Integrating phones and PCs has been talked about for a long time now, but it’s rarely done well, if at all. I couldn’t even find any examples of this sort of integration in a quick web search - so we’ll use some softphones for our examples.
Designers seem to think that when using a phone via a PC, we want it to look like a phone! For some crazy reason, we’ll want to press keys on screen that look like the buttons on our phone, and we’ll want the same display. The reasons for this are obvious: The user is “used” to this interface, or the designers have simply ported the in-phone firmware to a PC, and wrapped it with an image of the phone. Or, maybe the phone started out as a lab simulator, got seen by marketing, and turned into a product.
Here’s a couple of examples:
Cisco
And Avaya:
These lovely bits of s/w engineering are great for debugging your phone programming, but suck as a phone replacement, even if you’re on the road. Who wants to look at a HUGE image of a phone on screen, even in Cisco’s “Screen-Only” view!
These things are hard to dial, hard to manipulate, and just plain huge!
The buttons on a phone are designed to be easy to press with your fingers, to provide tactile feedback, to be designed for the size of average fingers and hands, to be easy to manufacture, and to fit in your office. NONE of this translates to an effective UI on a PC screen.
Trying to take those design values, and building a PC-based phone is just silly.
What we did:
- We built the tiniest app we could,
- We started with a bunch of buttons, but quickly narrowed it down to two,
- We integrated with Active Directory and your Outlook contacts, so your phonebook is always up-to-date and accessible,
- We integrated with LCS and MSN Messenger for presence,
- We integrated with MSN Desktop search - so you can find things like files and emails based on caller ID,
- We pause your music when you’re on the phone,
- We’ll pop up an extremely unobtrusive toast window when an incoming call occurs (you can turn this off),
- If you want, we’ll open an Outlook contact, or do an MSN Desktop search on incoming call,
- You can drag a phone number into the wee text box, and we’ll dial it,
- You can highlight a number in ANY APP, and click one key - and we’ll dial it,
- We set your MSN presence to “On the phone” when you’re on the phone,
- We’ll set you MSN presence to Do not disturb when you set Do not disturb on your phone, and visa versa,
- And, we made it as small as possible!
- And, we made it smaller! This app runs down in your taskbar, or can be run completely from a tray icon!
Simply type a couple of characters of the first or last name (or company) of the person you want to call, and immediately, a list pops up with all the matches!
The app searches your corporate Active Directory and your Outlook contacts. It finds all phone numbers and pops ‘em up. Now, simply choose a number and click or hit Enter.
When you’re on a call, you can control the phone, put calls on hold, hang up, all from this wee UI.
When an incoming call occurs, the Caller ID is shown in the text box. You’ll see the caller’s name and number. You can create a contact with a click, do a MSN Desktop Search, program a speed dial, all with a click or two.
We think this is desktop telephony done right!
This application is available at the end of March for the Mitel Navigator, and a few weeks later for the new Mitel 5300 phone sets.
Update:
You can find the Mitel Navigator version of this application HERE.
You can find the Mitel 5330/5340 version of this application HERE. (soon)
March 27, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I stumbled upon this application today and it looks like just what I have been looking for on my Navigator since I installed Windows Vista. Is it Vista compatible? I tried downloading and installing, but got an “Unexpected Error” with error code 2739. Let me know if you need other information to diagnose the problem, or if I need to do anything else to try out the software.
caz
April 13, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Will this software be available for free to those of us that use the Navigator phone now? If so, please let me know how I get it? Do I have to have My Assistant on my phone system? Or can it just work with on my laptop without other licenses & software.
Thanks!
April 16, 2007 at 9:07 am
This software is not Vista compatible at this time. Vista compatability will be available soon.
The software is free for ALL navigator phone users. You can download it here:
http://www.ingeniussoftware.com/mitel/integratedofficenavigator/
June 20, 2007 at 10:37 am
[...] and I found the Ingenius Software founders blog. Here is a post where he talks about the app in question [...]
July 19, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Hi,
Noted on 16th April 2007 Rich said not Vista compatible. Do you know when it will be and are you looking for Beta testers?
Cheers
Jamie.
July 20, 2007 at 9:52 am
Re Vista: We have a Vista version of ION for Navigator phones, and IOC for 5330 and 5340 phones in beta test now. Check back in a couple of weeks at http://www.ingeniussoftware.com/
July 31, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Thanks Rich. Look forward to it.
Not a public beta I take it?
August 19, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Hi Rich,
Is this the right place to be looking for the Vista version?
Cheers
Jamie.
http://www.ingeniussoftware.com/mitel/integratedofficenavigator/
October 16, 2007 at 11:00 am
Any ETA on a Vista compatible version?
caz
October 16, 2007 at 11:13 am
We are still working on this, and I am as stunned as you at how long this is taking. We have had people porting this app to Vista for MONTHS, and it is just INCONCEIVABLE how many issues there are in making this app work with Vista.
That said, we are just about done - tracking down the last few issues. We hope to have something out in the next month.
I am very sorry this is taking so long. We’re working very hard to get this release out.
December 11, 2007 at 12:21 pm
It’s been a while since this was updated. Any news on when the Vista version will be available? The current version worked for me for a while but now just throws nondescript C++ runtime errors even with an uninstall/reinstall.
January 14, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Any chance of making the beta public? Last I heard (via email) it will be another 2-3 months for this to be released and based on past “release dates” I don’t see this as being especially likely either but I will hope.
By the way, the length of time this is taking is very disappointing since Vista has been out for over a year now and beta’s were available for ISV’s long before that for creating and testing applications. I see posts from back in April saying a Vista version “would be out soon”. Most recently in October saying “in the next month”. It’s frustrating because the Navigator is pretty much useless without the PC app so not supporting the current Microsoft OS that’s been out for a year doesn’t look too good.
January 22, 2008 at 12:40 pm
For those having trouble with Vista I do have one possible workaround that worked for me. I had tried using the “run as administrator” function before with the navigator app but to no avail. Recently I came accross some info about the local administrator account being able to do some things that regular administrators can’t so I tried making a shortcut to the navigator app using a runas command and running as the local administrator and it worked! So here’s the command I am using (It will prompt for the local administrator password so make sure the account is enabled and has a good password). Just put this command into the target of a shortcut on your desktop.
C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:administrator “C:\Program Files\Mitel\Integrated Office Navigator\NavigatorPCApp.exe”
February 20, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Is this product still being supported, or is potential Vista support a dead issue? It’s been four months since there was any update, and at that time, something in the next month was predicted. Unfortunately, Calvin’s Vista fix doesn’t work for me - the program runs, but cannot find/connect to the phone.
I appreciate the work that is going into this software, but I just cannot believe that it takes over a year to port it to Vista. If it isn’t a priority, and is only being worked on as time allows, let us know so that we can rearrange systems and have something that works with the Navigator.
April 4, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I have been using this software for a while, but the major issue I have is that the pop-ups do not work to show who is calling. Is there something special I have to do or have running for that to work? I can make calls without a problem, but I cannot see who is calling or have that translated to my names. Any help would be GREAT!
April 8, 2008 at 9:42 am
To answer Rusty’s comment, if you’re having problems with incoming calls, check out the InGenius FAQ document at: http://wiki.ingenius.com/display/wiki/InGenius+Customer+Support+Page
and look under “IOC not displaying incoming calls”
if you still have problems after that, email mitelsupport@ingeniussoftware.com
June 12, 2008 at 10:42 pm
It’s now mid-2008 and STILL there is no word about Vista support. What gives? Is there actually a plan to support Vista sometime before Windows 7 releases?
June 13, 2008 at 10:18 am
There is now a beta of the 1.2 version available. You can download it here:
http://www.ingeniussoftware.com/mitel/integratedofficecompanion/beta.html
IIf you have any comments or questions on it, please feel free to email mitelsupport@ingeniussoftware.com
June 22, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Hi,
Thanks for the update. I just loaded it and it seems to do exactly the same as it did before. I am running Vista 64 and there is no toolbar on the taskbar, no Outlook integration and there is no dialler from within Outlook.
Have I missed something?
Cheers
Jamie.
PS. Mitel Nagivator with Firmware 2.0
June 23, 2008 at 8:50 am
InGenius is still looking into issues with the Vista 64 - it does work with 32 without a problem.
Email your issues to mitelsupport@ingeniussoftware.com and they’ll be passed on to the development team.
Cheers,
Jamie