Enhancements to CallXpress – Mobile And More
Enhancements to CallXpress – Mobile And More by Blair Pleasant
The latest edition of AVST’s flagship product is out – with several new capabilities and enhancements. CallXpress, long known for its interoperability with a wide variety of switches, added several new integrations in release 8.2, as well as new mobile capabilities providing native support for Android, Blackberry, and iPhone devices. Other new capabilities include the ability to act as an Intelligent Gateway for integrating with Microsoft Lync and OCS, as well as adding a code reset feature.
The new CallXpress Mobile runs natively on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone devices, providing mobile number protection, call management of incoming and outgoing calls, visual call screening, visual voicemail and voicemail management, and other capabilities, allowing users to separate their business and personal communications. The native applications deliver virtual personal assistant, single number reach, find me/follow me capabilities, and enable users to record and return calls, access their calendar, and more. Having the CallXpress application running native on the various devices improves the usability, speed of applications, and the overall user experience.
Most workers carry a mobile device from their employers and use it for personal use, or use their personal device to also make and receive business calls. With single number functionality, calls made to the users’ office number are routed through CallXpress to the device or location where the user wants to be reached, without having to expose their home office or mobile number. Incoming calls and calls initiated through a mobile device are routed through CallXpress, which exposes the users’ business number, protecting their mobile number. Regardless of the device used, user preferences and settings, as well as capabilities such as visual voicemail and missed call logs are available through the user interface.
The next part of the announcement is the Intelligent Gateway for Microsoft OCS/Lync. AVST found through discussions with current and prospective customers that most organizations that have deployed Microsoft OCS/Lync are using it for IM and presence capabilities, and while intrigued by how Lync could be used as a voice client and PBX replacement, have not yet deployed Lync’s voice capabilities. CallXpress 8.2 can act as an intelligent gateway to sit between a company’s PBX and OCS/Lync, connecting any PBX to Lync/OCS. Acting as an intelligent gateway, CallXpress routes incoming calls to the user’s OCS/Lync client, and allows outbound calls from OCS/Lync to be sent through the PSTN, without requiring any additional client software. While there are other gateways in the market, AVST can deliver applications such as find me/following so that the Lync client acts as just another destination for a call.
In addition, customers that use Lync as their PBX can use CallXpress to act as a standalone server for capabilities such as auto attendant, messaging, IVR, etc. However, AVST claims that the real opportunity is where Exchange UM is deployed and CallXpress is used to answer calls, record message and deposit the messages in Exchange UM.
CallXpress 8.2 also introduces new telephony integrations, include ShoreTel ShoreGear, Avaya IP Office, and Avaya Communication Manager/Session Manager SIP Trunk. CallXpress supports SIP integration with Avaya Communication Manager behind Session Manager, and release 8.2 adds a trunk-side interface rather than just a station-side interface. By supporting Avaya Session Manager SIP trunk, CallXpress can support various PBXs on the other side of Session Manager, providing more flexibility.
AVST points out that Avaya is positioning Avaya Aura Session Manager as a SIP interface sitting in front of many interfaces, so integrating via the SIP trunk side makes sense for AVST, as it will be able to support companies that invest in Avaya Session Manager in front of their PBX. AVST will test each PBX for Session Manager SIP trunk, starting with IP Office, followed by Nortel CS1000.
The other new switch integration is ShoreTel. CallXpress previously supported ShoreTel through the SMDI protocol, but now offers a pure SIP integration.
These new integrations open up additional markets for AVST, but while CallXpress offers the widest range of switch integrations, there are still some switches that rely on TDM integrations rather than IP or SIP, such as Siemens OpenScape.
The last part of the announcement is the security code reset. AVST notes that large customers’ help desks get calls from users who can’t remember their password, and CallXpress 8.2 provides users the ability to request a password reset. Users receive an email with a URL that takes them to a page where they can reset their password. This enhancement will be useful for the many universities and large government agencies that have been asking for this capability.
In sum, AVST added several new enhancements to CallXpress, focusing on mobility, a Lync Intelligent Gateway, new switch integrations, and a password reset capability. One thing that is still missing is presence federation. Currently CallXpress’ find me/follow rules are all based on things that AVST controls and are not tied to outside presence status inputs such as Outlook calendar. AVST claims that it is moving in that direction, and will be able to provide this capability in a future release.
AVST is continuing to support as many switches and platforms as possible, and is extending its mobile capabilities to adapt to workers’ changing needs and preferences. The company is moving a long way from its voice mail and unified messaging roots, to providing more unified communications capabilities, and we expect to see even more UC announcements in the near future.