Siemens expands HiPath features

Siemens last week announced it will update its HiPath Xpressions message platform to make it easier for customers to use on the go and with non-Siemens corporate phone systems.

Among other things, HiPath Xpressions 4.0 adds voice commands and shortcuts for managing and retrieving messages, as well support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), according to Ralph Riley, U.S. group manager for product marketing at Siemens.

The platform, which runs on standard server hardware in corporations, lets users access voice mail, e-mail and faxes via a PC or a phone. Through its text-to-speech feature, users can have e-mail messages and faxes read to them along with voice mail on any phone. They can also respond to e-mail from a phone by recording a voice clip and attaching it to the reply message, Riley says.

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Siemens last week announced it will update its HiPath Xpressions message platform to make it easier for customers to use on the go and with non-Siemens corporate phone systems.

Among other things, HiPath Xpressions 4.0 adds voice commands and shortcuts for managing and retrieving messages, as well support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), according to Ralph Riley, U.S. group manager for product marketing at Siemens.

The platform, which runs on standard server hardware in corporations, lets users access voice mail, e-mail and faxes via a PC or a phone. Through its text-to-speech feature, users can have e-mail messages and faxes read to them along with voice mail on any phone. They can also respond to e-mail from a phone by recording a voice clip and attaching it to the reply message, Riley says.

By adding speech recognition to the software, Siemens is introducing "hands-free" message playback and other functions, he says. Users also can update a calendar entry, accept a calendar request, manage contact lists and forward messages through voice commands.

Another new feature, Trusted Number Access, lets users bypass the usual authentication process when they dial in to the HiPath Xpressions server from a frequently used number such as a cell phone, Riley says. A call will go directly to the server's menu. Navigating the menu also will be easier with abbreviated prompts for experienced users and programmable shortcuts that users can set up through a Web interface.

Siemens also expanded multi-vendor support. HiPath Xpressions 4.0 works with 14 different PBX platforms, so employees connected to any of those PBXs can access and manage voice mail through Xpressions along with their e-mail, Riley says.

In addition, the company has made HiPath Xpressions compatible with SIP. Because this standard signaling system is widely used in IP telephony and messaging systems, Xpressions will work easily with many SIP-based platforms and applications, Riley says. Without SIP support, interoperability needs to be set up for one product at a time, he says.

Siemens added support for third-party voice mail systems, which is a major enhancement to the platform, says Robert Arnold, an analyst at Current Analysis. Some companies have several different phone and voice mail systems in different divisions or locations, sometimes because they have acquired other companies. Making all those systems work with HiPath Xpressions could make life easier, he says.

For one thing, if administrators can manage all the systems under HiPath Xpressions, it will be easier to set up consistent policies for how and when different employees can use certain services, Arnold says. In addition, the programmable shortcut feature will let administrators set up for each division or office key combinations that duplicate the ones they use on the legacy voice mail system, he says.

HiPath Xpressions 4.0 starts at $80 per seat.

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.