For that reason, the new "NetVanta Unified Communications Solution Suite" provides voice mail, unified messaging, fax server, and auto attendant features that are compatible with legacy and IP-based business phone systems, with a big focus on the ability to create business process apps.
NetVanta UC solutions are designed to accommodate from five to greater than 2,000 users per server, and are designed to allow rapid creation of vertical market applications for the banking, hospitality, education, health care, retail and real estate industries, for example.
The "NetVanta UC Solutions Suite" includes the "NetVanta UC Server," a software-based UC application designed for customers with an existing PBX. Microsoft Windows platforms and scales up to 2,000 or more users per server. It is capable of supporting unified communications on one or more different types of PBXs from a variety of leading manufacturers.
It provides unified messaging, fax server, auto-attendants, personal assistants, graphical drag-and drop service creation, IVR for inbound and outbound calling services, integration with ODBC databases, text to speech, one number services and call redirection services and notifications.
The "NetVanta Business Communications System" combines the NetVanta 7000 Series IP-PBXs with the NetVanta UC Server, enhanced with click-to-dial capabilities and an integrated conference server.
The "NetVanta Enterprise Communications Server" is a complete IP-based voice system for larger enterprises. Designed for use with Microsoft Windows and "Active Directory," it offers a full soft IP-PBX that is complemented with all the UC features of NetVanta UC Server, plus click-to-dial, an integrated conference server, a paging server for overhead paging.
The "NetVanta Business Application Server," scalable to more than 200 concurrent calls, allows businesses to create cost-effective new apps using a graphical drag-and-drop service
creation environment.
It allows channel partners, service providers and IT and telecom professionals to quickly and easily create tailored communications services. The app server integrates with existing application databases.
It is useful as a standalone solution or can integrate with Microsoft OCS or IBM Lotus Sametime, for example. It also works with IMAP email servers and Google Gmail.
The new NetVanta products are all software applications using the Microsoft platform. The key decision for a buyer is whether it wants to "buy a new PBX" or "keep" what it already has.
If a firm has 10 to 100 users, it will tend to buy a new PBX. If it has 75 to 2,000 users per location, it also will tend to want the enterprise communications server.
The complete line includes a standards-based PBX, switch, router, firewall, voicemail, voice gateways, auto attendant, integrated messaging. The base package now supports as many as100 users. Larger organizations will use the enteprise communications server, using ADTRAN or Polycom handsets.
One advantage of the system is that it works with analog or IP business phone systems. More significantly, though, it allows rapid creation of vertical market apps.
In the real estate business, the "Talking House" application can be used to create automated logs of who is calling in to inquire about a property, or allow prospects to get information on any property an agent is showing, with the materials created directly by the agent.
Agents can have people contact them right away, listen to an IVR message or create marketing materials that can be faxed or emailed to people who want more information.
The same thing can be used by auto dealers to automate the process of car warranty notifications and doctor's offices can automate the reminder process.
"In a business office environment, customers can use unified messaging to provide more value, using our PBX or anybody else's," says Jeff Wissing, ADTRAN senior product manager.
"You can deliver a fax to a smartphhone, forward messages, read emails over the phone or harvest telephone numbers from existing directories and then place calls," says Wissing.
"If you listen to customers, you can create apps for them," Wissig says. In some cases it might take only minutes, it other cases a few hours to create an app. Once a reseller learns the environment, the reseller can use the tools to create all sorts of templates for their end users.
The whole idea is to "make it very personal and customized," he says.
"Customized services are a big draw and makes end users very sticky," Wissig notes. "It very often is faster to spend an hour to build a prototype service, and then have the customer use it, than to explain what a user might do."
"We had a B2B call center and built a prototype in 15 minutes to show how the solution would work," Wissig says. The customer got a payback on the system within 30 days, he says.
"In every organization there are ROI opportunities with UC that are lurking, just waiting to be discovered," says Wissing. "You just have to know how to find them."
A manufacturer of personalized items such as rubber stamps, signs and business cards might create an IVR application that provides 7/24 order status to customers with small orders, allowing their call attendants to concentrate on providing personal service to larger customers.
A wallpaper manufacturer might use an IVR application to provide product availability and pricing to their resellers based on their membership level in their reseller program, providing reliable 7/24 service without the need for call takers.
A large multi-national company might use an application that reliably redirects after-hours calls for support to the cell phones or even home numbers of on-duty support staff, eliminating the need for physical staffing of an after-hours call center.
A video store might allow callers to place orders 7/24 without the need for an after-hours service team.
