Nortel Networks Meridian Mail

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1 Richard A. Costello Product Report 4 November 2002 Nortel Networks Summary Nortel indicates that contrary to industry rumors, development on continues, with the pending introduction of Release Table of Contents Overview Analysis Optional Features Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Insight List Of Tables Table 1: System Integration Table 2: Release 13 Table 3: Price List: Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Nortel Networks Corporate Headquarters Nortel Networks Ltd Dixie Road Brampton, ON L6T 5P6, Canada Tel: ; NORTEL Fax: Internet: Overview functions include the traditional components of voice messaging telephone call answering, auto attendant, voice mail, voice forms and audiotext, as well as multimedia functions, such as fax-ondemand. is available in several platform variations for integration with Nortel s Meridian 1 family of PBX systems. solutions can be configured from as small as two ports with five hours of storage to as large as 192 ports with 1,200 hours of storage. Platforms The current hardware platforms are listed in the following table. Table 1: System Integration Platform Mini Voice Ports: 2 to 12 Hours of Storage: 5 to 54 5,291 Card Option Voice Ports: 2 to 12 Hours of Storage: 2 to 100 5,291 Modular Option Voice Ports: 4 to 64 Hours of Storage: 5 to ,164 PBX System Meridian 1 Option 11C Mini Meridian 1 Option 11C Meridian 1 Options 61C, 81C (The Modular Option is not available for new sales. It is sustained, and established Modular Options in the field are supported for hardware and software upgrades.) 4 November

3 Nortel Networks Table 1: System Integration Platform Modular Option EC Voice Ports: 4 to 96 Hours of Storage: 5 to ,164 EC11 Voice Ports: 4 to 48 Hours of Storage: 5 to ,582 Modular Option GP Voice Ports: 4 to 64 Hours of Storage: 11 to ,164 Message Services Module (MSM) VoicePorts:48to 192 Hours of Storage: 11 to 1,200 42,328 PBX System Meridian 1 Options 61C, 81C Meridian 1 Option 11C Meridian 1 SL-100 Option 211 and Option 201 SuperNode SE; Meridian Digital Centrex (MDC) Third-party PBXs via Simplified Message Desk Interface (SMDI) Note: Meridian 1 Option 51C has been retired in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). It remains a system that can be upgraded to the latest software releases, but no new Option 51C systems or upgrades are sold any longer. Analysis Release 13 is compatible with all of the Nortel platforms listed above, including Meridian Mail Mini for the Option 11C Mini. The following table highlights the features and benefits in Release 13. Table 2: Release 13 Feature Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Description System Event and Error (SEER) message notification is now supported by SNMPbased system administrators. The SNMP notification can be broadcast to a larger number of users. 4 November

4 Nortel Networks Table 2: Release 13 Feature Text Messaging Text Messaging and Notification via Web Interface Delete Unread Messages Nested Shared Distribution Lists (SDLs) Remote Notification Class of Service (CoS) Message Sort Order User Interface Volume Control Multiple Message Waiting Indication (MWI) Directory Numbers (DNs) User Interface Speed Control Enhancement Disable Message Reception Remote Notification 30 Digit Pin Plus Callback Number Personal Mailbox Administration (PMA) Description R13 supports Short Message Service (SMS) provided by a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network for alphanumeric messages of up to 160 characters. text messaging and notification is implemented and administered as a PC application through a Web interface. Allows the administrator to control the number of days unread (new) messages remain in a user s mailbox. Previously, SDLs could only contain mailbox numbers. The Nested SDL feature allows each SDL to contain a combination of mailboxes and other SDLs. Gives administrators the ability to define up to 100 different sets of characteristics for external devices, such as pagers from multiple service companies. Previously only one set of characteristics could be defined per user. Allows users to control the organization of messages stored in their mailboxes through a Web interface and according to four attributes: Delivery Time, Message Priority, Message Status, Mailbox Entry Point. Enables users to control the volume level of mailbox messages and/or prompts given in a session. Four volume levels are supported and controlled via the telephone set. Prior to R13, a mailbox could only send an MWI to one phone set. In R13, the administrator can define up to eight MWI DNs per mailbox. Provides users with the capability to control the playback speed level of messages residing in their mailboxes during a voice messaging session. Gives users the ability to prevent callers from leaving messages during extended periods of absence. Increases the current allowance of digits for the Pager Identification Number (PIN) and Callback Number from eight to 30. As an alternative to the telephone user interface (TUI), this optional feature allows users to view and modify aspects of their mailboxes from a Web browser, such as greetings administration, remote notification schedules, personal distribution lists and mailbox preferences. Mobility Features A voice message can be delivered directly to a voice pager, alleviating the mobile user s need to call to retrieve message information after pager notification. Calling line ID or primary DN (directory number) of the voice mail originator is delivered to a numeric pager or paging service. A mobile user who can be reached at a number of locations (up to eight) can have voice messages deposited in a central mailbox. 4 November

5 Nortel Networks Remote notification class of service (CoS) allows the administrator to define up to 15 different paging vendors. Any one of the remote notification CoSs can be assigned to a user via the user s mailbox CoS. Short Message Service (SMS) provides the ability to send and receive short alphanumeric messages of up to 160 characters via the user s service provider. The user s text message can be received by several targets the user s account, PCS (Personal Communications Service) device or pager. With a schedule and target profile defined by administration, a user can specify a target during specific time periods. This feature has two modes stand-alone and notification. In stand-alone mode, a text message is composed and sent to users. In notification mode, the notification can be accepted from other software, such as, and then allows a pre-defined text message to be sent to the recipient. Dual Languages User Interface (MMUI), the system s standard telephone user interface (TUI), supports duallanguage prompting. Intended for multilingual systems, this allows mailbox prompts to be played first in one language and then in a second. Up to four languages can be configured per system. The 32 languages supported include Arabic, Danish, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. can be set up to provide different language prompting for different groups of users on the same system. Voice Applications Meridian Access is a software toolkit for the development of voice messaging applications; for example, inbound interactive voice response (IVR), outbound IVR or transaction-oriented (leave message). Access software executes on a customer-supplied PC connected by data link to. Fax-on-Demand Allows customers to build applications whereby documents can be stored on the system, and callers to the system can request these documents be faxed to them. Fax items can be retrieved directly or from a voice menu. Stored information can be faxed to the caller on the same call or via callback to a number specified by the caller. Integrated Mailbox Administration With the integrated mailbox administration feature, system administrators can apply moves, adds and changes (MACs) to Meridian 1 and have them automatically reflected in. Similarly, MACs applied to will be reflected in Meridian 1. System Event and Error Messages s System Event and Error (SEER) message function provides an indication that an event, such as a nightly audit or an error, has occurred. SEER messages are classified as System, Administration or Error. The latter are further classified as Minor, Major or Critical. SEER messages cause unsolicited Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) messages to be broadcast, which provide alerting via industry-standard mechanisms. Optional Features Enterprise Networking 4 November

6 Nortel Networks systems with Meridian 1 PBXs can be networked together to exchange voice mail messages using Nortel s proprietary Enterprise Networking software. Up to 190 Meridian Mail systems can be networked together to create the appearance of one large system. In this way, an organization with multiple sites can link those sites for organization-wide voice mail. But systems cannot be centrally managed, and there is no Optivity Telephony Manager (OTM) for Meridian Mail. can also be networked using the Network Message Service (NMS) feature. A central Meridian 1 PBX system equipped with provides voice-messaging functionality for up to 59 Meridian 1 sites via the Primary Rate Interface (PRI), virtual private network (VPN) or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Signaling Link Option. The optional Net Gateway allows the connection of up to 500 voice mail systems over standard private networks, such as enterprise WANs, or the public Internet. The Net Gateway complies with the Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) messaging standard for enabling the transport of voice mail over TCP/IP networks. Systems supported include, Norstar Voice Mail (R3.0) or any thirdparty system that is compliant with VPIM standards. also supports the Audio Messaging Interchange Specification (AMIS) for the analog networking of voice mail systems. AMIS analog networking facilitates the exchange of voice mail between systems and other AMIS-compliant voice messaging systems, such as Siemens Phon , Avaya INTUITY AUDIX and Octel 100/200/300 platforms. Reporter Reporter (MMR) a Microsoft Windows 3.1-, 3.11-, NT- or 95-based application is designed to report usage. It can report on single-site or multisite systems at or above Release 10 (10.10 or later recommended). MMR provides 38 standard reports consisting of nine alert, five system, 19 application and five billback reports. The 19 application reports consist of 10 for the voice message application and nine for networking, outcalling and multimedia. For all reports, several customization features are available: query filters, sort fields, subtotals, grand totals, graphs, scheduling and data export format. The MMR report period is one hour (cannot be modified). A customer-provided PC is required (486 and 8MB RAM for systems less than 12 ports; Pentium and 16MB for 12 or more ports). Telephone User Interfaces supports three touchtone-based TUIs: User Interface (MMUI) Nortel s proprietary user interface. Voice Messaging User Interface Forum (VMUIF) an industry standard user interface supported by other voice mail vendors and designed for use at colleges and universities. Hospitality Voice Services (HVS) interface for guest mailbox access for the hospitality industry. can be equipped with only one telephone user interface at a time, which can be MMUI (standard), VMUIF (optional) or HVS (optional). Hospitality Voice Services Based on, Hospitality Voice Services (HVS) is designed for the lodging industry. It provides basic functionality, such as voice messaging for hotel/motel staff and a subset of features 4 November

7 Nortel Networks for hotel/motel guests. In addition to guest telephone call answering, HVS provides post-checkout service and property management system (PMS) integration. As a result of the PMS link, guest mailboxes are automatically activated at check-in and deactivated at checkout. Alternate User Interface for The Alternate User Interface (AUI) offers an additional user interface that closely resembles the user interface used by different voice mail systems. Customers migrating to from other voice mail systems thus do not have to retrain their end users. The AUI software interprets the user s commands, telling which voice prompts and responses to play and which actions to perform. The AUI software package includes an Access application that runs on a remote PC with a Windows NT operating system, connected to via an Access link. The PC is customer-supplied. Based on the specific number dialed by users to access the system, either the AUI or MMUI will be invoked. Note: AUI does not work with VMUIF or HVS. AutoAdmin AutoAdmin allows a customer to provide input to one central system and have it propagate the appropriate database information to other systems for automatic administration of. AutoAdmin is a Windows application that runs under Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, providing a GUI to administer a large number of mailboxes in a batch mode. A PC (customer supplied) is required for this option. Personal Mailbox Administration (PMA) With Release 13, the optional PMA feature allows subscribers to use their desktop PCs to modify mailbox options from a Web browser. If PMA has been activated on a mailbox, a GUI-like environment allows users to perform self-administration via the Internet in the areas of password change, creation/modification of personal distribution lists, remote notification schedule, message sort order, message playback speed and volume controls, mailbox enable or disable, language preference and operator assistance number. Pricing Table 3: Price List: Model Mini Reporter Net Gateway Software and Hardware Kit Suggested Retail Price (US$) 4,500 to 265,000 per system, depending on configuration 50 to 350 per mailbox 4,700 for single site; 5,200 for multiple sites 3,000 per site GSA Pricing Yes. Competitors competes with products such as Nortel CallPilot, Avaya Unified Messenger, Cisco Unity and Captaris CallXpress as enterprises consider the benefits of moving beyond traditional voice 4 November

8 Nortel Networks messaging to unified messaging platforms, although Nortel indicates that currently half of its customers are not opting for unified messaging. Strengths Nortel supports proprietary VPIM digital networking among systems. also supports industry-standard networking with AMIS-compliant third-party messaging systems. Nortel supports a migration path from all platforms to CallPilot Nortel s unified messaging solution. has a consistent feature set across all of its platform variations. supports 32 languages, of which any two can be configured for dual-language prompting. On a given platform, users can select a specific language (preference) from up to four configured languages. With the integrated mailbox administration feature, system administrators can apply moves, adds and changes (MACs) to Meridian 1 and have them automatically reflected in, and vice versa. The optional Personal Mailbox Administration (PMA) feature in R13 allows subscribers to use their desktop PCs to modify mailbox options from a Web browser. Limitations There is no central management capability supported for networked systems. is proprietary to the Meridian 1 PBX system and cannot be installed on third-party PBX platforms. offers no support for speech recognition or text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities. The application cannot be ported to the Nortel Succession CSE 1000 platform, as the CallPilot IPE and CallPilot Mini have been chosen as the messaging systems for CSE For new sales, Nortel no longer provides connectivity to third-party PBXs. Keystroke emulation of other voic user interfaces has been capped for new sales, limited to a single voice mail system (Octel). Insight Traditional voice mail requirements are still well served by, which continues to be about 50 percent of Nortel s messaging business and, as the company insists, is still an important part of its product portfolio. Nortel indicates that contrary to industry rumors, development on continues, with Release 13.5 pending, albeit a minor one; however, Nortel customers desiring newer technology and client/server unified messaging should look at Nortel CallPilot. 4 November