Category: Technical Perspectives

Advanced Voice Mail Capabilities

Voice Mail has been around for a long, long time… trust us, we know! We have been the world’s largest support organization for “Voice, Store, and Forward” aka “Voice Mail” since 1986 (small fun fact)! And now the Spydur has just gained a few more abilities, and are available to you!

Voice Mail Escalation

Voice Mail Escalation moves new messages out of one mailbox and into another mailbox (after a specified period of time, e.g. after an hour); and, the receiving mailbox owner will be notified (text/email) that there is an Escalated Voice Mail in their mailbox. Voice Mail Escalation will only affect new and unread messages. Users can listen to a message, save a message, or delete a message to stop the message from escalating.

Persistent Notifications

Persistent Notifications send recurring notification (text/email) that a new message remains unread in a particular mailbox (on a specified schedule, e.g. once every 15 minutes). Messages never leave the user’s mailbox, and these persistent notifications will continue FOREVER. However, users can listen to a message, save a message, or delete a message to stop the persistent notifications.

Definitions

New Message
Brand new voice mail in the original mailbox

Escalated Message
Unread voice mail, escalated to subsequent mailbox

Unread Message
New voice mail not yet listened to

Voice Mail Escalation & Persistent Notifications may be used separately or in conjunction with another, and is specified on a per-mailbox basis. Everyone can escalate messages and/or receive persistent notifications each in their own way, or not at all.

Shared Mailbox / Group Voice Mail

Allows multiple users to access and monitor a single voice mailbox. This is done through their telephone’s primary message waiting indicator (aka message waiting light), or through a secondary ‘busy lamp field’ (BLF) programmable key.

Voice Mail Blasting

Also known as Voicemail Distribution, allows a user to record a single message and have that message duplicated into all of the Blast Group Members’ voice mailboxes.

Voice Mail Masquerading

Use custom/departmental greetings to masquerade over a user’s personal voice mailbox. This means all messages (e.g. sales, support, and personal) can be delivered to a single location, and allows the user to only check one place for all messages!

Legacy Voice Mail Replacement & Migration

Utilize the SpydurUM as a zero-extension Application Server to replace a failing or obsolete legacy voice mail system that is attached to another legacy telephone system! The SpydurUM will provide all voice mail services with full integration, message waiting, and notification abilities; the same as any traditional voice mail system.

Having a zero-extension SpydurUM providing voice mail is very handy indeed, and further allows for extended migration strategies for very large sites! It is trivial to start adding extensions and hanging telephones off the SpydurUM (essentially converting it into a full-blown SpydurPBX) as it is already integrated with the existing telephone system. Provide extension-to-extension dialing with the continued legacy voice mail support. Slowly implement infrastructure, and upgrade individual departments over a long period of time (until the existing telephone system is no longer necessary).

Complete Diagnostics Within!

Riddle me this…

1.) What quality network connections do you have?
2.) Are you paying for more service than you need?
3.) What condition is your current system in?
4.) How do you troubleshoot problems?
5.) Who is accessing your system?

…the answers we hear most often are that of uncertainty or faint notions of seemingly good or bad, with nothing really to point at. The truth is, that your telecommunications and network services should not be a mystery. No matter if you are making a business decision which affects recurring expenses, or determining why it is your services are faltering… you need to have the information available in order to make a wise and informed course of action.

The Spydur provides the most information possible, across all aspects of your telecommunications and networking services

1.) What quality network connections do you have?

The Spydur continuously measures the network latency with an unlimited number of hosts, whether internal or external to your network, and charts the results on a timeline basis. Not only will you see the latency across these hosts, but also the deviation or jitter from it. You will further be able to determine if a problem resides with a specific host, or with your provider, as the results overlay on combined graphs.

2.) Are you paying for more service than you need?

The Spydur continuously measures the amount of throughput you are actually using from an unlimited number of access points, whether at your own site or a remote office, and charts the results on a timeline basis. Not only will you see what you are using, but if your provider(s) are delivering what is being promised. Many times, we see customers paying for significantly more service than what is actually needed, and this can immediately be turned around into monthly savings!

3.) What condition is your current system in?

The Spydur continuously measures the system’s health across all metrics, and charts the results on a timeline basis (e.g. utilization, activity, temperature, voltages, etc.). This includes all components at the hardware level, and all services at the software level. This helps to identify any discrepancies, and provides a course of action for failing hardware or environmental conditions.

4.) How do you troubleshoot problems?

These charted timelines are an extraordinary and valuable resource, but sometimes you may want to manually run any number of tests to further pinpoint or confirm issues. You may also need to process and view special, real-time debug information from a variety of other devices (e.g. routers, switches, telephones, etc.). The Spydur makes all of this possible, as you can easily perform these tests, and accept diagnostic information for other devices on your network too!

5.) Who is accessing your system?

Sometimes the hardest issues to pinpoint have nothing to do with your network or the system itself (hardware/software), but rather users trying to do something they are “not supposed to do.” The Spydur logs absolutely everything on a timeline basis, and will help pinpoint oddities and errors as caused by users themselves.

The next time someone says:

“I had a problem yesterday at 3 o’clock, but we are good now… can you tell me what happened yesterday at 3 o’clock?”

…you will know exactly where to look, and what to say!!!

Screwing up a Board!

The Spydur comes as either a rackmount, tower, or wallmount… internally, whenever a wallmount order is placed, we refer to the build process as “screwing up a board”. The efforts to “screw up a board” goes well beyond any of our competition, because we want the physical installation to be significantly easier for you!

We have been offering “screwed up boards” (heh) since the very first SpydurCore & SpydurByte were introduced, and we’ve gotten pretty good at it. We continue to offer the wallmounted board at a loss (costing much more in time and materials) so that you don’t have to, because it not only makes your life easier but we know it can really help sell a system too!

Internally, whenever a wallmount order is placed, we refer to the build process as “screwing up a board”.

“Screwing up” a Spydur Wallmount takes a good bit of time, precise planning, and careful eyes to have it all come together just right. As every board is unique (different sites need different components), each comes with its own set of challenges.

Beginning the process, once we know what the customer wants, is to plan out where all the devices belong on the board. The devices maintain proper distances and are normally pointed toward the right of the board to ensure the cables have a natural flow. We make sure everything is mounted securely to prevent any damage, all cabling is color coded and stapled, and devices remain easily accessible with a single CAM screw locking them in.

A Spydur Wallmount is shipped with a variety of wood, steel, and masonry screws for different types of walls. All that should be required is to 1.) screw the board on your wall, 2.) connect a single power connection, and 3.) connect a single network connection along with any lines you may have coming in.

There are good reasons why people choose to get a wallmounted Spydur, and we want to help make your install as easy as possible. I hope this will give you a good overview of what it means to “screw up” a board, and can appreciate the effort behind the build. Thank you for reading through and have a great day!