SMB IP-PBX Markets Alive Again

The small and medium business IP-PBX markets are alive once again with new blood being brought in to refresh multiple vendors’ existing product lines. As Jim Duffy of NetworkWorld recently wrote, the newly-announced Nortel BCM 450 offers previous Nortel Norstar and key-system users new functionality utilizing existing hardware. Nortel’s addition and re-focus towards SIP connectivity also brings new feature sets to users in the old environment. New functionality also includes large-user teleconferencing and updated CTI functionality. This product will be released tomorrow, October 14 2008. In addition, SMB market stronghold Cisco continues development in their Unified Communications 500 Series for small businesses. This product runs a smaller subset of the CUCM (Cisco Unified Communications Manager) platform, called the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express. Voice messaging functionality is delivered via the Cisco Unity Express software. Things on the Avaya front have been recently quiet, with regular software updates to the Avaya IP Office platform in development. Like the Nortel BCM series, the Avaya IP Office offers SIP functionality and support for legacy TDM telephone sets alongside the newer IP telephone sets. I’m hoping to do a few in-depth reviews of the newly released IP-PBX products in the near future – stay tuned!