IP PBX

Microsoft ResponsePoint's Future

Matthew Nickasch — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:42:10 -0400

Have you heard of Microsoft ResponsePoint? Ironically, not many people really have. ResponsePoint is Microsoft's new SMB-focused IP phone system appliance. With hardware vendor support from a wide variety of companies, including D-Link, Quanta, and Aastra, there are multiple choices for the hardware side of the system. ResponsePoint has had a mildly slow "take-off" into the market, but it will be a product to watch. What could potentially hamper RP? First, Microsoft will need to show continued commitment to the product. Recently, Service Pack 1 was announced, so the development lifecycle of the product is indeed continuing. Secondly, the actual user experience of the product focuses on voice recognition. Time will tell as to whether this will be a time-tested implementation of a user interface. Scalability of RP seems to be a chief concern among users. The system will likely not scale above the 10-12 line (analog) environment (with multiple appliances), with no PRI support on the way. This is definitely a small business product. However, other vendors are offering appliances with more features and more scalability options at the same relative price point. The future of ResponsePoint is unknown. It will be interesting to see whether some of the intuitive voice recognition features make it into the mainstream releases of Microsoft OCS, however, time will tell. For more information about Microsoft ResponsePoint, visit this site.

Shoretel

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:03:52 -0400

Ok I can see all of the vendors but Shoretel....How do they fit into the picture with these other vendors. I believe they do not fit...In fact not even close. They have a nice platform with great management but they are not a UC player of any significance. You should have included Siemens as they have made there way back to the leaders quadrant in Gartner MQ for both telephony and UC. They have in fact led the way for embedding communications into business processes to the point that IBM uses their offering as middleware to communicate with other vendors in the telephony space. Cisco and Microsoft entered the market with the same mantra about being open but have always been about gettiing more of the customers mindshare with their offering and crushing competition in the process.

Polycom Continues SIP Endpoint Success

Matthew Nickasch — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:51:00 -0400

Sometime in your life, you have likely used a Polycom telephone or video conferencing system. Once known for their conferencing systems, Polycom expanded into high-fidelity teleconferencing products, and has now proven themselves in the field of IP telephones. Especially in the SIP-centric IP-PBX market, Polycom has made a significant statement. The SoundPoint IP series has become the 'de-facto standard' for many IP-PBX and UC system vendors. With Digium|Switchvox, Fonality, and many other IP Centrex providers supporting the SoundPoint IP series, interoperability is definitely present with Polycom's products from platform to platform. What has made Polycom especially successful in the SIP endpoint market? In my opinion, there are a few key factors to the success of any endpoint. First, hardware build quality is extremely important. There are simply a lot of 'junk' devices out there that only add confusion and a poor end user experience. Sure, these devices may cost less in the short-term, but will likely add exponentially to that cost through user frustration and hardware failure. Second, configurability and centralized provisioning is essential. The entire SoundPoint IP series offers extremely flexible provisioning through TFTP, HTTP, or FTP, and also rapid deployment through this boot-server model. Many UC server and IP-PBX vendors require control over the minute details in any endpoint in order to seamlessly provide an advanced feature set to the user. Polycom's endpoint configuration files are indeed very detailed and long, but offer granular control over even the smallest details.

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Mobility, not Unified Communications, top priority for businesses

Chris Cameron — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:12:16 -0400

This post originally found at http://accentservices.blogspot.com Unified Communications (UC) is getting a lot of publicity in the tech media these days. But the big push by manufacturers to integrate chat and presence with existing communication systems may not drive sales as much as initially expected.

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Cisco: the IP PBX of choice?

Cisco Subnet — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:50:41 -0400

Almost two thirds of the 2,187 North American and European companies surveyed choose a Cisco IP PBX in their VoIP deployments, Forrester Research found. These results and more are from a study on SMB and enterprise networking plans for 2008. Forrester conducted the research in the first quarter. Forrester found that over half of its respondents will roll out or evaluate IP PBX and site-to-site WAN VoIP options in 2008. Out of those rolling out or evaluating IP PBX, 65% are interested in procuring VoIP as a managed service.

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Digium|Switchvox Breaks the Appliance Barrier

Matthew Nickasch — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:26:22 -0400

There are many reasons to get excited about the future of IP telephony. For me, it's the development and release of new products that will revolutionize the industry. After a recent blog post (Appliances Run Amok) on the emerging market of VoIP & IP-PBX appliances, it appears that Digium, "The Asterisk Company", is pulling ahead of the competition with their recently updated Switchvox appliance line.

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ShoreTel 8 demo video

Chris Cameron — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:33:37 -0400

ShoreTel has posted a ShoreTel 8 demo video on YouTube and you can view it on Accent's Tech Blog. You can check out the video in the left hand column of the blog. We will keep the video up for a while so everyone has a chance to view it. The demo is only about 9 minutes long and showcases ShoreTel's newest features including video conferencing, presence and chat at the user desktop.

pbx solution

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:55:24 -0400

as long as carrier - telcos able to upgrade their centrex solution latest, secondly provide best and prompt cust. care & fault resolution, CENTREX can be better model over IP PBX or PBX for that matter. - Sushil (Openion is my personal openion. I am working in Reliance Communications as Product Manager)

Microsoft leading Cisco on unified communications

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:10:55 -0400

Microsoft and Cisco are neck-in-neck in their battle over unified communications with Microsoft eeking out a tiny lead among companies that have already implemented unified messaging. So finds a study from Infonetics Research. The study investigated Avaya, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Nortel. Cisco rated high on reliability but low on pricing. Microsoft rated high on financial stability but low on reliability. Almost all vendors were given a thump on the head over interoperability -- indicating that this area could use some serious improvements before UC will be adopted by the masses.

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Microsoft is slightly leading Cisco on UC products but the whole market needs interoperability

Cisco Subnet — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:54:09 -0400

Infonetics Research recently completed a survey of 80 North American companies that had implemented unified messaging to see what plans they had to go for the whole enchilada and rollout unified communications. The study found that the market is in the midst of a battle of the titans, with Cisco and Microsoft fighting for the lead and Microsoft slightly ahead. The study, "User Plans for Unified Communications: North America 2008," attempts to determine the market potential and product requirements.

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Appliances Run Amok!

Matthew Nickasch — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:09:52 -0500

The market for Asterisk-based IP-PBX appliances has grown significantly in the last three years. We're seeing appliance-type systems from all sorts of large and small vendors alike. From Digium's Asterisk Appliance, to the Trixbox Appliance, Fonality's PBXtra, the Switchvox appliance... the list goes on and on. Each device has a custom-developed GUI that usually all ties back to the same Asterisk code on the backend. What these appliances do provide however, is usually a support contract or point-of-contact in case things go horribly wrong.

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RE: Digium adds new warranties to Asterisk IP PBX gear

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:39:26 -0500

Funny, their finally meeting the standard Sangoma has had in place for years! Sangoma leads, Digium follows.

RE: IP phones, bandwidth needs forcing LAN switch shift

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:26:03 -0500

For our company the higher reliability of a chassis (dual suupervisors and dual power supplies) switch for 5 nines availability is a big factor replacing our very reliable legacy PBX's.

Asterisk plans higher-spec IP PBX, snaps at Cisco's heels

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:20:53 -0500

The open source Asterisk PBX platform has been around for nine years and is snapping at Cisco's heels in the VoIP space. Having enjoyed success as an attractive alternative to pricey IP PBX systems, there is now a spate of commercial vendors that charge for Asterisk professional services, peripherals and software extensions. (Dell reseller Fonality is one of them. See these recent Cisco Subnet blog posts about this vendor: Cisco vs.

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Surprise to Cisco? 2008 Technology of the Year Awards: Best IP PBX Asterisk 1.4

Larry Chaffin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:06:23 -0500

I wondering if Cisco found this as a surprise? I have installed this IP PBX for many companies and have used Cisco SIP Phones. With this news and award it would not be a surprise if Cisco purchased the software and took it off the market as open source.

InfoWorld 2008 Technology of the Year Awards: Best IP PBX Asterisk 1.4

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IP PBX

Inbox — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:25:06 -0500

An IP PBX is a private branch exchange, or telephone switching system, that routes calls over an IP network for internal users and provides access to outside lines. Typically, an IP PBX also switches calls between VoIP users and callers on traditional telephone systems.

One main advantage of an IP PBX is that it eliminates the need for a separate voice network, instead converging voice and data traffic on the same network. The flexibility provided by one line for each user's data and voice access makes it easier for enterprises to add users and can reduce long-term operational and maintenance costs.

IP PBXes, which are usually software packages running on a server or dedicated appliances, have a variety of features for managing calls. Some of them are voice-menu systems, call conferencing, click-to-call, call logging and tracking, voice mail and call forwarding.

Companies can decide to use softphones, software-only implementations of IP phones that run on users' desktops, or traditional desktop phone sets that have been designed to work over IP networks. Proprietary IP phones made by the same vendor that makes an IP PBX limit interoperability but can also take advantage of the PBX's features to a greater degree than standards-based IP phones.

Additional resources

IP PBX Software Buyer's Guide

Network World IP PBX Research Center.

RE: Gates says voice software spells death of PBX

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:36:20 -0400

Gates says ... and nobody listens...

What’ll be hot in 2008? Virtualization, high-speed server fabrics and unified communications that's what

Layer 8 — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:28:10 -0400

I guess it’s not too early to start predicting what’ll be burning up the technology ropes in 2008. Every year at its annual Garter Symposium/ITXPO, analysts from the company impart some interesting and useful information. One of the highlights is Gartner’s take on what’ll be hot for the coming year. The list for 2008 includes more unified communications and server virtualization technolgy. High-speed server communications will also be on tap.

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Cisco ships 12 million unified IP phones

Brad Reese — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:17:12 -0400

"Shipping our 12 millionth Unified IP Phone to Airbus highlights the speed at which Cisco Unified Communications is being adopted and the benefits it brings to customers," said Chris Dedicoat (biography), President, European Markets, Cisco.

Furthermore, according to Chris Dedicoat, "The system deployed by Airbus will help it meet the communication needs of a growing business, reduce costs and encourage collaborative working, which will help increase the productivity of its employees." With an annual turnover of around 26 billion euros in 2006, Airbus has delivered over 4,500 aircraft to more than 250 customers worldwide and boasts a healthy order book in excess of 2,500 aircraft for delivery.

Airbus has migrated from a traditional private branch exchange (PBX) system to a fully IP-based telephony system, with 30,000 extensions in France and 10,000 extensions in the UK. Airbus is using Cisco Unified Communications Manager call-processing software to cover all sites. The contract to implement and manage Airbus' IP Communication over a five-year period was signed in 2005 by Orange Business Services, the communications service operator and integrator that represents the business communications solutions and services provided by France Telecom Group. Cisco Unified Communications is helping Airbus extend consistent communication services to all employees working at Airbus campus locations in France and the UK. Orange Business Services took just nine months to install the central architecture following initial configuration and planning. In order to support 45,000 employees, the solution was rolled out at a rate of up to 600 phones a day, highlighting the speed and ease with which Cisco Unified Communications can be implemented. "Effective communication systems that encourage collaboration between employees and help improve company efficiency are essential in helping us respond to growing customer demands," said Robert Louge, head of IT Projects, Airbus. "Cisco's solution has helped us improve communications, reduce our spending by simplifying our communications infrastructure and allowed us to make a quick and simple transition to an IP-based Unified Communications platform." Infonetics Research reported earlier this month that Cisco has been enjoying increasing success in the enterprise telephony market.

"A number of important developments are sure to inject a jolt or two of excitement into the enterprise telephony market this year," said Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst, Enterprise Voice & Data at Infonetics Research. "Microsoft is launching OCS 2007 (their unified communications product), and the question on everybody’s mind is what’s the market impact? Will buyers abandon their PBXs in favor of a pure unified communications solution? We don’t think so, at least for the short term."

In a telephone interview today, Machowinski reported that in North America, Cisco is the market share leader for IP PBX revenue in 1Q07, followed closely by Avaya and Nortel (Avaya leads worldwide). Furthermore, Cisco maintains a strong lead in IP deskphone and IP softphone sales, accounting for almost half the units shipped worldwide in 1Q07. Related news: 2007 heating up to an interesting year for enterprise telephony http://www.BradReese.Com

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Where's Trixbox in your review?

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:36:46 -0400

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