Page 5 - 3CX DrillDown October November 2016

October/November 2016
seems unreasonable to potential customers. In some cases they would be completely right, but licensing based on the number of simultaneous calls rather than the number of lines or extensions brings this expense down signi cantly.
Furthermore, there is always a strong possibility that business decision makers are either oblivious to or cynical about the bene ts of adopting VoIP for their business and the advantages that an IP-based system, as well as the additional UC features, can bring.
In light of this, staying with the old PBX is preferable to installing a new system and introducing a new interface to employees.
But with a modern so ware PBX, not only are UIs intuitive and simple to use, but employees can also greatly bene t from features such as web conferencing, chat, presence, and mobility with so phone and smartphone clients.
Additionally, businesses should be made aware of the advancements in PBX management that have accompanied developments in VoIP systems. A modern solution like 3CX features
a web management console with an intuitive, modern interface that collates all of the most important information about the PBX in one single dashboard.
Many general maintenance tasks, such as so ware, plugin and rmware updates and renewal of security certi cates, are automated, reducing admin to almost nothing. n
3CX Drilldown 5 Fanvil announces New X4/G IP Phone with
Intelligent DSS Key-mapping LCD display for Enterprise Application
Fanvil Technology, a professional provider of IP communication solutions, today announced its new X4/G color screen IP telephone with an intelligent DSS Key-mapping LCD for enterprise market. X4/G comes with complete enterprise features and interoperability 3CX among a number of different platforms.
X4/G pushes high-end cost-effective enterprise IP phone to
another level. X4/G inherits all enterprise features from Fanvil’s old enterprise phones, such as HD voice in handset, headset, and full-
duplex speakerphone modes, PoE, Fast/Gigabit Ethernet, QoS, secure transmission, auto-provisioning, and more. What’s more, X4/G also improve the screen to color screen, and add EHS headset, Web Portal, hotspot features. X4/G is the rst dual-color screen design IP phone in the VoIP Industry.
The DSS Key-mapping color LCD is designed with intelligence to support dynamic usage to substitute expansion modules. There are 6
DSS keys corresponded to the LCD display to provide dynamic DSS/
BLF functions up to ve pages at virtualized total 30 DSS keys. User may con gure/customize each DSS keys against each page. Every DSS key has a LED indication in green, red, and yellow to re ect the key state. There
is also one DSS event noti cation button to notify user whenever there is an event in other page(s). A page shortcut button is also designed to allow user to quickly switch between pages. X4/G is the most economic choice for SMB of ce and enterprise supervisors. n
2017 and the kitchen wall Iphone: choice and cost
n a recent podcast I recorded, one of the of ownership and yet, in contrast to bare bone people I interviewed mentioned the state options, provide support, and updates.
As you unwrap the 3CX story, we see that
at each level 3CX has combined choice and simplicity. Set up is fast. 3CX will run on an existing Windows machine (not necessarily dedicated), Debian Linux or virtualized in a Hyper-V or VMware instance. With its web- based management console provisioning IP Phones, Gateways, SIP Trunks and so phones takes minutes. You can connect a SIP trunk within minutes with pre-con gured templates for most popular SIP trunk providers, including end to end support from 3CX. Here, as with the hardware, the user is o ered many choices in VoIP providers and SIP trunks. All of the IP phones can be managed within the 3CX Management Console and smartphones can easily be deployed via email. In addition to saving on big per extension listening fees, end users are going to save on internal help desk and tech help sta time. A simple to manage platform contains the amount of required support sta time and thus lowers the ongoing cost of ownership.
3CX delivers all of the UC features most companies today expect and in many cases need: conferencing, presence, chat, texting,
of telecom in the early seventies when his organization was launched. Many people (who are old enough to remember the era) will recall a kitchen wall phone with a rotary dial and
lime green or “autumn” orange shell, and that innovative touch, the giant twisted cord that allowed you to walk about the kitchen, phone crooked under your chin. Beneath all of that glittering technology was a regulated monopoly that e ectively limited your choices to green
or “autumn” orange. You paid a monthly fee to the “phone company”, an entity that seemed permanent. If you studied economics, as late
as the early eighties, telecom was seen as a so called “natural monopoly”. In the US, Canada and some nations, the monopoly was a publicly regulated, privately run, publicly traded monolith while other nations had long ago handed the sector to their post o ce. US readers north of y may even remember the “party line” where several entire households shared one line, apparently not uncommon even in some larger cities. But change was in the air.
e changes were, and today remain, driven by technology. Eventually the monopoly wall
fell in a very similar way to how the local taxi monopoly in most cities is now falling to ride sharing schemes. A blend of technologies that tunnels under and ies over monopoly, followed up by deregulation either from the courts or
by legislative action, o en with the latter eager not to miss out on a new theater of taxable activity. In the end we get a very competitive and choice rich industry, a much smaller regulatory footprint, and the consumer replacing the supplier or state, as the game caller.
However, as we enter 2017, we all might think about how the drive to build a mini- monopoly around themselves by locking customers into large scale on going fee obligations or other contractual obligations
that signi cantly raise the total cost of ownership and e ectively limit customer choices. In 2017, as legacy systems approach end of life in the enterprise, many readers will be facing such choices. Many major players and famous companies are o ering very attractive and novel platforms, but in some cases these paths can lock in costs and in exibility. 3CX is an example of a company striving for exibility and choice.
THE OTHER STAR WARS, 2017
Choice is certainly not in short supply, at least in terms of the overall IT market. IT giants Apple, Google, Cisco and Microso , though all coming from very separate paths in the IT world, are converging in the telecom space with the idea that if they can dominate in
the way people make calls or speak to each other, that dominance translates into strength elsewhere, thus so ware giant Microso is looking to Skype for Business to become the real eventual PBX replacement while search mega-power Google seeks to be a mobility company. While all of the major and medium sized IT giants o er solid options, and indeed options that might be the right t for many enterprises, each player is driven to try to enclose their customer into their silo as much as possible by the imperative of the high cost of customer acquisition. ose lack of vendor choices in turn drive up other costs. While the giants are battling it out, it might be a good idea to look at alternatives such as 3CX, that o er very a ordable points of entry, low costs
WATCH THE COST
3CX is a so ware based PBX that allows
you to decide on the server and o ers a
wide number of instrument choices. 3CX is available in the cloud as well. 3CX can install or virtualize on an existing server. at alone contains upfront costs and allows for choices that match up with enterprise’s other vendor relationships, the shape of the rest of the existing network, and in terms of end point choices, the actual nature of the rm and the people that work there. 3CX pricing is based on simultaneous calls instead of extensions making the very scalable 3CX platform also
Green
by Douglas Green, Publisher of Telecom Reseller
3CX technology hardware partners such as snom, Yealink, and more each offer a very wide range of end points and wearable technology items, appropriate for situations ranging from of ce, retail, campus, factory and warehouse. 3CX also offers softphones, a great option for rms with staff in front of monitors, contact centers and so on
very inexpensive to scale up. No per extension licensing is a very attractive option.
3CX technology hardware partners such
as snom, Yealink, and more each o er a
very wide range of end points and wearable technology items, appropriate for situations ranging from o ce, retail, campus, factory and warehouse. 3CX also o ers so phones,
a great option for rms with sta in front of monitors, contact centers and so on. At the same time 3CX o ers great mobility features, allowing sta to use their own mobile devices.
fax to PDF, and the ability to retrieve and listen to voicemail without calling in. 3CX conferencing leverages WebRTC, which enables users to join meetings without downloading so ware, and again, we have cost containment as there’s not a monthly subscription fee, unlimited users no matter which package is chosen. ere is a one small annual fee. WebRTC has interoperability with VoIP and video and there is bandwidth
Green continues on page 7 ››