More and more companies are making the transition to
IP-based PBX systems because they offer flexibility and cost
savings. In fact, some projections indicate that this year the
number of IP PBX systems that are deployed will surpass the number
of traditional PBX systems. Even so, it can be complicated to
choose a PBX system that is right for your company. There are a lot
of
PBX systems on the market, and making a bad choice can have
disastrous consequences. In this article, I will talk about some of
the most important things to consider when purchasing an IP PBX.
Integration with traditional PBX
The first thing that you should consider when purchasing an IP PBX
is whether or not the IP PBX that you are considering purchasing
will integrate with a traditional PBX. This is an important
consideration even if you are planning on replacing your
traditional PBX.
Think about it for a moment. If you disconnect your existing
PBX, and then start setting up your IP PBX, the company will be
without phone service until the new PBX is brought online and
configured. You can prevent an interruption of service by adding
the new IP PBX to the existing PBX system, and then gradually
moving things over to the new system.
Reliability
In my opinion, the most important consideration when purchasing a
PBX is reliability. After all, the phones are something that
everyone expects to always work. If e-mail goes down, the first
thing that people often do is to reach for the phone instead. As
such, it is important to make sure that the IP PBX that you choose
can deliver the reliability that people have come to expect.
Besides, nobody wants to have to explain to the CEO why he can't
get a dial tone, or why his call was cut off.
There are two main things that you can do to gauge the
reliability of an IP PBX system. One thing that you can do is to
look for reviews online. Computer geeks are notorious for blogging
about hardware and software, and the odds are really good that you
can find someone who has already deployed the IP PBX that you are
considering purchasing. A blog entry will often tell you how the
product is performing, but it may also offer some hints about
getting past some of the more tricky configuration issues.
Another important way to gauge an IP PBX system's reliability is
to look for features that make it reliable. For example, does the
unit that you are considering provide automatic failover for voice
clients? Is there another mechanism for establishing connectivity
to the PSTN if your primary WAN connection fails?
Support
Once your IP PBX is up and running, you probably won't need a lot
of support, but a PBX system is such a critical component of a
company's infrastructure that you need to make sure that top-notch
support is available whenever you need it. Therefore, it makes
sense to verify that the company's support line is available 24
hours a day.
You should also make sure that the people working the support
line are efficient and understandable. If I am calling a technical
support line, it means that I have a problem that I need to resolve
quickly. If the person working the tech support line is confusing
to me, then it will take much longer to get the problem fixed.
While I am on the subject of support, be sure to check into the
cost of the support. Some providers charge a fee for each support
incident, while others offer annual support contracts.
Features
It is important to make sure that the IP PBX that you choose offers
the features that you need, but don't get too hung up on choosing
the product with the most features. It has been my experience that
as a company's competitors offer more features, then a company will
soon offer those same features to their customers through a
firmware update.
Operating system
Another important criteria for choosing an IP PBX is the operating
system that the unit uses. If you need to be able to customize the
PBX software, then you will probably want to check into a
Linux-based PBX that uses open source software. On the other hand,
if your network is 100% Windows based, then you may be reluctant to
bring in a Linux PBX, and might be happier investing in a
Windows-based PBX.
Training
Another consideration when picking out an IP PBX is whether or not
the manufacturer offers any kind of training. Don't expect your IT
staff to just automatically know how to implement an IP PBX. Adding
VoIP to a network requires a specialized set of skills, and the
proper training is essential. You should consider the cost of
training when determining the total purchase price.
Is your network ready?
Regardless of which PBX system you ultimately decide to purchase,
you need to take a good, long, hard look at your network. Working
in the field, I have seen a whole lot of poorly designed networks.
In most cases, an inefficient design won't keep a network from
working (although this isn't true in extreme cases). I have seen
some really badly designed networks that were still perfectly
capable of facilitating file transfers, e-mail, etc.
The problem is that VoIP requires a lot more bandwidth than data
does. Adding an IP-based PBX to a poorly designed network has the
potential to be disastrous. VoIP calls may become completely
unreliable because the network is unable to deliver sufficient
bandwidth, and data transfers may slow to a crawl. As such, I
highly recommend making sure that your network is up to the job
before you even consider purchasing an IP PBX.
About the author
Brien M. Posey, MCSE, is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for
his work with Windows 2000 Server and IIS. Brien has served as CIO
for a nationwide chain of hospitals and was once in charge of IT
security for Fort Knox. As a freelance technical writer, he has
written for Microsoft, CNET, ZDNet, TechTarget, MSD2D, Relevant
Technologies and other technology companies. You can visit Brien's
personal Web site at www.brienposey.com.