This is the first in a series of three articles that describe Unified Communications (UC) from a Zultys point of view. This article talks about the two different modes of integration. The next two articles in the series will talk about how to implement a mixed solution and then an overview of Exchange/Outlook integration with Zultys iPBXs. In the past, I’ve talked about some of the cool features of MXIE, (Media Exchange Interface for End-users) by Zultys Inc. and how it can make you more productive. If you have heard about unified communications or UC anytime in the last ten years, you know that the utopia of any office worker today is to tie together all forms of communications in one place. That one place usually means the individual workers desktop. Desktop usually means integration with MS Outlook. If you have read any of my articles in the past, you already know that MXIE can tie together your voice, fax, instant messaging, web conferencing, contacts and email all in one nice little package.
Zultys line of products has two different modes for setting up Unified Communications to integrate your business phones, your iPBX and your email.
The first and easiest to setup uses the MXIE client along with your email client of choice. The fine folks at Zultys knew that you were not going to throw away your Outlook, Gmail, or whatever client you are using, so they didn’t integrate email into the MXIE client. This gives you full access to all of your desktop communications and can notify you via your email client in the event of a voice mail or fax, and even forward those to you as attachments. If you configure the MXIE client this way, you have the option of leaving the message on the MX server, deleting it, or simply marking it read. Through the MXIE client, you also have full access to your Outlook address book.
Zultys also offers full integration with Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Outlook. This mode of integration uses the Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI) to synchronize all of your changes made in Outlook/Exchange with your account on the MX250/MX30. That is to say, if you delete a voicemail in your inbox, its counterpart on the iPBX will also be deleted. Of course, this mode of integration would require you to use your instant messenger and web conferencing applications of choice, but it would tie email, fax and voice mail to the same application (Outlook).
If you are interested in how these solutions are setup, keep an eye out for the next two articles.
Mark Norton
Senior Technology Consultant
ROI Telephony
mnorton@ROItelephony.com
Tags: Exchnage, IP PBX, ip phone systems, mxie, Outlook, Unified Communications
