The Unity Connection team is currently accepting applications for the Cisco Unity Connection® 7.0 Early Field Trial (EFT). The primary features in this release are:

Active Directory Integration -- Unity Connection will integrate with Microsoft Active Directory (versions 2000 and 2003) for user provisioning and authentication. Unity Connection will detect creates, updates, and deletes of users in the Active Directory and will synchronize these changes to the Unity Connection database.

Outlook Voice Message Player Plug-in - The Voice Message Player Plug-in will allow users to compose, forward and reply to voicemail messages using their Outlook client. It will also allow them to adjust the speed and volume of their messages, and to select whether they want to use their desk phone as microphone/speaker, or whether they want to use their computer's microphone and speaker.

Active-Active Redundancy -- Unity Connection will offer a two server active-active redundancy solution. This will provide both high availability and redundancy.

Calendar Integration with Exchange 2007 - Unity Connection will allow users to browse their Outlook Calendar appointments from the both the telephone and voice user interfaces, in much the same way they can currently browse their MeetingPlace Express meetings.

Native Voicemail Networking - Unity Connection will support native voicemail networking, over LAN/WAN, of up to 5 nodes, and 50,000 users.

VUI Enhancements -There are a number of improvements to the Voice User Interface (VUI), encompassing the message send conversation, access to setup options, and how time and date input is captured. Additionally, the speech engine itself is being upgraded to improve recognition accuracy.

TUI Addressing Enhancements - There are numerous enhancements to the Telephone User Interface (TUI). These include:

Return Call to Outside Caller - Subscribers can press a key while listening to a message from an outside caller. Unity Connection will use Caller ID data to place a return call to the message sender.

Dispatch Messaging - A dispatch message can be sent to a group of subscribers, any of whom can deactivate the message once they've acted on it.

Alternate Contact Numbers - Subscribers can define up to 12 alternate contact numbers and define caller input keys for each number.

Basic Addressing Scope - Administrators can limit the addressing search scopes for users. This can be used for very basic tenant services, by separating distinct groups of users from one another.

Multiple Transfer Rules - Subscribers can modify their Alternate and Off Hours transfer rules via the TUI (currently only the Standard rule can be modified via the TUI).

If you are interested in participating in the trial, or in the Unity Connection EFT program in general, please contact Laura Vernum (lvernum@cisco.com).

Laura Vernum

EFT Coordinator

Cisco Systems

206 256-3012

lvernum@cisco.com