Background

Traverse Networks’ CallConnect product provides visual voicemail review and call management features for enterprise PBX systems. The CallConnect mobile handset application and end-user web site allow users to review voicemail messages and control corporate phone features. Traverse Networks believed it was important to provide an adminstrator management web site that, at least when compared to most IT administrator tools, was as easy to use as the end user products.

The project

I researched administrator products from Cisco and Avaya and decided that their biggest flaws weren’t interactive so much as structural. Many key settings that have to work smoothly together are located in very different places in the products, making it impossible for an admin to input necessary ID numbers, port numbers, IP addresses, etc. all at once.

I decided that the real value of the CallConnect admin web site would be in its logical aggregation of settings and display of all status information. The main Status page shows PBX version numbers and user licensing information. The Server setup page groups all necessary server and PBX configuration settings. The resulting page is long, but the admin knows exactly what information is needed. The Users pages is also long, but this admin doesn't have to jump between multiple pages to see a complete list of, say, licensed users or users in a single department. From the Serviceability page the admin can get the status of all major PBX components and even restart them after making changes elsewhere in the admin site.

Note: The actual admin web site is only available within organizations that have installed CallConnect.