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Needham, Mass. - What do you do when corporate buyers overdesign their LANs with your telco-intended voice/fax boards because they've outgrown PC-grade products? If you're fax and voice-messaging house Brooktrout Technology Inc., you create a slimmed-down midrange line that retains some high-end software functions and leverage your reputation for reliability.
The privately held company, based here, recently announced its re-entry into the PC-based fax market with the first in a line of 14.4-kbit/second TruFax multichannel fax boards. Intended for LAN fax, fax gateway and fax-on-demand systems, the boards are based on Brooktrout's popular TR series of voice/fax boards traditionally sold to service providers such as RBOCs.
Brooktrout hopes to fare better than Intel Corp., Hayes Microcomputer Products and other companies that have suffered setbacks in the PC fax market. Brooktrout itself abandoned a 1987 foray into PC fax, and Intel recently sold its fax-board line to PureData.
The company's edge will be its rich suite of applications software and firmware developed for its high-end TR series that brings new functions to the midrange, said Andrew O'Brien, vice president of business development.
`Market here'
"Now, the market is really here," O'Brien said. "LAN fax is today's rudimentary CTI {computer-telephony integration}, because that's where the phone lines are...