Simple Power! Reviewing the Digium | Switchvox SMB AA300 IP-PBX

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with the newly-released Switchvox SMB AA300 appliance. In my opinion, if there’s an appliance or SMB IP-PBX to beat, this is the one. For SMBs, there are three incredibly important functions of such an appliance:

1) Ease of installation, Ease of management, Ease of use
2) Flexibility (Phones, Trunking Options, External Connectivity)
3) Advanced Feature Set

It’s rare that any system can adequately match all three dimensions, and users typically compromise for a “2 of 3” scenario. Sure, large systems can adapt to an organization’s needs with lots of advanced programming, but most SMBs don’t have a huge telephony budget to allow for such scenarios.

Anybody today can sell you a phone system. In fact, the market for SMB-style systems, IP-PBXs, and Key Systems has equalized around the same price range. However, there are many differences that become immediately apparent.

Pre-Sales Configuration

The AA300 is the “middle child” in the Switchvox SMB appliance lineup. It is targeted towards medium-sized businesses, is rackmountable, and supports 1 to 150 users. The AA300 runs the new SMB 3.5 software, which brings new functionality and features to the product line. For organizations that require RAID redundancy, multiple power supplies, and more users, the AA350 fits the bill.

Digium | Switchvox prides itself on making the ordering process extremely easy for the end user. In fact, I approached this review from an end-user standpoint, who has little-to-no IT knowledge or previous telecom experience. Through the Digium | Switchvox online store, or the phone, the ease-of-ordering process is quickly apparent. Even if users have questions about features or the product lineup, help is readily available.

Once the order is placed, users enjoy a custom configuration process where the Switchvox appliance is configured to match their network settings. It’s as simple as dropping the appliance into the user’s network environment, and it just “works.”

Initial Configuration

To assist with the review process, I allowed a colleague of mine who works in customer service assist with the configuration. Most SMBs lack full-time IT staff, and it’s moderately important for any office user to be able to configure and administer the system. After walking through the initial setup with the Quick Start Guide, we began to add the phones to the system. Digium | Switchvox partners with Polycom as the SIP phone provider for their appliances. Of course, you can configure any SIP phone (or analog phone through DAHDI cards, formerly Zaptel) to work with the system, but the appliance automatically detects Polycom phones on the user’s network. Once the phones are automatically discovered, it’s as simple as adding users and assigning extensions to the phones. In twenty minutes, we had all of the phones added to the system.

Our system was equipped with a DAHDI analog line card, which we connected four PSTN lines to. In addition, T1/E1 cards can be added to provide even more trunking options. With a few simple clicks, we adjusted the dialplan to handle incoming and outgoing calls. In less than an hour, we configured SIP and IAX trunks to various providers, established DID routing, and had two IVRs and ACD queues functional. My colleague was amazed at the “simple yet powerful” interface that the appliance provided.

Day to Day Usage

I placed the system in front of a few users who had been using a Nortel BCM for a few years. Through the web-based portal, users checked their voicemail, administered their call forwarding settings, and utilized the switchboard application to see the overall status of their coworkers. At the end of the week, the users simply didn’t want to go back to the BCM. In the end, all users noted that they loved the system because it was powerful and extremely easy to use. Users stared dejectedly at the Nortel terminals as the Switchvox SMB was removed.

The trial system that I reviewed utilized the “SMB” release of Switchvox software. This software provides advanced functionality, like the Switchboard web interface for end-user call management, advanced ACD functionality, and custom API support. While there is a lot of advanced functionality built-in, it is presented in a very logical and easy-to-understand manner. There are always “roll-over-help” actions available next to every feature and configuration option.

Conclusion

Simply put, I’m a huge supporter of the Asterisk community. Some users, especially SMBs, are confused or scared about the “complexity” of configuring an Asterisk environment. The Switchvox software easily allows for users to take advantage of the power that lies within Asterisk, while maintaining simplicity in management. The system was easy to install, manage, and use. This simplicity, however, did not affect the feature set. With more features than comparable and legacy systems this appliance is easily the winner.

For more information on the Switchvox SMB AA300, visit http://www.switchvox.com
I also recommend looking at the screenshots at the Switchvox site that illustrate the “simple power” of the management interface.