F O R I M M E D I A T E R E
L E A S E
FacetCorp Announces Release of FacetPhone Version 2
Significant Features Added to IP-PBX
October 15, 2003
FacetCorp (Plano, TX, & Long Beach, CA), makers of the next generation IP-PBX telephone system, announces the release of
FacetPhone Version 2 at the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo. This latest release of FacetPhone includes such new features as automatic call
distribution, call recording, call forwarding, new telecommuter hardware and integrated paging.
When FacetPhone Version 1 was released last May, it included a wide range of both standard and unique phone
system features such as presence management, visual voice mail with unified messaging, automated attendant,
computer telephony integration with both Windows and UNIX/Linux applications (with the groundbreaking UTAPI
protocol), enterprise instant messaging and branch office support. With FacetPhone Version 2, FacetCorp has
significantly enhanced an already competitive product offering.
The FacetPhone automatic call distribution (ACD) feature will sequentially ring each available operator/agent
in a group until the call is answered. Or if all operators are busy, it will queue the call until the next
operator becomes available, while playing a prerecorded message to the caller. This is a great tool for
enhancing customer service and improving productivity in call centers and departmental groups. The new
call recording feature allows the user to instantly begin recording calls (either 2-way or conference calls)
to create an audio record of the conversation. “At KCD Financial, we handle many different types of client
transactions, including stock trades,” said Dianne Parisi, Vice-President. “The ability to quickly and
easily record telephone conversations is critical to our business. FacetPhone has been a great solution
for our environment.”
FacetPhone’s call forwarding was designed for employees on the go. Prior to this, whenever a FacetPhone
user would log into the system, their calls would automatically be forwarded to that station with the
roaming extensions feature. Now with call forwarding, users can have their calls automatically forwarded
to them (to any phone number) wherever they are. And the FacetPhone presence management feature displays
the user’s call forwarding status for other FacetPhone users to see.
FacetPhone Version 2 has lowered the cost of integrating telecommuters into the corporate phone system.
Support has been added for the low cost Cisco ATA 186 media gateway which allows telecommuters to link
directly into the headquarters phone system over the Internet. Using the Cisco gateway to connect into
the FacetPhone system allows telecommuters to literally be on their corporate phone network while avoiding
any long distance charges between their location and headquarters. Branch offices continue to be supported
through the standard FacetPhone media gateway.
Other New Features:
Version 2 also adds the ability to do paging to the network PC speakers. This is a great way to handle
paging without the time and expense of implementing a complete overhead paging system (which is also
supported by FacetPhone). The paging to PC speakers gives users the added benefit of recording and
checking their page before sending.
Version 2 has improved integration with Microsoft Outlook based on the Caller ID data with incoming
calls. If a Caller ID match is found in the user’s Outlook contact list, then that contact will be
automatically “screen popped” just as before. The user now has a new option where if no match is found,
FacetPhone will automatically open up a new contact and pre-fill the company name and phone number with
the Caller ID data. This is very useful for companies using Outlook as a primary customer contact database.
FacetPhone now provides automatic codec selection based on the physical location of the media gateway. For
example, branch office and telecommuter gateways automatically use a compressed codec for minimum network
bandwidth usage. Gateways on the local area network will operate in an uncompressed mode. This feature
effectively balances overall voice quality with typical network throughput constraints.
FacetPhone’s graphical user interface has added a slider volume control so users may dynamically (and
quickly) change their earpiece volume, regardless of whether they are using a standard phone receiver,
headset or speakerphone.
There is no charge for existing FacetPhone customers to upgrade to Version 2. New customers should
contact FacetCorp for pricing, delivery and other information. 1.877.FacetGo (1.877.322.3846) or
info@facetcorp.com.
www.facetcorp.com
FacetPhone Feature Summary
- Telephone User Interface (TUI):
- The FacetPhone system uses standard analog telephones of the customer's choosing. From the telephone
instrument, users may dial, answer, put calls on hold, transfer calls, park calls, pickup parked calls,
conference call, page and manage their voice mail.
- Graphical User Interface (GUI):
- The FacetPhone GUI provides a useful and powerful desktop PC interface into the phone system.
Presence and availability management, graphical call control, instant messaging, graphical voice
mail management, conference calls, call recording and graphical administration are all provided
through this interface. However, FacetPhone is designed for people to use a standard telephone
for normal voice communications. The FacetPhone GUI interface is available for any desktop device
supporting Java.
- Presence & Availability Management (PAM):
- Using the graphical user interface on the PC, FacetPhone provides an instantly informative display
detailing which employees are available, on the phone, busy, at lunch, out of town, etc. FacetPhone's
PAM functionality is available not only to operators but to all users as well. Operators and users may
"see" the availability status of people within a department, the entire company, or any other group the
administrator allows. Operators (and optionally users) may visually monitor phone lines and extensions.
And with Roaming Extensions users may login to FacetPhone from any extension or location, including a
branch office or home office. FacetPhone automatically routes calls for a user to the proper telephone,
and the PAM display reflects the user's current physical location. With Call Forwarding, users may
have their calls automatically forwarded to any phone number, and again the PAM display will reflect
this status for their phone.
- Voice Mail & Unified Messaging:
- FacetPhone supports all the standard voice mail features through the telephone.
But through the graphical user interface, voice mail becomes particularly useful and easy to manage. When the user receives
a voice mail message, the FacetPhone GUI gives an immediate indicator on the user's PC screen.
- Security: FacetPhone VM security is provided through a user Personal
Identification Number (PIN).
- Voice Mail Phone Light: FacetPhone automatically manages the voice mail waiting indicator
light on telephones that have this feature.
- Multiple Greetings: The user may define multiple voice mail greetings for different situations
depending on their user status.
- Graphical User Interface to VM: The user interface allows users to visually sort and manage
their voice mail messages.
Each voice mail message has the callerID information, date and time of the message, text notations associated with
the message, and the message duration.
- Add Text / Comments: Users may add text comments to any voice mail message as a short visual
description of the message content.
- Playback: Voice mail messages may be played on the telephone or the PC speakers.
- Voice Mail Forwarding To Email: Users may choose to have their voice mail forwarded to their
email account as an audio attachment. Voice mail may be forwarded to email on an ad-hoc or continuous basis,
giving the user an easy-to-manage unified messaging system.
- Voice Mail Notification via Email: Users may opt to have a special notification only email (without
the actual audio attachment) sent to them whenever a new voice mail is received. This will give them an instant
alert via email, cell phone or pager with the callerID information.
- Mouse Click Return Call: Users may place a return call to the sender of the message with a single mouse
click.
- Informational Only Mailbox: Mailboxes may be defined to provide informational messages without
recording any voice mail. This can be useful as an end point for the auto attendant routing to a group mailbox.
- TUI Access: The FacetPhone VM system is completely available to users from
a standard telephone. Users may access this system locally or remotely. When dialing out from
their extension, a stutter dial tone indicates new voice mail messages have been received.
- Automated Attendant:
- Utilizing FacetPhone's powerful and flexible Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system,
the auto attendant feature is available for use by both the main reception lines and departmental
groups. Auto attendant is also supported at the user/extension level through the
voice mail system. All greeting prompts are completely customizable by the
company and group. Some of the auto attendant features are:
- Reception: FacetPhone is designed to be used with or without a receptionist
answering the inbound phone calls. The auto attendant for the main reception lines can be turned on
or off as needed. It can be on during normal business hours and provide automated routing of all calls.
Or, it can be activated only for after hours and holidays. It can also be used as a backup to the receptionist
where it is activated only after a predetermined number of rings.
- Group: At the group or department level, the FacetPhone auto attendant can be on
all of the time, or activated for non-business hours, departmental meetings, lunch hours, etc.
- Dial by Name: The FacetPhone auto attendant allows in-bound callers to route
their call to the appropriate person without knowing their extension. This feature allows for either first
or last name directory look up.
- Dial by Extension: In-bound callers may quickly route their call to the appropriate person
if they know the correct extension number.
- Dial by Group: FacetPhone will allow in-bound callers to route their call
directly to the auto attendant of a group or department.
- Voice Mail: Of course, callers may be routed directly to a user's voice mail,
or voice mail management.
- Informational: The FacetPhone auto attendant can also be used to play specific
informational messages (without allowing for a voice mail to be recorded) based on telephone menu prompts.
- Automatic Call Distribution (ACD):
- The FacetPhone ACD provides for automatic call routing to the next available agent in a group
or department. It includes call queue management when all agents are busy, "sold on hold," and caller opt-out of
queue option.
- CallerID* Support:
- FacetPhone provides complete support for callerID. The company name (if available) and
phone number of the calling party is provided to the user in multiple ways, depending upon individual preferences.
- Telephone Instrument: If the telephone instrument supports callerID, the information will be displayed
on the telephone.
- FacetPhone GUI: For calls from the outside, the operator or user gets a small
FacetPhone screen pop on their PC with the caller's company name and phone number. For calls
from another inside extension, the user will get a similar screen pop on their PC with the
caller's name and extension.
- Voice Mail: Any voice mail messages received will retain the associated callerID information.
- Windows Applications: Users may optionally configure FacetPhone to provide screen
pops through their Windows applications such as Outlook, Goldmine and any TAPI enabled application such
as Act!. With these applications, FacetPhone provides the callerID information and they
automatically pull up a matching record in their database if one exists.
- UNIX Applications: Linux / UNIX based applications may take advantage of the FacetPhone
UTAPI protocol to query FacetPhone as the call is coming in. In real time,
FacetPhone will send any callerID data to the application which can then screen pop the
corresponding database record. To take advantage of this feature some minor changes would need to be made to
the Linux / UNIX application.
* The callerID service must be purchased separately from the customer's local phone service
suppler.
- Computer Telephony Integration (CTI):
- Computer Telephony Integration is the ability of the phone system to interact with the company or employee
computer system(s). An IP-based phone system is particularly well suited for CTI. FacetPhone
uses CTI to communicate with Windows, Linux and UNIX applications.
- CTI Windows Applications: FacetPhone supports Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI) with Windows applications through Microsoft’s Telephone Application Programming Interface (TAPI).
TAPI provides a standard way for Windows applications to interact with a telephone system. Users can dial
from their TAPI enabled application (such as Act!) and also perform “screen pops” which automatically brings
up customer information based on the callerID data provided by the phone system.
In addition, FacetPhone supports the proprietary telephone interfaces
provided by the popular Outlook and Goldmine applications.
- CTI UNIX Applications: FacetPhone supports Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI) with UNIX applications through a new protocol developed by FacetCorp. This
is called UTAPI, for UNIX Telephone Application Programming Interface. UTAPI allows publishers of UNIX
applications to easily modify their code to allow telephone dialing and callerID customer lookup (see
screen shot above of sample callerID "screen pop" implementation). Want to learn
more about UTAPI?
- FacetWin Interface:
- FacetWin has completely integrated support for FacetPhone so that FacetPhone customers
who are also using the FacetWin terminal emulator will be able to dial out from
FacetWin without making any changes to their Linux / UNIX application. The user simply highlights
the number on the screen they wish to dial, and then right clicks the mouse for the dial option. Or, the
user may quickly predefine fixed fields on the screen for one click dialing without the need for highlighting a
phone number.
- Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM):
- Instant messaging, or text chat, can be conducted between two or more users logged into FacetPhone.
This feature is particularly handy for those quick co-worker communications where someone doesn't want to intrude with
a phone call or wait for an email response. It is also very useful for short, quick communications while you are
on the phone. FacetPhone EIM excludes all parties that are not on the corporate network resulting
in a more secure, productive work environment.
- Branch Office & Telecommuters:
- FacetPhone fully integrates users that are in a branch office or are telecommuters via the Internet.
Remote locations become simple telephone extensions, so users may dial inside extensions or outside numbers just as
they would from their central corporate location. They get complete access to the FacetPhone GUI and
TUI interfaces. Operators and other users on FacetPhone can see their remote status through the presence
management screen.
Branch office and telecommuter support require the following components:
- Broadband Internet connections at remote and HQ locations
- VPN Router at remote and HQ locations
- FacetPhone gateway at remote locations
- Administrative Controls:
- FacetPhone is designed to be completely managed and administered by the customer.
Through the FacetPhone GUI, the user may control their: user location/work status, voice mail greeting
settings, and unified messaging directives. The manager may control: users, groups, lines, stations, and gateways.
About FacetCorp:
FacetCorp is a privately held company located in Plano, Texas, USA. FacetCorp develops business
communications and networking solutions with an emphasis on premier customer service. FacetCorp's
products include FacetPhone, FacetWin, FacetWin DT, and FacetTerm. FacetPhone is a complete business
communications system for small to medium sized businesses. FacetWin is the all-in-one Windows to
UNIX/Linux software connectivity product. FacetWin DT is a low cost terminal emulator for serial
connections. And, FacetTerm provides multiple sessions for character-based UNIX or Linux applications.
FacetCorp can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.facetcorp.com.
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FacetWin and FacetTerm are registered trademarks of FacetCorp. FacetPhone and UTAPI
are trademarks of FacetCorp. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are
property of their respective owners.
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