From a product engineering standpoint, the Zultys MX30 and MX250 are quite impressive. In fact, several of the major industry manufacturers are changing their architecture to look much like the Zultys system. It is difficult to find anything wrong, or bad, about the MX. The only risk in making the decision to purchase the MX250 is the relatively short history of the company itself. However, last year the company was acquired by Telrad Connegy, a financially sound company based in Israel. We believe that Zultys will be around for the long-haul and will continue to be a market leader in product design and architecture.

The MX 250 completely changes the way your business communicates, and it does it very intuitively. The silver bullet is the companion software called MXIE (pronounced Mix-e). The MXIE software runs on your PC and gives each employee a clear view of everyone's "presence". Presence simply means that it tells you who is doing what. MXIE not only gives you the view of everyone's presence, but also provides the means to communicate with others in various ways. One of the most powerful is Instant Messaging. You can have several conversations with colleagues without even picking up the phone. You can interrupt people who are on the phone with important messages using IM. Call handling is a breeze, simply drag and drop calls to transfer, conference, and many other functions.

In addition to MXIE, the MX 250 is designed to be simple to use and maintain. A single chassis provides all services, including voicemail and even call center and fax services. Applications such as Inbound Call Center are just a matter of inserting license codes to the MX. No need to purchase additional servers.

The system is also built around the SIP standard, which is the industry's leading VoIP standard. SIP makes it possible, and easy, to deploy telephones throughout the Internet, including branch offices or home offices. Zultys supports G.729 compression providing great call quality even in most low quality Internet spots. For companies that have a distributed workforce, the MX is an excellent option. It is so because MXIE coupled with the systems architectural underpinning enables employees to communicate very effectively, and perhaps more important, enable managers to see clearly who is working and who may not be.

We recommend the MX system for companies that have high application needs, or see value in deploying MXIE. Such applications include Remote and/or Mobile Workers, Call Center for sales or customer service, on-line Faxing, Call Recording, and Instant Messaging. The MX also provides many levels of redundancy (MX250 only), hence if your company requires a system that is resilient MX is a good choice. The MX is one of the very few systems that support SIP Trunking, which is the ability to connect to an Internet-based carrier for voice services – as oppose to traditional analog or PRI lines. SIP Trunks offer one of the key ways to reduce monthly usage costs. If your firm generates a heavy volume of outbound calling, SIP Trunks and the MX system can save you significant amounts of money.

Lastly, we place high value in the fact that the MX is a standards-based solution, which provides great investment protection and enables you to easily interoperate with other SIP-based solutions from countless providers. For example, you have the option to use SIP phones from not only Zultys, but also Polycom, Aastra, Cisco, Snom, and others.

Since the Zultys price model is largely based on licenses, you have the option to make the system as simple as possible without all of its rich features and applications. And, the price of the system can be incredibly low in such a stripped down scenario. However, we believe that the true value of the MX is the MXIE software and the many included and optional applications that are tightly integrated with it. Without MXIE, the MX is not nearly the same system.

Therefore, who shouldn’t buy the MX system is a company that is just looking for a simple phone/voicemail system without much features. With that said, we also encourage you to take a closer look at MXIE because it is much more than fancy bells and whistles. The productivity gains are real and the system can truly give your firm an edge over your competition.