Telephony

In a home office or a very small business office, Symantec's $169 TalkWorks Pro 2.0 will pay for itself in about a year. How? If you currently pay your phone company extra for voice mail and call- or pager-notification services, this souped-up phone-and-fax-management software can perform those tasks and more, cutting your phone bill. I tested a shipping version.

TalkWorks operates with your phone and PC to give your small office a polished presence for callers. The software's wizards guide you through all the various setup options, including creating multiple voice mailboxes. You can also set up announcement messages (including after-hours and holiday messages), company directories, and fax-on-demand systems. Plus, TalkWorks includes all the features of Symantec's well-respected fax application, WinFax Pro 9.0 (see the review).

TalkWorks' sophisticated pager- and call-notification features let you tell the software to call you at another location or page you when it receives new voice messages or faxes. And you can establish elaborate notification rules based on the number of new messages, whether or not they're fax or voice, a time schedule, and even who called (according to Caller ID information).

Still, this program is not for everyone: TalkWorks won't work for offices that have more than five people. And if you constantly surf the Net or have high-volume phone and fax traffic, you might need an extra modem as well as an extra telephone line. But for answering the phones, TalkWorks does the job professionally.

Product Information
TalkWorks Pro 2.0
PRO:	Polished phone management, integrates WinFax Pro 9.0.
CON:	You'll want a dedicated modem and an extra phone line for high-volume traffic.
VALUE:	Effective and affordable for offices with one to five persons.
	$169
	Symantec
	800/441-7234
	http://www.symantec.com/
	Product information from manufacturer