【正文】 ifficult to measure. We asked for the cost of 100 UM seats for a 1,000user enterprise, under the assumption that only a subset of people would be using UM. We were correct, but voic is tightly wrapped with UM。 HiPath came in at a good price and a close second, but its Connectorbased integration with Exchange left it short of Communit233。 AD) to install the schema update. This user also had rights to open all messages and send and receive messages as a user in the Exchange 2020 system. Once this was acplished, we installed the schema update, and our Communit233。t included with Communit233。 to its assigned Asterisk server. We also set Active Directory synchronization on a schedule. A system manager orchestrated stopping and starting all Communit233。 does not use the Domain User and Group MMC (Microsoft Management Console), like Siemens39。 beat it out, thanks to tighter integration with Active Directory and more intuitive administrative tools. But even in the second seat, the HiPath should be on anyone39。 remended platform for 2020 Server (an Intel PIII, 1GHz processor with 1,024 MB of RAM). Siemens remended an increase in the virtual memory of the box to twice the size of the physical memory. But with 3 GB of RAM, we kept virtual memory at its default of 768 MB. Prior to installation, we disabled IIS and SMTP support for Windows. Siemens provides its own Web server, Web APL (Access Protocol Layer) and SMTP process for messagingdon39。s address on the Exchange system. You might think that such tight integration with Active Directory and Exchange would let us search the directory for a user. Nope. We also could not set up more than one UM and/or voic store per user. Although we could select the user to be a member of a shared mailbox, we could not provision multiple message stores in Exchange or voic, as we could with HiPath. So if you need multiple message stores per user, your first choice for UM should be HiPath. At $56,000, Communit233。 provides two Web administration utilities: an administrative site for IT to provision users and configure attendant menus, and a portal where users can configure UM rules and notification options and see a Web view of their voic inboxes, if they are set as voic users. Using the administrative pages, we provisioned user accounts with pulldown menu options. First we set up classifications and services that applied to all users, Exchange users and voiconly users. These services included dialing restrictions for international dialing, longdistance calling, and local and/or tollfree calls. It also included a service to retrieve voic over a browser and other services associated with UM, UC and fax. UM options included and calendar access. The calendar access was neatwe listened to our events of the day over the TUI. Under UC services, Communit233。s license. After the scripts had run, we turned our attention to the Interaction Administrator, a Win32 application for site and system resource configuration. There we created an organization that logically stored all system resources. Note that separate and distinct units can be created for multiple organizations or for separate departments or sites within an enterprise. The only limiting factors are the number of total licensed seats, servers running Communit233。 system and Exchange 2020. Like rivals, our Communit233。s full schema upgrade for Active Directory. As for 3Com, it expressed a preference to use its own IP Telephony module (read: IP PBX) with its IP Messaging, and the reason showed in the lab during integration with our enterprise resources and Asterisk server. Although the IP Messaging Module did the job, if you want to go with 3Com, consider budgeting for the entire system. All users are not created equal. Your salespeople spend all day on the phone and remain productive. If they miss a call that languishes in voic, it may mean lost revenue. On the other hand, knowledge workers suffer when they spend too much time on the phone. For them, productivity is inversely proportional to onphone hours. To satisfy the needs of both groups and those in between, look to a unified messaging system. At one time, UM simply meant putting , fax messages and voic into one message store for management and manipulation. Today, UM is incorporating more realtime munication systems, including instant messaging (IM) and presence management, and using callrouting rules to find and follow a person if he or she is not available from one TUI (telephone user interface). That may sound like a lot to manage, but vendors sell UM functionality separately, so your organization can pick and choose as needed. The enterprise is posed for healthy UC (unified munications) growth, according to The Radicati Group. Support for convergence technologies, such as VoIP and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), will spur revenue growth from $469 million in 2020 to $939 million in 2020 among PBX and telephony vendors, messaging software, voic systems and even business process system providers. To catch this wave early, we asked vendors to send us their SIPpliant UM products. For our tests, we wanted each product to work with the opensource IP PBX Asterisk in SIPsignaling mode. Our rationale is that PBXs purchased for Y2K upgrades are nearing end of life, and enterprises looking to upgrade their phone systems will be considering IP PBXs that integrate with existing resources. That makes SIPsupported IP PBXs a hot ticket. SIP puts more intelligence into endpoints, like IP phones and PCs, to integrate quickly with business applications, servers, directories, UM and even realtime UC applications (see Messages Unite). In addition, openstandard products based on IP and SIP will reduce development time. Communit233。s Communit233。 went well beyond that, though, with its Interac