Mitel Personal Assistant defines a new level (integration)the telephone with the PC.

We've been excited for some time about the potential of TAPI and Unimodem/V to allow rich integration of the telephone with the PC. Mitel Personal Assistant ($300 street), aimed squarely at the SOHO market, is the first package to come close to the promise of this potential.

Mitel Personal Assistant comes with a telephone (a modem is included) and well-integrated software. The unit looks like a fancy telephone, with ten function keys and a speaker volume control in addition to a standard keypad. Underneath, there is a single-line phone connector (which can support up to three incoming numbers with distinctive rings} and a serial cable attachment that you connect to your PC. The vendor promises a USB version of the product with the release of Windows 98.

MANAUING YOUR CALLS All the magic comes from the links between the phone and the software. If a call comes in and you have Caller ID, the number (and the caller's name, if the number is in your database) will float above your Microsoft Windows notification area. If you prefer, the program can pop up the contact record of the caller. If you aren't in or if you choose to send the caller to voice mail, the software acts as a fairly sophisticated answering machine. It allows remote-message playback and prompts you with the number of messages you have. If you put a caller on hold, you can play music to the caller or have the phone periodically remind you that you have someone on hold. The program ships with a variety of .WAV files for messages and background music. You can also use your own .WAV files or record them using a Windows microphone, the speaker-phone, or the phone handset.

The true wizardry of having the power of a computer behind your phone comes in letting you record one-time messages or greetings on a caller-specific basis. Using Caller ID, you can actually have the program greet callers by name. The function keys on the telephone can be programmed to do computer-specific actions, such as pop up your voice mailbox or do specific speed dials.

AUTOMATED DIALING Another great feature is what the program calls dialers telephone actions you can program to be issued sequentially as you hit the Spacebar. For example, to get your bank balance, you may need to dial an 800 number, enter the number 1 twice, type in a nine-digit account number, and then (after a prompt) enter the last digits of your social security number. Once you've programmed it as a dialer, you need only hit the spacebar a few times.

Included inside the phone is a fax modem chip that allows fax/data calls up to 33.6 Kbps. The phone is smart enough to sense whether an incoming call is a fax to be routed to the fax software or a voice call to be sent to the answering machine.

Without either the computer or power, the phone can still make and send calls. With power but without the computer, you have hold and speakerphone capabilities. But the bulk of the features require the Mitel software to be running. This software is TAPI complaint, so it can share the modem with other TAPI programs, such as Microsoft Outlook.

Although the product requires Windows 95, if you use programs written for Windows 3.1 you'll need to exit the Mitel software before you use the modem and restart afterward. Otherwise, you'll be left without your answering machine. The Mitel modem does not work with DOS programs, even those running over Windows.

Nevertheless, we found that the virtual modem drivers that come with Pacific CommWare's Turbo-Com/95 Pro (www. turbocom .com} let DOS programs use the modem, although again, you will need to exit and restart the Mitel software.

The contact manager in this product doesn't pretend to be a full- ~edged PIM. This makes it essential that the vendor develop some way to communicate with the leading PIMs, so you can keep all your contacts in one place. We would have also preferred that phone messages be placed in our MAPI message store.

PLAYING MESSAGES Since your messages are stored on a PC, you can play them back in any order and fast-forward through the ones you don't need. If the caller's phone number is blocked, you can still fight click and choose to return the call. It would be helpful if the program let you annotate messages so that when you returned then a day later you could know which message was which. And for times when phone numbers are blocked or for situations where the return number is different than the incoming number, it would be useful to be able to edit the incoming phone number.

In spite of a few missing features, this is a great product for anyone who wants to add high-end telephony capabilities to their PC. Mitel Personal assistant. Street price: $300. Requires: Pentium/90- based PC or better, 16MB RAM, 40MB hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 95, CD-ROM drive, sound card, free serial port. Mitel Corp., Kanata, Ontario, Canada; 800-648-3579, 613-592-2122; www .mitel.com/mpa. Choose 400 at www. pcmag. corrFinfolink.