This book provides a comprehensive introduction, a how-to guide, and troubleshooting information for the Cisco products CallManager Express (CME) and Unity Express (UE). These products permit the implementation of Internet protocol (IP) telephone services for small- to medium-size groups. CME runs on a Cisco router to provide telephony services for small groups; it can also run on a Microsoft Windows server configuration to expand the total number of possible telephones to several thousand users. In addition, different instances of CME can be connected over a network. UE is a Microsoft Windows-based voicemail system that provides voice mailboxes and related services to a Cisco telephony system.

The book begins with an overview of the products, including the benefits of their use, the hardware platforms on which they run, the different types of telephone handsets, multi-site network configurations, and the architectures of the applications themselves. This section will be very valuable to those contemplating using these Cisco products, as it provides a relatively nontechnical overview of all the hardware and software, its benefits, and how instances connect.

Part 2 contains detailed descriptions of the different components of the applications, and how they connect to, and interact with, each other. This includes telephone options, connections of IP telephone sites to each other (including connections between different types of systems) and external telephone services, protocols used for IP telephony, integration of the voicemail system with the telephone system, and interfaces that permit integration of custom applications into the Cisco system.

Part 3 discusses the administration and management of the software, including the “administration philosophy and the interfaces, access mechanisms, administration capabilities and features, tools, setup wizards, and customization.”

Part 4 completes the text, with information on maintenance and troubleshooting. Troubleshooting areas covered include basic and advanced CME features, network integration, UE features, the UE Automated Attendant, and the integrated voicemail system’s features. Here, one finds the most common problems that arise, with a discussion of what is going on within the system. Example logs with entries related to the problems highlighted are also included (a nice touch). Part 5 consists of appendices.

Overall, the writing is clear and understandable, although it is fairly technical and occasionally acronym-heavy. There are many architecture diagrams, configuration screen shots and coding examples, and troubleshooting log entries provided to augment the text. These work well overall, by providing specific examples. In addition, Cisco Press’s Web site has additional scripts available for download that can be used with a CME system. One caution, however: nontechnical users are likely to have difficulty comprehending the more technical parts of the book, where the acronyms are used most heavily.

One could argue that much of the material here could be gleaned from Cisco’s Web site, but that would require piecing the information together from many different pages. This would take a significant amount of time, and, especially in the troubleshooting area, would likely not be complete. The value of a volume such as this is the collection of all of the information in one source. As noted in the introduction, this book would be of interest to an owner or administrator of a CME system, or to someone who resells communication systems to small- or medium-sized businesses.