D&S is pleased to announce our Aastra Advanced Partner status. For years D&S has been dedicated to bringing the best in enterprise level telecommunications solutions to the table, and our experience in North America with the enterprise product line is second to none. Your support, in conjunction with our highly experienced technicians and knowledgeable sales team, has played an integral role in attaining this status with Aastra. With the help of our customers, D&S will continue to provide best-in-class service and support.

With Aastra, D&S will continue to build on Ericsson’s solutions by supporting existing products and applications, and by providing a smooth migration path to new technologies. The Aastra acquisition of the Ericsson Enterprise business will further allow D&S to tap into a wider stream of solutions to bring more best-in-class products to our customers in the future.

Table of Contents

• D&S Becomes Aastra Advanced Partner
• Live Mobility Gateway System at ACUTA
• Emergency Alert for Aastra/Ericsson MX-ONE TSW Systems
• CallXpress 7.91 Launched
• AVST NotifyXpress
• AVST XpressCare Program Changes
• Solidus eCare 6.0 Released, 5.0 Phase-Out Schedule
• Software Maintenance

D&S Communications, Inc. Online Newsletter Staff:
Editor — Manuel Taveira
Publisher — John Markese

Contact D&S Communications
Web site: www.dscomm.com
Email : ericssonsales@dscomm.com
Phone : (800) 227-8403

At the July 2008 Acuta event in Las Vegas, Aastra presented live demos of their new emergency notification offering. The offering is quite impressive in that it can push an emergency broadcast message to digital, IP, and analog phones almost instantaneously. There are no other products in the market that we know of that push out broadcasts through Aastra systems as quickly as this. The solution supports zones so that messages can be targeted, or messages can be sent to all.

Aastra fast-tracked the solution to market in order to address customer needs. Pricing for the solution is scheduled to be available in the next few weeks.

How does it work?
For digital and analog phones, a voice alert is broadcast. The broadcast reaches any or all zones virtually instantaneously via the Music-on-Hold port in the MX-ONE TSW system. The Music-on-Hold port is non blocking and thus the system has immediate access to all digital/analog ports. The phones ring upon reception of the message and if set to auto answer, the message is immediately heard over each user's speakerphone.

For IP phones, MX-ONE TSW rings IP phones and displays a message on the display.

For mobile users, Aastra has developed an application in Solidus that broadcasts the text messages. Text messages are pumped into the cellular networks where they are then broadcast to users.

The solution can be integrated with your web site whereby a user is given the opportunity to select any or all methods of notification. For example, a student may want their analog dorm phone and their mobile phone to alert them upon broadcast. By the same token, in government applications, links in the web site can give residents the ability to be notified of emergencies.

What is required?
For voice notification to analog and digital phones:

• MX-ONE TSW SP5 minimum
• TMU boards in all LIMs
• Auto answer capability on analog/digital phone

For IP Phones:

• MX-ONE TSW SP5 minimum

For Mobile phones:

• Solidus eCare
• Emergency notification application

The rapid development of the emergency notification is quite heartening. Firstly, it addresses a pressing customer need. Secondly, the speed and innovation with which the solution was introduced to the market is a positive testimony to the Aastra team.

We presented a live demo of the Mobility Gateway at the Acuta show. The Mobility Gateway allows a user to handoff between cellular, WiFi, landline and IP calls.

In the demo, we showed the following:

• We started a call from a SIP soft client on a laptop.
• We were then able to transfer the call to a WiFi-enabled cellular phone. The call was crystal clear and even better, no airtime minutes were being consumed because it was not on the cellular network.
• Then, to simulate a user moving away from the WiFi range, we seamlessly moved the call to the cellular network on the same phone.
• The same call could then be moved back to WiFi when the user moves back to the WLAN cluster.
• Finally, we were able to move the call from the cellular WiFi phone back to the laptop SIP client.

We were able to do the above calls in any sequence or order.

In a University environment, for example, a student or faculty member probably already has a cellular phone. The number of phones with cellular-WiFi capability are quickly increasing and phone pricing is decreasing. With the Mobility Gateway, a University can bring students and faculty/staff back on-net into their PBX. Billing information is integrated since the call goes through the PBX. Users are defined in the PBX as SIP extensions and have the capability to move freely within campus with no restrictions.

Most Universities have cellular coverage gaps. Cellular carriers are most willing to install antenna towers on campus where traffic is within easy reach, but indoor installations are another matter altogether. Because of the coverage holes in many buildings, the University has an opportunity to provide a valuable service to its users by leveraging the existing WiFi coverage. Students’ parents benefit by students being much more reachable. Coverage is no longer as big an issue if at all, and when someone calls a student, all of their phone devices ring at the same time. Parents also benefit from lowered costs of not having to buy expensive cellular plans because many of the calls may be conducted on campus under the WiFi umbrella where cellular minutes are not consumed.

The Mobility Gateway works not only with Aastra PBX’s, but also with Nortel, Cisco, Avaya and more.

Supported mobile phone operating systems are Symbian (e.g. Nokia, Sony/Ericsson), Window Mobile, RIM.

In addition to WiFi/cellular integration, the Mobility Gateway includes the following additional features:

• Directory lookup on mobile phone and pc
• Call recording on mobile phone and pc SIP client
• Presence
• PBX services
• Conference bridge with scheduling and invitation
• Mobile least cost routing to lower cellular costs

If you are interested in the product, a live demo, or a system trial-before-you-buy, please contact us to discuss further.

The latest release of AVST’s flagship Unified Communications solution, CallXpress 7.91 offers new features aimed at meeting the demands of multi-site corporations and interoperability between the latest IP-PBX systems and servers. This powerful Unified Communications platform offers solutions addressing the need to support mixed environments, demands for greater capacity and the need for flexibility in geographically dispersed locations. The new release simplifies these problems by allowing dispersed multi-site organizations to network multiple systems and send messages across these systems. CallXpress 7.91 employs a “Star Architecture” that allows the system to be more robust and reliable and eliminates the costs associated with deploying separate networking servers at each location. Additionally, CallXpress consolidates user management into a centralized interface where administrators can oversee subscribers using a single view.

The networking in 7.91 has been rebuilt from the ground up and has some great cost saving highlights. Utilizing a Star Architecture, CallXpress 7.91 reduces the amount of traffic between CallXpress servers and can save on expenses involved with deploying separate servers at each CallXpress node. The new architecture supports up to 75 nodes and 50,000 subscribers. It also features scheduling tools that let administers execute system updates during off-hours and low traffic periods.

The latest release can save money on user training expenditures with the Telephone User Interface (TUI) emulation software that mimics the number commands of a Nortel Meridian system. This allows an easy transition from a Meridian system and makes implementation smoother for the users. Additionally, not only does the Meridian TUI emulate the user interface, but it also emulates the inbound caller interface. There are also alternate emulation solutions for Octel, Avaya, and Mitel systems.

CallXpress 7.91 can interface with a Dialogic 1000 Media Gateway (DMG). This combination leverages an organizations existing telephony infrastructure and help reduce transmission costs. With legacy voice mail equipment the analog transmission between a branch office and the main telephone systems would incur fees going both ways. But with a CallXpress system at the central location and a DMG at the branch offices, costs can be reduced because the connection from the branch office to the main system runs over an IP line saving costs on one side of the transmission. Additionally, integrating a DMG with a remote PBX leaves a smaller CallXpress footprint because a DMG will convert the analog signal to SIP and communicate directly with the CallXpress system making CallXpress necessary only for the main office.

Legacy Voice Mail Configuration

CallXpress and Dialogic 1000 Media Gateway

AVST has expanded unified messaging support in CallXpress 7.91 for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and IBM Lotus Domino/Notes 8. They also updated IP integration for Sphere Sphericall IP-PBX SIP, Dialogic 1000 Media Gateway SIP Trunk, Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise SIP, Cisco Unified Communications Manager SCCP and Nortel Meridian CS1000 SIP.

CallXpress 7.91 Highlights:

• Digital Networking built from the ground up
• Nortel Meridian Mail TUI Emulation
  
• Updated IP Integrations
  
• Support for Microsoft Exchange 2007
  
• Support for Lotus Notes/Domino 8.0
  
• NotifyXpress
  
• Distribution List Notification Suppression
  
• Self copy when sending to distribution list if sender is a member
  
• Separate configuration fields for IMAP (incoming) and SMTP (outgoing) for e-mail server
  
• Force password reset at next login (expire now)
  
• Automatic rollover from unread to read messages in Aria TUI

AVST NotifyXpress

AVST’s CallXpress add-on, NotifyXpress, is an automated notification solution that lets you communicate pre-recorded announcements to large audiences. Messages can be customized with variable data, scheduled to be delivered at certain times, and be tailored to support a multi-lingual audience. The possibilities are endless, and it’s easy to imagine some very useful circumstances for this software, particularly in education.

One instance would be the emergency response programs that could notify all subscribers of any imminent threat that may be lurking on or around the campus. Think of the disasters that could have been avoided at some of our nation’s universities had this system been in place only a year ago.

Send important phone messages
to students and faculty

NotifyXpress has the potential to implement a responsive system that would help campus law enforcement manage emergency situations and minimize imminent threats. The idea is simple. As soon as a threat is identified, an administrator can broadcast a warning and instructions to all of the subscribers in the system. The subscribers would receive telephone call or a voice message that contains the warning and could then help spread the word to fellow students and faculty. With the ability to quickly alert the student body, an emergency notification system could be instrumental in avoiding future campus tragedies.

A closure notification system would be another useful application. Unpredictable weather or other events could require a school to close, and NotifyXpress would make it easy to inform students and faculty. It would also avoid unnecessary inbound phone traffic with callers asking the same questions.

NotifyXpress can broadcast
school closures

The process to create an outbound message is simple requiring only a few steps. The outbound telephone message is recorded. A spreadsheet containing the message recipients must be created and imported into NotifyXpress as a .csv file. CallXpress places the outbound calls and creates a call report.

AVST is making changes to the maintenance program to help customers stay current with XpressCare®. Effective September 1, 2008, all systems at CallXpress® 6.5 or earlier (this includes OS/2 versions of CallXpress and all PhoneXpress versions) will be eligible for a free software upgrade with the purchase of a 2-year XpressCare contract.

Additionally, as a special offer for 2008, from July 15 through December 31, 2008, customers who have let their XpressCare contract expire may purchase a 2-year contract to get back onto XpressCare, rather than be subject to an upgrade purchase.

As a reminder, XpressCare is a software maintenance plan that provides all major and minor software upgrades for CallXpress and Seneca. In addition, an active XpressCare contract allows system support issues to be escalated to AVST Technical Support through a certified AVST reseller technician.

Solidus eCare 6.0 Released, 5.0 Phase-Out Schedule

Solidus eCare 6.0 has been released as of May 29, 2008, and the most recent version of contact center management tools contains many robust features aimed at running a large contact center. The suite of applications included in Solidus eCare provides contact center managers and supervisors with sophisticated tools for developing and managing contact center operations.

Solidus eCare 6.0 brings the following new features and enhancements:

• Increased traffic capacity
  • 5-1000 agents in single site , 40,000 calls/hour
  • up to 10,000 agents in multiple networked sites 400,000 calls/hour
• Video (3G and via gateway)
• Network Operations Center (NOC)
  • A Solidus eCare NOC system consists of one Solidus eCare NOC server and any number of Solidus eCare NOC clients. One Solidus eCare NOC can manage up to ten Solidus eCare systems.
  • Gathers realtime info of all SeC systems (up to 10 sites)
  • Single access to consolidated view of up to ten SeC systems
  • Present consolidated realtime info via IM
  • print and handle consolidated historical data via RM
  • Manage all contact center resources via central CM
  • Can have up to 10 x 10 system that can be monitored
• Clustering
  • Solidus clustering: 1+1 configs
  • OAS (1-4) + 1 configs
  • licensed per cluster
• New agent soft phone
• Inbound voice (fixed, mobile, IP), outbound voice, SMS, chat, web-mail, email, fax, call back
• Automated services exclusively or in combination with live services

Further, a point release is planned for Solidus v6.0 in 4Q2008 to support SIP trunks. Using SIP, it will be possible to connect SeC to other PBXs!!!!

With the release of the latest version of Solidus eCare, Aastra published a phase-out plan for Solidus eCare 5 and Open Application Server 4 (OAS 4). As of July 29 2008, new orders and upgrades to Solidus eCare 5 and OAS 4 will not be available. July 29, 2009 the add-ons will no longer be available and active support will cease, and on May 29, 2010 all support for these products will be discontinued.

The purpose of this article is to describe two customer case studies where customers bought Software Assurance with the purchase Solidus eCare products. The SWM program has been running now for close to one year. All MX-ONE TSE sales now include either SW Assurance or SW Basic. Solidus 5.0 and beyond also carries a Software Maintenance component. Before we delve into the case studies, the following is a summary of Software Maintenance that is offered by Aastra. There are two options within the Software Maintenance (SWM) program:

• Software Assurance (SWA)
• Software Basic (SWB)
  

Software Assurance
Software Assurance can be purchased in 1, 2 or 3 year contracts. Purchases of 3 year term contracts carry larger discounts than 1 year SW Assurance contracts.

Software Assurance makes it easier for you to plan costs. Customers pay a fixed price in advance for a chosen period and can continuously renew Software Assurance for a new period of time. Customers then get continuous access to the latest software upgrades from Aastra. Having Software Assurance, the customer’s organization is always able to communicate using the latest technology and functionality, at predictable costs.

The SW Assurance offering includes all the Software Basic deliverables plus the right to upgrade your already licensed software to a later version. This provides access to enhance the features and functions you have already licensed, as well as the ability to purchase licenses for new features and functionality of the product.

Software Basic
Software Basic is sold with an initial 2 year term. Aastra Software Basic provides a baseline solution to provide you standard support as well as access to service packs and hot fixes. Software Basic can be renewed and purchased as long as the installed licensed software version is being supported by Aastra.

When an ongoing Software Maintenance period is about to end:
When the purchased period of Software Maintenance is ending, you can choose to 1) continue with the same Software Maintenance level as the previous period, 2) change to a different level and/or period, or 3) choose not continue with Software Maintenance at all. If you decide not to continue with Software Maintenance, the change has to be notified before the ongoing Software Maintenance period ends. You can always choose later to reinstate to Software Maintenance.

Different options when your needs are changing
If you purchased Software Basic, you may uplift to Software Assurance at any time during the purchased Software Basic period. If you wish to change from Software Assurance to Software Basic the change can be made at the end of the ongoing Software Assurance period by simply renewing your Software Maintenance Agreement with Software Basic. If you have been outside the program and would like to go back to Software Maintenance, you can do so by performing a reinstatement to Software Basic or Software Assurance instead of purchasing new licenses. You can continuously renew Software Assurance for a new period of time of your choice, but Software Basic is only possible to renew for as long as the installed licensed version is in service support.

Software Maintenance Case Studies
Software Maintenance (SWM) was introduced with the release of MX-ONE TSE v3.x. In fact, SWM was first available in the MX-ONE v2 field trials in the US, but the program was not made visible and announced until v3.x. SWM also pertains to the latest versions of Solidus eCare.

The case studies pertain to two customers that purchased Solidus eCare with the Software Assurance (SWA) option for one year. Customer identities shall remain anonymous for privacy reasons.

As an exercise to verify the cost-effectiveness of the program, we compared the price of what it would cost to upgrade Solidus from v5.0 to v6.0 with SWA compared to the price of upgrading the same software in ad hoc fashion without SWA. In both cases, with just one new software release, our customers were able to realize significant savings. When comparing the price of SWA vs the price of a v5 to v6 upgrade without SWA, SWA represents about 60% of what it would cost to do one ad hoc upgrade without SWA.

Further to the point, the cost of SWA for multiple years is less over a 3 year period than by renewing each year. Customers that purchase three year plans can realize even greater savings.

In addition to the cost savings for upgrades, customers are able to keep their systems current without the unknown budget cost. Of great value is also the advantage of having enhanced escalation support with the SWA option.