Toshiba announces unified messaging product

Strata Messaging is sized and priced to address the needs of SMB users who also use Toshiba Strata CIX40 and CIX100 VoIP systems

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

Today we'll cover announcements from Toshiba with a unified messaging product targeting small/midsize businesses; from Mitel about an applications suite upgrade; and from a reader who commented earlier this month about our opinion pieces on net neutrality.

Toshiba has announced an entry-level unified messaging solution. The new product, called Strata Messaging, is sized and priced to address the needs of SMB users who also use Toshiba Strata CIX40 and CIX100 VoIP systems. The Strata Messaging system resides on an external Linux-based appliance with support for two to eight ports of voice mail, up to 400 mailboxes, and has 300 hours of storage. Strata Messaging is available through Toshiba's dealers nationwide.

Mitel unveiled enhancements to its Mitel Applications Suite (MAS) with a new Mitel Customer Service Manager (CSM) and Mitel Business Dashboard. The CSM is designed to help work groups or entry-level contact centers route calls to the most appropriate agent; it also provides reporting, screen pop, PIM integration, and e-mail routing. The Business Dashboard offers reporting to more easily monitor call traffic and collect trend data on call volumes and times so users can assess the effectiveness of how call traffic is handled and adjust for maximum benefit.

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Today we'll cover announcements from Toshiba with a unified messaging product targeting small/midsize businesses; from Mitel about an applications suite upgrade; and from a reader who commented earlier this month about our opinion pieces on net neutrality.

Toshiba has announced an entry-level unified messaging solution. The new product, called Strata Messaging, is sized and priced to address the needs of SMB users who also use Toshiba Strata CIX40 and CIX100 VoIP systems. The Strata Messaging system resides on an external Linux-based appliance with support for two to eight ports of voice mail, up to 400 mailboxes, and has 300 hours of storage. Strata Messaging is available through Toshiba's dealers nationwide.

Mitel unveiled enhancements to its Mitel Applications Suite (MAS) with a new Mitel Customer Service Manager (CSM) and Mitel Business Dashboard. The CSM is designed to help work groups or entry-level contact centers route calls to the most appropriate agent; it also provides reporting, screen pop, PIM integration, and e-mail routing. The Business Dashboard offers reporting to more easily monitor call traffic and collect trend data on call volumes and times so users can assess the effectiveness of how call traffic is handled and adjust for maximum benefit.

Finally, in a reply to our suggestion that service providers should offer consumers multiple service IP classes in tandem with equal access to a "best effort" public Internet, Ed Basart, co-founder and CTO at ShoreTel, got back to us with some historical perspective on the topic.

Basart writes, "Years ago when I could talk with the principals of the major ISPs face to face, they described how their networks worked in just these terms. At a base level, everyone peered and just passed the traffic around. At any bandwidth-constricted place -- such as the last mile to a customer, priority was given to the customer who paid more."

But back then, the pipes were giant and the traffic was low -- no pipe from ISP A would choke out ISP B. [Today] it's easy to imagine 100,000 simultaneous YouTube [users] accessing the same video file and clogging a high bandwidth pipe between two ISPs. What to do?"

What to do indeed? If you've got a suggestion or comment, please feel free to reply to us by clicking our hyperlink names above. And our thanks to Basart for his reply.

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

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.