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Business Phone SystemIntroduction
Here we will be taking a look at the fundamental business phone system options available, highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of each. Key Systems The key system achieves this by linking every business phone system in the organization to every other (cabling is fairly complex). Key system phones are able to display the state of any phone on this small network so that calls can be forwarded from one person to another. These systems provide small businesses with an affordable, entry-level telecommunication system. The downside is that key systems are quickly rendered obsolete by any business growing beyond 100 employees. In addition, they tend to be extremely limited in terms of adding applications or managing system changes. To try to overcome the perception that key systems are limited in functionality, some vendors describe their key business phone system as a hybrid, positioning them as “key systems with the smarts of the PBX.” In practice, however, key systems will not typically support business phone system growth, will not interact with CTI applications, will not incorporate sophisticated call routing capabilities, and will not link to other voice systems. PBX (Private Branch Exchange) Because of the centralized architecture of the legacy PBX, there are certain considerations concerning the ongoing management of the business phone system to keep in mind when comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of different approaches to enterprise telephony. For example, the legacy PBX architecture is based on centralized system intelligence, so that management and control is carried out from a single console - much like the mainframes that once dominated the IT world. The console is often connected directly to the PBX. Therefore, management of the system requires the physical presence of the engineer. Although this may work in a small single-site configuration, this centralized model becomes unmanageable and expensive for the multi-site business phone system. In the legacy PBX world, MACs require specialized personnel and the task of managing them is often outsourced to service organizations, which increases cost and decreases flexibility. Digital phones are proprietary, meaning any phone not manufactured by the PBX vendor will not function with that system. It also means you end up paying a premium and sacrificing freedom of choice. And management consoles use proprietary interfaces that are not integrated across applications. As a result, changing a user’s location may involve use of three or more separate management consoles with three different interfaces. There are other issues driving the market away from the legacy PBX business phone system. Perhaps the biggest problem is one of PBX scalability, which is a constant source of frustration for growing businesses. These systems are typically designed for a specific size customer, and if that customer expands beyond the vendor-defined capacity, the customer must move to a higher end PBX. One area where this problem is apparent is with smaller companies that require a robust business phone system to be able to provide the same level of customer service as large companies. That requirement often leads to the purchase of a high end PBX system – perhaps more than the smaller business wants or can afford – at a premium price. A better option would be to provide customers with a scalable system that would continue to grow in capacity and features with the needs of the business. In addition, PBX connectivity across multiple sites is a chronic problem for many growing customers. Vendors have been reluctant to use standard signaling protocols to link the sites and simplify the problem because such protocols would enable the customer to move more easily from one vendor to another. Another problem with PBX systems is that the handsets customers purchase for their low-end systems are often not supported as they migrate to a higher end system. Consequently, customers are forced to purchase new handsets when they upgrade. Finally, application integration is not easy with a legacy PBX because of the overall design of the system. To integrate PBX voice systems with enterprise IT applications, the PBX must typically be supported with a separate, dedicated server loaded with voice processing cards. In an IP world where voice and data already share the same transport network, this kind of awkward CTI equipment is unnecessary. IP PBX As pointed out above, MACs are a significant expense in administering the voice system. In an IP-based system, because the voice function is logically separated from the underlying network, moving a user from one location to another does not require reconfiguration of the physical infrastructure. As a result, MACs in an IPbased voice system are typically one-third the cost of MACs with a legacy PBX system. There are other benefits as well. In the PSTN and in PBX systems, users are intimately tied to their telephone numbers or extensions. In IP-based networks, the association between users and their IP addresses is through a domain name server (DNS). In addition, IP addresses are usually assigned when a user logs into the network through a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. Extending this even further, some innovative voice systems allow users to log onto any physical phone on the system thereby eliminating any expense related to MACs. As mentioned earlier, the legacy PBX business phone system has tended to focus on the telephone handsets because they could generate significant revenue by locking the customer into high margin, proprietary phones. With the IP business phone system, the telephone handset is no longer the focus. Instead, the desktop PC, with its intuitive interface, has taken center stage by simplifying voice communications and adding massive scalability to related converged applications. Applications development is done using standard interfaces, such as Microsoft’s TAPI. This makes applications truly portable and interoperable with other standards-based systems. In addition, IP-based systems are not hindered by legacy evolution, so enhanced services (e.g., voicemail and automated call distribution) can be integrated into a single interface. Moving a user’s location requires only a change in the associated physical port (the user’s voicemail and automated call distribution profiles need not change), and the end result is lower cost of administration. Functionally, the IP-based voice system is similar to that of a traditional telephony system. It provides basic call management and enhanced services. Typically, a call server such as a softswitch provides internal and external call management and translation between telephone numbers and IP addresses. Standard analog phones, IP phones or PC-based phones connect users to the network. The obvious difference with IP-based systems is that the voice server and phones are connected to the IP network rather than a separate dedicated network. The transition is, again, analogous to the migration from centralized mainframe networks to distributed, standards-based IP data networks. This evolution ulimately fueled tremendous growth of new applications and services, and resulted in the lower cost computing platforms available today. Summary IP has become the strategic communications protocol for business – even the legacy vendors will admit to that. Therefore, customers being encouraged by those vendors to continue investing in proprietary old world PBX systems should be extremely wary. With the rapid adoption of converged IP voice and data infrastructures, a new PBX purchase would be viewed as an unnecessary expense rather than a strategic investment. Return from Business Phone System to Business VoIP
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