The Future of the Key System

Ah yes, the “key system”. Doesn’t that just conjure up images of old AT&T Merlin sets, where you could holler to your co-worker: “Your wife is on Line 3?” The sad part is that these PBX-wanna-bes are still being sold across the world to SMBs everywhere. But don’t assume that a lack of scalability leads to a significantly lower price tag. Where I live, I still see a huge following of Avaya Partner, Nortel CICS, and Toshiba Strata systems and users. When one dies, well, they’re replaced quickly by yet another key system. So why do SMBs continue to invest thousands of dollars in old technology? Simply, I believe it’s because they don’t know much better. Honestly, until SMB decision makers can be convinced that the newer systems that offer IP connectivity and increased feature sets, will the trend of key systems continue. Simply put, this is the main reason that we’ve seen such a large up tick in appliance-style system marketing. IP-PBX appliances are similar to key systems, which offer a “one box does all telephony functions” without a significantly higher price tag. Truthfully, if I had to invest almost $4000 in a phone system for a small business, I’d much rather be putting my money into a Switchvox appliance or an Avaya IP-Office before an Avaya Partner or Nortel CICS. Small businesses absolutely need to move beyond the initial price differences if they want a solid foundation for the heart of their communications. With the latest advances in technology, there is absolutely no reason that even the smallest of SMBs should consider buying key systems. From another angle, the prolonged life of this market is attributed to the major telcos. I still know of tens of “big name” providers who refuse to install anything but TDM key systems for SMBs. Can we move away from the 1980s, please? This week on Considering Convergence: Friday: Is Convergence DIVERGING?