Asterisk Users to Get Free Call Management Application From Fonality

SAN JOSE, Calif., VON Conference, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Fonality, the leader in affordable IP-PBX phone systems for small businesses and the world's largest distributed deployment of Asterisk(TM), today announced HUD, a new call management application that provides businesses with real-time, easy-to-use call control and management features. HUD comes in two versions -- HUDlite, a free call management application for the Asterisk Open Source PBX, and HUDpro, an advanced call management application that enhances PBXtra, Fonality's award-winning IP-PBX platform.

"The Digium-Fonality relationship is an important one to us," said Mark Spencer, president of Digium and creator of Asterisk. "Fonality's new HUD application provides Asterisk users with an innovative and extremely productive way to improve their operations with call presence awareness and call management."

Through an intuitive, color-coded desktop interface, HUD, an acronym for Heads-Up Display, lets employees see when others in the office are on a call, to whom they are talking and whether calls are internal, external or in a queue. HUDlite, available next month, provides drag-and-drop calling and call controls, call monitoring and barging and on-the-fly recording. HUDpro, available immediately, provides additional features, including advanced multihierarchical permission systems, enterprise-class secure instant messaging, complete integration with PBXtra and configuration and support from Fonality. Features in both HUDlite and HUDpro include: Drag-and-Drop Calling -- call external numbers, internal extensions or

numbers listed on websites or in documents, by dragging and dropping

numbers on HUD Real-Time Call Controls -- transfer calls to employees and voicemail,

place calls in a general parking area, even put calls on hold and tag

them with reminder notes Call Monitor/Barge -- barge or passively monitor inbound and outbound

calls, which helps to more effectively manage call centers On-the-Fly Recording -- allow employees, or their managers, to record

calls with the press of a button -- a required feature for call centers

and certain markets such as legal and medical "We are excited to offer HUDlite to the Asterisk ecosystem in an effort to make their deployments more powerful and user friendly," said Chris Lyman, Fonality's founder and CEO. "HUDpro provides PBXtra customers with a fully supported version that gives them even greater call management and communications capabilities." HUDpro Delivers Advanced Permissions and Professional Instant Messaging HUDpro, which integrates with the advanced features of PBXtra, provides businesses and call centers with all the features of HUDlite and the following advanced capabilities: Sophisticated and Easy-to-Use Permissions System -- grant rights to

specific extensions and not to others, such as the ability to record

their own or others' calls, see who is on a call, transfer calls to and

from extensions, monitor or barge calls and many more. PBXtra Call

Center Edition customers can also easily build groups of extensions and

grant specific rights to groups. Secure Company-Wide Instant Messaging -- automatic access to

enterprise-wide instant messaging (IM) and the ability for all employees

to chat. For call centers, supervisors can monitor an agent handling a

customer dispute and seamlessly send instructions to the agent via IM

without the customer hearing any chatter, being transferred or put on

hold. Pricing and Availability

HUDlite for the Asterisk Open Source PBX phone system will be available for free in April. It will support Windows XP, Macintosh and Linux desktop operating systems.

HUDpro for PBXtra is available immediately for $995 for an unlimited seat license that includes full support and configuration. It will be available for Windows XP desktops. For more information, visit Fonality in booth 343 at VON, go to http://www.fonality.com or email HUD@fonality.com. About Asterisk

Code for Asterisk, originally written by Mark Spencer of Digium Inc., has been contributed to from open source software engineers around the world. It supports a wide range of TDM protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces, and VoIP packet protocols such as IAX, SIP and H.323. It supports U.S. and European standard signaling types used in business phone systems, allowing it to bridge between next-generation voice-data integrated networks and existing infrastructure. About Fonality

Fonality is the leading provider of affordable IP-PBX systems for small businesses. PBXtra Standard Edition delivers all the advanced features of an enterprise-class phone system at an affordable price and is so easy to use that it eliminates expensive phone support and configuration costs. PBXtra Call Center Edition provides businesses with call center functionality in addition to the PBX capabilities found in Standard Edition. PBXtra is deployed to thousands of business users in the U.S. and other countries. Fonality's products are available direct and through a network of more than 900 resellers.