May 1999

Price: $18,000 for the 24 � 48 configuration.

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

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: 4.75
Features: 4.25
GUI: 4.5
Overall: A

Thanks to their open architecture, robustness, and competitive pricing, PC-based PBXs have become very hot in the telecom world. And they're bound to get even hotter. Everyone, it seems, wants to get in on the action. And that includes IBM, which recently entered the CTI marketplace with its PC-based PBX system.

The IBM system is called the IBM Computer Telephony Business Solutions Server. Certainly, IBM can't be faulted for coming up with a creative product name! But joking aside, TMC Labs was very happy to get our hands on this product. Indeed, we were all eagerness to check out the customizable add-ons, which developers can create via an SDK.

Based on the Windows NT platform, this product features auto-attendant, IVR, a desktop call control application, and support for screen pops via caller ID. From an administration standpoint, this product is nearly entirely Web-based, with one obvious exception being the setup of the voice processing hardware and classes of service.

INSTALLATION
IBM brought a turnkey Netfinity 5000 server to TMC Labs, complete with all the voice processing boards and software installed. However, to get a feel for how the software installation worked, we reinstalled the software components. As it turned out, we were very impressed at how easy it was to install the software.

We attribute the ease of installation to the configuration wizard. It guided us through each step of the installation, ensuring we installed all the software components in the right order. Also, it helped us configure the system's settings. Finally, it covered a variety of other tasks, everything from changing "User Account Rights," to "Installing Service Pack 3."

As part of the installation, a diagnostic wizard scans the system to ensure that all the components are working as they should. Indeed, the diagnostic wizard is very powerful, scanning the system to ensure the proper functioning of various IIS (Internet Information Server) components. It also checks the hardware and various services, and confirms that the voice mail system is running. If any component fails, you can double-click on the component to get details on why it has malfunctioned.

This is the first utility of its kind that we have seen included with a PC-based PBX. And we must say, we're very glad to see it. Consider all the points of failure you may have with a PC-PBX. After all, many PC-PBXs run on Windows NT, and depend heavily on various Windows NT components, as well as voice processing drivers and various CTI components. And all of these components have to be integrated somehow so that they can work in harmony.

If there is a failure, determining the source of the failure can be a challenge. But that's where IBM's diagnostic utility can come in handy, helping to quickly pinpoint the source of failure. TMC Labs highly commends IBM for introducing such a comprehensive diagnostic utility. No doubt the utility will help alleviate headaches for MIS personnel as well as interconnects and VARs.

DOCUMENTATION
TMC Labs is notorious for hammering PBX manufacturers that don't include quick reference guides. In particular, we consider wallet-sized cards de rigueur. (We refer to those cards, provided with many PBX documentation packages, that explain how to traverse the voice mail system.)

Fortunately, IBM did not incur our wrath, since they included not just one quick reference guide, but three! They include a Voice Messaging Pocket Guide, a Getting Started with IBM Call Manager (desktop call control) reference, and an IBM Telephony Handset Reference Card. New users of the IBM PC-PBX will find the quick reference guides a convenient way to learn about the system.

In addition to the three small reference guides, an administration guide is also included. The administration manual is excellent, featuring a detailed index and a well organized table of contents. Also, there was a wealth of screenshots. We really liked one page in particular. It covered installation, listing all the steps needed to set up the system, as well as the corresponding section numbers for each step.

FEATURES
We were particularly impressed by the product's follow-me and desktop call control features. The follow-me feature included a DTMF passcode for verifying that the person who answers the call is who they say they are. Another nice feature of the follow-me was the ability to set the number of parallel outbound calls.

The desktop call control featured traditional call control functionality, including the ability to transfer, conference, and put the caller on hold. In addition, it included the ability to send a caller directly to voice mail with a single-click!

Other features included:

• Pager notification of voice messages.
• Ring groups.
• Use of Microsoft NetShow for Internet streaming of messages.
• Optional analog Northern Telecom OEM phones with three-line LCD display and message waiting indication (MWI).
• Web based administration.
• TAPI compliance.
• Boomerang.
• Graphical Web-based greeting scheduling.
• SDK for creating your own CTI/telephony applications.

OPERATIONAL TESTING
Administration
One of the first features we noticed was the very well organized Web-based administration screen. The entire system, including mail boxes, auto-attendants, voice resources, and other system settings, can all be managed via the browser interface. One of the system's key strengths, which is attributable to the system's reliance on NetPhone hardware, is the fact that all the phones will work even if the PC operating system fails. Very few PC-PBX competitors can make this claim.

Greetings
The system provided a very impressive and easy-to-use method for greeting scheduling. Essentially, from the Web browser we were able to view a graph with days across the top and hours of the day on the side. You begin by simply clicking on one of the legend keys (Morning, Afternoon, or After Hours). Then, you choose which schedule you wish to set. Finally, you click and drag from a starting point on the graph, such as Monday/8am, to an ending point, such as Friday/12pm. A colored bar fills in the time slot you selected. This graphical method was so simple to use, we were able to set the greeting schedules for Morning, Afternoon, and After Hours in about 12 seconds!

Follow-Me
To set up the follow-me functionality, you simply use a Web browser to enter phone numbers, and the order in which they should be dialed. The administrator can set how many trunks (a valuable resource) each user can use during a follow-me search. The default is set to one, which essentially is a "serial" search; that is, each follow-me number will be dialed one at a time, until someone takes the call or until all the follow-me numbers are exhausted. A "parallel" search (trying multiple phone numbers at once) can also be performed on this system simply by increasing the default number of trunks to a number greater than one.

When entering follow-me phone numbers, and then setting the order number, we couldn't find an OK or Submit button on the bottom of the Web page. So we tried just clicking off of the order number field. The order number we entered seemed to take hold, but when we refreshed the Web page, the order number disappeared.

This time we tried hitting the Enter key to see if that would save our changes. We refreshed the Web page, and we saw that our changes were indeed saved. We found it odd that we had to guess about hitting Enter key to save our changes. The rest of the IBM PC-PBX was so intuitive and user-friendly.

We called IBM, and before we even fully explained our predicament, they told us "Yeah, there should be a Submit button at the bottom of the screen in addition to the one located at the very top of the screen." Apparently, we had scrolled so far down on the Web page entering new follow-me numbers, that we could no longer see the Submit button at the top of the screen. Since we had never had to scroll up before on any other Web-based form to be able to "submit" our changes, it didn't occur to us that the Submit button might be at the top.

With Web-based forms, it is much more common to have a Submit button at the very bottom of the screen, since that is where you finish entering your data. In any event, we'd certainly like to see a more obvious Submit button added to the bottom of the Web page.

We also noticed in the follow-me screen that we could set the same "order #" across multiple phone numbers. Since we were able to use the same order number more than once, we assumed this meant that we could, for instance, set three phone numbers to order number "1," and then a fourth number to order number "2." In theory, this would mass-dial the first three numbers, and then, if no one were to answer, dial the fourth number.

Our theory was wrong. Apparently, the Web page doesn't do any duplicate order number verification. Essentially, if two phone numbers have the same order number, then the internal query will return the phone number in the order that it was created. To prevent user confusion, an ActiveX or Java applet should be put on the Web page which could be coded to prevent duplicate order numbers.

Desktop Call Control
One of the system's best features is its desktop call control application, which we found to be superb. We did note, however, that it shared the same drawback we noticed with Artisoft's TeleVantage. That is, the application is a bit of a resource hog, taking roughly nine percent each for the System, User, and GDI Resources.

Called IBM Call Manager, this application is very powerful and features status of calls, length of calls, a call log, corporate directory, and call control features such as send to voice mail, park, conference, hold, and transfer. Other features include DDE support for integrating with contact managers such as GoldMine or ACT!

The GUI has a nice look and feel overall. It displays the call duration as well as how long a person has been on hold, which is useful. Also, the icons were large and descriptive, which we find facilitates call management. This GUI, together with the excellent GUI for the Web-based administration application, make for an impressive presentation. It's no wonder that IBM scored the second highest GUI rating (4.5) in this PC-PBX shootout!

IVR/Auto-Attendant
Setting up the IVR/auto-attendant was easy as pie. Utilizing drop-down boxes on the administration Web page, you can configure what happens when a DTMF digit is pressed. Essentially, in the drop-down box you choose an "action." This action can be anything, such as transferring the call to the operator, going into the "Dial by name directory," "Execute a follow-me call", or even an action which you created using the software development kit.

The power to create your own actions is one of the highlights of the IBM PC-based PBX. Also worthy of note is the ability to record and play back your greetings via the Web browser, which will play the greeting over your multimedia PC.

Voice Mail
A neat feature of the voice mail system (which, by the way, has a new user tutorial for recording name and greeting) is the ability to return a call to a person who has left a message, and to accomplish the callback with the benefit of caller ID information. This kind of functionality is known as boomerang.

This feature even works internally. Thus, if you get a voice message from a fellow employee, it will tell you the extension and allow you to automatically initiate a return call.

The system lets you send your voice messages to your inbox, where you can then play the message back simply by double-clicking on the message. The Exchange form supports playback both over your telephone as well as your PC's speakers, simply by clicking on the appropriate radio button. We were quite pleased with the ability to switch between playing messages over the PC speakers as well as the telephone, which is useful when playing private or personal messages.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
As previously mentioned, the GUI for setting up the follow-me rules could benefit from a Java or ActiveX control. Support for T1, DID, and DNIS is essential. Also, there are no fax capabilities with this product, which some of the competing products include. We'd like to at least see fax-on-demand included in a future version, and perhaps the ability to have fax messages forwarded to another fax machine (useful when you're on the road). Finally, we would like the ability to record greetings (via the browser interface) using the phone in addition to the current method, which requires a multimedia PC with a microphone.

CONCLUSION
Open phone systems are the wave of the future, and certainly IBM's PC-PBX will be one of the leaders breaking new ground in open telecommunications. The ability for software developers to write code and customize the IBM PC-PBX to fit their business needs certainly gives IBM a competitive advantage. Another unique advantage of this system is IBM's very generous three-year warranty. Most competitors provide a one-year warranty.

TMC Labs was extremely pleased with the IBM Computer Telephony Business Solutions Server. With its customizable and flexible architecture, easy manageability, and comprehensive feature-set, this is one CTI product to keep your eyes on!

IBM's PC-based PBX includes a software development kit (SDK) that lets you create your own CTI applications. Once you've created the applications, you can then run them on the IBM PC-based PBX.

Included with the SDK are some samples, including a real estate example and a Web integration sample. The SDK is accompanied by Web-based documentation that lets you examine samples, APIs, and prompts, as well as C++ and Visual Basic tutorials. We looked at the source code for the samples, and found that the APIs used were pretty straightforward. Just to give you an idea what the APIs for coding your own "add on" look like, we've included a portion of the real estate sample:

While MenuChoice = ""
        ' Play a menu
        Call pAudio.PlayMenu("I_HotDeals", 300, MenuChoice)
    

        ' Process the selection that was pressed
          on the telephone
        Select Case MenuChoice
            Case "1"
                ' If a 1 was pressed then call the
                  HotDeals sub routine
                HotDeals
            Case "0"
                ' If a 2 was pressed then call the
                  TransferToAgent sub routine
                TransferToAgent
            Case ""
                ' If nothing was pressed then repeat the menu
        End Select
    Wend
    

    ' We are done so tell the listener goodbye
    Call pAudio.Play("I_Goodbye", 0)

Private Sub TransferToAgent()

    ' Play a wave file informing the caller that
      they are being transfered to an agent.
    Call pAudio.Play("I_XFer2Agent", 0)
    

    ' Transfer the call
    Call pDevice.TransferCall(pCall,
    (pServices.GetValue(SYSTEM_VALUE_QUICK, SYSVALUE_OPERATORS_EXTENSION)))

End Sub