Specifications

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Buyers Guide 1997/1998 57
double-clicking on a trunk line,
allowed us to set up the trunk lines for
options such as direction, incoming and
outgoing call routing, and restrictions.
From here, we set up the trunk lines to
route the incoming calls to the auto-
attendant of our choice depending on
the business hours, which, in our tests,
had already been defined via the
System Configuration screen. (We
would have liked the option of picking
exact times for calls to be routed to cer-
tain auto-attendants directly from the
Trunk Configuration screen.)
We decided to set up an operator on
the system. To do so, we created the
operator extensions and added them to
a workgroup in the Extension
Configuration screen. Then, in the
System Configuration screen, we des-
ignated the workgroup as the operator.
Finally, in the Trunk Extension screen,
we set up call routing to operator for
business hours.
This procedure seemed to include a
lot of steps. Although we found our-
selves wishing for a simpler way to cre-
ate and deploy an operator extension,
we had to give credit to the manual for
the clear step-by-step directions.
Reporting
The reporting modules are accurate,
easy to follow, and cover all areas of
the system. For example, reports cover
such areas as system summary, traffic,
maintenance, and call detail.
Backup/Restoration
AltiServ is equipped with a backup
and restore module that can be used to
backup the system settings and prompts
on a hard or floppy drive. Thus, this
module provides good insurance for
those once- or twice-in-a-lifetime disas-
ters where the PC files become corrupt.
Of course, a full backup of the system
(with no open files) is more prudent.
Internet/Intranet Integration
AltiServ’s greatest attraction may well
be its e-mail and Internet/Intranet inte-
gration. However, we should point out
that setting up the system for this sort of
integration is not for the faint of heart. If
setting up networks isn’t one of your
strengths, you will probably need help
from your company’s network manager.
AltiServ encompasses both voice mail
and e-mail thanks to AltiMail, the mes-
saging portion of AltiWare. AltiMail
works by using mixed-media messaging
to package voice within e-mails prior to
transmission. Specifically, AltiMail’s
SMTP and POP servers send and
receive e-mail over TCP/IP.
If you want to use e-mail to receive
and listen to your voice messages, your
e-mail package must be MIME compli-
ant. This requirement is met by e-mail
applications such as Microsoft Mail and
Eudora. In addition, AltiMail uses SMTP
as the standard e-mail transport, so it is
able to interact with most e-mail pack-
ages. However, since AltiMail does not
integrate directly with popular e-mail
applications such as Microsoft
Exchange, it requires the user to actively
set up his or her e-mail client for access.
Such a setup project can be complicat-
ed if the user has an Internet e-mail ser-
vice that also requires POP access.
Almost all e-mail packages allow for
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