Unraveling Unified Messaging

Charles Edge — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:01:47 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk the past year or two about unified messaging. You may remember the old ATT All in One commercial where a person was golfing and his important call would find him, and he wouldn’t miss the call. Or have you ever had a job where every morning you had to check your e-mail, then your voicemail on your phones, and then walk to the fax machine to check your faxes? Well, Google this week released a new service called Google Voice. Google Voice is just a revamp of their system called Google GrandCentral. You have one number that people will call, and Google will route the call to all of your phones to try and locate you, and allow you to essentially ignore the call or accept it. You can also search your emails, voicemails, and SMS messages from the web. Microsoft Exchange offers a system that will allow you to get all your email, voicemail and faxes in one centralized location. Weaver just released a service in February that will allow Asterisk users to have their voicemail transcribed automatically and e-mailed to them. Below is a chart of services offered by Google, Asterisk, and Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging to give you a better understanding of what technology route you may want to go.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging
Microsoft’s Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging goal is to tie in Email, Fax and Phone into one manageable place. An example that Microsoft uses is that first thing in the morning most people check their email, then check their voicemail, and after check their faxes. Exchange Unified Messaging has the ability to tie together all three of these communication technologies into a single place for management.

Exchange Unified Messaging on it’s own cannot serve a PBX function, but harnesses a current PBX infrastructure into Exchange for end users to have a seamless place to manage their communications. The current iteration of Exchange Unified Messaging is with Exchange 2007. To leverage the entire suite of features, you must use Outlook 2007.

Google Voice
Google Voice is a communication infrastructure much like Exchange Unified Messaging, but seems to be targeted for non-business consumers. Google Voice is the current iteration of what was once known as Google GrandCentral. Its purpose is unified messaging as well, as it ties in your Gmail, SMS and incoming phone calls into your phone account created on Google Voice. Google Voice is an IP-PBX (VoIP) that allows you to make and receive calls with unified messaging capabilities.

Receiving calls can be done through any cell phone that you have, or through their Google Voice web interface. Making calls can be done via GoogleVoice (web-based), or through any other phone (landline or cell phone). The price point is very good (as in free). The price is free for all calls made to US numbers (long distance charges to other countries apply, of course). It requires no additional hardware.

Asterisk
Asterisk is an open source IP-PBX (VoIP) platform based on Linux. It requires a computer to run on and can tie in your existing land line with almost any VoIP provider of your choice. Call pricing depends on your phone carriers.

	Google Voice	Asterisk	Exchange 2007
Voicemail	Yes, stored on Google’s PBX Server.	Yes, stored on PBX Server.	Yes, originating from current PBX, but forwarded and stored in Exchange
Email	Yes, integrated with Gmail.	Yes, SMTP’d to host of your choice.	Yes, integrated with Exchange and Outlook
Transcribing VoiceMail	Yes	Yes, not natively as it needs to use VoiceScribe[1] and then emails you the trasncript	No, but allows the user to take notes (including manually transcribing voicemail) to allow voicemail to be searchable via Outlook
Price	The use is free, and calls to US numbers are free. Your cell provider rates still apply, and Google has their own price for long distance calling[2].	Free to install and use, and configure. The call price rate depends on your local and/or VoIP carrier.	Phone calls rates are based on your PBX/Call Provider. Only certain PBXs are supported[3]. The price for Exchange is $699 for Standard or $3,999 for Enterprise depending on how many storage groups and databases per mailbox server role you need.[4] Both come with unified messaging.
Can call more than one of your phones at a time to try to locate you.	Yes	Yes, but you need to purchase additional trunks (VoIP or PSTN)	Depends on PBX
Can automatically locate you and route calls depending on bluetooth proximity.	No	Yes	No
Native Address Book	Yes, integrated with your Google Account.	No	Yes, integrated with Exchange Contacts
Call Management	Yes, via your phones (and possibly through Google Voice)	Yes, via your phones or through HUD	Yes, through Outlook and possibly through your PBX Software
Fax	No	Yes, but it’s through VoIP, and not realiable[5]	Yes, through a standard fax line
VoIP	Yes	Yes	Depends on PBX
Listen to voice messages without changing their context to another application	Yes, integrated with Google Voice	No – you need to use whatever sound application is installed on your computer	Yes integrated with Outlook
Multiplatform	Unknown, but since it’s web based, it may work on Linux, Mac, and Windows.	Yes – Linux, Mac, and Windows	No, just Windows with Outlook 2007. You can play messages in Entourage, but may either have to change file type in Exchange from .wma to .wav, or have Mac users install WMP 9 for OS X[6]
Configure individual voice mail settings	Via phone or web	Via phone or web	Yes integrated with Outlook
View all voicemail in one location	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distinguish voice and fax messages from email messages within mailbox	No, just voice mail from email, and only through Google Voice	No	Yes integrated with Outlook
Determine whether a voice message has already been played	Unknown	No	Yes integrated with Outlook
Add notes to a voicemail message natively	Unknown	No	Yes integrated with Outlook
Reply to a voice mail with email	Unknown – not sure if it can work with blocked numbers or telephone numbers not in contacts.	No	Yes integrated with Outlook
Add telephone numbers received to Contacts natively	Unknown	No	Yes integrated with Outlook
Share VoiceMail	Yes	Yes	Yes
Adding a user	Free. Requires that each user is registered with a Google account.	Free. Just create a new extension for IP phones. For non-IP hard phones, you must buy a FXS card (or to connect a regular phone to an ATA).	You must buy CALs for each user. For unified messaging, you must have both the Exchange Standard AND Entprise CAL. Exchange Standard CAL is $67, Exchange Enterprise CAL is $35.[7] You must purchase both CALs for each user. You also need to add a user to your PBX – pricing and licensing depends on PBX provider.

There are some things that may catch your eye (or not) when you first see this chart. Exchange Unified Messaging is expensive, but offers a lot of features that the other two don’t. From a “birds eye view” it may also fit your enterprise better if your companies’ locations use different types of PBXs, but you want to “unify” all of the communication in Exchange.

If you have a heterogeneous environment or non Windows environment, Asterisk or Google Voice may be a better route for you.

If you are concerned with regulatory compliance, Google Voice may not be your best choice since you do not have a centralized location of all your communication readily available.

When determining which choice is a better fit for your business, carefully weigh your options (price, compliance and room for expansion to name a few). It will be exciting to see how the technologies are managed, and what the future holds for unified communications. If you plan to roll out any of these services, or are in need of consultation, please don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re here to help.

[1] https://www.weavver.com/Public/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fDefault.aspx

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?pagewanted=2&8dpc&_r=1

[3] http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164342.aspx#supipgate

[4] http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/default.mspx

[5] http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+fax

[6] http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/default.mspx?CTT=PageView&clr=99-15-0&target=d01fafd1-6c54-459b-9ea6-2d7b80cffab71033&srcid=d0b1e054-62c9-4980-954b-f15b90b720a91033&ep=7

[7] http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/default.mspx

318 Tech Journal » Google Voice

Unraveling Unified Messaging