Each ESI Communications Server combines multiple first-rate, feature-rich systems into one tightly integrated unit:

• Business phone system
• Voice mail
• Automated attendant with six levels and 100 branches
• Messages-on-hold
• Enhanced Caller ID
• Automatic call distribution (ACD)
• Intelligent Call Forwarding™
• Optional Windows-based VIP family of communication management tools
• Optional ESI Presence Management
• Optional ESI Bluetooth® Voice Integration

Network-based VoIP telephony2

Properly configured by your Certified ESI Reseller, an ESI Communications Server can handle your heaviest communications needs. There are multiple models, with differing capacities, but all share the features mentioned above, plus:

• Digital stations, IP stations (including SIP), or any combination thereof
• T1/PRI support
• Massive voice message storage
• Sophisticated voice mail features

Powerful — but friendly

Despite its long list of features, an ESI Communications Server — thanks to famous ESI ease-of-use — is a phone system you’ll find friendly. It says, “Good morning.” It teaches you how to use and program it. It reminds you to change your personal greeting after a trip. And it stands by, ready to assist you whenever you need help. There are several different models of ESI desktop Feature Phones. Each is a compact, attractive addition to any desk, designed to simplify your telecommunications. Here are just two examples:

• The display is large and easy to read; that's even more true for a backlit display, which is available on certain models.
• The dedicated function keys (so you don’t have to memorize codes) give you more ease of use, even with an ESI Communications Server’s enhanced capabilities.

On the go?

If you’re frequently on the move throughout your workplace, an ESI Cordless Handset is the easiest way to stay in touch with other system extensions, not to mention your voice mail. The ESI-exclusive Quick Switch feature makes it easy to go from desktop extension to Cordless Handset at a moment’s notice; just press a key. Or, if you’re “tied” to your cell phone, ESI Cellular Management — part of ESI Bluetooth Voice Integration — simplifies your communications through the power of fixed/mobile convergence.

Easy to choose; easy to use

Regardless of the model you choose, any ESI Communications Server is an easy choice over other business communications systems. Its ease of use and feature-richness reduce staff frustrations, increases productivity, and enhances your corporate image. And each ESI Communications Server’s unique integration provides call-processing efficiency and cost savings that previously were impossible.

1. There also is the entry-level ESI-50L which, to support certain ESI Communications Server features, must be upgraded to an ESI-50.

2. Some IP-related features require optional equipment. The ESI-50L must be upgraded to and ESI-50 to provide any IP support.

3. Not supported by the ESI-50L.

4. Requires Caller ID service from your telephone service provider.

5. Requires use of ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line (not supported by the ESI-50L).

6. The ESI-50 supports PRI but not T!; the ESI-50L supports neither PRI nor T1.

The Details

Overview
System features
Voice mail features
Auto attendant features
Station features
Programmable feature keys

Overview

There are five ESI Communications Server models — the ESI-1000, the ESI-600, the ESI-200, the ESI-100, and the ESI-50 — which share a vast array of features and user benefits. They vary chiefly according to their call-handling, message storage, and other capacities.

Note:
Additionally, the entry-level ESI-50L has some of these features and, if your business requires more, may be upgraded to an ESI-50. Below, each item marked with a red • is a feature which the ESI-50L either supports only partially or not at all. In general, the ESI-50L doesn’t support features that depend on ACD, VoIP, or high-bandwidth lines.
The capacities described below are maximums, which will depend on the specific ESI Communications Server model and extension dialing plan (four-digit• or three-digit) which your Certified ESI Installer helps you select.

• Fully flexible platform
  Gone are the days when you had to choose between digital and IP, and hope you’d made the right call. An ESI Communications Server’s tremendously flexible architecture can be configured for all-IP, all-digital, or whatever combination of the two your business needs. And, as your business changes, so can the configuration of your ESI Communications Server.
  
  
• Scalability
  Each ESI Communications Server is built to grow with your business — intelligently. And, thanks to the shared feature set among the ESI Communications Server line, retraining is minimized if you migrate from one model up to the next. You can start small and grow as large as you’re likely to need — up to 336 outside lines and up to 816 stations. Additionally, there’s can support for up to 10 T1 or PRI high-bandwidth lines.
  
  
• Powerful voice mail capabilities
  The integrated voice mail system includes up to 32 always-available channels and includes ESI’s exclusive Quick Groups™, Quick Move™, and Virtual Mailbox Key features. Your ESI Reseller can also provide ESI’s innovative VIP family of Windows-based communications management tools.
  
  Extensive phone options
• ESI Digital Feature Phone — 12-Key, 24-Key, and 48-Key. Backlit displays available on 24-Key and 48-Key Digital Feature Phones.
• ESI 48-Key IP Feature Phone II • — Connects via LAN, WAN, or Internet; provides full ESI feature set via IP, either locally or at remote location; uses industry-standard G.711 and G.726 compression to reduce bandwidth requirements. Backlit display available on 48-Key IP Feature Phone II.
• ESI Cordless Handset — Two sizes each of three models: Digital, [local] IP •, and Remote IP •; IP models allow Power over Ethernet (PoE) or AC power for your maximum convenience.
• Standard analog sets.
  
  
• Advanced phone features
  Some examples include ESI’s enhanced Caller ID, live call recording and screening, ACD, Esi-Dex™ speed-dialing, built-in message-on-hold, and Verbal User Guide.
  
  
• Esi-Link (multi-site) support
  Multiple ESI business phone systems can be interconnected across an enterprise’s dedicated WAN, creating virtually seamless connectivity among multiple offices. While some competing systems are unable to provide more than bare-bones phone features in such arrangements, Esi-Linked distant extensions operate as though they were local, providing one-button and abbreviated dialing, simplified call transfer, multi-system hold, conference calling, and message sharing.
  
  
• Remote connection capability
  With the rapid growth of broadband services like DSL and fiber-optical, IP Feature Phones II can be deployed to small remote locations such as local sub-offices or teleworkers’ home desktops.

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System features

• Full integration
  One cabinet contains a phone system, voice mail/automated attendant, and automatic call distribution — all working together as an integrated whole.


• Standards-based IP design
  Each ESI Communications Server’s IP capabilities are supported by compliance with these major industry standards:
• UDP
• Layer 3 Quality of Service (QoS) support via DiffServ
• G.711, G.726, and G.729 packet compression
• 802.3 100Base-TX Ethernet interfaces
• Layer 2 QoS support via compliance with 802.1p and 802.1q
• 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE)
• DHCP
• SIP
  
  
• Message-on-hold (MOH) recordings
  This feature provides a professional sound without licensing fees. Use the three supplied music tracks, or record and use up to nine of your own.
  
  
• Auto attendant
  Provides extensive call routing, including directories, automatic day/night operation, off-premises transfer, cell phone and pager notification, and more.
  
  
• Automatic call distribution (ACD)
  ACD places sales or service personnel in departments and either (a.) routes a call to the longest-idle agent or (b.) places the call on hold if all agents are busy and then immediately connects when the first agent is available. Constantly updates Feature Phone display regarding queues and wait times.
  
  
• Highest voice quality
  Records voice messages with 64-kilobit-per-second sampling, for the highest quality sound a telephone line can carry.
  
  
• Account codes
  Let you verify client billing and manage time more accurately by inserting one or more numerical codes during a call.
  
  
• Call statistics
  Delivers detailed reports at the touch of a key and provides SMDR.
  
  
• T1/PRI support
  Lets larger offices make fullest use of broadband lines.
  
  
• Up to 384 fully functional analog ports
  Each allows voice mail, park/retrieve, transfer, page, call waiting, off-premises message delivery and more. Analog ports also allow use of optional ESI Presence Management.
  
  
• Conference calling
  An ESI Communications Server supports up to 64 conference callers, with up to 16 persons per conference.
  
  
• Esi-Dex speed-dialing
  Calls any number from three separate lists (personal, station and system); uses Caller IDinformation or direct keypad entries.
  
  
• Intelligent Call Forwarding™
  Forwards calls to you when you’re away from the office and sends along the real caller’s original Caller ID information (if it’s someone calling from another extension on your ESI business telephone system, you even see his/her extension number), so you can see who the real caller is.
  
  
• Shared-office tenanting
  Allows multiple business entities to share the same system while maintaining separation of various facilities and features. Depending on the model, an ESI Communications Server supports up to eight tenants.
  
  
• TAPI support
  (Basic Telephony Service.) Provided via an optional VIP application.
  
  
• Dedicated overhead paging interface
  Allows intra-system paging through the speaker built into the ESI Feature Phone or through an ancillary overhead paging system.
  
  
• Optional ESI Presence Management
• Presence indication
• Access control
• ESI’s Personal Call routing
• Time and attendance logging (further enhanced by optional ESI TimeLine PC software)
• [More details available here.]

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Voice mail features

• Up to 128 built-in voice mail ports
  “Always-on” channels available for voice mail, auto attendant, call recording without using system trunks or station ports.
  
  
• Massive voice message storage capacity
  Depending on the model you choose, your ESI Communications Server can boast a voice message storage capacity up to a staggering 1,200 hours. This lends even more practicality to the recording and voice mail features that make an ESI system special.
  
  
• Off-premises message delivery
  Delivery to a cell phone or home phone combined with pager notification, for extensive notification capability.
  
  
• Urgent messages
  Can deliver higher-priority messages first.
  
  
• Message Recycle Bin (undelete)
  Remembers, and can restore, each mailbox’s 10 most recently deleted messages.
  
  
• Quick Groups
  When a user wants to share a message with several other users, this feature lets the user do so by just pressing VOICE MAIL and the appropriate station keys.
  
  
• Quick Move
  Press a station key during live recording to move the message automatically to that user’s mailbox.
  
  
• Virtual Mailbox Key
  A programmable function key “tied” to any mailbox; allows simplified monitoring of a second mailbox.
  
  
• Multiple personal greetings
  Pre-record up to three greetings and assign them to a programmable key for one-touch selection.
  
  
• AutoPage™
  Allows a caller forwarded to a user’s voice mailbox to page the user over the user’s business’s internal overhead paging system.
  
  
• QuickPage™
  Lets one station user QuickPage another station by pressing a designated QuickPage key followed by either a station extension or a programmable key set for a station.
  
  
• Guest mailboxes
  Make it possible to give voice mail to personnel (such as those in outside sales or manufacturing) who may not have actual extensions assigned to them. A guest mailbox can be handled like a regular extension (e.g., listed in the directory, assigned a station key, etc.).
  
  
• Info mailboxes
  These can be used to give callers information on a variety of different subjects by “publishing” these mailbox numbers.
  
  
• Broadcast mailbox
  The broadcast mailbox is used to leave a single message in all of the system’s users’ mailboxes.
  
  
• Group mailboxes
  Depending on model, an ESI Communications Server can support up to 64 group mailboxes with up to 200 members each. Users can set or change the list of group mailbox members.
  
  
• Message notification
  On a mailbox-by-mailbox basis, the system can be programmed to call an off-premises number or another extension to deliver messages and/or dial to an external commercial paging network to activate a user’s pager.
  
  
• Cascade notification mailboxes
  Up to 40 cascade notification mailboxes can be assigned to anyone who requires escalating levels of notification (such as to cell phones or pagers) beyond the single level available in all user mailboxes.
  
  
• Q & A mailboxes
  Up to 20 question-and-answer (Q & A) mailboxes can store 10 questions each. The individual answer segments recorded by the caller are stored as a single message, with the answer segments separated by short beep tones.
  
  
• Optional VIP family of Windows-based applications:
• Work with Microsoft® Outlook®.
• Provide on-screen call control, voice mail management, contact management, fax server integration.
• Text-messaging that’s safe from the Internet
• Much more than simply unified messaging.

And for more specific needs, there also are these VIP Professional-compatible applications:

• VIP PC Attendant Console — Helps you more efficiently manage your office’s call traffic.
• VIP ACD Designed around the specific needs of ACD supervisors and agents.
• VIP Softphone Puts the features of an ESI IP Feature Phone II on the PC screen.

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Auto attendant features

• Six levels and 100 branches
  The many branches allow setup of a more caller-friendly answering environment, including a company directory.
• Virtually unlimited call routing — Includes off-premises transfer, pager notification, more.

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Station features

• Call waiting
  Display shows both calls’ Caller ID information; user can toggle between calls by pressing the FLASH key.
  
  
• Enhanced Caller ID
  ESI’s patented enhancements allow one-keystroke return of a call as well as quick addition of the caller to the user’s speed-dial list.
  
  
• Personal Caller ID
  Makes clear who the caller is, rather than using the Caller ID of the main number; this is particularly useful if one should have to call 9 1 1 from a multi-floor or multiple-site business.
  
  
• One-touch access to a number of features
  This lets the user press dedicated keys rather than having to remember multi-key codes. To access voice mail, the user just presses VOICE MAIL; to perform a conference call, CONF; or, to transfer a call, TRANSFER.
  
  
• Esi-Dex built-in directory
• Works with Caller ID to keep an alphabetical speed-dial list; accessible with a keystroke and shown on the display.
• Three separate speed-dialing lists: personal, station and system.
• Users can make entries directly from the IP Feature Phone keypad, as well as scroll through lists (to save time, users can select which names to view within each list).
  
  
• Caller ID Key™
  Shows Caller ID data for an extension’s last 25 callers. The user can return each call by pressing one key.
  
  
• Live call recording
  Record a conversation, conference call or personal reminder memo for later playback, as well as moving or copying to others’ mailboxes.
  
  
• Live call screening
  Works like a home answering machine; the user can listen to a message while someone leaves it. The user can pick up the handset at any time to take the call or just let the caller continue to leave a message in his/her mailbox.
  
  
• Verbal Help Key™ and Verbal User Guide™
  These use hundreds of prompts to guide users through virtually every feature of the system.
  
  
• Virtual Answer Key™
  For use when one is already on another call but wants to give special attention to a second call that’s in call waiting. Set as many as two programmable feature keys to be Virtual Answer Keys. Each plays a recorded greeting telling the caller the user knows he/she is calling and, depending on programming and how the prompt is recorded, can also give the caller an easy way to dial out to another extension where he/she can gain immediate assistance.
  
  
• Service observing
  Lets authorized personnel silently observe (and record) station-to-outside calls.
  
  
• Off-premises “reach-me”
  Allows a caller forwarded to one’s voice mailbox to reach the user at an external number (e.g., home phone or mobile phone).
  
  
• Dedicated HOLD key
  Supports both system-wide and exclusive (station-specific) hold. Permits virtually unlimited hold “orbits.” (Also supports hold/retrieve with analog phones.) Holds calls for easy pickup at any station without elaborate codes to remember. For exclusive  hold, just hold down the key for a second.
  
  
• Optional Expansion Consoles.
  
• 60-Key Expansion Console connects directly to 48-Key Feature Phone (Digital or IP).
• Second Expansion Console connects to 60-Key Expansion Console to provide an additional 60 programmable feature keys (for a total of 150, since the 48-Key Feature Phone has 30).

Programmable feature keys

The programmable feature keys can be programmed as follows:

• CO line key
  Provides direct access to a particular desired line.
• Station key
  Provides direct access to, and lamp information for, extensions, departments, guest mailboxes, etc.
• Speed-dial key
  Provides one-touch key for outside calls.
• Special feature keys
  Can be set to provide one-touch access to the following features:
• Caller ID key (shows last 25 callers)
• Quick Switch key (for use with ESI Cordless Handset)
• Overhead paging key
• Message monitor key
• Manual day/night mode key
• Background announce key
• Service observing key
• Personal greeting 1
• Personal greeting 2
• Personal greeting 3
• ACD agent log on/off key
• ACD agent wrap key
• ACD administrator key
• Headset key
• Virtual Mailbox Key
• Virtual Answer Key
• Call forward key
• QuickPage

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Analog extension ports

Up to 384 analog extensions can be programmed, based on the number of cards installed in the system. The ports can be defined as:

• Phone
  Designed to provide for standard 2500-type phones.
• Common ringer
  Connected via a tip-and-ring pair; will apply ring voltage whenever a line rings in night mode.
• Fax
  If the auto attendant detects a fax tone, it will automatically forward the tone to the analog port programmed as a fax device.
• Modem
  Incoming calls for a modem can be manually transferred to the modem extension; also, the modem can automatically generate outbound calls.
• Doorphone
  A telephone connected to this port will automatically dial the programmed ring-down extension number whenever the set is taken off-hook.
   

Note: For doorphone functionality and far more, check out ESI Presence Management.

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Note:
As noted earlier, the entry-level ESI-50L has some of the features listed above and, if your business requires more, may be upgraded to an ESI-50. Above, each item marked with a red • is a feature which the ESI-50L either supports only partially or not at all. In general, the ESI-50L doesn’t support features that depend on ACD, IP, or high-bandwidth lines.

1. Maximum all-IP configuration supports 816 IP stations; maximum all-digital configuration supports 504 digital stations.

2. ESI-50 doesn’t support T1 lines. ESI-50L supports neither T1 nor PRI lines.

3. Some IP-related features require optional equipment. IP Feature Phone II and IP models of ESI Cordless Handset for use with only ESI Communications Servers. ESI-50L must be upgraded to an ESI-50 to provide any IP support.

4. Requires Caller ID service from your telephone service provider.

5. Requires use of ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) line (not supported by ESI-50L).

6. Except on basic VIP.

Microsoft, Outlook, and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
ESI Communications Servers available from only Resellers with ESI factory training. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Some features mentioned herein may not yet be available or work with all possible equipment combinations.