4. Specifying FaxFacts Components
Specifying FaxFacts Components
By the time you have completed all the planning stages you should have a good idea of how many of each type of voice and fax board you need and for how many lines the FaxFacts software is to be configured.
The maximum configuration per machine is usually determined by the number of free motherboard slots. If you are planning a large system you will need to make sure you choose a PC which has a full complement of slots. Most of the boards supported by FaxFacts are still ISA standard, though the board manufacturers are now starting to ship PCI versions. For the moment, therefore, it makes sense to ensure that the disk controller, video, and network cards are PCI, leaving the ISA slots free.
If your system will need more than one PC, it is advisable to configure them, if possible, so that you are still able to operate a (possibly restricted) service if one of the PCs becomes unavailable.
Specifying Hardware
The following considerations apply to the choice of hardware:
Voice Boards
The voice boards which work with FaxFacts are available to handle either two, four or eight analog lines, either from Dialogic or Lucent. FaxFacts also supports Dialogic primary-rate ISDN voice boards (30 and 60 lines) and T1 interfaces in the USA (24 and 48 lines) under Windows NT.
Voice-Fax Combination Boards
FaxFacts supports the combination boards from Dialogic (4-line) and from Brooktrout (2-line or 4-line, analog or ISDN BRI). The Brooktrout boards are only supported under Windows NT, whereas the Dialogic boards are supported under both operating systems. These boards provide up to four voice and four fax lines in a single slot, but unlike dedicated fax boards you cannot use the fax board for transmission at the same time as you are processing a voice request.
Fax Boards
Under Windows NT, FaxFacts supports 2-line, 4-line and 8-line boards from Brooktrout and 2-line, 4-line, 6-line and 12-line boards from Gammalink. A number of other fax boards are supported under DOS, but some of these are not BABT-approved.
Voice-Recognition and Pulse-to-Tone converters
FaxFacts can interface with voice-recognition boards and pulse-to-tone converters. The VPro speaker-independent voice recognition hardware from Voice Control Systems occupies two PC expansion slots and is currently supported under DOS. The Aerotel pulse-to-tone converter uses a PC expansion slot as power source only. Optional FaxFacts software is required to support voice recognition but the pulse-to-tone converter operates transparently.
Specifying FaxFacts Software
FaxFacts software is licensed on a per-telephone-line basis. There are two different basic licence fees, one for fax-only lines and another for lines with voice (with or without fax). For details of the fees and of chargeable line options, please refer to your FaxFacts supplier’s current price list.
One-call only operation
If your fax-on-demand system will be set up for one-call operation only, each telephone line must be connected to both a voice and a fax channel, so the standard fee will be charged for each connected telephone line.
Servers, and systems including callback operation
If only a fax channel is connected to a telephone line, the line fee is charged at the lower rate. This configuration is normally used for server applications, but fax-only lines also give greater capacity for fax-on-demand systems in that you can then deliver callback faxes or broadcast faxes at the same time that you are handling requests on the voice line. The Dialogic FAX40 board channels cannot be connected independently to a telephone line as a voice channel is required for dialling outbound calls.
Each voice channel connected to a telephone line attracts a higher licence fee. If a fax channel is connected to the same telephone line as one of your voice channels, no extra charge is made. However you will not be able to use the fax channel to deliver callbacks or for outbound server operations concurrently with acceptance of requests on the same line.
ISDN Primary-Rate Systems
The Dialogic board currently used by FaxFacts for ISDN-PRI applications operate and are licenced slightly differently: in this case there are telephony channels which act as shared connection resources for voice and fax channels. In this case the voice and fax channels are specified as resources which can be connected to lines dynamically.
FaxFacts Software Options
A number of standard software configurations and packages are usually available from Copia and FaxFacts resellers, either for a fax server system only, or to include in addition all the facilities needed to do one-call and/or callback fax-on-demand operations.
Other software components described below may be licensed as extra-cost options if not included in one of the packaged systems. For details of the licence fees, please refer to your FaxFacts supplier’s current price list.
FFWIN Option
The FFWIN driver can be installed both as a Windows printer driver and as a standalone Windows application. It is available for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT. It is used to convert Windows output to fax files. If only the system administrator will be using FFWIN, to convert Windows documents for setting up and maintaining the fax-on-demand catalogue of documents, you require only a single-user licence. FFWIN is also available for multiple network client users, who can then use FaxFacts as an enhanced Windows outbound fax resource.
FFMERGE Option
The FFMERGE driver is a print driver for Windows 3.1, 95, and NT. It runs without any ‘pop-up’ dialogs at print time and extracts fax phone number or other data from a line at the top of the document in a special supplied True-Type font. FFMERGE is typically used in broadcast applications, and in fax-automation applications, such as faxing out statements and reports on a regular basis.
Graphical Cover Sheets Option
This option consists of a Windows program (FFGCOVER) which scans outbound FS files for those that specify that a graphical cover sheet is to be used. FaxFacts holds such files until FFGCOVER processing has been completed. The program rasterises blocks of text and images, expanding variables and formatting paragraphs, to create a fully-graphical fax image customised for the recipient. This image is then added at the head of the transmission list and the amended FS file released for transmission.
Graphical cover sheets can be used both for callback fax-on-demand and for broadcasts and other outbound operations. Cover sheet templates are designed in WYSIWYG mode with the FFVIEWER program.
Software DID Option
The software DID option adds one extra question at the start of each call and enables the FaxFacts feature which allows a selection from multiple user profiles for each line. To avoid a long initial spoken menu the choices are usually limited to a single digit, but you can specify more if needed.
You are most likely to need SDID if you wish to support multiple languages, or if your fax-on-demand system will be used for data from more than one company. By customising standard message 43 you can describe the options to your caller in any way you wish.
Hardware DID Option
Hardware DID requires information about the called number to be available at the time the call is received. The option is provided principally for use by fax-on-demand service bureaux, who can use a limited number of physical lines to handle calls to a large number of telephone numbers. It is also used for inbound fax routing. In the UK, this facility is known as either DDI or MSN, and is available with ISDN and with third-party line interface hardware. Please contact your FaxFacts supplier if you think you may need this capability.
Accept Fax Option
This option allows FaxFacts to receive incoming faxes, either on a dedicated line or DID number, or automatically detected when the hardware permits this. When coupled with DID, the mail box can be selected from the called digits; without DID the faxes are all saved in a single mail box for manual routing using FFVIEWER. The FaxFacts mailbox can specify an exchange mailbox address and a provided ‘post-receive’ program optionally transfers incoming faxes to Exchange as they arrive.
FaxMail Option
FaxFacts has an option which permits fax store-and-forward. Normally based on DID, it allows a bureau or corporate user to allocate individual incoming telephone numbers to mail-box users, which they publish as their normal fax number. FaxFacts stores incoming faxes in individual mail-boxes. When the mail-box user wants to retrieve his faxmail, he can call the system and download the faxes, either to the calling fax machine (similar to one-call) or to a designated fax machine (similar to callback).
WEB Interface Option
The FFWEB program runs on Windows 95 or NT to retrieve Web documents requested by fax-on-demand callers, then paginates and rasterises them using a special version of FFMERGE to create matching fax-format documents. It allows a fax-on-demand system to share documents with a company web site, or even to collect product data sheets based on suppliers’ web site documents, for example for a fax-on-demand catalogue application.
Credit-Card Option
If you need to charge a caller for documents transmitted, FaxFacts has a credit card option which will validate an entered card number and expiry date and then (only in the USA) call your bank’s computer to validate and debit the caller’s account before calling back to send the documents.
Job Management Option
This option includes the job monitoring and administration programs described earlier. It is intended mainly for service bureau use where broadcast jobs are launched for multiple clients.
X/Mail Option
This feature provides an interface to Microsoft Exchange and allows FaxFacts to be used to deliver faxes generated by Exchange users.
Software Maintenance Option
FaxFacts licences provide a limited 90-day warranty period during which Copia, Roundhill or your FaxFacts supplier will provide support and upgrades. A maintenance option is available which will continue this support for additional one-year periods, payable annually in advance. If you do not wish to have the software maintenance option you may purchase individual software upgrades, if available, at the then-current fee.
Other Software
You may wish to purchase other third-party software packages to enhance your use of FaxFacts. Products used by other FaxFacts users include ‘R&R Report Writer’, ‘Crystal Reports’ or Microsoft Office for reports, ‘GS32’ for Postscript conversion, and ‘Hijaak’ for converting between different image formats. A number of voice-recording packages are available which can input and convert pre-recorded voice-message tapes (with pauses between messages) into a sequence of separate voice prompt files in a single operation: this facility may be useful if you have a large number of messages to prepare.
There is also a FaxFacts interface available for the ‘Teleform’ package from Cardiff Software Inc. With Teleform, you can create special forms on which users can enter handwritten data. When the form is faxed back, Teleform automatically interprets the entered information and creates a disk file containing the data. The FaxFacts interface then converts the data into an FS file, thus allowing requests to be initiated from handwritten forms as well as from the usual touch-tone telephone interaction. The interface can also fax out error messages if the request is indecipherable. Passing information to Teleform via FaxFacts avoids duplication of fax boards for both system.
Your FaxFacts supplier can obtain any of these items for you and will advise on any other special requirements you may have.