I’ve had an opportunity to play with the Avaya IP Office One-X Portal for the last 2 days. The One X Portal is a browser-based version of Phone Manager, the phone desktop software that allows you to take complete desktop control of your Avaya IP Office telephone (5410 / 5420 / 5610 … for example)
So far, some great, and some not so great. The good news first:
This is long overdue. I’ve been waiting for a software component that will allow me to make phone calls through my MAC. I’ve been a very happy MAC user for the last year, and one of my misgivings about running on the MAC is some of the software apps that I have become accustomed to using on my PC that are not available on the MAC. The One-X Portal changes that.
Now I can load my Firefox browser, log into my extension, and take MAC desktop control of my telephone through my Firefox browser. Type a phone number into the screen, and the phone goes off hook to dial. Click disconnect, and the call is gone.
Go to my Directory box and all of the office extensions are visible along with the users status; busy, DND, available … click on the users name, and it dials the call.
There are other boxes – voice mail, and call log. All very similar in function to Phone Manager except I don’t think I can initiate screen pops using One X Portal, at least not with my MAC. Screen pops require TAPI, and I didn’t see an option in the configure tab to allow for “screen pops” of apps to my desktop.
From an installation point of view – well, there is no installation. It’s a browser.
I even tried this using my iPhone browser and it works as well.
Now some of the downside – we are running IP Office BETA release 5, so, I have to have some patience with the software. So far, other then a couple of bugs, I have found release 5 to be very stable and offer some amazing new features.
One X Portal seems a little flaky. It’s crashed a few times on my PC and my MAC. It’s frozen both my Firefox (MAC), and browser (Windows) to the point that I had to stop and re-start the browser app., and re-launch the browser.
It seems to always be “loading” – the little wheel that spins in the browser bar is always spinning. I suspect it needs to constantly re-fresh. The app is not as instant – I’ve had calls come into my phone and then 2 seconds later display on my browser. Phone Manager is INSTANT. The colors are a little drab – although that will be an easy fix.
All in all, definitely a step in the right direction and long overdue. Way to go, Avaya !
Jeff
Digitcom.ca, 250 Rimrock Rd., Toronto, Canada.
Digitcom runs the Avaya IP Office in our Toronto office
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This is great news, as we have several Mac laptops in the office that we
wanted to use Avaya Phone Manager on, but could not.
Thank you. Many good features.
I’m wondering how this works in a mac-only office. Is a windows box required to host the One X Portal website?
A windows box is required to host the IP Office system. The voice mail system needs a PC running Windows XP Pro or Server 2003 anyway. It uses this box to store its voice mail messages, and run VM Pro.
This is great news, as I have a Mac laptop in the office that I wanted to use Avaya Phone Manager on, but could not.
Hi Jeff,
How do I get Avaya One X at a reasonable price?
Someone quoted me USD 50,000 for it, and as there only a few users, the price made it unjustifiable.
Thanks,
Alex
Hey Alex – The price of the One X Portal is closer to $125 if purchased as part of the Power User license, not $50,000. There seems to be a problem, perhaps a misunderstanding. You should seek clarification from the vendor, and feel free to email me at jw at digitcom.ca
Jeff