Still Frozen About Whether to Change To VoIP?

Why are you still using that busted up 1980 Smithsonian relic phone switch?  Don't tell me that you can't afford to change out this museum piece, or that you don't see the benefits of today's technology...


Recognizing the relentless advancements in communication technologies that afford businesses to choose from multiple deployment and architectural options for enterprise telephony, one simply cannot ignore the opportunities here.  These choices, including but not limited to hosted, cloud-based technologies, premise-based solutions, or a hybrid thereof.  


Surprisingly enough, premise-based solutions are still the most popular and dominant type of architecture among businesses of all sizes and verticals.  This may be a direct result of the uncharted waters of the other technologies, the uncertainty about the benefits offered by the new delivery models, and the potential risks associated with decommissioning and/or replacing existing solutions.

Instead of the death of the PBX, i.e., premises-based telephony platform market as we knew it 10 years ago, death of the “legacy PBX” terminology and the continuous transformation of communications architectures.

In fact, since the introduction of VoIP, telephony infrastructure around has been completely re-designed, enhanced, and re-purposed for the ultimate benefit of both the user and the customer. Specifically, the call-control component of the classic PBX (practically, the heart of the PBX) has been yanked out, in many cases, and modified into a software application that can run on any third-party standard servers or treated as a virtualized application in a virtualized data-center environment. Finally, the IP PBX functionality is increasingly becoming just one of several applications in a comprehensive unified communications solution/bundle.

Ok, let’s suppose that diatribe did not impress you, or maybe you feel it’s really not applicable to your organization, or maybe your company is just freeze dried and moves like everyone is wearing diving boots.   So for you Mastodons out there, here is a discussion about why you should join the rest of us in the 21^stCentury.

Legacy PBX vs. VoIP

Admittedly this is a forgone; however, believe it or not, there are thousands of companies out there with their old Nortel’s, AT&T’s, Rolm’s, Toshiba’s, NEC’s, etc.  So this is for you folks that think...

·         Why change it, it’s only a phone…

·         I have to pay this expense; it’s the cost of doing business…

·         There is no real benefit to changing…

·         It works fine, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it…

In the past PBX has been the main resource for business communications requiring more complex types of telephone communications. There are several differences between VoIP vs. PBX but the main reason VoIP has begun to overtake the choice of PBX is cost.

The features haven’t changed, there is still call waiting, forwarding, caller ID but for the classic PBX the expense is higher. As far as reliability is concerned, they have differed in the past with PBX being considered more stable, that was 10 years ago guys.  How many opinions do you hold fast to for 10+ years?

So what is the big deal then?  If you are virtually the same, why change?  In a word,

MOBILITY

VoIP can be employed wherever there is an internet connection even a Smartphone

Ok, need more?  Here are the top 10 reasons why you’re a 


Bovine, Clod pated, Citified Moron if your company still uses a conventional PBX.

1)  The Footprint of the System went to small to non existent

The days of huge multiple “boxes” required to support an enterprise-grade communications, has followed suit with the path that conventional servers have followed, i.e., condensed into a smaller number of multi-purpose servers.  In short, the entire IT market has shifted from hardware-centric solutions to software-based, application-centric solutions.

2)  Much easier to administrate and configure than the PBX of old

An IP PBX. can be managed via a web-based configuration interface or a GUI, allowing you to easily maintain and fine tune your phone system. Proprietary phone systems have difficult-to-use interfaces which are often designed to be used only by the phone technicians.  Relocation, no problem, just log in to your new phone, or bring your phone with you and if it’s on the net, it will connect and configure automatically.

3)  Significant cost savings using VoIP providers:

Here is just one example, let’s say your manufacturers are in China and your designers are in California (actual true case).  You currently are paying for a long distant bill that could rival that of the GNP of Italy, well not Italy, but Greece for sure, so you decide, enough is enough and belly up and purchase a VoIP solution.  Now, not only can all your employees leave their desk with the “find me” features of the new system, but now your cell phone in China have a small softlet that turns them into VoIP phones.  Whenever they want to call California, they just drop down menu and selects their fellow employee and click the call goes locally from their wireless carrier (to them a local, usually free call) to the local VoIP switch through the internet to the California switch and BAM, free calls.

4)  Eliminate phone wiring or even the phone!

An IP Telephone system allows you to connect hardware phones directly to a standard computer network port (which it can share with the adjacent computer). Software phones can be installed directly onto the PC. You can now eliminate the phone wiring and make adding or moving of extensions much easier. In new offices you can completely eliminate the extra ports to be used by the classic phones. Or eliminate the phone by routing all your call through your computer via a headset.

5)  Eliminate vendor lock in!

IP PBXs are based on the open SIP standard. You can now mix and match any SIP hardware or software phone with any SIP-based IP PBX, or PSTN Gateway. In contrast, a proprietary phone system often requires proprietary phones to use advanced features, and proprietary extension modules to add features.

6)  Scalable

Proprietary systems are easy to outgrow: Adding more phone lines or extensions often requires expensive hardware modules. In some cases you need an entirely new phone system. Not so with an IP PBX: a standard computer can easily handle a large number of phone lines (typically in the 10s of thousands) and extensions – just add more phones to your network to expand!

7)  Improved Customer Service

Since the VoIP now computer-based you can integrate phone functions with business applications. Now call centers automatically get the customer record of the caller in a pop up window when they receive his/her call, dramatically reducing time spent on each caller. Outbound calls can be placed directly from your contact software, removing the need for the user to type in the phone number.

8)  Advanced features for a fraction of the price!

Since VoIP is software-based, it is easier for developers to add and improve feature sets. Each come with a rich feature set, including auto attendant, voice mail, ring groups, advanced reporting and more. These options are often very expensive in proprietary systems.

9)  Allow Hot Desking & Roaming

Hot Desking – the process of being able to easily move offices/desks based on the task at hand, has become very popular. Unfortunately traditional PBXs require extensions to be re-patched to the new location. With an IP PBX the user simply goes to his new desk and logs in – No patching required!

10)  Video Phoning

Video Phones – the process of being able to easily connect your laptop camera to your caller and synchronize your voice.  This could conceivably be Video Conferencing “Smartphone”, i.e., do to Video Conferencing what smart phones did to cameras, camcorders, and laptops.  This is becoming very popular, and soon will be a demanded feature. Unfortunately for traditional PBXs this is a major undertaking, to the point of forget about it.

Conclusion

Investing in a VoIP PBX makes a lot of sense, not only for new companies buying a phone system, but also for companies who already have a PBX. VoIP delivers such significant savings in management, maintenance, and ongoing call costs, that upgrading to VoIP, should be the obvious choice for any company.


But, noooo, you keep spending your company''s money and providing nothing less than a dial-tone, and well see who get's the AXE!

 So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;” 

Sources:

Source: Frost & Sullivan’s Enterprise Communications portal.

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About Rick Ricker 

An IT professional with over 20 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 333-8394 x 689