Simply press the pound key, and you get a second dial tone. This has some cost advantages, especially since many hotels charge exorbitant per-minute charges as well as an automatic $0.75 charge or more per call. Some features (like call waiting) won't work when you call from a remote location, but you can have TeleVantage hang up its end without hanging up yours, so you don't have to call TeleVantage again to make another call.

Call Log
The call log is one of TeleVantage's best features. The call log displays a record of all calls made and received on the TeleVantage system, and it can generate traffic analysis reports. If caller ID is available, this information is also recorded, and can be quite useful when calling someone back, particularly abandoned calls by callers who neglect to leave a message. Even if a caller does not leave their name and number, if caller ID is available, a user can take advantage of the call log to automatically initiate a callback, simply by right-clicking on the call log entry and choosing "Place call."

Each of the column headings can be added or removed as necessary. Available column headings include whether a call is inbound or outbound, the call's origin and destination, the number of the originator (if inbound) or the dialer (if outbound), the start time and duration, the holding duration before a call was answered, whether or not inbound callers left a message, the call's incoming trunk or station number, and other information.

Other Features
Other features include the ability to select when to announce a caller, whether to flash the TeleVantage title bar or popup the TeleVantage client, as well as selecting distinctive ring patterns. We tested all of these features and they all worked as advertised.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
We would like the ability to choose what a "double-click" does within both the Call Log and the Contacts screens within the TeleVantage client. By default, when you double-click on a phone record in the Call Log, nothing happens. We would like the ability to have a double-click initiate a call to the phone number listed in the phone record.

Similarly, within the Contacts screen, when you double-click it does not call that contact's phone number. Instead, a double-click will pop up the Edit screen for editing the contact information. Obviously, since each contact record can have multiple phone numbers associated with each contact, a double-click on the contact should initiate a call to the "default" (that is, most commonly used) phone number associated with the contact. In the case where you need to call a contact's secondary phone number, such as a cellular phone or home number, then the user would need to right-click on the contact and choose the appropriate phone number.

We'd also like the ability to drag-and-drop one or more voice messages into an e-mail message. Finally, within the Greetings screen, you can type text into a memo box, but the text is limited to four or five lines of text. For those users who have long and complex greeting messages, it would be nice if the entire greeting script could be typed in the memo box, so the user can just read off the script when recording the greeting.

Since there is no Sent folder containing voice messages sent or forwarded, we'd like to have the capability to view the history of any voice message in the TeleVantage inbox. Often a person can forget if they forwarded a message to someone already or not. Thus, this history feature would be helpful.

Finally, you can screen callers simply by right-clicking on the caller within the Call Monitor and then choosing Screen Message. However, you can screen the caller only via the telephone and not the computer's speakers. We'd like to screen callers while listening through the computer's speakers.

CONCLUSION
TMC Labs was very impressed with TeleVantage 2.1. Unlike several competing PC-PBXs, it now includes T1 support. TeleVantage is certainly one of the easiest, if not the easiest PC-PBX to administer. No mean feat, especially considering how feature-rich the product is. TeleVantage's strength lies in its easy-to-use and intuitive interface. While we love the TeleVantage client, we would like to see a TeleVantage Lite which would be less of a burden to system resources. Overall, TeleVantage is an ideal solution for both small and mid-sized corporations, as well as call centers, thanks to its strong call routing and call handling capabilities.