IP PBX
Internet Customer Solutions offers a premise based VoIP solution that consists of an internet connection service and an Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX). The internet connection service connects the IP PBX to an Internet Telephone Switch Provider (ITSP). The internet connection service is called SIP trunking. All calls come through this internet SIP trunk, which makes calling much cheaper.
The Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP PBX) is a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system that has all the features of an old PBX plus a lot, lot more. It mainly communicates via the internet to the telecom service companies which can now handle VoIP as an Internet Telephone Switch Provider (ITSP). Such an IP PBX saves you on the average 50% of your phone bill and a lot more on your phone system maintenance costs. You have the option to still communicate via the old POTS (copper lines) to the telephone service companies but, this is not cost efficient. In this section we will cover our premise based VoIP Solution under the following topics.
Summary
How to buy a IP PBX
Hosted VoIP or IP PBX
Features
Usage Scenarios
Demos
Customer Success Stories
Benefits
Quadro Future Features
Pricing
How To Buy
Summary
When you want to transfer calls to other colleagues while on the phone, you need an IP PBX. Phones with simple POTS lines can not do this.
Internet Customer Solutions has carefully selected ITSPs for SIP trunking. They include NexVortex, Broadvox, Broadvoice and other ones.
Internet Customer Solutions has also carefully selected the Epygi Quadro IP PBX as the best IP PBX for small and medium size businesses. These IP PBXs offer all the features needed by a small and medium size business at the lowest price. The Epygi technical support and product development history and plans are very reliable.
The premise based VOIP solution may look as follows:
How to Buy a IP PBX
Hosted VoIP or IP PBX
In general when you have less than 10 extensions, and less than 10 simultaneous outgoing calls, hosted VoIP (RingCentral) will be cheaper for 6 months. After that the Epygi Quadro2X IP PBX will be cheaper. This assumes that you only need the basic calling features with RIngCentral. A table below shows which features can not be handled by RingCentral: | Calling Features | Hosted VoIP RingCentral | Eqpygi Quadro IP PBX | | Conditional forwarding | No | Yes | | Relay calling | No | Yes | Blinking Lamp Fields (BLF) ( Which extensions are busy) | No | Yes | Number of simultaneous outgoing calls | Limited by number of lines purchased | Only limited by bandwidth of internet connection | | Pickup of a call by anybody | No | Yes | Automated Call Distribution | Simple | More Advanced | | Video calling | No | Yes |
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Features
The recommended ITSPs are as follows:
The cost per minute is about 3 - 4 cents when calling in the USA. The cost per minute for international calls ranges from 5 cents to 80 cents. Major countries are the cheapest.
The Epygi Quadro has all the features of an old PBX plus a lot, lot more.
Learn more about these features.
Epygi offers a line of Quadro IP PBXs such that there is a model that fits the size and requirements of your company. The different Quadro models are as follows:
| Size of Company (# of physical extensions) | Your Requirements | Quadro Model | Quadro Price |
2 - 18 | A Simple IP PBX. No ACD No Call Recording | Quadro2x | $800 for up to10 physical extensions. Up to 10 concurrent calls. Additional phys. extensions available |
| 19 - 98 | More extensions ACD Call Recording Barge In Audio/Video Conferencing | Quadro8ML | $2,400 for up to 34 physical extensions. Up to 45 concurrent calls. Additional phys. extensions available. Included: pager connection. Extra $$ for ACD, Call Recording, Barge In and Audio/Video Conferencing |
| 99 - 192 | More extensions ACD Call Recording Barge In Audio/Video Conferencing | QuadroM 32x | $3,800 for up to 34 physical extensions. Up to 60 concurrent calls. Additional phys. extensions available. Included: pager connection, more redundancy, T1 port for failover calling. Extra $$ for ACD, Call Recording, Barge In and Audio/Video Conferencing |
| 193 - 1000 | More extensions ACD Call Recording Barge In Audio /Video Conferencing | QX 1000 | Call for pricing. For up to 200 physical extensions. Up to 300 concurrent calls. Additional phys. extensions available up to a total of 1000 physical extensions. Included: pager connection, more redundancy, T1 port for failover calling. Extra $$ for ACD, Call Recording, Barge In and Audio/Video Conferencing |
Quadro Software Features Several Quadros can have the following IP PBX Software features added: - Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
- Call Recording
- Barge-In
- Conferencing Bridge
These software features can be activated on the QuadroM8L, QuadroM32X and the QX 1000 via the Quadro browser interface once they have been paid for. Learn more about these software features. |
Several Quadros can be connected to each other so that the number of extensions can go up to 600. All extensions can call each other or be transferred to each other. The following customer stories illustrate such set ups:
The following document will explain the basics of a multisite Quadro set up.
Quadro Software Applications
When you have multiple Quadros linked to each other, QCC, which is a desktop application, enables the Quadro administrator to configure several Quadros at once.
IPhone softphone-like application from IQal
iQall is Epygi’s iPhone application which allows any user of a Quadro IP PBX to establish calls between their iPhone and another number anywhere in the world. If the iPhone user has a GSM plan with free incoming calls, the user will not pay any charges on the plan for outgoing calls, which greatly decreases the company’s overhead expenses especially on international calls.
EMS enables you to stream your audio to the Quadro while a cold is on hold. It is a free software that can be enabled on the Quadro. The audio can be different for each extension.
The Statistics Monitoring and Reporting application is a Windows® based tool to display real-time details on call center agents and the call activity on the QuadroM products. The same information can be viewed over periods of time for trend analysis.
Third Party Applications
Epygi has partnered with many third party software vendors to have the 3rd party software applications integrated and tested with the Quadro products. They add a lot of value to the Quadro.
The major applications are as follows:
A mobile gateway enables your cell phone/smartphone to be an extension of an IP PBX. In this way when you receive a call on your cell phone, and you switched to your mobile gateway application on your cell phone, the incoming call went first to your IP PBX, and from the IP PBX to your cell phone. This route is much cheaper than the traditional route from cell phone over the cellular network to your cell phone. When you make a call from your cell phone more specifically from the mobile gateway application on your cell phone to your customer who is on the PSTN network, your call travels via the IP PBX to your customer. Again this route is much cheaper. The mobile gateway that is integrated with the Epygi Quadro IP PBX is the Quescom 200 gateway. The cell phone service savings are enormous. Learn more about the features and benefits.
- The Ideal Video Door Access Application Using Epygi, Grandstream and Mobitex
The addition of video to a door access application contributes added security and a more impactful form of communication. Video is being integrated into many different areas, especially surveillance. So when dealing with access, the visual aspect is completely necessary. This solution would place a Mobotix T24 Door Station at the entrance of a gated community or business park. This unit has a video camera and keypad integrated into one device. Those that already have access to the facility would simply enter a pin code that would instantly trigger the relay for the locking mechanism to allow access. For visitors/guests, they would initiate a video call to the party they are there to see. This can be dialed directly if they knew the predetermined extension or through an automated attendant built into an Epygi PBX. The auto attendant would also eliminate the need for a display with resident’s names and extensions which is also better for privacy reasons. This would send a SIP video call through the Epygi to the location of the recipient with a Grandstream GXV-3140 Video Phone. Learn more.
Learn more about the features and benefits.
IP Phones
Many IP Phones have been tested with the Quadro models.
The ones that are provisioned (configured) fully automatically by the Quadro at set up are:
Astra IP phones
SNOM IP phones
Other ones that are nearly fully automatically configured at set up are:
Grandstream
Polycom
Yealink
Learn more about IP Desktop Phones.
Desktop softphone application set up as an extension in your IP PBX. It also lets you see the activity of the other extensions.
Desktop sofware application that lets you make calls from MS Outlook Contacts but, makes your desk IP phone ring. You pick up your desk IP phone and start the conversation.
A software plugin for MS Office Word and Internet Explorer that enables you to click on any phone listed in the document or browser.
Learn more about PC Softphones
Usage Scenarios
Demos
Several demos explains the features of the Quadro products. The following demos are avalable:
Customer Stories
Benefits
The benefits are dramatic, and mainly as follows:
· Cost Savings
o Part savings: About 50% in a new building.
§ Only voice wires are needed for analog phones. IP phones use the existing data wires. So, a lot less voice wiring needed.
§ Acquisition cost, support cost and maintenance cost of an IP PBX is much less than that of a traditional PBX. An IP PBX runs on a low cost server.
§ No more new business cards and stationery when employees move to a new area code since they can take the phone number with them or, an IP PBX can forward calls to their new extensions.
o Labor savings: About 50% in a new building.
§ Less installation costs. Less voice wire purchasing. Less voice wire installation, testing and maintenance. Existing data wires should suffice. The phone wiring nightmare is past.
§ Less maintenance costs. No more telecommunications department since the data networking group can take care of all IP Telephony. IP telephony maintenance is much easier than with the traditional phone set up. Moves, adds and changes of a phone set just involve a change in the IP Telephony database.
§ Less expensive development of screen pop up or data directed call routing applications.
o Phone service savings: Dramatic savings.
§ No more surprising phone bills. However, you may need to upgrade your internet connection to a T1 to accommodate the additional IP voice calls.
§ No more toll or long distance call fees and no more private T1 voice channels to remote branches. An intranet data network enables your IP PBX to reach all these branches while bypassing phone companies.
§ Less travel phone costs since a digital phone adapter or a PC softphone can be hooked up to the internet in a hotel or hot spot for a low fee or for free.
· Revenue generation
o Higher work productivity for employees
§ Integration with MS Outlook or Webmail enables your employees to dial from MS Outlook or Webmail, to send and retrieve text email, voice mail and faxes all from the same application. Incoming calls could pop up automatically the callers information that is in your MS Outlook or Webmail or any other business application. All information will be now at my fingertips and eartips so that I can make faster a decision and avoid the creation of delays and errors..
§ Conferencing can be done by employees without any help
§ Voice recording has now become easy to do. Recorded voice clips can now be easily forwarded to others so that they can listen to it anytime anywhere.
§ “Follow Me” enables an employee to have the IP phone call forwarded to the phone at hand, be it the office phone, cell phone or home phone. An employee will never miss a call if this is needed.
o Better customer service
§ Virtual contact centers can now be set up much easier and cheaper. Calls can be forwarded based on the required skills to the right agent anywhere in the world via the internet. The right expert will handle complex issues timely, even when he/she is on the road.
§ On websites, you will be able to just click on a phone number to dial that phone number. Of course the website has to enable this.
§ On websites, live chat or Click to Phone Me will be much easier to implement
Pricing
The pricing of an installation will consist of the follwoing items:
Parts: The Quadro and the IP phones. Wiring may be needed.
Labor:
Requirements gathering and documentation
Exploring and documenting the best solution
Ordering, set up and configuration of Quadro
Set up and configuration of the IP Phones
Integration with other software applications (MS Outlook, ..)
Training
The size of the labor steps depend on the size of the configuration (number of extensions) and on the complexity of the wanted calling features.
How to Buy
Every set up needs to be configured for a customer's specific needs. Therefore expertise will be needed for the Quadro but also for your WAN and LAN set up. Internet Customer Solutions has done this many times. You will save money by asking us for a quote.