I think I may have seen the future of the PBX recently….and it looks to radically shake up the status quo.

I’ve always found it amusing that the first IP PBX manufacturers boasted about putting voice on an IP network. That seemed to be a big “feature” at the time. However, in and of itself, it really didn’t deliver much value to the buyer. In fact, it brought an unknown onto the customer’s data network and required them to replace their Ethernet switches with new switches that supported POE. The biggest feature of buying a new Cisco system was that it alleviated excess cash in the buyer’s bank account.

There were the claims of easier administration and being able to move phones just by unplugging them and plugging them in at a new location. Oh yeah, and Unified Messaging. However, the big secret that the IP manufacturers never shared was that all of this was available on the lowly TDM system.

I always thought that we’d have really arrived at IP PBX nirvana when voice became a true part of the data network. With the arrival of the SIP standards, we are rapidly getting to this point. I call it the 2^nd generation of IP PBX.

The low hanging fruit in adopting SIP is SIP trunking and telephones. So, you can save money on your phone bill and use Polycom phones on your new PBX. Both options are quite welcome and provide true value for moving to IP telephony.

However, the sea change coming is from SIP-based applications that are just starting to arrive. Once we can truly integrate voice, data and mobile devices, we’ll start seeing some huge productivity and communications gains.

Recently, I’ve gotten very familiar with the SIP-based Digium Switchvox and have been mightily impressed.

Here are a few of the things I like:

Free Upgrades -Switchvox software releases are free to any user on a current maintenance agreement. Most manufacturers charge a substantial fee for software upgrades.

Video calling – Switchvox supports video phones on the desktop. A great example is the Grandstream GXV300 that we use here at Teledynamic.

Instant messaging – Switchvox includes a private chat server that uses the open XMPP protocol.

Centralized presence – Presence and status details for call and chat activity are visible across multiple peered Switchvox PBXs.

Switchboard - Switchboard is a real-time, web-based call control panel.  It provides call recording, phone book drag n’ drop transfers, click-to-call, and screen pops among many more features.

Google Map – See the physical location of an incoming call via a pop-up Google map. Now just how cool is that!

Call Queuing – Switchbox has a built-in ACD, with monitoring, recording and reporting features.

CRM Integration – Swithvox integrates with CRM programs such as Salesforce and SugarCRM.

All-in-all, this is a very impressive product. Something the traditional IP PBX manufacturers such as Cisco and Shoretel (and yes we can call these proprietary IP system providers “traditional”) do not want to see. I’ve seen the future of the office PBX and it’s from the most unlikely of places, Huntsville, Alabama, home of the Digium Corporation.

Please share your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

FMC or Fixed Mobile Convergence is a concept ready to bloom. The ultimate goal of FMC is to optimize transmission of all data, voice and video communications to end users and their applications using a single device that operates on both wired and wireless networks. The challenge is to make sure connections are not dropped between access points and that services can be uniformly delivered and billed for any access technology. FMC needs to support the integration of Bluetooth, 3G and Wifi connectivity in a single mobile handset, letting users make hands-free voice calls at less cost over Wifi networks, browse the internet and use other data applications over mobile infrastructure.

Today, we’ve got separate networks for our mobile phones and the corporate PBX. Thus, we have two phones, two contact lists, two interfaces, etc. All of these devices and none of them talk to one another. It’s enough to make a robot cry.

But help is on the way. Trying to break away from the stranglehold of mobile providers Sprint, AT&T and Verizon, handset makers Nokia and Research In Motion are introducing handsets that are “dual mode”. These phones not only work on the mobile network but through SIP technology, they can also be a wireless device that works on the corporate PBX.

As an example, when you are out and about you’ll be on the traditional mobile network. However, step foot into your office and the phone switches to become your pbx phone. Very cool for users. And HR loves it as they now have more control over corporate phone calls, important in these days of regulatory compliance, including HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley. The bean counters are fans too as traffic gets routed over low cost pbx circuits instead of chewing up valuable cell minutes.

So, what are you waiting for? Well, a few things, actually. First, you need a robust wireless network in your office with the ability to provide voice QOS to ensure quality voice transmissions. Of course, you need a SIP dual mode phone. Lastly it requires that your PBX supports the SIP standard protocol. In a few short years, all pbx’es will be written to the SIP standard. However, today the choices are more limited.

Research In Motion has taken an early lead in this new space with their BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) converging office desk phones and BlackBerry smartphones.

Here’s a blurb from a recent marketing piece they did:

BlackBerry smartphone users can access enterprise desk phone options directly from the menu interface of the BlackBerry phone application, while at the same time securely authenticating to the organization’s enterprise telephony system (PBX). BlackBerry MVS also gives IT administrators the control to set voice policies on the BlackBerry smartphone, so that inbound and outbound calls use the enterprise line. This allows for all mobile calls to be logged or recorded for compliance with regulatory or corporate standards.

Single Phone Number Convenience

BlackBerry MVS offers convenience and ease-of-use so BlackBerry smartphone users can:

• Give out a single phone number that simultaneously rings their desk phone and smartphone
• Place, receive and manage enterprise calls, as well as use desk phone features such as transfer, park and extension dialing on their smartphone
• Make calls from their BlackBerry smartphone that will be identified as originating from their desk phone
• Access voicemail in one consolidated location
• Access advanced desk phone functionality easily with the intuitive, menu-driven interface

They have a compelling demo at http://www.blackberry.com/select/demos/mvs/

Two of Teledynamic’s product lines support SIP – the Interactive Intelligence Enterprise Telephony System and the 3Com VCX PBX. As you might guess, we’d be happy to show all the advantages of owning a new SIP-based phone system. Support of wireless phones is just one such appealing benefit.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.

Last week I received a notice from Counterpath announcing their new Bria For Microsoft Outlook product. I was intrigued by this line from their press release, “Bria For Microsoft Outlook is a plug-in that adds an enterprise-grade softphone to a user’s Outlook application, enabling them to make and receive phone calls and use phone features directly from their contact list, emails and Outlook desktop.”

I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting for years for an Outlook integration with business phone systems. Today, almost every IP PBX manufacturer has a desktop client that allows the user to dial from their desktop, maintain a phone directory and get a visual indication of voice mail messages. While some of them are pretty slick, they all are a separate application that the user must learn and use. That’s not what I wanted.

I work in Outlook 80% of my working day so it’s the logical place to interface to my phone system. With this product, my wish has been fulfilled. Installation took about an hour, including tweaks and I was in business. Now I have direct calling out of Outlook, both within mail and the contact list, a call history, and the ability to add a new contact by clicking a button when a new call from an unrecognized caller comes in. Plus it has a presence feature that allows me to monitor other user’s presence and status. Oh yeah, and IM too!

The level and quality of integration into Outlook is nothing less than extraordinary. Counterpath did a better job than Microsoft would have done, had they felt compelled to create such an application.

The product utilizes SIP (session initiation protocol) to communicate with the PBX. SIP is the rapidly-emerging IP PBX standard to which some day soon all PBX’es will comply. For now, SIP PBXes include the Nortel SCS 500, 3Com VCX, and the Digium Asterisk, plus most hosted SIP PBX providers.

I am now happily using the business phone of the future today!

Randy Kremlacek

Teledynamic Communications provides free educational materials about telecommunications on an ongoing basis to our subscribers and customers. The company provides a complete range of VOIP, telecom and data solutions for business.