Rightfax Enterprise V5.0 Is $2,995, E-Mail Gateway Features Include: OCR Features Include: for a Server License and Two Channels

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Gateway module, a Web Client module, to SMTP addresses, via Internet or and an Optical Character Recognition Intranet mail, reducing long-distance (OCR) module. line charges. • The RightFAX E-Mail Gateway also Postscript Module allows POP3 clients to send out- The Postscript module allows you to bound faxes. attach Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) docu- • In addition to cover sheet informa- ments, which are then automatically tion, fax mail messages can contain converted on the server. With the popu- attachments over 45 of the most com- larity of the Adobe Acrobat file format, mon Windows and Macintosh for- this is a welcome addition. mats, including Word, Excel, JPEG, GIF, and HTML, to name a few. E-Mail Gateway Module RightFAX The RightFAX E-Mail Gateway OCR Module Enterprise 5.0 module allows RightFAX to integrate The RightFAX OCR module adds with your existing e-mail applications. another routing method to your The gateway allows you to send, RightFAX fax server software, in addi- RightFAX receive, and track the status of faxes tion to converting images into text. The 6303 E. Tanque Verde through your standard e-mail interface. RightFax OCR module resides on the Tuscon, AZ 85715 The E-Mail Gateway supports Lotus server (not on every client machine). Ph: 520-320-7000; Fx: 520-321-7461 cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, Novell This allows every user on the network E-mail: [email protected] GroupWise, Microsoft Mail, Microsoft to continue working, while the server BBS: 520-546-9310 Exchange, and SMTP/POP3. does all the processing work. Web Site: www.rightfax.com

Price: RightFAX Enterprise v5.0 is $2,995, E-Mail Gateway features include: OCR features include: for a server license and two channels. • E-mail messages notify users of • Only one license for unlimited users. RightFAX 5.0 starts at $1,495 for one line. received faxes and (optionally) com- • 32-bit application for fast conversion Both products cost $795 per additional line. pleted transmissions. and routing. There are no user license fees. • Incoming faxes can be routed as e- • Converted text can be viewed and mail messages to any network user annotated (searched, cut, pasted, etc.). and/or printed to a network printer. • Automatically convert every fax ased on the success of their • Comes with a Windows fax viewer. received or on an individual basis. BRightFAX NT family of fax • Does not require Microsoft MTA •Routing character-string is not servers, RightFax has released a program or Lotus cc:Mail gateway to restricted to a specific position in LAN-based faxing solution called be running for mail to be delivered. document. RightFAX Enterprise v5.0. The compa- • Microsoft Fax Driver allows output • Administrator controls OCR privileges. ny also offers RightFAX v5.0 (a subset from any Windows application to of the enterprise version, which lacks MS Mail. RATINGS (1-5) the least-cost routing and load-balanc- • Custom print driver allows output ing features of that version). RightFax from any Windows application to Installation: 4.90 also offers several optional modules cc:Mail. Documentation: 4.75 (at an additional cost), each of which • Receive OCR output in mail with GUI: 4.85 adds additional functionality. These optional RightFAX OCR Module Features: 4.95 include a Postscript module, an E-Mail • Inbound faxes may be routed directly 46 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTI LABS

Web Client Module The RightFAX Web Client module allows you to manage your fax mailbox using a Web browser. Simply enter the Web address of your fax server and log in to access all of your sent and received faxes from anywhere via the GUI (Figure 1). The module also enables an administrator — through an administration utility — to connect unlimited users or restrict the number of clients connected concurrently.

Web Client features include: • Send, receive, forward, route, delete, and print faxes. • Create notes on fax cover sheets. • Attach files to faxes using PCL-5, PostScript, TIFF-G3, DCX, PCX, ASCII/Text formats (requires upload- ing capability currently available only on Netscape browsers). • Run over Secure Socket Layer (SSL v2 and v3) on server for security. • Access Phonebooks, Billing Codes, Figure 1. RightFAX: The Web Library Documents, and Fax Histories. the desired destination as a local call. Client Module GUI allows you to The hardest part of using the LCR manage your fax mailbox from Least-Cost Routing method is maintaining accurate routing anywhere in the world. One of RightFAX’s best features is tables. The least-cost routing system its LCR (least-cost routing) ability, weighs several factors when deciding dialing, dual-tone multi-frequency which sends faxes via the Internet or how to route faxes. These include time (DTMF), voice-assisted DTMF, dialed data network to a phone line that is of day, user or group restrictions, prior- number identification service (DNIS), closer to the fax’s destination, thus ity, and server availability. With DNIS/DID interface, caller subscriber reducing phone bills. For instance, RightFax’s load balancing (capacity identification, ISDN, OCR, and manual suppose you need to fax something sharing) capability, the RightFax server line/channel. These routing methods from New York to Tokyo. If you can share its queue of outbound faxes can also be combined. have a network (Internet or private with another RightFax server in the WAN) connecting the two locations, enterprise, which will speed up the INSTALLATION you can route the fax from the transmission process. Load balancing Installation of the RightFAX RightFax server in New York to one in also works for incoming traffic to even Enterprise 5.0 software entailed Tokyo. The Tokyo server can then fax out the volume of incoming faxes installing the software from a CD-ROM the last leg of the fax transmission to across two or more servers. and then adding the optional modules. Besides least-cost routing, other The optional modules come on 3.5-inch Figure 2. RightFAX: The E-Mail routing methods include direct inward diskettes. The installation of the Gateway configuration screen. RightFAX server software, OCR module, postscript module, and Web client module all went smoothly, but we did have a bit of trouble with the e-mail module. A Slight Hitch At first, we chose MSMail rather than Exchange for our default gateway. That same week, we upgraded our mail system from MSMail to Exchange, so we decided to reinstall the RightFAX E-Mail Gateway (Figure 2). When we tried reinstalling, RightFAX kept putting Lotus Notes as our e-mail gateway, which seemed strange. As it turned out, we had a license for but one e-mail gate- 48 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C T I L ABS way. And apparently, reinstalling doesn’t remove the original gateway, which caus- es strange side effects. Even manually removing the gateway from the administration program and then reinstalling again didn’t work — the program kept putting Lotus Notes back as the e-mail gateway. We called tech- nical support, and Figure 3. RightFAX: Users can they had us dive into the Windows NT be. For instance, when we tried to add a switch to administration mode registry to manually remove the origi- printer to the RightFax queue, we refer- from the main screen. nal gateway. We removed all the e-mail enced the administrator manual, but the gateway entries in the registry, rein- instructions weren’t there. Checking stalled the e-mail gateway, and chose the index of the user’s guide, we found Mail Gateway guide; and Web Client Exchange. Once we did this, everything the correct page. Basically, we had to guide — were excellent. Some minor worked fine. Other than this one glitch, figure out what the network name and details were missing (nothing to get all the other installation procedures the queue name values were. We excited about), and we felt the online went very smoothly. Considering the weren’t certain of the syntax RightFax help could have been more complete. complexity of all the features and mod- was looking for, which is the reason we Nonetheless, we gave the documenta- ules which we installed, we were sur- checked the manuals. The example in tion a 4.75 rating. prised we didn’t have more problems. the manual could have explained the Client installations were also a breeze. parameters more clearly. We took an OPERATIONAL TESTING Overall, we were very happy with the educated guess as to the correct para- We found RightFAX’s main screen ease of installation and gave RightFAX meters, and this worked. for viewing, editing, and sending faxes a 4.90 installation rating. The documentation did contain plen- to be user-friendly. Different icons indi- ty of screenshots, and it provided sev- cated whether a fax had been viewed, DOCUMENTATION eral examples. Both the administrator printed, or OCR’ed, and the column The documentation was pretty good; guide and the user’s guide had good headings included date/time, fax num- however, it seemed that parts of the indexes, as did the optional E-Mail ber/ID, status, number of pages, and documentation were a bit sketchy or Gateway guide. All of the guides — other vital information. RightFAX not located where we expected them to user’s guide; administration guide; E- allows you to select multiple faxes for deletion, forwarding, or other operation (Figure 3). From the main GUI, you can also switch to administrator mode for viewing all faxes for all users, provided you have been assigned the appropriate security permissions. A nice feature of this product is that you can log on to your personal RightFAX mailbox from any computer workstation on the network, since RightFAX is client/server. Setting up the RightFAX server was easy, and consisted of a few programs in the Control Panel. From one centralized screen, you can enable CSID routing, enable logging, turn on billing codes, set Figure 4. RightFAX: Server the notification time, increase the num- configuration screen. ber of authorized channels, and set up other server features (Figure 4). Another program allows you to easily modify the Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C TI L ABS global settings for the fax hardware, including enabling T.434 BFT (binary file transfer), setting the DID type, selecting the country code, and other settings (Figure 5). Figure 6 shows another useful configuration screen. This GUI allows you to set whether a particular channel (line) has the capability for outbound, inbound, or both. You can also disable a line, enable DTMF routing, Figure 5. RightFAX: and enable ECM from this screen. Global settings can On the client side, you have several be modified from options available with regards to receiv- the board configu- ing faxes. For instance, you can automat- ration screen. ically forward received faxes to another fax number if you are traveling, or even forward it to another user. You can configure the system to automatically print incoming faxes, as well as automatically OCR received faxes (Figure 7).

OCR — OK! We tested the OCR functionality to see how well it would route based on some test words. Setting up the OCR route table is as simple as modifying a text file called “ROUTE.TXT.” The process consists of entering a user identification (user ID) and a matching keyword. When a fax is received by the Figure 6. RightFAX: RightFax server, it uses this file to see if This screen enables it can find a match. If it matches a key- the user to select word, it then looks up the user ID. various channels Depending on how that particular user and inbound/out- has their fax mailbox set up, the server bound settings. routes it to the proper mailbox. Our first test entailed entering our last names into some test faxes. The OCR module detected the words perfectly and routed the faxes to the appropriate person. Since we were looking for a fax-serv- route all our CTI Magazine and TCCS odds that the subscription forms will go er solution for our office with excellent subscription forms directly to an where they are supposed to go. Nobody routing capabilities, we really put employee in customer service. For this said OCR is perfect, but with a little RightFax to the test to see if this was test, we faxed one of our subscription testing and some tweaking you can get the solution for us. Routing was as forms directly from Adobe Acrobat and very good results using OCR routing. important a consideration as any in the added “subscribe” to the ROUTE.TXT We sent this first test fax electronically decision for us to install an enterprise file. The OCR module did not detect the from Adobe Acrobat, which of course is faxing solution. To get 100-percent word “subscribe.” Rather than give up on much “cleaner” than sending it through accurate fax routing to every person’s OCR right then and there, we decided to an actual fax machine. We sent our next desk in our office, we would require check what went wrong. Fortunately, test fax the old-fashioned way — DID. Although this is the most accurate RightFax comes with a history option to through an actual fax machine. Once means of assuring the faxes are routed log the fax transmission, including what again, the OCR module interpreted properly, we are not currently planning happened in the OCR process. We “subscribe” as “suhscrihe,” but since we to install DID, so we figured we’d set- brought up the history for this particular had previously added that keyword to tle for 80 – 95-percent accurate routing. fax and saw what the problem was. ROUTE.TXT, it routed perfectly. Our next best option was using OCR The font used on the subscription To increase the chances of correctly routing which has about an 80 – 95 perform was small. This caused the OCR to detecting our subscription forms we cent routing accuracy, which in turn incorrectly detect “suhscrihe,” instead could have increased the font size of begged the question: “Is RightFax’s of “subscribe.” No problem. All we had the word “subscribe.” However, we OCR accuracy up to our standards?” to do was just add “suhscrihe” to the chose to add a code to the form, such as One thing we wanted was the ability to ROUTE.TXT table, thus increasing the “XX37,” which characters can easily 52 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C T I L ABS be interpreted by the OCR module. Of course, a letter such as “G” can be con- onsidering the complexity of all the features fused with the number “6” or the letter “l” could be mistaken as the number and modules which we installed, we were “1”. By taking account of these consid- C erations, you can increase your chances surprised we didnt have more problems. of your faxes being OCR’ed properly. After adding a code to the subscription Client installations were also a breeze. form, we sent 20 test faxes, and all 20 faxes were OCR’ed and routed correctly. Thus, we had 100-percent OCR any keyword appearing first in this file all of our faxes in one of our test mail- accuracy. Now, we don’t pretend that has the highest priority. Ann’s name was boxes. Then, we simply clicked on the this figure is statistically valid, nor do at the top of the file, thus giving this key- “Launch” button, which opened the we foolishly believe that 100 percent of word the highest priority. We could have RTF in Microsoft Word for editing. all our incoming subscriptions will be moved her name below Tom’s, but then Having tested RightFax’s OCR mod- routed properly. However, we’ll settle any fax with both names would always ule thoroughly, we concluded that, for close to that figure. be routed to Tom. This too, was not what overall, the OCR module was an excel- we wanted. lent feature. We were definitely “Pardon me, but I believe that’s MY We feel that the OCR module should impressed with its accuracy, functional- Fax…” do a top-down, left-to-right prioritiza- ity, and ability to route our faxes cor- We weren’t done putting RightFax’s tion scanning of keywords. Once it rectly. If RightFax implements our idea OCR module through its paces just yet. matches a word, it should route based of routing based on the first keyword We were curious to see how it would on that match because more often than encountered in a fax, we’d be even hap- handle multiple keywords contained in not, the person’s name, to whom the fax pier about the OCR module. the same fax. Suppose someone faxes a is addressed, is positioned at the top of memo to Tom Smith regarding his the fax, i.e., ATTN: Tom Smith. Thus, No Lock Out assistant Ann Jones. Obviously, the fax scanning top-down/left-right and rout- Having installed the RightFax client is intended for Tom Smith. The ing based on the first keyword found software (FaxUtil, FaxAdmin) on a ROUTE.TXT table will contain entries would resolve this problem and route Windows 95 machine, we were curious for both employees, so that any faxes the faxes more accurately. what would happen to the clients if we brought the RightFax server down. We hoped that rebooting the server wouldn’t lock (or temporarily freeze) the client machines. We opened the FaxUtil and FaxAdmin programs on the client machine and then rebooted the RightFax server. The Windows 95 machine didn’t lock or freeze. However, when we brought the RightFax server back up and then tried to open a fax from FaxUtil, we were unsuccessful. Apparently, the connection to the server was gone, and we could no longer access the FaxUtil and FaxAdmin programs. We closed the Figure 7. RightFAX: This screen two programs, as well as the RightFax demonstrates the available One Step From OCR To User App tray icon, and then restarted the received fax options. The OCR processing is all done on RightFax client software program. the server using its 32-bit architecture; Users’ machines won’t lock if the with their names in it will be routed to thus, there’s no need to install OCR RightFax server crashes, but they will their mailboxes. modules on each client. RightFax can need to restart their RightFax client In performing the test, we had hoped also OCR a fax and convert it to a user- software. Again, nothing to get overly that the OCR module would scan the fax specified application for editing. For excited about. from left to right and from top to bottom, instance, you can choose to have see Tom’s name first on the fax page, RightFax OCR a fax to ASCII, RTF, or Database Integration and then route the fax to him. However, Smart ASCII, and choose the applica- We should mention that RightFax this was not the case. The fax was actu- tion with which to open the converted comes with the ability to connect to your ally routed to Ann’s mailbox. We deter- document. We tested using the RTF for- contact information in your existing mined that the OCR module prioritized mat and chose Microsoft Word as our databases. You can also create your own its OCR routing based upon location application to open OCR documents. phonebook list in RightFax. RightFax within the ROUTE.TXT file. Basically, We had RightFax automatically OCR supports ODBC and MAPI, giving you 54 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C TI L ABS the capability to attach your existing database as well as address books in hile most LAN-based fax servers and fax-on- Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. demand servers are traditionally separate, ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT W with todays universal port hardware We tried single-clicking on the column headings within FaxUtil to change the sort cards, it makes good sense to combine these two order, but it didn’t work. We saw in the disparate servers into a single entity. manual that a double-click on a column heading will change the sort order. We’d prefer a single-click to perform a sort hardware cards, it makes good sense to Sending one of these faxes requires operation since many grids and spread- combine these two disparate servers employee intervention (and time) to sheets use the single-click convention. into a single entity, thus saving tremen- send it. Adding fax-on-demand capa- We’d like to be able to right-click on dous costs by reducing the number of bilities to RightFAX would only faxes in FaxUtil and perform a resub- boards which need to be purchased. enhance an already spectacular net- mit, kick, or release operation instead Another advantage to combining these work faxing solution. of having to go into the menus to per- two systems is a reduction in administra- And, as previously mentioned, we’d form this task. Currently, there is no tion headaches and the creation of one like to see the OCR module do a top- resubmit option, which would resend central repository of fax library docu- down, left-right prioritization of scanned the same fax to the same fax number. ments. As it stands, if you have two sep- keywords for more accurate OCR routing. You have to forward the fax and then arate systems, you most likely have fax retype the fax number. Another incon- documents stored on the hard disks of CONCLUSION venience is that RightFax doesn’t both systems. This is a waste of disk RightFAX is one of those rare prod- remember which settings you chose space, and making sure both servers have ucts that has just about every feature you (ASCII format, RTF format, etc.) when the latest versions of fax documents can are looking for. We were extremely you OCR a fax. We’d like to see a be a nightmare. Since RightFAX sup- impressed with this network faxing solu- default file format option. ports Brooktrout’s board (see following tion. Admittedly, we may have been a bit Finally, we’d like to recommend that review), which supports voice, and since overzealous with some of RightFAX’s RightFax consider adding fax-on- RightFax features an extensive library truly minor shortcomings, but that’s only demand functionality to their product. for storing faxes, it shouldn’t be too dif- because we intend to use this product While most LAN-based fax servers and ficult to add fax-on-demand functionali- ourselves. CTI Labs highly recommends fax-on-demand servers are traditionally ty. We already use RightFax’s library to this product for any corporation looking separate, with today’s “universal port” store commonly requested faxes. for a network fax solution. ■

Brooktrout’s TR114 board and see if it was as dependable as the GammaLink TR114 I4L (4-Port board. We weren’t disappointed. Loop-Start Card) The TR114 comes in several varieties, including loopstart, DID, and digital. Depending on which version you purchase, you can get 2, 4, or 8 independent Brooktrout fax and/or voice channels in one 8-bit or 16-bit EISA slot. Each channel has a 25 410 First Avenue MHz NS32FX16 or NS32FX164 micro- Needham, MA 02194 processor (32-bit CISC with built in E-mail: [email protected] DSP) and 1M RAM with parity check- Ph:617-449-4100; Fx: 617-449-9009 ing. Furthermore, each channel offers BBS: 617-449-9279 full Group 3 fax send and receive func- WebSite: www.brooktrout.com tionality, with advanced features such as Price: $3295 (+$200 to add voice) Error Correction Mode and MR or MMR compression.

e needed a fax board to test the INSTALLATION Wnetwork faxing solution from The installation was a snap. The default RightFax (see review, page 46). base I/O address was set to 260 hexadec- The RightFax software works with imal, which didn’t conflict with any of GammaLink and Brooktrout boards. We the other hardware devices in the Pentium- already had a GammaLink fax board 100 computer. Several I/O addresses working on our in-house network faxing were available, and they were easily solution, so we decided to check out switched from the DIP switches on the 56 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com Table 1. Price Comparison Chart

Voice + Fax (Voice + Fax) 4-Port Analog Boards Fax Price Fax Price/Port Price Price/Port *Brooktrout TR114-I4L $3295 $824 $3495 $874 *GammaLink CPi4 LSI $2995 $749 N/A N/A **Dialogic VFX/40ESC $3835 $959 $3835 $959 **Dialogic VFX/40ESC Plus $2595 $649 $2595 $649

* Note: The Brooktrout TR114-I4L has more functionality (voice & fax) than the GammaLink CPi4 LSI, but for strictly faxing purposes (no voice), purchasing a GammaLink board might be a more appropriate decision based on cost.

** Note: These Dialogic boards do not compete directly with the Brooktrout board in the network-faxing software arena (such as RightFAX, Omtool, etc.). In fact, we have not seen the VFX/40 boards supported by any of the major network fax software programs. Generally, GammaLink and Brooktrout are the two most commonly supported high-end faxing boards. The Dialogic boards, however, are primarily focused towards developers, particularly developers of unified messaging solutions, utilizing the VFX’s inherent “universal port” functionality. It is in this area of unified messaging solution development where Brooktrout’s TR114 and Dialogic’s VFX/40 would compete. In this market space, the VFX/40ESC Plus competes very well price- wise with the TR114, as well as having the same universal port functionality. board. We really appreciated the location PRONEXUS of the DIP switches on the Brooktrout board — the DIP switches are located on the top of the board, which allows you to change the DIP settings without unscrewing the board and taking it out. The default interrupt was set to 5, which also didn’t conflict with any other 4/C device. You can, however, switch to interrupts 3, 4, 6, 7, or 9 in 8-bit slots, or 10, 11, 12, 14, or 15 in 16-bit slots. After installing the board, you can run the diagnostic software, which is provided on a single diskette. Using the software, you can test sending faxes, receiving faxes, and you can also verify DID operation. The TR114 also features LEDs, which can be used to monitor the status of the board.

RATINGS (1-5) Installation: 4.95 Documentation: 4.35 Features: 4.95

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OPERATIONAL TESTING have been nice; still we were satisfied RATINGS (1-5) We installed the board without any with the documentation. glitches and decided to skip the diagnostic Installation: 4.00 tests, installing the RightFax software right CONCLUSION Documentation: 4.5 away. Upon installing the RightFax soft- We are very impressed with the Features: 4.95 ware (which installed the appropriate TR114. We’ve had RightFax up and GUI: 4.75 Brooktrout drivers to the Windows NT 4.0 running with Brooktrout’s TR114 Security: 4.80 machine), we sent a test fax and met with board for over 2 weeks without ever success on the first try. We then tried having to reboot the machine. Often TeleMagic was designed with the cor- receiving a fax on the Brooktrout board. with some fax boards, particularly porate or enterprise environment in This too, was successful on the first modem fax boards, certain channels or mind. The product allows you to share attempt. For our final test, we used anoth- ports will freeze requiring a complete contact information with your col- er fax server to blast some faxes to the four system shutdown to reset the port. This leagues over the corporate network. ports on the Brooktrout board. As that was isn’t the case with the TR114, which is This contact management software fea- happening, we sent some faxes from the still chugging along, as of this writing. tures many third-party add-ons, as well RightFax server to a regular fax machine. The TR114 is best suited for applica- as computer-telephony integration Thus, we had both incoming and outgoing tions where both voice and fax are (CTI) modules. With TAPI- and faxes from the TR114 board. The TR114 required, to reap the true value of the uni- TSAPI-enabled TeleMagic installa- took our torture test in stride, easily versal port concept. Using a TR114 tions, you can generate and answer switching from receiving a fax to sending board in our RightFax server just for fax calls with a click of the mouse, directly a fax when a channel entered an idle state. might be overkill (according to the through a TAPI- or TSAPI-compliant This was one of the simplest and most accounting department), since a fax-only phone system. Additionally, there are trouble-free installations we’ve had, which GammaLink board could do the job at interfaces between TeleMagic and helped earn the Brooktrout board a 4.95 less cost (Table 1). But certainly for other telephony solutions including installation rating. applications where voice and fax are automated call distributors (ACDs), required, the TR114 provides a cost- voice mail, wireless, pagers, and uni- DOCUMENTATION effective solution. Another case for using fied messaging systems, as well as The documentation earned a 4.35 rat- the TR114 in the RightFAX server would other communications devices. ing. The detailed installation instruc- be to take advantage of RightFAX’s tions, as well as the diagrams depicting voice-assisted DTMF feature. In this INSTALLATION the board layout were all very good. case, the TR114 makes good sense. By Both preplanning issues and post- Some troubleshooting hints (resource using the TR114, you no longer need to installation modifications had to be conflict resolution) and an index would purchase separate voice and fax boards, considered for installing the TeleMagic the price of which can add up quickly. software. For instance, we needed to The TR114 is a terrific combination bump up the FILES parameter in the TR114 FEATURES voice/fax board with tremendous func- CONFIG.SYS, as well as map an tionality, a good price, and excellent unused drive letter to a network drive in • Speech record and playback using dependability. Plus, it’s easy to install. All performing a shared network installa- ADPCM and PCM. of these traits helped Brooktrout’s TR114 tion. This mapped drive must be the • Downloadable firmware – pur- earn CTI Magazine’s Platinum award. same letter on all subsequent client chase just the features you need. installations. In addition to the preplan- Updates are made by purchasing a ning, there were some post-installation diskette to enhance functionality. TeleMagic issues as well. TeleMagic recommends • DTMF, SIT, CNG, and CED detection. marking all .EXE, .APP, .DLL, .ESL, • Group 3 and 4 fax compression, .FON, and .FOT files in the TeleMagic auto-conversion of ASCII, TeleMagic, Inc. directory as read-only and shareable. To MHMR, MMR, TIFF, and 17950 Preston Road, Suite 800 do this, you must either use the obscure PCX/DCX files Dallas, Texas 75252 DOS ATTRIB command or use • Binary file transfer capability. (800) 835-MAGIC (6244) Windows Explorer. Neither option was • Automatic page reduction or Support Phone:(760) 929-0193 appealing to us. We felt the TeleMagic expansion of the page width on Support Fax: (760) 431-4006 installation should do this automatical- transmission (A4, A3, and B4). Compuserve: GO TMAGIC ly. At the very least, TeleMagic could • Supports fine and normal resolution E-Mail: [email protected] have provided a batch file to change the • Adaptive call progress capability WebSite: www.telemagic.com file attributes. Nonetheless, the installa- that works worldwide. Pricing: $500 – 1 user; $1,300 – 5 users; $2,300 tion went smoothly, and we were up and – 10 users; $7,300 – 35 users; (call) – 50 users. • Fax auto-routing using DID interfaces. running in about 5 minutes. Installation • Links to PEB or MVIP interfaces merited a 4.00 rating. using optional digital interfaces. elemagic is a customizable, fea- • Supported operating systems T ture-rich, enterprise-wide contact DOCUMENTATION include: Windows 95, NT, OS/2, manager program. Unlike a per- The documentation was broken and various flavors of UNIX. sonal information manager (PIM), down into three separate manuals, 58 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com which included the user’s guide, system administrator manual, and the data sync manual. The manuals explain the various features step-by-step and are accompanied by informative screenshots. The indexes in all three manuals were very good, making it easy to look up a particular feature. Documentation garnered a 4.5 rating. OPERATIONAL TESTING One of the more unusual features about TeleMagic is its ability to grant or hide information, down to the field level, from certain users. For example, a salesperson may see information about a customer’s orders, while the accounting department sees the customer’s col- Figure 8. TeleMagic: This is the lection history. Each person can have main screen for viewing contacts. their own unique and appropriate view of the contact information (Figure 8). In addition, TeleMagic provides the capability of read only, full access or no access to certain fields on a per group basis. This is very important in a corporate environment, where information needs to be viewed, but where security is also a critical issue. Overall, security was excellent, but due to the non- client/server architecture of the FoxPro database, there is a slightly greater risk of data loss or corruption, which affect- ed the security rating slightly. There are, however, rebuild and data recovery util- ities designed to recover your data. Every aspect of Telemagic can be cus- Figure 9. TeleMagic: tomized, from the placement of the data A customized view of fields to the number and type of fields the contact screen. displayed on a particular screen. We were able to customize a few screens using the graphic design program very quickly (Figure 9). TeleMagic also comes with an activity manager with an alarm feature to assist you with appointments and obligations (Figure 10). TeleMagic is built around FoxPro’s Figure 10. database engine, using a three-tier rela- TeleMagic: The tional structure within each database. activity screen That gives you three related screens per has alarm fea- record, each capable of holding up to tures to assist 252 fields. After creating, defining, and users with customizing a field, you will have to appointments rebuild the database to reflect these and obligations. changes. This requires that you make sure all users are logged off the system. This is a limitation in the FoxPro data- will be shipping a base design, which other databases client/server such as Oracle or Microsoft’s SQL version of FoxPro Server do not suffer from, since they in the near are true client/server database pack- future, which will ages. (Rumor has it that Microsoft greatly enhance Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTITM September 1997 59 CTI LABS

mail merging are all supported. • Screen formats and views are fully customizable. • Automatic recall setting. • Quick dial phone buttons. • Extensive built-in standard reports as well as ability to customize your own reports. Some of the other features offered by TeleMagic, specifically designed to enhance its CTI capabilities, include: Contact-screen “pops” — Using caller ID information, Telemagic automatically brings up the contact information corresponding to an incoming caller’s phone number. Outbound dialing — Instead of manually dialing a client’s phone Figure 11. TeleMagic: The sales number, you can use TeleMagic to dial forecasting screen. ing in addition to standard activity assignments. You can now create an out directly through your PBX phone activity that will be completed by system. TeleMagic and other contact manage- more than one TeleMagic user, which Call control — The call control win- ment software packages that rely on the is useful for events, meetings, and dow gives you the ability to place calls, FoxPro database format.) projects that impact a team of users. put calls on hold, transfer calls, and set TeleMagic’s database synchroniza- TeleMagic can even show you the up conference calls. tion feature really impressed us. This time when everyone is available. The Automatic phone log — The com- feature ensures that the latest versions integrity of the activities is main- prehensive phone log tracks all of contact and activity data are updated tained by having only one “owner” inbound and outbound calls, including automatically. You can define update for any group activity. With the number, name, date/time, duration, criteria based on dates or changes, and TeleMagic, users can create an activ- account, and status. merge a file containing only altered ity to reserve those resources for a Built-in phone dialer — TeleMagic records with your database for faster given date and time, avoiding con- comes with a built-in dialer with point- updates — a great feature to have if flicts when multiple users wish to use and-click number pad and 15-number you are sending changes via modem. the same resource. speed dialing. This is perfect for keeping database The Fax Server in the latest version TeleMagic integration — Through changes by your road warriors in sync of TeleMagic has been enhanced and the use of Dynamic Data Exchange with the main database. We also liked is now a complete Automation (DDE), CTI provides a near seamless TeleMagic’s sale forecasting feature, Server, including fax reporting and integration with TeleMagic, resulting in which is very useful and easy to use processing of faxes, wireless mes- a fast, accurate record retrieval and cus- (Figure 11). sages, and word processing docu- tomized settings. TeleMagic comes with the capability ments. It has been enhanced to allow CONCLUSION to communicate with your word you to set up servers to process fax processor by merging its contact data documents without sending them. This contact manager is loaded with Microsoft Word, Ami Pro, or This enables you to devote worksta- with features and customizability. WordPerfect for mail merges, as well as tions with fax modems solely to the Everything — from the GUI, to supporting fax merges. TeleMagic also task of actually sending the faxes, adding customized fields, to hiding supports embedding OLE objects into while other workstations perform the or sharing data, to effectively manag- its fields. In addition, TeleMagic also task of processing and merging the ing your contacts — can be done features automatic duplicate checking. documents. effortlessly with TeleMagic. With When a duplicate record is found, you TeleMagic’s extensive VAR channel, are notified so you can resolve the you can also arrange to have consul- duplication issue. By having TeleMagic FEATURES tants come and customize TeleMagic constantly checking for duplicates, the Some general features included with to fit your particular business model database will clean itself up. TeleMagic are: or needs. With TeleMagic’s extensive TeleMagic’s document History list • Built-in e-mail support. support and integration of CTI func- enables you to track your activities • User-defined keys/macro capability. tionality, you will be able to cut phone with your contacts. Each time you • Branch scripting. costs, make your employees more print or fax a document to a client, • Sales automation including analysis, productive, and shape your cus- that document is added to a list spe- quotations, results, and lead manage- tomers’ perception of your corpora- cific to that contact. ment. tion as a progressive, efficient, and TeleMagic supports group schedul- • Mail-merging, fax-merging, and e- professional organization. 60 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com indexes were good, but the user’s guide other various features. Overall, the doc- omitted some important keywords, such umentation was very good, and thus as “mail-merge,” “e-mail merge,” and garnered a 4.90 rating. “fax merge.” Even the two reference manuals didn’t list these three key- OPERATIONAL TESTING words. One of the reference manuals We installed the GoldMine 3.2 soft- does have a “Merge forms” entry in the ware onto a Windows 95 Pentium 120. index, but “mail,” “e-mail,” and “fax” Installation went smoothly. After we were absent from the sublistings. The installed the program from 3 disks, reference manuals came in handy for GoldMine automatically launched looking up DDE function calls and itself, presenting us with the main user

GoldMine 3.2 For Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0

GoldMine Software Corporation 17383 Sunset Boulevard, Ste. 301 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 Ph: 800-654-3526; Fx: 310-459-8222 http://www.goldminesw.com CompuServe: GO GOLDMINE Pricing: Single User – $295; 5 Users – $895; 10 HAMMER Users – $1,695; 25 Users – $3,995; 50 Users – $7,550. (Volume purchase for 50 users or more.)

f you are looking for contact man- Iagement software, then GoldMine just might be for you. GoldMine 4/C 3.2 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 has all the features of a great PIM, but the product really shines in enterprise-wide data (record) sharing. GoldMine includes such features as Internet Web import, seamless ACT! import, integrated organizational charts, reporting, wireless paging, multimedia management, and Web data maintenance. GoldMine 3.2 integrates contact management, document management, sales automation, and activity planning into a single user- friendly interface. DOCUMENTATION The documentation was detailed, but we did notice some repetition. The Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com Circle No. 154 on Reader Service Card CTITM September 1997 61 CTI LABS interface (Figure 12). GoldMine supports MDI (multiple document interface), which allows you to display multiple records. We liked GoldMine’s organizational chart feature. This feature allows you to group related contacts in hierarchical organizational charts (or trees) to create graphical views of companies. Another feature we liked was the peg board. The peg board provides a color-coded graphical view of all user login and logout times, which is useful information for management and system administrators. The peg board also logs keyboard and mouse activity during a GoldMine session — an invaluable tool for training or improving employee productivity. Configuring GoldMine was very easy. All the menus and preference settings are organized into dialog boxes with tabs. Under these tabs, you can configure the modem, Internet, schedule, calendar, pager, and other settings. The Preference dialog box with the calendar tab displayed is shown in Figure 13. With any contact manager, scheduling call backs is very important. GoldMine handles this task with power and ease. A user-friendly interface Figure 12. GoldMine: Main screen showing multiple contact listings. gives you several options, including scheduling the time, inviting other our own reports using GoldMine’s automate any repetitive task. GoldMine users, and other features (Figure 14). form designer (contact reports, calen- is also DDE compliant, automatically dar reports, and activity reports) was linking any DDE program such as Reporting simple. We wanted one series of reports Microsoft Word, Winfax Pro, To give you a head start, the program to be automatically created and printed, Microsoft Excel, and others to comes preconfigured with several com- so we used GoldMine’s automated GoldMine. These files can even be mon reports (Figure 15). Customizing macro capability, which also let us dragged-and-dropped to a contact’s record. Knowledge Base GoldMine features a powerful knowledge base called InfoCenter. It provides a resource for maintaining any type of information, including text, graphics, multimedia files, and program applications. All of this information can be linked to a contact within a GoldMine database and pulled up whenever this contact is viewed. The knowledge base has two parts, the knowledge base and the personal base. The knowledge base stores organizational information such as employee benefits, health insurance, pension, ter- ritory breakdown for sales personnel, and other topics which multiple users can access. The personal base allows a user to create a similar information Figure 13. GoldMine: The calendar preferences environment for personal use. screen allows you to modify calendar settings. GoldMine’s Internet integration Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com your database. Support for alphanumer- ic pagers is also available so you can send descriptive messages. GoldMine’s fax integration is also excellent. GoldMine provides integration with two popular faxing products, RightFax (see review on page 46) and Symantec’s WinFax Pro (see review on page 72). Just as in the e-mail merging Figure 14. GoldMine: Scheduling a and mail-merging features of call back is easy with GoldMines GoldMine, fax-merging is also avail- user-friendly interface. able and uses the same consistent interface, making it very easy to quickly learn and use all three merge types. FEATURES Some of the more interesting features include: • Sales forecasting. • Branching telemarketing scripts. • Comprehensive history tracking. • Fully customizable and expandable database structures. • Mass fax/mail merging capabilities. • Unlimited notes for each contact, and history. • Remote data synchronization. • Organizer printouts, to take your schedule with you wherever you go. ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT It was a bit of a nuisance to release an active group. To do so required that we click on View, then Contact Groups. From there we clicked on the Release

Figure 16. GoldMine: The Internet preferences dialog box allows you to change e-mail settings, network connection, and log-on information. Figure 15. GoldMine: The programs- reporting capabilities can be accessed through the reports menu. capability is excellent. You can keep your contact information up-to-date by synchronizing databases via the Internet. You can also import contact data from remote users and Web sites using the Capture/Launch feature, which automatically enters captured data entered onto a Web page to create new contact records. A nifty feature within GoldMine is the ability to launch Web sites and send e-mail — all from within GoldMine. You can set up Internet e-mail retrieval, POP3 server, and e-mail rules (Figure 16). Another communications link which GoldMine provides is access to pagers, whereby you can page any customer or client in Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C TI L ABS button to return to the entire contact data- redesign the layout of the graphical user base. The program should allow users to interface (GUI) to our personal specs. release a group via a toolbar icon. We discovered another slightly con- System CONCLUSION fusing issue when adding a user- This contact manager program has just defined field to the database. The pro- Requirements about everything you need to manage gram requires that you leave the prefix your contacts. The GUI is well-designed “U” in front of the field name. When • A 486 or higher PC and includes MDI (Multiple Document adding a user-defined field, the letter • VGA Interface) capabilities, which is handy “U” is actually highlighted, so as you • 8 MB memory for displaying multiple sets of records. begin to type, the required letter “U” is • 8 MB hard drive space We are impressed with the speed at overwritten. A user can also back- • Microsoft Windows 95 or which we could scroll through records space the letter “U” which was auto- Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and and create complex queries. GoldMine matically placed there. Fortunately, any DOS file record locking has a rich feature set, including sales ■ GoldMine will automatically replace compatible network. automation, reporting, activity planning, the “U” prefix after you click on OK. and (of course) extensive CTI function- But if it’s going to force us to have a backup the CONTACT2.DBF to a backup ality through its third-party support. CTI “U” prefix, why not just leave the “U” file on the hard disk and then apply the Labs recommends GoldMine for any out of the dialog box altogether and changes made by the user. This would be corporation looking for a powerful con- automatically add it after the user particularly useful, since the computer tact manager with a rich feature-set and clicks on OK? This would be much could crash in the middle of recreating the extensive CTI support. less confusing. database to reflect any new field additions We’d like to see a warning to backup or deletions. Although we are sure RATINGS (1-5) the CONTACT2.DBF file before fields GoldMine did some usability studies to are added or changed. Better yet, we’d determine the best layout for fields, labels, Installation: 4.25 like to see the program automatically tabs, etc., we’d still like the ability to Documentation: 4.90 Features: 4.90 GUI: 4.50 Security: 4.70 GoldMines CTI Support

ctive Voice is the developer of TSAPI, TAPI, and AT&T ATeLANophy, the LAN integration PassageWay Solution translator, software designed to provide the which converts GoldMine’s dialer to high performance Repartee Voice any of these platforms. Link & Sales Processing System features for desk- Call offers telemarketers features top PCs. Active Voice’s ViewCall including background cross-referenc- module integrates with GoldMine to ing of dialed numbers against a offer users complete incoming call- .DBF file of restricted or “no sales handling capabilities. ViewCall auto- calls” numbers. SCRS (Sales Call matically informs GoldMine users of Restriction Software) guarantees callers, and locates and displays the compliance with all “Don’t Call Me” corresponding records before the laws, including the federal TCPA, incoming call is answered. Florida, Texas, and Oregon laws. Personal Call Manager CTI Interactive is the developer SoftTalk Technologies is the of Call Commando for GoldMine. developer of PHONETASTIC call Nortel When used with caller ID from your control software. PHONETASTIC 4001 East Chapel local phone company, Call telephony enables GoldMine to Hill-Nelson Highway Commando instantly captures the automatically pop the screen of RTP, NC 27709 name, number, and address on every incoming/outgoing callers, using Phone: 1-800-4-NORTEL phone call and displays the informa- either analog or digital phone lines http://www.nortel.com tion at your workstation. Call (PBXs). With PHONETASTIC’s Pricing: CTA 100 (bundled with PCM) – Commando automatically updates intelligent rules engine, calls can be $225; PCM software only – $80. the GoldMine database with every processed automatically based on incoming and outgoing call. any criteria you determine — impor- PAGE TeleCOMPUTING is the tant calls can be forwarded to your esktop computer-telephony inte- developer of Link & Sales Call for cellular phone and unimportant ones gration (CTI) is about to receive a ■ D GoldMine. Link & Sales Call is a can be dumped into voice mail. shot in the arm from switch giant 64 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com Nortel and its new product, Personal RATINGS (1-5) umentation, and in fact we did not Call Manager. Personal Call Manager receive one in print. However, the is a TAPI-compliant application that Installation: 4.8 documentation (in Adobe Acrobat gives users easy-to-use desktop call Documentation: 4.7 format) was installed in the Personal control. The application is designed to GUI: 4.9 Call Manager directory by the setup allow users to perform many telephone Features: 4.8 program. We found the user’s guide operations right from their desktop — to be well organized and rich in saving them time and making them its ability to simplify call control for the details and graphics. All the Personal more efficient. It can also be a great average user who has become a slave to Call Manager features, from call tool to facilitate usage of many esoteric complex and perplexing telephone fea- answering to conferencing to address and awkward telephone functions, tures. With Personal Call Manager at the book, were explained thoroughly. The making the users faster and more effi- desktop, the user can: make calls; redial documentation rated a 4.7 score. cient. Personal Call Manager works telephone numbers; return calls; answer with any TAPI-compliant driver, but calls; put calls on and off hold; manage INSTALLATION AND for our review we decided to bring multiple calls; transfer calls; forward OPERATIONAL TESTING Nortel’s Computer Telephony Adapter calls; conference calls; and activate and Our PBX system was the new into the fold. The adapter, which we deactivate Do Not Disturb. Norstar-PLUS Compact ICS interfaced to the Norstar PBX at one Personal Call Manager also has an (Integrated Communications System) end and a Nortel telephone set at the integrated address book, which allows with a 4-line, 8-extension configura- other, is accessed through the Nortel the user to store the names, addresses, tion. The Norstar-PLUS Compact ICS TAPI Service Provider. and telephone numbers of contacts on the is a TAPI- and TSAPI-compatible digi- PC, where they are easy to find and use. tal key system, which brings high-end FEATURES business communication capabilities to Personal Call Manager brings the call DOCUMENTATION small- to medium-sized businesses. It control features of the telephone set to the Since Personal Call Manager was can be expanded from a 4 ´ 8 (trunk ´ desktop. The greatest feature of this prod- still in beta at the time of our review, extension) to a 8 ´ 24 and can be uct (or should we say this technology) is we did not anticipate a complete doc- enhanced with voice mail (Star Talk

SYMETRICS

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Flash), fax messaging, fax back, and 500dm (a BRI ISDN device). We con- reboot and ran Personal Call Manager CTI modules. nected the TAPI box to the PBX’s from its folder under Start/Programs. We connected the Norstar-PLUS extension 23 and plugged the telephone Personal Call Manager started out with Compact ICS to caller-ID-capable set into the box. four subwindows displaying an POTS lines and 3 Norstar telephones, At this point, the telephone set was Explorer-like address book (Figure 19). and designated one of these telephones ready to use even though there was no (extension 23) for interface with power supplied to the TAPI box. We Address Book Personal Call Manager. connected the TAPI device to our PC’s The address book comes with two Our test PC was a Pentium 120 with RS-232 port and powered it up. Next, books by default, “My Contacts” and 16 Megabytes of RAM running we installed the TAPI service provider “Quick Dial.” My Contacts can be popu- Windows 95. In order to interface on the PC. The TAPI service provider is lated with folders and subfolders, allow- extension 23 to the PC, we used the a driver software, which, once ing the user to place contacts in appro- Norstar Computer Telephony Adapter installed, acts as the liaison between the priate groupings, while Quick Dial does 100 as our TAPI device. This external TAPI hardware and TAPI applications. not allow for any folders. Quick Dial is device requires power and plugs into We selected the Telephony applet from used for frequently dialed persons. the RS-232 port of the PC. Nortel also the Control Panel and added the Adding a new contact was as easy as a provides other adapters, such as the Norstar Telephony SP to the telephony right click in a particular folder, selecting 150i (an ISA card), the 200 (a driver list (Figure 17). After configur- New, and filling out the Properties dialog Universal Serial Bus device), and the ing the TAPI service provider, we box (Figure 20). A complete profile of the accessed the service provider informa- contact could be defined here. This includ- tion screen (from the Telephony ed typical information such as name, com- Properties screen), which allowed us to pany, address, and business phone num- view some of the service provider para- ber, as well as home phone, mobile phone, meters (Figure 18). With the TAPI dri- fax number, e-mail, and notes. ver installation complete, we turned our attention to the Personal Call Manager Screen Pops CD ROM. We should underscore that, We liked being able to include a voice at the time of our review, Personal Call prompt and a picture with a contact’s Manager was still in beta (our CD information. Whenever a call from that ROM had a handwritten label on it, particular person is received, a screen indicating the beta version 1.0.7.0). pop showing the caller’s information The Personal Call Manager installa- and picture is presented accompanied by tion went very smoothly. We were given the selected sound. Currently, only a choice of languages to select from, .BMP files are supported, but we hope to and from there, the installation program see more formats (such as .JPEG) sup- asked a few other questions as it pro- ported in the future. Figure 17. Personal Call ceeded to install Personal Call Manager. We tested the screen pop functionali- Manager: The Norstar Telephony We followed the installation with a ty by making a call into our extension Service Provider installed on our Win95 machine.

Figure 19. Personal Call Manager: The main screen, showing the contents of the selected folder in the address book, calls, and conference. Figure 18. Personal Call Manager: Service provider parameters defined for extension 23.

66 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTI LABS

Figure 21. Personal Call Manager: Pop-up screen (with a generic picture) announcing an incoming call.

Figure 20. 23. After the call was placed, a pop-up Personal Call Figure 22. Personal Call screen, accompanied by our selected Manager: Manager: The Dial dialog box sound file (over the speakers), Properties used for manual dialing. informed us of the incoming call and dialog box for the person that was calling. Personal a contact. Call Manager was able to use the caller ID information to match it with he per- PCM-Phone Coordination mine exactly who is on hold and who is son in our address book (Figure 21). There was no noticeable lag between not at any given time, without having the Personal Call Manager activity and to remember which line they were on. Dialing the telephone set. When we used the All the features performed well, prov- One way to dial out is to double-click telephone set to make an outbound call, ing that call handling from the comput- on a contact’s name, an action that caus- the call session promptly appeared in the er screen (if designed correctly) can be es the number to be automatically Calls screen together with the dialed a lot easier than from a telephone set. dialed, or else the manual dial can be number as if we had made the call direct- used. From the Calls screen, we clicked ly from Personal Call Manager. The Call Conferencing on the Dial button, and were presented point here is that Personal Call Manager Once a call has been established, it with the Dial dialog box (Figure 22) to and the telephone set are quite aware of can be moved into a call conference by manually dial a certain number. We each others’ activities. The call screen simply dragging that particular call from entered a number and clicked on the displays the names, numbers, and dura- the Calls screen into the Conference Dial button, but were given an error tion of all calls in progress. Right click- screen. This can also be accomplished message complaining of no line to pick. ing on a particular call brings up a menu by right-clicking on the call and select- Thinking that this was caused by our from which the call can be put on hold, ing conference or picking conference own error, we made several attempts brought into a conference, released, or from the menu. Up to 2 calls can be con- with different number formats such as transferred. The Properties item of the ferenced with a given extension provid- preceding the number with a 9 or the # menu can be used to view the profile of ing for a 3-way conference call. We were character, but we were unsuccessful at the person whom the call refers to. If the able to easily establish a conference call all attempts. call does not have a profile, the by dragging 2 calls (one at a time) from We called the Nortel support team Properties menu can make one on the the Calls screen into the Conference and quickly got an answer to the fly. These features can also be accessed screen. Once the second call was problem. In order for the dial to work, directly from the menu once a certain dropped into the Conference screen, the we had to set up a line pool access call is selected. Releasing (hanging up conference call was automatically initi- and set the line pool as the prime line on) a call can be accomplished from the ated, putting other calls in the Calls on our particular extension (23). Call screen toolbar as well. screen on hold. We were also allowed to Doing so allows the extension to hunt One particular calling feature of bring more calls into the Conference for an available trunk line as soon as Personal Call Manager that we liked screen. Each of the two calls automati- the phone goes off hook; otherwise, was that, when we made a new call, cally paired up into a conference call, one must manually select a line to received a new call, or activated an on- but went on-hold as we already had a dial out. After reconfiguring the hold call, other calls (if any) would live conference in progress. Once we ter- phone, we were able to dial out with automatically go on-hold represented minated the first conference or put it on- no problem. We made several suc- by a hand holding the calls in the hold, the second conference went online. cessful internal and external calls Personal Call Manager. This is a great Just like the Calls screen, the from the address book as well as the way of reducing confusion while jug- Conference screen was a great produc- Dial screen. gling multiple calls. It is easy to deter- tivity tool in managing conferences Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTITM September 1997 67 CTI LABS without any frustration. One improvement here would be to allow one to select multiple calls from the Calls screen to simultaneously drop into the Conference area rather than having to drag them one by one.

Reporting Personal Call Manager provides a basic call logging and reporting facility, which simply displays itemized infor- Figure 23. Personal Call mation on all incoming and outgoing Manager: The report screen calls to the extension number. The displaying outbound calls. information includes name, phone number, date and time of the call, and the call duration (Figure 23). While we did not expect extensive call logging from Personal Call Manager, we believe that it can use some improvements. For starters, an export facility is sorely missing from the reporting module. That would allow a person to bring between Personal the data into a database (e.g., Access) Call Manager and for a more structured inspection. Other StarTalk Flash. improvements would include the addi- Although it tion of filtering capabilities and a print may be argued facility. that Personal Call Manager is strict- Other Menu Options ly a call control From the menu one could activate product, having DND (Do Not Disturb), set up call for- voice mail inte- warding, and configure toll prefixes gration would (for those particular exchanges where make Personal an area code needs to be dialed). The Call Manager a Dialing Properties menu item allows more comprehen- the user to configure the features and sive CTI program. characteristics of the extension, such as And, finally, we the area code that the user is calling hope to see TAPI from, outside line dial code, and call- 2.1 employed in ing-card dialing (Figure 24). Norstar products soon, as the cur- ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT rently supported While Personal Call Manager is a TAPI version powerful and user-friendly CTI prod- requires a TAPI uct, the following are some improve- box, which we ments that we believe would make this find a distraction Figure 24. Personal Call Manager: Dialing Properties product much stronger and more in deploying a defined for the Norstar Telephony Service. robust. (Keep in mind, the Personal CTI solution. TAPI Call Manager version that we tested 2.1 should resolve this by using the combination with the Norstar Compact was still under the beta release, and power and versatility of client/server ICS, we believe that it has a bright many of our issues may be addressed networking (by using one telephony future. We loved the flexibility and the by the time you read this.) server in the network), making the user friendliness of this product. It truly We could not get Personal Call TAPI box obsolete. freed us from our telephone set. Manager to dial an extension following Personal Call Manager still a main number. We tried to accomplish CONCLUSION requires more improvements in order this by placing pause characters In our experience, large switch and to become a product that you could between the main number and the telecommunications companies have not live without, but given its flaw- extension with no success. always lagged behind the smaller and less grounding, we do not foresee Our Norstar-PLUS Compact ICS nimbler ones when it comes to CTI. any problems in making Personal came with the StarTalk Flash voicemail Personal Call Manager is a leap of faith Call Manager a formidable CTI prod- system; however, there was no interface by Nortel into the CTI arena, and in uct in a short time. 68 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com C TI L ABS

it is small enough to keep in your wal- • Faxes either the current message or Email Reader let. The online help within the program all your unread messages. was fairly complete. Documentation • Mark a message as read (so it won’t was given a 3.5 rating. appear in the unread mail list). Millennia Software • Toggle between showing all mes- 14471 Basin Way FEATURES sages and showing all unread mes- Saratoga, CA 95070 Millennia’s Email Reader offers the sages. Ph: 888-362-4573 following features: • Works with any POP3 compliant e- E-Mail: [email protected] mail client, such as Microsoft’s Web Site: www.msw.com • List the attachments for the current Exchange, Qualcomm’s Eudora Pro, Price: $90 message. or Netscape’s Netscape Mail.

illennia Software’s Email Reader Mgives you access to your e-mail from anywhere, just by having access to a phone. That is, simply dialing into your computer lets you retrieve your e-mail which your computer reads back to you using Email Reader’s text- to-speech technology. Email Reader also features speech recognition, which allows you to speak commands into the phone rather than pushing digits on a touch-tone phone to execute commands. Email Reader uses VoiceLINK, which is built on the TAPI and SAPI standards for performing speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion, and voice modem communication. INSTALLATION We originally tried using a generic internal voice-enabled modem, but the installation program did not support that particular modem, forcing us to MULTICALL quit the installation program. Before exiting the installation program, we were presented with a list of supported voice-enabled modems. Fortunately, we had a spare external modem which was on the supported list. We hooked up the external modem, a Hayes 4/C Accura 33.6, to COM2 and re-ran the installation program. After that everything went smoothly. DOCUMENTATION There was hardly any written documentation — just the online documentation and help files contained on the CD-ROM. However, a quick reference guide of the commands is included, and

RATINGS (1-5) Installation: 4.0 Documentation: 3.5 Features: 3.75 GUI: 4.0

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remaining configu- Personal Folders. There’s only one prob- ration that we lem with this. If we do that, then anyone needed to address can access our e-mail without entering a was Exchange password. So much for security! This is integration. The definitely something which should be GUI was very user addressed in the next release. friendly, making it In any event, after entering the pass- easy to configure word, we executed some voice commands. (Figure 26). The program read our new e-mail back to We dialed into us, and we were impressed with the text-to- our Hayes Accura speech algorithm. E-mails with a lot of voice-enabled header information (such as Internet e-mail modem hooked up or forwarded e-mail with address informa- to our Pentium-90, tion) require that you ignore lots of unim- and the modem portant information. We listened to a bunch picked up on the of test e-mails and, in most cases, the text- first ring. We were to-speech algorithm did a very good job of greeted by a voice translating the e-mails. prompt, and we After listening to an e-mail, you can entered our PIN either fax the e-mail, reply to the e-mail code. We proceed- using a “canned” text reply, or record a ed to log in to our reply. Using a canned text reply is pretty Figure 25. Email Reader: Configuring the dial-up Exchange mailbox straightforward, and it’s easy to add new connection for Internet e-mail retrieval. by speaking the canned text replies using the Replies interface (Figure 27). Voice-recorded replies are a great feature. After choosing a voice-recorded reply, you record your message, and the Email Reader does the rest. It takes the voice recording, attaches it as a .WAV file (Figure 28), and sends the reply (via Exchange) to the sender of the original message. Using a multimedia PC, the recipient can then listen to your reply. ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT After replying to just one message, the system hangs up the line, which, to us, doesn’t make much sense. The system should allow you to read and reply to multiple messages without hanging up. The voice recognition was good, but some- times we had to repeat ourselves before the system recognized what we were saying. This product would benefit from a “training” feature. This training feature would have you speak specific command words into Email Reader to train it to recognize Figure 26. Email Reader: your voice commands more accurately. Settings folder for integration Another thing we’d like to see is the with Exchange. command, “Go to Email Reader.” This ability to change to a different folder in is where we discovered a flaw. our Exchange Inbox. Currently, you On the screen, we noticed a dialog can only have Email Reader access the OPERATIONAL TESTING box for our “Personal Folders” pop up “Inbox” folder. Finally, we’d like the We set up the VoiceLINK software to on the screen, waiting for user input. We ability to read messages which have pick up as soon as the phone rang, and were asked to manually enter our pass- been viewed already. Email Reader configured the dial-up connection for word before we could continue with our only allows you to have new (unread) retrieving our Internet e-mail (Figure 25). testing. We checked the online help and messages read back to you. You can, of Several text-to-speech voices are avail- found that we had to click on course, mark all messages as unread to able, either male or female, but we decid- “Remember password” so that the Email be able to read old messages, but that’s ed to stay with the default setting. The Reader program could access our more of a “hack” than a good solution. 70 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com Figure 28. Email Reader: The program attaches your voice recording as a .WAV file and sends the reply using Exchange.

Figure 27. Email Reader: Adding new canned text replies is easy.

System Requirements • Pentium processor, 75 MHz. • 15 MB free hard disk space. • A voice modem with an installed Unimodem V driver. CONCLUSION ty to listen to old e-mails. Using Email • 16 MB RAM. Email Reader is great for road war- Reader means you no longer have to • Microsoft Windows 95. riors, who need access to their e-mail, lug a laptop around to access your e- • Microsoft Windows Dial-Up and always have a phone handy. The mail. Remote access to e-mail is Networking (included with product allows you to listen to new e- becoming increasingly important, and Windows 95). ■ mails, but could benefit from the abili- this product addresses that need. INT. COMPUTER MARKETING (ICM) BW

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WinFax PRO 8.0 Figure 30. WinFax PRO: Status justice to the product’s capabilities. screen detailing reception of a fax. WinFax PRO 8.0 is much more than fax Symantec software — it is a total communications faxes; managing faxes and logs; and 10201 Torre Avenue package, which is easy to install and a Cupertino, CA 95014-2132 TalkWorks. The manual is also avail- pleasure to use. WinFax PRO has come able in Adobe Acrobat format on the Ph: (408) 253-9600 a long way in the past few years since it Fx: (408) 253-3968 CD ROM. was strictly a PC fax transmission We found the manual very useful in www.symantec.com package (as a Delrina Corporation Price $99.95 getting started with WinFax PRO, but product). Though still a fax product at by no means did the manual cover heart, WinFax PRO has matured into an every aspect of the program. The online impressive communications tool, pro- help was complete and accurate, but f you are in the market for a lean, viding the end user with an array of context-sensitive help was not available I efficient, and feature-rich SOHO powerful and flexible features to get in in all modules. communications product, we think touch and stay in touch. you will be as impressed as we were INSTALLATION AND with Symantec’s WinFax PRO 8.0. In DOCUMENTATION OPERATIONAL TESTING fact, the only major problem we could WinFax PRO comes with a user’s For our test platform, we used a find with this product was its name, guide covering installation; sending, Pentium 75 PC with 16 Megabytes of because we believe that it does not do receiving, viewing, and annotating RAM running Windows 95. We connected a Hayes Accura 33.6 Fax Modem With Voice to the PC. Since this was a voice-capable modem, multimedia sound drivers were automatically installed as a part of the installation; however, we noted that only ADPCM type files could be played on this modem. In order to play other types of sound files (e.g., .WAV files) a sound card would be required. Hoping that we could get away without a sound card, we decided to install WinFax PRO at this point. The WinFax PRO installation was simple and trouble-free. The first screen gave us options to familiarize ourselves with WinFax PRO, consult Figure 29. WinFax PRO: Main the online manuals, receive an online window showing Logs screen. tutorial, and others, including the option to install the program. We got right down to the product installation and chose Custom installation, which 72 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com gave us options to install WinFax and double-clicked to create new folders. We screen displays detailed information TalkWorks. We picked both products, liked this small feature, since it allowed about the individual item select- supplied a few pieces of information, us to quickly create new folders without ed from the contents screen. and the installation got on its way. having to select a menu item or right The installation procedure was able click anywhere. To the right of the fold- Configuration to correctly identify the modem and the ers screen, the contents screen displays For faxing we could set the number fact that we were using Microsoft the contents of each particular folder. of rings and the schedule for the Exchange. It asked us if we wanted For example, in the case of the Receive modem to pick up, set up rules to for- WinFax PRO to integrate with Log folder, voice and fax messages are ward faxes upon arrival, and define Microsoft Exchange and inquired about displayed, and for Exchange folders e- dialing properties for outgoing faxes. the Exchange profile to be used. mail messages are shown. The bottom For voice messaging (TalkWorks mod- We performed a reboot and, upon startup, noticed the WinFax PRO tray icon. Right-clicking on the icon presented us with a menu to access several modules of WinFax PRO such as sending a fax, WinFax PRO main program, telephone, and answering machine. There was also a menu item to quickly access new messages in the Receive Log folder. We double-clicked on the icon and were presented with the WinFax PRO’s main window (Figure 29), the nerve center of WinFax PRO.

Main Window This window had a subwindow, titled Logs, within which there were 3 panes. On the top left pane we had the folders in an Explorer-like format. The Default folder contained the WinFax PRO specific subfolders which include Outbox for outgoing faxes, Receive Log (which is the equivalent of Inbox), Send Log to keep a log of all sent faxes, and the Wastebasket folder. All the sent faxes are IML, INC. placed in the Outbox folder before transmission and moved over to the Sent log subfolder after the transmission, while received faxes and voice messages are placed in Receive Log subfolder. The other main folder in our case was the Microsoft Exchange folder, which was BW integrated into WinFax PRO as we had requested during startup. We were very impressed with the layout of this window as it allowed for unified messaging capability. The idea here was to be able to access all types of personal communications (e-mail, fax, voice) from one location. At the top of the list of folders there was an entry marked “New Folder,” which could be

RATINGS (1-5) Installation: 4.9 Documentation: 4.7 GUI: 4.9 Features: 5

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Figure 31. WinFax PRO: Fax Viewer OCR demonstration with original transmission on top screen. ule) we could set several profiles to activate depending on the time of the incoming call, high and low time limits on messages, and mailboxes (folders) to store the messages.

Receiving Faxes sive program for viewing and manipu- make corrections to the document and We accepted the default values lating incoming faxes. We liked the save it as a file. The Export option and sent a fax into WinFax PRO. The hand icon, which allowed us to smooth- allowed us to save the faxes under sever- incoming fax woke up the pro- ly pan through the fax (using the mouse al formats, including .TIFF, .BMP, and gram, which displayed a dialog box button to grab the page) without having .PCX. There was also a Send option to showing its progress as it accepted the to use the scroll bars. forward the fax to the next person after call (Figure 30), received the fax, and Tools to help clear up or modify the we were done reading and annotating it. terminated the call. After the fax trans- fax image include rotate, zoom, align, mission was completed, a flashing icon and shade. There is even a grid option Sending Faxes in the task bar alerted us of the new allowing the user to snap objects to the If the Send Fax Wizard is enabled, the arrival. The fax message was quickly grid points to tidy up a crowded fax. user is guided through a multi-step delivered to the Receive Log folder There are also tools to annotate faxes process to prepare and send faxes from together with its associated information with graphical objects, such as lines WinFax PRO. More experienced users such as the caller ID, time of arrival, and circles, pictures, text, pre-designed can turn off this feature and send faxes and the number of pages. A distinctive stamps, and OLE objects. directly from the Send screen. We icon was attached to this newly arrived Another feature of the WinFax PRO turned off the Wizard from the Help item to indicate a fax message (rather viewer that we really liked was its OCR menu and started the WinFax PRO Send than voice message). (Object Character Recognition) module. Fax from the toolbar. This presented us We double-clicked on the fax mes- It did a great job in recognizing our sam- with the Send dialog box, which con- sage, and WinFax PRO presented us ple fax letter and presented the results to tained several fields we needed to fill with WinFax PRO Viewer to view the us in a window just below the original out to prepare the document and to set fax. WinFax PRO Viewer is an impres- fax window (Figure 31). We could then up the recipient list before sending out a fax (Figure 32). One of the great features presented to us here was the ability to set up the recipient list as a mixture of fax and e-mail addresses from the WinFax and Exchange Address Books. We liked the fact that we could set up individual delivery times for each person in the list or set a general time for the fax to be delivered to the entire group. We then clicked on the Cover button to set up the cover page and we chose an existing cover page from the list presented to us. We were also able to quickly type a note in the Note section of the Send screen, which was placed in a special section within the cover page. We could also use the Fill In option to customize the cover page to our specifications. Next, we clicked on the Attach button Figure 32. WinFax PRO: Fax Send screen. Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com Figure 33. WinFax PRO: Phonebook screen.

to add a document to our fax. To quick- we had requested that all transmissions (Figure 33). The folder pane contained ly add attachments, the user can set up a be logged by WinFax PRO, we found a two main folders, the Default and the library of folders with specific attach- record of this fax in the Send Log folder. Microsoft Exchange folders. The Default ment files (converted to fax format, if The only problem that we found within folder contains all the WinFax PRO spe- specified) to be included with the fax. the Send module was that some of the cific entries which include subfolders We didn’t have a library set up, so we entries in the Exchange address list and the names of the contacts to whom attached a Microsoft Word file to the fax would oddly go blank, or worse, they we would fax documents. The Exchange and clicked on send. Since we had cho- were mapped to other names causing a folder, which was integrated with the sen not to preview the fax, the transmis- bit of confusion in building a recipient Phonebook (as requested during installa- sion got on its way with a window indi- list. This seemed like a software bug that tion), contained the personal and post cating the progress as faxes were being could be easily patched. office address list for contacts to whom delivered. WinFax PRO does not deliver we would e-mail documents. As with the the cover page to the e-mail recipients; Phonebook Logs screen, we loved this integration however, the note and all the attached The Phonebook furnished with because it brought all of our internal and files were promptly sent to our selected WinFax PRO has the same type of win- external fax and e-mail contacts under e-mail addresses, and the fax contacts dow (in terms of look and feel) as the one application. To the right of the fold- received their faxes successfully. Since main screen (Logs screen) of the product er pane there was the contents pane displaying all the items within a selected folder. And on the bottom was the detail screen displaying information about a selected entry in the contents pane. Adding new folders or new contacts (recipients) was a breeze: we just double-clicked on the New Folder or New Recipient entries. To add a new recipient, a dialog box is presented to collect information about the contact such as name, address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail (Figure 34). Right-clicking on any entry presented us with a menu to take several actions for the entry, including removing, editing properties, and adding the entry to a group. One function we were unable to perform was dragging and dropping items from Figure 34. WinFax PRO: Recipient the Default folder into the Exchange Properties from Phonebook. folder and vice versa. This can be a useful feature when one needs to quickly add a fax contact to the Exchange list so the contact can be accessed via e- mail as well. We also could not figure Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTITM September 1997 75 C T I L ABS

Figure 35. WinFax PRO: Cover Pages screen.

out why there was a CSID (Calling Symantec support revealed that this When a document is preconfigured Station Identifier) present for each field had no apparent use, so we hope for fax, it is converted to fax format, entry. At first, we thought that this field that future versions of WinFax PRO saving time when it is included in might have been used to identify the will use it to identify callers. faxes. In contrast, if the attached doc- caller (voice or fax) by matching it to Phonebook also has options to ument is not preconfigured, it must be the caller ID information, but we found import and export entries from several converted to a fax format each time it out that this was not the case. A call to types of data storage formats, as well is faxed from WinFax PRO. The for- as text, so popu- mer method is used for frequently lating the folders faxed documents that are never modi- can be a quick job fied, and the latter method is used for if the contact data documents that are frequently modi- is available in a fied. As stated before, one could recognized file attach any file to an outgoing fax format. from the Send dialog box. Next, we looked a t setting up Cover Pages a ttachment The Cover Pages screen (again with libraries with the same consistent look) provided us WinFax PRO. The with plenty of pre-existing cover Attachments pages to choose from (Figure 35). As Figure 36. WinFax PRO: screen had the usual, there were folders, contents, TalkWorks configuration screen. same consistent and details panes to facilitate the look as the Logs organizing and cataloging of cover and the Phonebook pages. When starting a new cover screens with the page design, the cover page Wizard attachment fold- (if enabled) is activated and takes the ers, contents, and user through several screens to con- details panes. struct a cover page. To design more Attachments can elaborate cover pages, the Cover Page be set up as pre- Designer is used. configured for We found the Cover Page Designer faxing or as their chock full of text and graphical tools, original formats. making cover page design quick and 76 CTITM September 1997 Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com painless. We found the best way to design cover pages is to use the Wizard to build the basic layout followed by the Cover Page Designer to put in the fin- ishing touches. The cover pages are saved as individual files; therefore, in a company, they can be saved in a shared subdirectory to allow access by all staff. We were truly impressed with the consistent and user-friendly look and functionality of the Logs, Phonebook, Cover Page, and Attachments screens. Figure 38. WinFax PRO: It took little time for us to learn our way TalkWorks AudioEditor. and fax messages from another phone around these modules and use them and issue commands such as message effectively without consulting the man- TalkWorks is a powerful module, playback, change password, and ual or help screens. Having said that, which could certainly stand on its own change greeting. Using the Receive we’d like to warn those who do like to as a separate application from WinFax. menu item, we were able to configure delve into manuals that there is scant Several types of mailboxes can be set message reception in more detail. Some information on the Phonebook, Cover up using TalkWorks to satisfy most any of these settings included compression Page, and Attachments modules; how- request. Traditional mailboxes can be formats, message number limits, call ever, the help screens were adequate. set up to greet the caller and take mes- screening, and message notification. sages, while announcement mailboxes TalkWorks also comes with a sound TalkWorks play a message and hang up. Mailboxes editing program, AudioEditor, which TalkWorks is the voice mail (or can also be configured to provide fax- lets the user manipulate the .WAV answering machine) module of WinFax on-demand services, allowing the caller sound files in several ways by modify- PRO. Without configuring TalkWorks, to navigate a menu and select a docu- ing attributes such as volume, echo, and we made a call into WinFax PRO and ment for faxback. speed (Figure 38). ignored the telephone set when it began From the TalkWorks menu in WinFax ringing. After 4 rings, TalkWorks kicked PRO, we chose Setup to configure our Other into action and emitted a long beep (with- answering service. This presented us Some other features of WinFax PRO out any announcements) signaling the with a tabbed dialog box with Profiles, we really liked were dual modem sup- beginning of the message recording. A Mailboxes, and Devices tabs (Figure port, TAPI compatibility, Internet fax voice mail screen popped up on our PC 36). Creating a new profile was simple. interface, network fax support, and displaying the TalkWorks activity, and Using the Wizard-like dialog boxes macros to add a fax command to other after we left a message and hung up the helped us create a menu system contain- programs, such as Microsoft Word. phone, a dialog box indicated that a new ing voice, faxback, and data mailboxes. Room for improvement would voice message had arrived. The newly Along the way, we were able to set include Windows 3.1 support and full recorded voice message was placed in the greetings, schedules, and logging for our integration with Exchange folders Receive log and tagged with a distinct mailboxes and finally we set this profile rather than having separate WinFax and icon indicating a voice message. There as the active profile for TalkWorks. Exchange folders. were also associated information such as The Devices tab allowed us to select caller ID, time, and duration. a primary modem and recording and CONCLUSION playback devices, which, in our case, WinFax PRO is a comprehensive was the Hayes modem. From the and flexible communications product Profiles tab we used the test button to that fits perfectly in the SOHO arena. activate the simulator, a program which It is a one-stop shop for all types of can simulate a phone call into communications — e-mail, voice, and TalkWorks. We were able to successful- fax — and includes many tools (e.g., ly navigate our menus and leave mes- OCR, Sound Editor) to facilitate mul- sages. New messages are stored in the tifaceted communications. We recom- Receive Log folder and can be directly mend WinFax PRO to anyone interest- accessed by the user. ed in giving their SOHO a better (or For those who prefer communica- larger) image, while saving time and tions devices with a more traditional money in the process. look and feel, TalkWorks comes with a graphical Telephone and Answering Editor’s Note: Machine (Figure 37) to make calls and WinFax PRO version 8.01, which is check messages. There is also a Memo available on Symantec’s Web site, fixes Figure 37. WinFax PRO: menu item to leave messages in the bugs associated with version 8.0. You TalkWorks answering machine. Receive Log Folder as reminders. One can download it using the LiveUpdate can also remotely access the voice mail item of the Help menu. ■ Subscribe FREE online at www.ctimag.com CTITM September 1997 77