The new product is an advanced voice enabled communication solution that allows workers to control their PBX/IP-PBX based phone, including corporate voicemail, through DTMF, speech and easy-to-use visual interfaces designed for mobile phones, Blackberry devices, mobile windows and Palm Treo devices.

The i-Link server interfaces to an enterprise phone system through standard analog, as well as T1/E1 interfaces for legacy environments and SIP for IP environments. It uses Nuance 8.5 speech engine to facilitate scalable and highly accurate speech recognition so users can simply say a name, department or command, and the system will automatically connect them to their targeted destination or user. What makes the platform so unique is its highly scalable dictionary for large deployments and its ability to listen for both speech commands and DTMF requests at the same time, which are equally important for users in bad coverage areas.

Users of the system have the ability to establish multiple locations and define filters on how and when people can contact them live. An organization can deliver unparalleled service to a distributed workforce, due to the simple ability of managing and connecting no matter where one is located. Live answering is not defined by the time of day; instead, advanced speech technology allows a caller to find its live party quickly, efficiently and with little wait time. In addition, users can define sophisticated yet easy to use VIP rules to ensure specific customers are always greeted with a live voice, thus eliminating 80-90 percent of voice mail results.

“The i-Link mobility server links callers to your business. It doesn’t simply deliver mobility but provides an organization the tools to intelligently route calls and connect them based on who they are, what company they represent and the nature of their enquiry. This will change the way businesses operate and deliver the competitive advantage they need to compete in today’s global business environment,” said Davide Petramala, vice president of marketing and sales of Esnatech.

A standards-based client-server solution, i-Link has a mobile WAP and Web client interface that enables users to manage delivery of incoming calls, define locations, initiate outbound calls and define their availability and availability filters. The i-Link Mobility Server is deployed within the enterprise and integrates with industry leading PBX’s and IP-PBX systems.

“The time people spend working outside a traditional office has exploded in recent years, with employees typically distributing both cell phone and office phone numbers to customers, clients and colleagues. This practice increases businesses’ cell phone expenses, forces customers to try multiple numbers and causes the enterprise to lose control of critical communication records,” said Mohammad Nezarati, president and CEO of Esnatech. “I-Link provides a powerful mobile interface to corporate phone systems, reducing cost, increasing productivity and ensuring that the enterprise manages all business calls and associated call records.”

The i-LinK results in unparalleled integration and management of inbound calls and outbound calls when employees are in mobile locations. Features of i-LinK include:

- Speech Recognition: Callers and users simply say a name, department or command and i-Link connects the call. Leveraging the Nuance 8.5 speech recognition engine, i-Link is completely multilingual and can support multiple languages at the same time.

- Availability filters: Users can define rules and filters for their availability. This improves access to important calls and allows them to filter non-important calls to voice mail, enabling true productivity and control connection costs.

- Find me ring: Sends calls to both the desk phone and mobile phone simultaneously. Both phones ring and in fact, users can define multiple different simultaneous destinations. All can be answered.

- Redirect Calls: For employees that are telecommuting or traveling, i-Link forwards phone calls from the business phone number to any phone designated by the user including a home office or hotel room phone number. The i-Link can also be set up to automatically send calls to different phone numbers according to a pre-defined schedule.

- Initiate Outbound Calls: The i-Link enables calls to originate from the desk phone even when the caller is mobile. This allows the outbound call record to be maintained inside the enterprise. The enterprise caller ID is maintained and use of the corporate calling plan saves money.

- Call Log: Users can view calls to and from the office phone and it’s fully integrated in the users Outlook inbox under the calls folder. Users can also search the corporate directory on their mobile phones by first name or last name using speech recognition or DTMF.

- Standards’-based architecture – The i-Link is built using industry-standard protocols such as TAPI, SIP and CSTA. This enables organizations to work across any type of telephony and data network, while facilitating ease of use of both standard and Web-based application.

Availability

The i-Link beta program is officially launched and running. General release of the ICU solution is slated for September 1, 2006.