One-Number Follow-Me

ENHANCED SERVICES

FOLLOW-ME Here, more affordable, more ro- bust and more programmable FINDS A HOME board-level resources are quite sim- ply re-writing the rules of what ser- vice providers can get away with in the network ether. A hands-on look at how six vendors are folding the one-number Recently, Steve Lange of Ad- vanced Queuing Systems, an excit- “follow-me” app into more “mass” communication solutions. ing new national “Virtual PBX” ser- vice provider, put it to us plain: from Computer Telephony’s West Coast Test Labs “It used to be a company that [email protected] wanted to get into network-based services had to purchase a $100,000 switch, then write custom software he so-called “one-number fol- too much trouble for the average that ran on one computer and com- low-me” application auto- worker and generic enterprise to municated with the switch over an Tmates people-finding. As warrant its power RS-232 serial port. phone calls come in, the system and, to a lesser ex- checks pre-defined schedules of tent, cost. where people are supposed to be or Especially when possibly are and either tries a se- one also considers ries of numbers in priority order or that most mod- (faster) blasts out calls to a bunch ern day phone of numbers simultaneously. systems, when When it hits the intended called manually instruct- party, it connects in the other line ed, can at least blind- (or tells another switch to do so) ly forward calls to without any extended effort on the single, remote sites; caller’s part. most people’s worlds Not bad, huh? After all, it won’t end if their means more connections between calls are sent to voice- business and customers, less call- mail; and, though it backs and a decline of the dreaded sounds great, most “phone tag” game. people don’t want to But let’s face it. Despite the fact be constantly “con- that follow-me looks so nice on the nected.” drawing board, it’s still not an appli- Most, however, cation you run into much. More than wouldn’t mind dipping nine times out of 10, voicemail re- into the app when ap- mains on the other end of that greet- propriate and cost ef- ing file, doesn’t it? One-number fol- fective, which, it’s beginning to ap- “It took a long time to write and lows few. How come? pear more and more likely, is it was hard to modify and upgrade. Well, a good five or six years af- exactly how follow-me will finally The voice-processing functions were ter the app was first broached by find its home: not standalone, but also normally housed in separate such pioneers as Priority Call Man- rolled into a larger whole, where its computers, adding to the expense agement and MCI, the main reason assets (and price tag) fold into a more and communications overhead. for its sluggish acceptance now complete communication solution. “With the new systems, an indi- seems fairly obvious: As the following comparison in- vidual can spend $10,000 on a PC ● For all but the most rabid road dicates, there is now considerable with a combination digital phone in- warriors, deploying one-number fol- movement to support this theory on terface / switching / voice resource low-me, by itself, has simply been both of CT’s fronts. card, work for a few months writing

Computer Telephony June 1998 One-Number Follow-Me software in a familiar programming Of course, how well the system It can be — among other things language, and have a sophisticated pulls off the follow-me app is anoth- — a hotel-operator buster. switch that can handle any telepho- er story, which leads us to... A step further requires the an- ny app you can think of.” swerer to enter a password to get Naturally, with so much afford- connected to follow-me callers, able flexibility at their fingertips, which prevents — among other peo- would-be CT enhanced-service THE COMPARISON ple — your three-year old from bab- providers are no longer just think- bling long-distance to your big boss ing in terms of single app creation. Although we did break it up or customer. Instead, as vendors like AQS and along enhanced services and comm Basic Question: What does the StarTouch International and Web- server lines, the criteria of our com- system provide on this front? ley indicate, they’re shooting for a parison remained the same across ● Sequential or blast. One-number larger, more inclusive ball of applica- both areas of development. In each follow-me outdials can be done two tion wax. case, we looked for how well ven- different ways: sequentially (aka. Of course, the technology Mr. dors did in taking care of key follow- “serially”) or simultaneously. Lange refers to here is also, he ad- me features. The first takes a single out- mits himself, creating another bar- Of course, in keeping with our bound line and tries one follow-me raising market force — competition. theory, we also conclude the indi- number after another in priority “Within five years you’re going vidual write-ups with a brief de- order until it finds the intended to see hundreds of these types of scription of “other things” vendors party and connects the caller. The services offered,” Steve said. “It’s provide their users. second uses a group of lines and just too easy to write a switching Follow-me things we graded on: blasts out the calls to all numbers application these days with all this ● Voicemail option. It’s important at the same time. new PC-based hardware.” to let callers opt to “follow” people Which one is best depends. or just leave voicemail — both at Callers will prefer simultaneous the onset of the follow-me proce- outdial because it’s the fastest (as- dure and during it. suming you have more than two ac- THE ENTERPRISE Basic Question: how easy does tive numbers in your follow-me list). the system make this on the caller? But this has to be weighed against Really, it’s the same evolu- ● Caller screening. This is critical. the extra line requirements it forces tionary process as above — the You may not want every Tom, Dick on the end user or service bureau. same technology and the same re- and Harry Newton finding you. In There’s a cost issue too. If you placement of old, closed monolith- this case, you’ll want to know what make all your follow-me outgoing ic telephony gear — just on a dif- each of the vendors provides here. calls at the same time, it will cost ferent scale. The most basic way of handling more in phone line charges. And it So instead of talking about CO the “who’s calling” dilemma is sim- increases the chances of someone adjuncts, we’re talking about enter- ple voice screening. At the onset of other than the intended party pick- prise-based all-in-one communica- the follow-me app, the caller is ing up a call, thus generating more tion servers that completely obso- asked to speak his / her name, hard line costs. lete the need for, among other which is replayed to the subscriber. Basic Question: Does the sys- things, a mainframe-like Private From there, the subscriber can re- tem at least offer a choice? Branch Exchange (PBX) switch. ject the call and send it to voicemail ● Ease of use. As we played with These comm-server systems, or take it. these systems and the follow-me with their extremely flexible un- Some can also require callers to app, we realized how crucial this is. derlying switching fabric and GUI enter a password before “following” One thing’s for sure. Users, no client / server administration to other numbers — a very reliable matter how seemingly sedentary, screens, absolutely lend themselves “pest” screening feature. will be changing how follow-me to one-number follow-me... along Still others can factor in Caller works all the time. with all the basic call-handling rou- ID, i.e. only calls from such and such Take us. As writers for this mag- tines that encompass a PBX’s com- numbers are allowed to “follow me,” azine, we’re not exactly mobile work- plete functionality. which can be very slick (including ers. We do spend a lot of time sitting In fact, many times as we go custom prompts, etc.). in front of a PC. Still, as we played through the litany of “comm server” Basic Question: What does the with these systems, we realized that features, we often forget to include system provide on this front? even we were constantly tweaking that most offer follow-me out-of-box ● Subscriber screening. Simple call the way our test systems were follow- — with no outside switch / server / announcement not only plays the ing us. software required. It comes built in, caller’s name but also a little “this Hey, nothing worse than coming ready for those who need it and call is for” prompt when someone back from lunch and finding 14 those who don’t. picks up the follow-me call. voicemails, right? No problem — we

Computer Telephony One-Number Follow-Me realized we could take calls while We purposely made each system ● Caller screening: Basic caller standing in line at the corner sand- handle this. Some took care of it screening is offered. wich shop. easy. Some difficult. Some had Grade: B. Baby-sitter late again? Let us technical difficulties. ● Subscriber screening: It will an- tell the system to start sending Even for one-person operations nounce for whom the call tolls (as callers to the old home number until (key targets for service-bureau one- well as from whom). she arrives... number apps), we felt this was Grade: B. Gotta leave a little early to important. People stay in ho- ● Sequential or blast: Currently on- drop off some paperwork tels. People visit other compa- ly handles sequential hunting to up at the corporate HQ? Got- nies. Etc. to four numbers (again, for each ex- ta pick up mom at ● Handling multiple tension behind the system). the airport? Got- calls: Question: how did the Grade: B. ta drive to that systems handle multiple calls ● Dialing through auto attendants: vendor meet- (i.e. what happens if Because of its business-system ap- ing? Gotta you’re talking to one caller proach, AQS added a lot of function- have a smoke? at a remote follow-me loca- ality here that the others didn’t. For You get the picture. tion — e.g. a cellphone — and example, you can precisely time, Of course, how simple or com- another caller wants to connect?). It down to the millisecond, call- plex setting up / changing how calls happens. progress factors in order to inte- are routed is the crux here, espe- ● System performance: How was grate their VirtualPBX with more cially for the service providers, sound quality? Were there any dial- traditional phone systems and CO who, despite some Web integra- ing difficulties? Dropped calls? How equipment. tion, must rely primarily on a natu- many numbers supported? Etc. Grade: A+. rally limiting Telephone User In- ● Cost. Just remember, this should ● Handling multiple calls: They terface (TUI). be carefully weighed against the don’t do this. If you’re handling one Things we graded on included “other things” the vendors provide call through CrossPoint and another how easy it was to generally navi- along with follow me. In the case of comes in, the second caller is auto- gate around the follow-me TUI most (at least in this feature), you matically sent to voicemail. and, where available, GUI and how could consider the app an inexpen- Grade: Incomplete — it easy it was to establish and main- sive throw-in. shouldn’t be; AQS told us they plan tain a set of follow-me numbers on adding call-waiting soon. and calling patterns. That includ- ● Ease of use: Follow me is only a ed, we should mention, how easy it SERVICES small part of the CrossPoint Virtu- was to tell the system to send calls alPBX — a very small part. We’re to a single number when you knew, talking a system that can act as a for sure, that was the place where ADVANCED “virtual” replacement of a multi- you were going to be for x amount party business phone system — of time. QUEUING SYSTEMS again, with the added bonus of >From there, we checked how finding all your people at up to four easy creating follow-me schedules ● Contact Info: 888-825-0800; different phone numbers at any was, including establishing routing www.aqsys.com given time. rules based on time of day / day of ● Name of service: The CrossPoint Overall, then, its TUI is fairly week and “profiles” that reflect VirtualPBX complex. At first, you’ll find your- where you are and how available ● Basic platform notes: Mostly Dia- self a little lost in its ocean of menu you are depending on time of day / logic hardware; application written options. But it’s as good as it gets. day of week. with Parity VOS software. And the maintaining and toggling >From an administrative view, ● Voicemail option: Because this between the follow-me numbers is we also look at how easy / difficult system acts a multi-person, quite easy. it was to specify classes of follow- premise-based phone-system re- One other thing: AQS tries to me phone numbers authorized for placement, it doesn’t offer this es- set things up as much as possible in outdialing (internal, outside local, cape without trying the extension advance. This means you e-mail outside long distance, outside in- first. them a list of all your employees, ex- ternational) for different sub- Like any CPE system, it will at- tension numbers, passwords, etc., scribers (if appropriate). tempt to ring a selected person’s and things are pretty much ready to Overall, we can’t stress how desktop first — the big difference is go when you — or your customers — critical this topic is... if people can’t that desktop could be one of four dif- first call in. change the system easily, they like- ferent numbers / places. Grade: A- — They could really ly won’t make good use of the app. Grade: Incomplete — not ap- use a Web-based GUI. It would ● Dialing through auto attendants: propriate for this type of system. make it a lot easier on the adminis-

Computer Telephony June 1998 One-Number Follow-Me trator of the system. Regular users defined in the system. Grade: A+ — when you consid- don’t really need it. For 10 extensions, this fee is er what you’re getting. ● System performance: During $100. ● Other Things: Definitely not just our tests, the system worked For 1,000 extensions, this fee a one-number follow-me system. flawlessly. $2,500. Compare that with a 1,000- We’re really talking a full PBX-like Grade: A. extension PBX. Peanuts. system here with super integrated ● Cost: AQS is upfront and They also offer something called voice / fax mail. Unlike the other en- straightforward here. Figure call- the CrossPoint PBXParachute. This hanced services in this comparison, ing charges of around 10 cents a is a great service. Basically, it’s disas- it’s not really for a single sub- minute in Northern California and ter proofing for your business, scriber, but a group of people work- 14 cents a minute nationwide. wherein AQS will keep a hot-standby ing within a singular enterprise. There is an annual mainte- phone system ready for you in case Among other things, it’s perfect nance fee that includes creating something real ugly happens. Here, a for a new small company that the VirtualPBX for the client, mu- 10-extension system costs $20. doesn’t have a phone system and sic-on-hold licensing fees and tech- Perfect for dealing with new doesn’t even have an office. nical support, payable in advance. system cutovers. Heck, a reseller It even has some ACD func- The fee is based on the maximum could throw it in for free to the cus- tions built in, allowing you to create number of extensions that can be tomer. a virtual call center.

Computer Telephony June 1998

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