Voice Mail, Inc. - Standalone Voice Mail

"The unique nature of the stand alone voice processor generally makes it a superior decision to the in-skin. It will have a higher up front cost than an in-skin, but cost far less over the life of the installation. The standalone is much more comprehensive in its capabilities, can be self administered easily, and offers valuable applications and features not available in an in-skin. A standalone is portable in that it will have highly developed integrations for many different switches and is expandable. The standalone can run many applications and when new software is available the system is easily upgraded. The standalone sits behind the switch which protects it from the power fluctuations that the switch encounters. If the standalone is “enterprise based” (PC Server) a maintenance contract is not required. If a RAM chip, power supply, drive, etc. goes bad, they are instantly and inexpensively available at the local computer store. If the company has someone who works with PC’s, they will feel much more comfortable with the standalone enterprise based machine. You would want to find out which operating systems the customers telecom/IT people are used to working with. For many, the operating system used is very important.

In the end, you have to judge which type of customer you are dealing with."