Toshiba Attempts an IP-PBX Comeback

Things have been a bit quiet on the IP-PBX front lately, with little to no major news or product releases from the large PBX vendors. Toshiba recently announced the Strata® CIX™1200 VoIP business communication system, which is targeted towards the 200 to 1,000 user market. In a press release, Toshiba states that “The new Strata CIX1200 expands Toshiba’s reach in the medium-to-large market segment, giving enterprises a robust Toshiba solution at nearly double the port capacity of our Strata CIX670,” said Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager. “As with the entire Strata CIX family, the new Strata CIX1200 gives users Toshiba’s legendary quality and reliability in an affordable VoIP system that can be networked with up to 128 sites. The CIX1200 can be customized using Toshiba’s FeatureFlex® adapatability tool, and provides a smooth migration path from smaller Toshiba systems.” As with any medium-to-large scale switch, user customizability is usually limited. However, the CIX1200 offers the ability for users to customize features and applications on their own, using a new tool named FeatureFlex. “FeatureFlex allows users to customize their own individual features to help them be more efficient with their communications solution,” said Shahin Hatamian, vice president of Product Management. “FeatureFlex makes the resources of the system available to create new or blended features and applications.” Networkability has always been a key selling point for single-vendor deployments, and the CIX1200 is no different. This product offers interoperability with smaller Toshiba switches, and can interconnect with up to 128 sites. So, for those of you maintaining existing Toshiba voice infrastructures, or are looking for a larger-scale switch to deploy, the CIX1200 looks quite promising. For more information, you can visit www.telecom.toshiba.com