Discover the advantages of a software VoIP IP PBX

3CX Phone System for Windows is a software-based IP PBX that replaces traditional proprietary hardware PBX / PABX. 3CX’s IP PBX has been developed specifically for Microsoft Windows and is based on the SIP standard – making it easier to manage and allowing you to use any SIP phone (software or hardware). A software-based IP PBX / PABX offers numerous benefits:

• No need for separate phone wiring – phones use computer network   
• Easier to install & manage via web-based configuration interface
• A software-based IP PBX is far less expensive than a hardware-based PBX / PABX
• Employees can move offices without requiring any changes in the wiring or IP PBX configuration
• Choose from the many SIP based hardware phones instead of getting locked in with one vendor
• Receive & Make calls via the standard PSTN using VoIP Gateways
• Save on call costs with 'out of the box' configurations for popular SIP / VoIP providers

VoIP PBX Features and Benefits

• Saves $$$ on unlimited local and LD voice calls
• 800 service and DID
• Same functions as PBX systems costing thousands more
• Music on hold (we will manage and implement  voice talent)
• Unlimited Voice Mail Boxes
• Voice mail to email included
• Programmable Auto-attendant, forwarding and follow-me services
• Exchange Email and Blackberry Messaging Integration
• PBX Runs on any available Windows XP PC

Case Studies:

A Dallas roofing company:
Monthly telecom expenses were running $700-800 / month for three local lines a fax line and internet.   After the Lonestar VoIP implementation including six concurrent phone lines , a fax line and internet, expenses dropped to under $300 per month.   Implementation expenses with five new six-line multifunction phones was $1900. The break-even was 3 months. 

A Fort Worth medical office:
Monthly telecom expenses were running $550 / month for two local lines a fax line and internet.   After the Lonestar VoIP implementation including six concurrent phone lines , a fax line and internet, expenses dropped to under $200 per month.   Implementation expenses with two new six-line phones was $1200. Break-even was 3 months.   

Lewis & Hickey Ltd a leading UK firm of architects:
"We have clients and teams across the UK and internationally. We rely on teams sharing ideas and keeping in regular contact with our customers. That can come at a high cost. But since we started using Skype, the amount we're spending on cell phone and landline phone calls has dropped significantly", said Benoit Mareschal, Director, Business Development for Lewis & Hickey.

But Skype is not just helping his team at work; Benoit believes it is helping at home too. "We have a diverse and multicultural work-force at our company and they feel much closer to their families thanks to Skype. Many of us use it to keep in contact with friends and family too."

A Recent Study:
A recent IDC study projects that 70 percent of all U.S. workers will be mobile by 2009. In this environment, extending voice communications over your LAN to keep employees connected at all times is becoming critically important. However, this process is not as simple as it might seem.   

•   How to determine if your existing wireless LANs are VoIP ready
•   Six technical challenges that you must address
•   Key fundamentals of wireless that are unique for voice support
•   The critical decisions you must make for signaling, protocols, and environment
•   Voice considerations, from handset and client to management and monitoring
•   How to deal with capacity planning, roaming, security, authentication, and other potential design challenges

SMBs: New Challenges for VoIP
by Tom Flanagan and Fred Zimmerman

These days it’s pretty smooth sailing for VoIP in the enterprise marketplace. VoIP has proved itself and reached the technical viability and reliability of the PSTN. The benefits of VoIP are undeniable; the adoption rate rapid, in 2007 IP phone deployments surpassed that of digital phones in the enterprise. But, it’s a different matter in the small and medium size business (SMB) marketplace where the only thing businesses have in common is that they are all unique. In other words, they have very little in common. There are similarities among SMBs within vertical markets but in the end nearly every business requires some degree of customization in a VoIP solution. This extreme diversity has added a few more variables to the VoIP value proposition for SMBs.

Enterprise vs. SMB

Selling computer or communication technology to global enterprises bears little similarity to selling to SMBs. The presence of an information technology (IT) department at enterprises homogenizes the interface they have with outside technology vendors and service providers. Selling through one IT department is pretty much the same as selling through any other IT department. Requirements are stable, deployment plans are phased. New feature introductions are field tested and well planned. Often a professionally prepared RFP or RFQ spells the requirements out in detail. Major portions of the installation and ongoing support will be handled by enterprise personnel or their contractors.

But, if enterprises are homogenous in the way they approach and manage telephony deployments, SMBs are at the opposite end of the spectrum. The mixed interface SMBs present to their outside suppliers is a function of many diverse factors, including but not limited to the vertical business segment they participate in, the scope of their operations, the regional location of the concern and even the personality and individual idiosyncrasies of the owners, founders and current employees. Their requirements and plans are in flux and often defined in real time. In general they are not technologists though they may be technology aware. They are more concerned about functionality and their specific needs than being “state of the art”.

The headway VoIP has made into the SMB marketplace and the pace at which adoption will continue will depend to some degree on how effectively and efficiently the benefits of VoIP can be translated into a unique value proposition suited to each particular small business. Just how quickly this process takes place will first depend upon equipment manufacturers and secondly upon the sales channel that serves SMBs, specifically value added resellers (VARs).

Benefits Abound

Certainly there’s a lot of justification to support the adoption of VoIP technology by SMBs. For one thing, every SMB recognizes the need to stay competitive and grow. Often this means competing with enterprise scale competitors. One key ingredient in competing with large scale operations when you are an SMB is to look and sound like a large scale enterprise. Perception is everything, as the saying goes, and enhanced VoIP applications, such as find me/follow me call routing, can give even the smallest mom-and-pop business the professionalism and secure sense of stability that typically comes with being an established global enterprise (Figure 1). We know that a great web page makes it hard to tell the difference between the website of a big box retailer and a local supplier. In the same way, a well designed VoIP system can make the local SMB “sound” like a large scale enterprise with features like custom implementations of auto attendants and IVR systems.

In a sense, VoIP levels the perception playing field between SMBs and enterprises. Through VoIP, SMBs have access to the same capabilities and functionality that previously were only available to enterprises that had purchased sophisticated voice and data communications equipment or services. With VoIP, SMBs can easily deploy advanced applications like call routing, unified communications (UC), and interactive voice recognition (IVR), that enhance the productivity of the concern while burnishing its image with customers.

For example, a local florist or a doctor’s office might deploy UC via VoIP. When a customer calls the florist or a patient rings up the doctor’s office, the caller’s history of dealings with the business are automatically displayed on the receptionist or florist’s monitor (Figure 2). In one case, it’s historical buying preferences on the caller’s floral purchases; in the other, it’s the patient’s medial records. But in both cases, the effects are the same. The caller receives immediate and personal service from the SMB, and they come away with the perception that they are a valued customer.

Of course, cost savings and productivity gains will always be critical benefits that VoIP offers SMBs. Since VoIP will lower overall long distance and international communications costs significantly, SMBs can be more aggressive about expanding their customer base beyond their current geographic footprint. Outgoing phone sales as well as the integration of web-based selling with phone support can be a powerful growth engine for many small but growing businesses.

These and other benefits are inherent to VoIP technology in general. But, what will accelerate the adoption of VoIP in the SMB marketplace the most will be how effectively and how efficiently VoIP equipment or VoIP-based services address the unique needs of a particular SMB right now. Translating generic capabilities into compelling individualized benefits for each SMB is both the challenge and opportunity for equipment manufacturers and VARs.

Arming the Channel

At the end of the day, it will be the VAR channel that will drive and facilitate the growth of VoIP among SMBs. It is incumbent upon equipment manufacturers to arm resellers with what they need to accomplish this end. Manufacturers must realize that the value proposition resellers present to SMBs can not be based solely on a bulleted list of equipment features. A value proposition based on features and technical functionality will not be persuasive to an SMB. OPEX saving is alluring to the SMB but CAPEX is still significant. The positioning of the solution by the VAR and how well it is tailored to the needs of the specific SMB is what will close the deal. The VAR must be able to position VoIP as an enabling technology with which each SMB will be able to cost-effectively achieve its goals, whatever those might be.

For manufacturers to enable VARs they must understand the dynamics that are changing the makeup of the reseller channel. Many VARs are faced with a changing business model. In the past, resellers could operate quite profitably on hardware sales, the “R” part of being a VAR. But now, those healthy hardware margins have been squeezed paper-thin by discount electronic retailers, Internet-based equipment sales and other new sales channels. Besides, many entrepreneurs have an independent “type A” personality that leads them to believe they would be better off purchasing equipment on their own at a retail electronics store, for example, and then teach themselves how to use it. Of course, in many cases this proves to be inefficient and the SMB may eventually turn to a reseller for assistance. With shrinking profit margins on hardware sales and increasing opportunities to support, maintain and oversee the daily operations of communications equipment at SMBs, VARs are shifting their focus away from sales and transitioning toward a more sustainable business model based on providing services. What were once transaction oriented, purchase oriented customers are becoming service clients representing a great source of stable, recurring revenue.

Solutions that Fit

VoIP equipment manufactures must determine the right mix of features and functionality that will help the VARs better serve the SMB marketplace. While ease of use and supportability are important, providing capabilities that allow ease of customization by the VARs is critical. This focus will allow the tailoring of individual SMB solutions with minimal effort. VARs themselves tend to take the first step in this direction by specializing in a vertical market segment such as car dealerships, doctor or lawyer offices, retail stores and others. Still though, each car dealership or retail store is different from the next. But if a VAR is going to invest time, effort and dollars into customizing a VoIP solution for a vertical market segment, the VAR must be assured that that solution can be easily modified and customized for the unique needs of each new installation. Otherwise, the cost of customization will consume the VAR’s profit margins.

In addition, some forward-thinking VARs are growing their businesses by acting as surrogate IT departments for SMBs. They service, support, maintain and manage the concern’s voice or UC equipment. To do so cost-competitively, the VAR must be able to deploy tools and support services that can scale from a few to many clients. Tools like remote monitoring, built-in self test, centralized hands-off provisioning, embedded online instrumentation and others will help in this regard. Given solid embedded management tools (within the end equipment) VARs have the opportunity to centralize a management service that can address the needs of several of their SMB clients. This gives the VAR a unique capability to scale their business and spread management costs among many clients.

Easy-to-use VoIP equipment will also lighten the customization and support load on the VAR. In many cases, interoperability, which is typically achieved by conforming to industry standards, is a prime ease-of-use issue. For example, an SMB store owner might buy an IP phone with the expectation that it will work with the VoIP switch the VAR has installed in the store. If it doesn’t because the switch or phone manufacturer decided to tweak a standard rather than conform to it, the VAR is going to be on the phone to the manufacturer expecting support in a hurry. If the phone and switch do interoperate, the call for support is never made, the VAR’s support costs are minimized and its operating margins increased. It is difficult for any vendor to supply all the equipment needed to address the specialized needs of a SMB. A key role of the VAR is to understand this and put a system together that pulls from the strengths of several vendor offerings. So, interoperability is a must. Recognizing this, manufacturers should resist the temptation to “lock in” a system though the use of proprietary extensions to the standards. This is particularly true for signaling standards where interoperability remains challenging. In the end, proprietary extensions may cost a sale rather than secure one in the SMB arena.

Shared Responsibilities

VARs share the responsibility with equipment manufacturers for building momentum behind the adoption of VoIP in the SMB marketplace. It will still take creativity and innovation from VARs to transform the raw capabilities of VoIP equipment and fine tune it to the particular needs of each vertical market in each very diverse geographic region and overcome the objections of often idiosyncratic owners, stakeholders and employees.

VARs that are able to respond and meet the diverse needs of SMBs will find a marketplace ripe for growth in a wide range of areas as voice, data, computer and even video technologies continue to evolve and converge. Providing VoIP voice equipment or hosted services, technical support and operational services gives the VAR a foothold with the SMB that can be the basis for expanding the services and equipment it provides as the SMB grows in the future. An SMB that is open to VoIP for voice service in all likelihood will recognize the productivity gains that can be achieved by deploying UC and want to take advantage of them. That’s when the VAR will be asked to integrate the business’ voice and data systems, and maybe add voice recognition or video conferencing capabilities as well.

The innovative VAR will be able to capitalize on the flexibility and scalability of today’s VoIP equipment to transfer business growth in one geographic region or vertical market to another region or market segment. Successful VARs that cater to a certain vertical market segment will soon grow to the point where they must either expand beyond their initial geographic region or transfer their customization skills from one vertical market to another.

Thriving with Diversity

The drivers of VoIP growth among SMBs are as diverse as the businesses that make up the market. In fact, each SMB is driven by its own set of circumstances, which are more often than not totally unrelated to the circumstances surrounding other small businesses. Covert cooperation, if not overt collaboration, between equipment manufacturers and the distribution channel is needed to further accelerate the adoption of VoIP in the SMB marketplace. The manufacturers provide the enabling technology that is customized and specialized to the needs of individual SMBs by the distribution channel. In the end, all three entities, manufacturer, VAR and SMB, will be better off for it.