Recommendation on selecting a PBX for small office (?) ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. how would you recommend proceeding to buy/lease/outsource our PBX (or should that be "voice centered strategic communication requirements"?) Should we be seeking to buy a new PBX? Lease? Outsource in some manner? Personally, I am less than convinced about the feasibilty of next generation technology such as VoIP (at least in the next 10 years, given the critical nature of solid voice and fax communication to our business), but should we look at such services?

A. We have a small headquarters office in a major metropolitan downtown with the following characteristics: * ~100 employees total * ~20 CSRs * ~40 devices other than handsets * ACD with queue, on-hold message, music, and operator's console * Expectation of about doubling these numbers in 5-6 years Our PBX is very old, maintenance contract costs are high (the PBX and station wiring are under maintenance contract with the RBOC), and we are not able to upgrade the voice mail or ACD to do some of the dog-and-pon... I mean, some of the very important marketing-related voice functions that we currently lack. The president is on-board with any reasonable upgrade costs. There is also a small possibility that we will move our office, in which case I would like to explore integrated PBX/cell phone services. I have read about these in various datacomm rags - which carriers offer these services and how do I find them? And given those choices, who should we contact? Back to the RBOC, which has so far proven dependable if greedy? A third party provider? How do we select and qualify one, particularly given the financial problems in the industry? Should we worry about specifying the brand of PBX, or just select a provider, give them our requirements, and let them install the equipment that meets the budget? Sorry about the number of questions. I have done a lot of datacomm projects but very little from-scratch telecomm. I also know the telecomm world is changing fast, and not for the better, so my knowledge may be out of date. There are some very good VoIP system for ACD. While their functionality is not yet as sophisticated as the top large PBX's, it's very impressive. Cisco, Shoreline, Artisoft have halfway decent ACD capabilities now. I understand Intertel is also bringing things along. One complication is size...and you don't mention specific features and modes of ACD operation you need. You are too small for the largest PBX's and ACD's. The small and mid size systems, but VoIP and traditonal have certain limitations if you want sophisticated features, though they are very good. In your size range, cell phones are not really integrated into the PBX though it may be possible to transfer calls to a conventional cell phone. In your size range RBOC services are expensive and user/admin support is quite limited. I'd find a reputable independant PBX dealer. There are a surprising number of very good traditonal PBX's available with decent ACD. Mitel, Siemens, NEC, Tadiran (forgot the new name), Telrad, Intertel are a few. IMHO, the quality of the dealers PBX admin support and training, not just repair, makes a huge difference. Reputation and references are good places to start. Bigger is not better, but size and stability are factors to consider. With an ACD, look very carefully at functionality of the ACD to meed you needs. Don't just buy "big name" or RBOC blindly. FWIW I'm very fond of Mitel PBX's from my past work with them. I think they are very flexible and reliable, well featured and offered at reasonable cost. Mitel sells PBX's directly in some areas, but I'm not overly fond of the direct sales operations. However Mitel has some really fine independant dealers...and a few mediocre ones. I know there are others in this newsgroup who feel strongly about other PBX brands for the same reasons.

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