An
Asterisk-based PBX proved to be the solution to one company's
communications growing pains. For Sean Brown, CEO of One Call
Support Services (a division of U.S. Network Management, a managed
service provider of IT services), finding a telephony system that
could keep up with the company's rapid growth was not only an
immediate necessity, it was essential to its continued
success.
One Call Support, a full-service computer consulting and repair
firm operating under U.S. Network Management , was initially a very
small company that needed only a small space and a couple of phones
line. But as the company became more successful, the realisation
set in that its existing location and communications capabilities
would soon be outgrown.
Space at the location became cramped as two people were assigned
to each desk. Brown and his team knew that they had to find a
better solution. But as the lease for the physical space was
airtight and not due to end for some time, it was necessary to look
beyond physical barriers and explore the benefits of
telecommuting.
Luckily, every aspect of One Call Support's business was
Web-based, so if the company had the right equipment, employees
would be able to work from home. For that to happen, though, the
telephony system would need to be upgraded, and the bottom line for
an upgrade to the existing legacy system was going to be well over
six figures. It was clear that they needed a less expensive
solution.
Online research led Brown's team to a new startup, Fonality,
which promised a solution that would grow with the company and cost
a fraction of the price of any other systems that Brown had so far
found. Thinking it was too good to be true, he was a bit
suspicious.
"The price, the features, the customisability -- it was just too
good to be true," he said.
The PBXtra from Fonality is an Asterisk-based server system that
was developed by Fonality CEO Chris Lyman and his team, who took
the Asterisk code as it existed, hardened it and added soft
features. Building up Fonality as a business meant they needed to
sell the finalised product and the phones and servers to supplement
it. Deciding to give the Fonality solution a try, Brown started his
own pilot program with one PBXtra server and three or four phones.
If the system failed, as Brown envisioned it might, at least his
company wouldn't be too badly out of pocket.
But the PBXtra proved him wrong. Installation went smoothly,
with the team finishing up late one night about two years ago.
Evidence of the late hour and the fatigue of the employees can be
found by anyone who dials One Call Support and listens to the
entire main menu. Those who take the time will hear a charming
parody of "Gilligan's Island" with an IT-based twist that is
guaranteed to make any person remotely familiar with networking and
IP telephony chuckle.
The PBXtra is what Fonality calls telecommuter-capable, meaning
it works on a public data center, so once the PBXtra was fully
implemented for the entire company and successfully working, Brown
was able to tell his employees that they could "go home" – or,
rather, that they could work from home -- and desks in the office
no longer needed to be shared. As the new telephony system was up
and running, all employees could do their work by remote access --
everything was already on the Internet.
When its lease finally expired, One Call Support was able to
find a larger headquarters, allowing more workers to be back in the
office and allowing for more growth. The company currently has 60
phones connected to the Asterisk-based PBXtra and only one person
assigned to each desk.
Brown said that what keeps him using the PBXtra rather than
going with a different or hosted solution is the integration of the
system with the company's existing IT infrastructure and the
customisability.
Lyman, Fonality's CEO, was astonished at how quickly Brown and
his team have adapted the PBXtra to meet One Call Support's needs.
And though Lyman and his team have developed the PBXtra to be easy
to use and easy to customise by both IT professionals and those not
as familiar with IT, he said One Call Support's ability and
inventiveness in customising the PBXtra went beyond Fonality's
expectations.
One distinct example of how One Call Support customised the
PBXtra is its modification of a find me/follow me feature. In order
to be better connected to customers and to provide the immediate
service customers are now accustomed to, Brown had the find
me/follow me feature set up to simultaneously ring all the numbers
listed for a specific person rather than ring through following a
sequence. For Brown, this means that someone trying to reach him
can do so typically in two to three rings rather than having to
hang on the phone until the third or fourth device is rung and
finally successful.
Brown did note that Fonality's PBXtra might not be an initial
consideration for larger enterprises because they typically have
their own team dedicated to telephony and often have policies in
place to standardise their equipment buying from a limited number
of vendors. Yet he said that the PBXtra could more than competently
handle a high volume of users, and larger organisations should not
hesitate to consider it.
Brown said the one minor problem he encountered with the PBXtra
was when the server had a memory chip that went bad. They were able
to quickly locate the problem, send a technician out to buy a
replacement chip, and install it so the overall downtime was less
than an hour.
After implementing and operating the PBXtra for some time now,
Brown has called it a "no-brainer."
Looking back on One Call Support's outdated legacy system, Brown
said he's been able to free up time by no longer needing a "notepad
full of commands to follow before changes could happen."