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Corporate telephone networks. Corporate PBX

Corporate IP telephony

It is beneficial to use IP telephony in a company. And that's why:
- IP telephony is the ability to use excellent quality voice communications between branches and representative offices of one company;
- IP telephony is a real chance to reduce costs for Web server users when using voice communications between company employees.

Coordination of a corporate network is greatly simplified by combining information transmission networks and a telephony complex. At the same time, the level of costs associated with operation is reduced, and, accordingly, the total cost of ownership is reduced. The benefits of combining data and telephony networks become obvious when using the capabilities of new proposals that can radically change this technology. All of them use stencil industrial architectures that make it possible to implement solutions from a range of manufacturers. The main component of the integrated product is the IP protocol - an information protocol that acts as a universal independent transport. This protocol enables network connections throughout the world.

Let's look at an illustrative example:
The main office of the company is located in Moscow. Branches are located in Murmansk and Kazan. There is no office telephone exchange in Kazan; employees use city telephone lines. Both offices are equipped with Internet access or connected by dedicated lines. The management's task is to significantly reduce the costs associated with long-distance and international calls. This task is standard, and therefore its solution will become universal advice for all companies interested in this issue. To implement this plan, it is necessary to install a telephony gateway - a telephone gateway - in each office and connect it to the telephone exchange related to this office. This will make it possible to talk with colleagues from other representative offices using any office telephone completely free of charge. It will also be possible to carry out long-distance telephone conversations from a regular landline phone using corporate servers. This implies the presence of a whole system of passwords designed to regulate access to the city and other types of access.

Let's talk about the mechanism for saving on calls with subscribers from other cities and countries, since this problem worries the heads of many companies. Savings are possible when transmitting voice traffic via WAN - a global data network. An obvious cost reduction occurs when coordination functions are combined by all connections intended to access the Network, connecting international and local calls through a unitary voice gateway or router. Companies are also concerned about the issue of accelerated reimbursement of basic costs associated with the purchase and maintenance of equipment. It is obvious that information transmission technologies are developing at a pace that the process of improving telephone exchanges cannot keep up with. In the network industry, a product “lives” for about 1.5 years. At the same time, there is a constant reduction in prices for the necessary network equipment. Based on this, IP telephony will follow the development path characteristic of such equipment. That is, there will be a gradual reduction in prices, an increase in functionality through the introduction of the latest technologies and the integration of products at a high level. Therefore, we can expect an overall reduction in the costs associated with IP telephony systems. The same cannot be said about conventional telephony systems.

Therefore, in the Russian Federation there is a continuous development of corporate IP telephony. Today there are three ways to use its capabilities.

The first is related to the use of provider IP telephony:
- in the form of an agreement with the operator working with cards. In this case, to make a call to another city, you must first dial the operator’s number, then the identification number, then the card PIN code. And after performing the above operations - enter the number of the called subscriber;
- a more popular option: changing the settings of the telephone exchange of a given institution (PBX) in such a way that calls to other cities and countries are sent in the form of IP packets to the IP communication operator through an information transmission channel (that is, through the so-called “output number” on intercity route").

The second method is the use of a corporate information transmission network by companies whose structure consists of offices located in different geographical locations for the interchange of voice traffic. To do this, you need to connect IP gateways to the office PBX in places of presence and define routing rules. This approach to IP telephony allows geographically developed companies to reduce the costs associated with paying telephone bills. But this method has a small disadvantage. Long-distance and international telephone calls addressed to places where the company does not have a presence are usually sent to an IP telephony operator.
The last, third, method allows you to use the capabilities of IP telephony more widely than the others presented here. It consists of building a unified corporate-scale IP network with functions for transmitting voice and other data (for example, video, text information). This option is not only profitable, but also promising. The undeniable convenience of this method is that the company receives a digital telephone exchange (network) with uniform numbering and a unified control center. The company also receives a large number of additional services. For example:
1. hold incoming calls and transfer them to other numbers;
2. the telephone directory of this company, which the user can view using the IP phone screen. It is located on the corporate LDAP server;
3. personal call management system (personal call management) allows you to coordinate your phone using the Web interface: forward calls to other phone numbers (another work, home or mobile) if the called subscriber cannot answer due to his absence from the workplace ;
4. unified messaging systems (unified messaging systems) send electronic or voice messages and faxes to a common mailbox, which can be used by telephone or via email, as well as through a Web browser.
5. The company’s IP phone can perform the function of a personal device, which has its own number and settings selected by the user whose name and password were entered.

This method is based on combining two networks - corporate and data transmission - into one. This saves money spent on supporting these systems and their maintenance, increases operational efficiency and eliminates the “conflict” between IT and telephony support, while at the same time increasing the degree of their coordination.

When company management is faced with the question of implementing an IP-PBX level system, they are also concerned about the issue of economic efficiency and feasibility. To evaluate effectiveness, you need to take some points into account. No one doubts that corporate network infrastructure is necessary and important. Therefore, investing in the introduction of IP telephony into the work processes of an enterprise should be classified as mandatory. Why? Because companies that have an information transmission network will see a lot of positive aspects. Thus, it will be possible to abandon a number of serviced systems - technological, telephone, fire, network, security and others. That is, the costs associated with the implementation of IP telephony are the costs of all of the listed systems simultaneously. Therefore, the economic feasibility is obvious: this is the modernization of the IP infrastructure, on the one hand, and the minimization of operating costs, as well as increasing employee productivity, on the other.

Thus, the introduction of IP telephony is profitable and effective, and is also necessary for companies interested in the long-term existence of their business and competitiveness.

If we talk about the specific capabilities of business IP telephony, then it is worth highlighting the opportunity:
- holding conference calls and meetings with absolutely any number of participants;
- creating group or individual alerts;
- design of broadcast announcements;
- notifications about the user status (for example, “busy”, “unavailable”, “online”, etc.) of subscribers or other users using “Presence” technology;
- taking advantage of the fact that an IP phone can determine the “fate” of an incoming call: for example, forwarding an incoming call to voice mail or a home phone (usually depending on the time of the last outgoing call);
- support the exchange of “instant” messages appearing on the screen of an IP phone using the “Instant Messaging” program.

There are a lot of advantages from using IP telephony products (IP-PBX). Thus, the design of a unified network infrastructure for a company makes it possible to minimize costs (compared to the costs that are necessary to optimize the operation of infrastructures that can be replaced by IP telephony), to implement different methods of IP communications that are available today, as well as emerging ones. By the way, some of them cannot be implemented using established approaches: for example, Instant Messaging technology or corporate notification systems.

Employees will appreciate the lack of attachment to telephone channels, as well as the extreme ease of making adjustments to the operation of the corporate IP network. These factors affect the improvement of labor productivity of individual workers and the enterprise as a whole. Business mobility increases, as it becomes easier to monitor work groups and the stages of completing assigned tasks. This is achieved by combining IP products with CRM or ERP systems designed to improve the level of corporate governance.

The main advantage is the ability to practically combine corporate management and information systems with multimedia communication systems: from group notifications (including voice reminders) and standardized messages to changing the essence of the company in the contact center (customer appeal management center). This center is a link in the CRM system, characterized by the ability to record, process and save in a single database all personal contacts, phone calls, emails and faxes, that is, the complete history of relationships with certain clients. In this case, each employee of the enterprise plays the role of an operator involved in one of the groups.

It is also important that each employee of the company, regardless of his location (another office, foreign representative office), can receive the necessary set of information and services (including voice) if he has an IP channel with good bandwidth, by organizing a connection to the corporate networks via a VPN channel.

The main advantage that becomes real when introducing IP telephony is tangible savings on calls to cities and countries marked on the geographical map with the company’s presence sign.

As you know, people quickly get used to good things. Users of corporate telephone networks are no exception to this rule. Initially, corporate PBXs could only provide call switching between internal subscribers and cost savings on renting external telephone lines. Manufacturers gradually increased the capabilities of their stations, providing users with access to new functions. The emergence of computer-telephone interaction technologies, and subsequently integration with data networks, opened up access to a completely different class of telephone service. This direction was named "unified communications" and turned out to be in good demand among corporate subscribers.
Often, telephone system equipment manufacturers and their partners spend a lot of effort to inform the consumer about the many features that are available to subscribers in the proposed solution. But in fairness, it is worth noting that the set of functionality of different station models is almost the same, despite the differences in marketing positioning. According to Ilya Fedorushkin, business development manager for the area Unified Communications Cisco, large manufacturers invest in consumer demand market research and analysis of its changes, obtaining approximately the same results, since they are researching the same market segment. Other companies, without a sufficient budget, usually begin to copy these new products. Therefore, the market has developed a certain balance of requirements for modern telephone systems and manufacturers’ proposals.
Separately, from the entire extensive list of such requirements, it is worth highlighting the possibility of integrating all geographically dispersed branches and divisions into a single switching space. At the same time, all employees must be given the opportunity to receive homogeneous communication services. The need to implement this requirement largely determines the architecture of building a modern enterprise telephone infrastructure. Corporate customers also expect a real reduction in maintenance costs from modern switching systems.
One of the main challenges faced when building a company's converged telephone system that includes legacy exchanges is overcoming the differences in architecture between traditional and IP PBXs. In the first case, these are switches for one type of traffic, designed as a specialized and centralized solution. In another case, it is a distributed system capable of handling different types of traffic. At the same time, the functionality of telephone communication is often not the main one in the operation of devices included in such a system.
Therefore, the dominant option for integrating traditional and IP telephony into a unified communications system of a modern enterprise, allowing to preserve legacy equipment and provide subscribers with access to new functionality, has become the installation of gateways. With their help, the conversion of voice and signaling protocols is ensured, and the possibility of unity of control is also supported.

Corporate IP telephony solutions and their manufacturers

To participate in the review, we selected proposals from manufacturers whose solutions were initially focused on creating converged telephone systems capable of providing communications to thousands and tens of thousands of corporate subscribers. The emergence of new technologies and changes in the global economic situation have led to a noticeable redistribution of this market segment, even compared to the early 2000s. The former leaders have lost their advantage, as the poet said, there are no others, and those are far away. But the vacated “clearing” was not occupied by a new generation of players. Today, solutions for creating distributed and large-scale corporate telephone systems are offered by only four companies - Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco and Siemens. Other manufacturers see small and medium-sized businesses as their target market.

Enterprise Telephony Solutions Alcatel-Lucent are based on the developments of the French component of this company. Product OmniPCX Enterprise is a fairly flexible solution on the basis of which you can create a fully functional telephone system for enterprises of various sizes. The number of subscribers for one station varies from 5 to 15,000 people; a network of such stations can provide communications to up to 100 thousand users. If necessary, these stations can be combined into a “supernet”, ready to serve up to 1 million subscribers.
The OmniPCX Enterprise station is built on a modular principle, which allows you to flexibly increase subscriber capacity and expand the available functionality. This option can be useful as the company grows, ensuring rational use of investments.
This solution is based on the OmniPCX 4400 telephone exchange, which has been in production for a long time and is widely used. The new version of the station is a “real” IP-PBX, in which the core of the system is entirely based on the IP and VoIP protocol stack. The OmniPCX Enterprise architecture consists of a fairly limited set of components, which allows you to create solutions with a high degree of unification. The main element of OmniPCX Enterprise is the Communication Server, which performs all functions for call routing and station management. It is worth noting that this server runs the Linux operating system, which facilitates the implementation of new hardware platforms. The software is downloaded to the hard drive when the system is created, and the functionality of the station is determined by a set of open licenses.
Media Gateway is used to integrate the station with legacy telephone solutions and to connect analog terminal equipment. It allows you to maintain connections to city networks via analogue lines and ISDN channels. It also provides DECT base stations and digital telephones that do not support the IP protocol.
Both core elements of OmniPCX Enterprise are available in two design options: for placement in a typical equipment cabinet and in the rack previously used for the 4400 station.
Among the functionality of OmniPCX Enterprise, it is worth noting support for a wide range of telephone protocols, including SIP. To unite stations into a single corporate network, various types of channels can be used, such as IP, ATM, Frame Relay, PSTN, ISDN or leased lines. For interstation communication, the proprietary ABC-F protocol is used, and Q.SIG can also be used. This diversity makes it possible to integrate into a single network not only legacy equipment from Alcatel-Lucent, but also from other manufacturers.
The solution supports centralized voicemail, allows you to create a contact center (with up to 5 thousand operators) and works with Unified Communications applications. The latter feature can be achieved using the OmniTouch 8600 My Instant Communicator solution.

Last year Avaya company presented a new architecture for organizing corporate communications. The main idea of ​​this architecture called Aura, is the separation of the corporate application layer from the telecommunications infrastructure, the call switching layer. It is based on the use of a corporate network management middleware built on top of a SIP router and installed on top of the existing telephony infrastructure.
The key element of Avaya Aura is the combination of software solutions Aura Session Manager and Aura System Manager. The first element of this tandem, Session Manager, is a session management server and is also responsible for registering subscribers and linking existing services to user profiles. The tasks of this server include managing bandwidth, supporting a unified numbering plan, and routing calls according to specified rules. A special feature of Session Manager is that the call is divided into phases, allowing you to take into account the services available to the call initiator and the called subscriber. Another essential element of Avaya Aura is the integrated management solution System Manager. It allows you to administer your entire phone system as a single platform.
Currently, the Aura architecture is capable of supporting up to 25 thousand nodes in the network and 250 thousand subscribers, serving up to 750 thousand calls per hour. In addition to Avaya communications equipment, this SIP solution integrates directly with third-party phone systems. Gateways can be used to connect any PBX, allowing legacy equipment to be integrated with Avaya Aura. Avaya Aura is available as one of three software packages pre-installed on the server (Branch, Standard, Enterprise) and licensed per subscriber.
Avaya offers Communication Manager as a telephony infrastructure solution for building a large enterprise telephone system. This product is now released in version 5.2 and is essentially an IP implementation of the Definity telephone exchange. Communication Manager provides centralized call control across a wide-area network and a high degree of resiliency. A wide range of servers, gateways and subscriber devices of different types is supported: analog, digital and IP.
Having received as a result of the bankruptcy of the company Nortel, its corporate division, Avaya has added telephone systems to its product line Communication Server 1000 and Communication Server 2100. These stations are scalable IP-PBXs designed for use in large enterprise networks. The older model is capable of supporting up to 500 thousand SIP subscribers, almost up to 100 thousand contact center agents, providing processing of 120 thousand simultaneous calls and over 2.4 million calls to the CNN. The characteristics of the other model are smaller, but also impressive. This solution is available in three versions, capable of providing communications to up to 22.5 thousand subscribers. One of these options is specifically focused on providing Unified Communications services.

Unlike other manufacturers, Cisco company created its own telephone solutions from scratch, focusing exclusively on the capabilities of the IP protocol. This company was not weighed down by the burden of legacy stations and a huge fleet of equipment installed at customers.
Today Cisco offers the eighth version of the solution for large companies Unified Communications System, in which the emphasis is on further development of functionality. In the new version, it is worth noting the appearance of the Intercompany Media Engine system, which allows communication between different companies over an IP network with a given level of security. This feature is useful for simplifying communications between employees of partner companies. The new version also ensures the implementation of a unified communications system in a virtual environment, which can be physically distributed between the company’s own data center and providers providing cloud services.
The Unified Communications System architectural solution includes a network infrastructure, a communications management system (Unified Communications Manager), which provides call processing, support for video communications, mobility services and subscriber presence monitoring. The solution also includes a variety of IP phones and a number of applications that directly provide unified communications.
The Unified Communications Manager system is available in two versions, based on the Cisco UCS B200 M1 blade server and UCS C210 M1 for placement in a hardware rack. Using this solution, you can manage 7,500 IP phones. The solution supports combining up to eight servers into a cluster, while the number of subscribers served increases to 30 thousand. The load in the CHN for a single server can reach up to 100 thousand calls, with a cluster organization - up to 250 thousand calls. The company offers a wide range of gateways to integrate with legacy telephony infrastructure.

Despite its rather rapid metamorphoses in the field of telecommunications, Siemens company remained in the corporate telephone systems market. Currently, a system is offered for large customers HiPath 4000, which is positioned as a new generation of real-time IP communications platforms. Based on HiPath 4000, converged corporate networks can be created serving from 300 to 100,000 users. The platform supports a large number of different communication protocols, including the SIP protocol. This solution is built on a modular basis, which facilitates the deployment of distributed telecommunications infrastructure across company branches.
The central control element of the system is the communication server, which is based on a standard server platform in a fault-tolerant configuration. Another element of the station are remote modules (in the company's terminology - access points) AP 3700, which are designed for placement in a standard hardware rack and are used for installing subscriber and line cards with various types of interfaces. The station may also include an HG 3500 IP gateway, used for voice communications over IP networks. Additionally, the company offers the new HiPath 4000 SoftGate application, which provides a software-based way to organize communications in branches running HiPath 4000 using standard x86 server platforms.
Currently, the station is capable of supporting up to 98 access points, of which 15 can directly connect to the switching server. Instead of some access points, the SoftGate application can be used as part of the solution. In these configurations, the HiPath 4000 communication server supports up to 12,000 users.
Much attention in the station architecture is paid to issues of fault tolerance, including that each access point can optionally be equipped with a control device known as a fault tolerance module. In this case, if the central switching server is unavailable, management can be carried out locally.
Historically, the HiPath 4000 system originates from telephone exchanges of the ISDN standard, so the new solution supports the possibility of using this standard along with the protocols of the IP stack. To create a network of stations, the proprietary CorNet NQ protocol is used, compatible with the international Q.SIG protocol for managing calls on a corporate telephone network.
For a smooth migration from legacy systems to IP-PBX, the manufacturer offers a special Easy Conversion program, which allows you to upgrade Hicom 300 systems and HiPath 4000 systems of older versions.

As can be seen from the review, not many manufacturers today are ready to offer a full-fledged solution for building a converged telephone system for a large enterprise with several thousand employees. However, the situation is quite understandable - the implementation of such projects requires serious expenditures in research and development. And this is the lot of the few.

Key Features of IP PBX

Model Number of subscribers Number of subscribers in the network
OmniPCX Enterprise / Alcatel-Lucent Up to 15000 Up to 100,000. In a special configuration up to 1 million.
Avaya Aura/Avaya Up to 18000 Up to 250000
Communication Server 1000/Avaya Up to 22500 unlimited
Communication Server 2100 / Avaya Up to 500000 unlimited
Unified Communications System/Cisco Up to 7500 Up to 30000
HiPath 4000 / Siemens Up to 12000 Up to 100000

Corporate PBX can provide telephone communications to a network of offices located in different cities.

Successful companies value the speed and smoothness of their employees' work. Reasonable and effective organization of the labor process can increase productivity significantly. This is why telephone communication within the company is very important. This is what is used for Office PBX.

Corporate PBX, high-quality telephony

Connecting a large company to telephone services may require installing a corporate PBX at the provider's office or at the subscriber's company office.

What is a corporate PBX?

Office PBX- this is the same telephone exchange as those operated by operators, but it is much smaller and is designed for a couple of hundred numbers. Thanks to it, you do not have to register each internal telephone with the operator. This will not only reduce paperwork, but will also reduce bills for all devices that are paid separately.

Also, a mini-PBX for your office differs from a large one in that the network is divided into internal and external. Depending on the type of system, you can expect;

  • digital stream;
  • analog lines;
  • switched networks.

This entire system can be controlled using a computer and a program installed on it. The initial settings will be made and tested by our company employees. So organized corporate PBX can function in different environments, which include:

  • Internet;
  • The local network;
  • Wireless network and so on.

The customer himself can choose the most convenient form and environment for the automatic telephone exchange, depending on his capabilities, needs and desires.

Office telephone exchange.

Deciding to install PBX in the office, please note that you will receive a number of benefits and additional features. Immediately after receiving the service you can count on:

  • Savings on telephone communications;
  • Uninterrupted and reliable internal and external network;
  • A large number of additional services;
  • Intelligent systems that handle subscriber calls for the purpose of distribution among operators and much more.

PBX for office is multifunctional and useful to everyone, as it can do almost everything you want. For example, you can:

  • Record conversations;
  • Determine the number of the person calling;
  • Send a real number or a number shown on the display - a dedicated company number and much more.

It all depends on what set of functions you want. The system really allows you to roam around in your desires and capabilities.

Why us?

Having assessed the advantages of a small automatic telephone exchange and decided to purchase it, every reasonable person will look for the best value for money. Stop! You still found it.

PBX for office from our company - this is the fastest and highest quality service you can find. We have all the necessary licenses to provide qualified work and excellent equipment.

We will help you choose the most convenient package of functions that is ideal for arranging your office. He will solve all the necessary problems. We are honest with our clients, so we organize the set that you need, and not the one that we want to sell.

If you have any questions about the equipment or its operation, we will always be there, as technical support works around the clock. Trust us to equip your office with an automatic telephone exchange, and we will definitely not let you down!

Our services and prices

More about services

Corporate telephony unites offices! The Versiya company specializes in providing digital telephone services to corporate users. Services are connected throughout Moscow. Most organizations are faced with the problem of installing telephones in office premises. This problem does not depend on whether the office is purchased or leased. In a room that is not equipped with communication means, to successfully conduct business, it is first necessary to install a telephone. The phone is connected via optical communication channels, copper pairs and the Internet.

By technology - via E1 channel, analog ports and IP. Depending on the location of your office, the most optimal method will be chosen for you. If necessary, an office PBX will be installed for you. The Versiya telecommunications company owns its own telephone numbering resource allocated by the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz).

Consolidating offices, if there are several of them, into a single telephone network is a logical solution, and currently the location of offices in different parts of the country or the world is not an obstacle to creating a single telephone space with its own internal numbering and external exits in the cities where the offices are located (connection to a local telephone operator is required), calls from anywhere in such a network will be local. To operate such a distributed telephone network (all offices must have an Internet connection), we have developed a PBX based on the free Asterisk code, which has no equal in both price and functionality. The functions are well described on the developer’s website asterisk.org. We take care of the installation of the PBX and its configuration, and you get telephony that works in all parts of the world where there is Internet.

A call to us will change your understanding of the possibilities of telephone communication.

Corporate telephony, cost optimization

It’s the 21st century, and the telephone has always been and remains a connecting link between people. When organizing his business, an entrepreneur, first of all, tries to make it accessible to the masses. The main rule of success is to establish contact with the consumer. And, of course, you can’t do without telephone communication here. An increasing number of branches are involved in the process of expanding the business. Gradually, instead of the need to organize one communication channel, there is a need to create several simultaneously functioning channels for an entire group of enterprises. A huge number of different numbers causes inconvenience, and very noticeably hits the entrepreneur’s pocket. So, if your organization has a certain number of offices scattered throughout the city, country, world, and you do not want to depend on prices for long-distance calls, then we are ready to help you organize a private telephone network. The organization of private telephone networks is the creation of a unified communication infrastructure based on a specific network, which will significantly simplify the interaction of remote client objects. In this case, all telephones of the private network will have a single numbering (from 3 digits), as if they were connected to the same private branch exchange (PBX). Anyone can use a simple, easy-to-remember number to contact any office of your company (regardless of its location) and receive all the information they are interested in in full. This service not only allows you to provide the necessary technical basis for the interaction of employees with each other and the outside world, but also has an optimal price-quality ratio. The cost of a call over the internal telephone network is tens of times lower than using the services of long-distance operators, and in most cases it is free.

Why office PBX from canmos?

Advantages of our office PBX

  • Creates virtual PBXs without restrictions.

  • Tasks solved thanks to corporate PBX:

    • Connecting all buildings located on the territory of the enterprise, thereby providing all employees with the opportunity to effectively use city and internal communications;
    • Creation of one or two call reception and distribution centers (secretariat, control room, sales and service departments);
    • Organizing effective interaction between employees, clients and business partners by minimizing unanswered calls (unanswered calls);
    • Providing the opportunity for several employees to work with one city number, establishing a system of priorities and prohibitions, for example, such as access to the city, intercity, international communications;
    • Refusal of extra lines or purchase of additional ones, in connection with which a preliminary assessment of the possible intensity of calls (incoming/outgoing traffic) is carried out;
    • Installation and configuration of a tariff program to account for telephone conversations.
    • It is worth noting the fact that the private network is logically separated from public networks, that is, the client’s traffic is completely protected from unauthorized access from the outside. Users can be both large companies with an extensive network of branches in different cities, and small companies that have several offices within the same city. Taking into account the development prospects of your enterprise, a private telephone network will ensure interaction between departments and communication with clients at a fundamentally new level.

Quick PBX connection for the office

Order form for Corporate PBX

Freight One's business required the construction of an internal telephone network, unified for the center and all branches. In such a network, it is advisable to use VoIP technology (Voice over IP), which allows you to save significant amounts on long-distance calls and provides high flexibility. Thus, an IP telephone network can be superimposed on a virtual private network (VPN), not tied to any one operator, and moving an office to another building will not affect its internal numbers in any way. Further, each division should have been connected to the technological communication system of Russian Railways and, of course, to the public telephone network (PSTN), also providing for the possibility of integrating different types of communication. “Many PGK employees,” explains Konstantin Mironov, “need the functionality of Unified Communications, first of all, automatic forwarding, when the system independently goes through all available methods of connecting with the called subscriber, determining the route, equipment and type of communication. In this case, you do not need to manually dial first the internal telephone number, then the mobile phone, etc. “Everything happens automatically.” These capabilities, along with many others, are provided by Avaya media servers.

The Avaya media server series is developed within the framework of a single concept of geographically distributed PBX. According to this concept, all call processing is managed in a single device for all voice gateways and subscribers - a media server. In this case, not only voice is transmitted over IP channels (as in classic IP telephony), but also control signals for peripheral devices. The advantages of this approach are:

  • unified system management: the entire network is administered as one PBX, which allows reducing the staff of system administrators;
  • a unified control and monitoring system - all data is collected centrally, and there is no problem with combining it; this is convenient from the point of view of administration, analysis of received information, prompt identification and troubleshooting;
  • an expanded set of functions available to all users;
  • a common pool of subscriber licenses that are used as needed (there is no need to keep a supply of licenses for each system, which reduces communication costs);
  • unification of components (allows you to reduce the size of the spare parts and accessories kit);
  • savings on long-distance negotiations.

The specific advantages of Avaya equipment that determined the choice include:

  • the ability to back up all system components: if any component fails, there will be an automatic switch to the “hot” standby set without interrupting the service (the end user will not even notice that anything has happened);
  • convenient administration program with a well-designed interface and logical command structure;
  • the ability to install survival servers in key nodes: thanks to these servers, the nodes will function even if communication with the central control server is lost;
  • developed additional services: conference calls, voice mail, microcellular DECT (IP-DECT), call recording system;
  • the possibility of further development of the system, including the construction of a distributed contact center.

You can take full advantage of all of the listed advantages only if the network is entirely built on Avaya equipment. The conditions of the project made it possible to do this, since the new administrative building in Moscow was just being prepared to receive equipment, and Freight One’s branches did not have their own switching platforms. Only in the Moscow office, which was then located in rented premises, there was a small PBX from another manufacturer; it was decided to mothball it (perhaps in the future this station will be able to be used in some relatively isolated unit, where integration is not so important).

Since the branches could accept the equipment earlier than the main office of Freight One, where the management media server was to be installed, the construction of the telephone system began from the periphery. The first stage of the project consisted of deploying independent telephone switches in 14 branches and the second (at that time the only) Moscow office. For all these points, a standard set was created based on the Avaya S8300/G450 model, capable of operating not only under the control of a central media server, but also as an independent PBX. Thus, immediately after installation of the equipment, field employees were able to use telephone communications. When connected to a central media server, the offline mode is maintained as an emergency mode: usually the device receives all configuration data from the central media server, and if communication with the center is lost, it takes over control, thereby ensuring uninterrupted operation. The S8300 allows the connection of any type of telephone set - analog, digital and IP - and supports, along with basic communication capabilities, additional functions such as auto attendant, voice mail, etc.

At the second stage, when Freight One's central office in Moscow was ready, a PBX based on the Avaya S8730/G650 media server was installed there. For this platform, there are three levels of reliability - standard, high and critical - from which the customer can choose the required one. Freight One installed a high reliability system of 99.99%, which corresponds to no more than 53 minutes of downtime per year. Additionally, Freight One acquired licenses for:

  • Intuity AUDIX voicemail system;
  • IP-DECT microcellular communication system;
  • Verint conversation recording system;
  • conference communication system "Congress" for 30 participants.

The project was implemented within 6 months by employees of the Avaya Competence Center of LANIT. Currently, all installed stations operate autonomously. “Although the integration of all stations into a single network is formally free, we will have to take care of redundancy and survival, which will require certain investments,” says Konstantin Mironov. In the near future, Freight One plans to introduce the Barsum Enterprise tariff system, which will allow collecting statistics from all installed PBXs. An analysis of the costs of long-distance negotiations and the share of them made up by negotiations within the company will help make a decision on the advisability of a merger.

Today, not a single modern enterprise can do without a corporate telephony system. There have always been a lot of offers in this market, and with the growing popularity of the cloud model, the number of possible options has only grown. To help our readers choose the best option,we asked leading vendors in the field to propose their solution for a fictitious company with 100 employees.

So, a fictitious company (hereinafter referred to as the customer) has three offices: in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. The first employs 30 people, the other two employ 20 each, and another 30 employees work from home. The customer requires a corporate communication system with modern business telephony functionality, support for mobile devices, and easy configuration and setup.

In addition to the basic requirements (see sidebar “Problem Statement”), the customer expressed several additional wishes. In the future, he plans to integrate the communication system with a number of business applications, primarily with the CRM system. Therefore, it is desirable that the proposed solution allows such integration to be carried out as simply as possible. In addition, plans for the future include the implementation of video communication between three offices with the installation of three group video conferencing terminals and three personal ones (for top managers). The customer considers it optimal if this project can be implemented as a further development of the current one, that is, supplementing the communication system with video conferencing functions.

Formulation of the problem

Customer

Total 100 employees. Three offices: Moscow (30 people), St. Petersburg (20 people), Kazan (20 people), 30 employees work from home.

Task

Offer a solution (preferably with prices) to provide the customer with modern telephone communications.

Basic requirements:

  • a single multi-channel incoming number for all offices;
  • modern business telephony functions (call distribution and forwarding, conversation recording, voice mail, auto attendant/IVR, audio conferencing, provision of subscriber status information);
  • connection to the communication system from mobile devices (iOS and Android smartphones/tablets);
  • simple configuration and setup (via graphical interface from the browser);
  • providing detailed reports and statistics on calls.

Terminals:

  • 20 employees, managers and mobile users plan to “keep in touch” most of the time from their mobile devices (iOS and Android smartphones/tablets);
  • 30 homeworkers will use their PCs for voice communications;
  • 30 office users need landline telephones - offer products;
  • the remaining 20 people actively move within offices, so wireless handsets (DECT or Wi-Fi - at the discretion of the solution provider) are more convenient for them.

All terminals must have the same set of functions.

The main intrigue lies in the choice of a model for implementing the task formulated by the customer. He has not yet decided whether he should install his own communication system or whether it is better to use the services of cloud providers. Therefore, he asked to justify the proposed options, if possible, by conducting an economic comparison of the two models.

ON YOUR OWN OR IN THE CLOUD

The popularity of cloud solutions is growing rapidly. However, according to Panasonic, with a twofold percentage growth in absolute terms, the volume of the cloud telephony market is still small, which is mainly due to the fact that its main consumers are small businesses. For such organizations, rapid system deployment and low cost of ownership are very important. And if in terms of such a factor as deployment speed, cloud PBXs outperform “regular” IP-PBXs, then their cost, according to Panasonic, is not always so attractive. Virtual systems can be really beneficial - but for those companies that are created to implement short projects.

Panasonic experts claim that locally installed solutions, as a rule, have broader functionality, and their modular structure allows, as the company grows and tasks change, to supplement such a solution with the necessary components that meet new needs. They point out a number of risks inherent in virtual solutions - in particular, the fact that when using cloud technologies, information security is completely left to the provider. Their conclusion is this: despite the apparent attractiveness of virtual PBXs, in many cases it is more profitable and safer to use your own IP systems.

One of the main advantages of a cloud service is the absence of capital costs for infrastructure equipment (you only have to purchase terminals, and you can negotiate a lease for them). The main costs are monthly payments for cloud services, but in terms of OPEX we can also talk about savings. As representatives of the LanKey company note, maintenance of unified communications (UC) systems costs an average of $1,000 per month (which is comparable to the monthly cost of a cloud service), plus the cost of salaries of qualified personnel capable of operating such systems. We must not forget that when using your own systems you will have to spend money on updating the software - cloud service providers independently provide such an update.

Another undeniable advantage is flexibility and pay as you go. The cost of a cloud telephony and UFK service is usually calculated based on the number of users: the customer hired new employees - promptly connected additional licenses, had to fire someone - no need to pay for idle licenses. It is also important that the performance of the cloud service usually does not depend on the physical location of the office. Therefore, if the customer moves to a new office, there will be no difficulties with transferring the communication system.

Another advantage is a quick start. “As a rule, implementing your own complex IT solutions takes from several months to several years. It takes time to formalize requirements, technical design, purchase and supply of equipment, as well as configuration,” explains Nikita Dogadchenko, head of unified communications at CTI. - If you use a cloud service, all the necessary solution infrastructure is already deployed on the provider’s side. As a result, the service implementation period is reduced several times.”

Since our customer is a small enterprise, he obviously does not have a fault-tolerant data center to host the communication system. Cloud providers try to use reliable commercial Tier III data centers, so they are able to provide customers with a financial guarantee of service availability at least 99.9% of the time per month. Achieving this level of reliability using a small company is quite difficult and very expensive. And this is another argument in favor of cloud services.

As Nikita Dogadchenko explains, a reasonable comparison of implementation models (“own system” or “from the cloud”) can only be carried out by considering a specific case and taking into account the specifics of the client’s business. According to CTI's calculations over a five-year period, in general, a cloud offering will be more profitable than building an in-house solution with similar levels of reliability, scalability and security (see Figure 1).

According to Maxim Repin, Cisco business development manager in the field of collaboration technologies, the choice between local, cloud and hybrid models of deployment/consumption of communication services ultimately depends on the priorities, specifics of the business and IT strategy of a particular customer.

OFFER OF THE COMPANY "LANKEY"

LanKey representatives immediately emphasized that before offering a specific solution to a customer, it is important for them to study the customer’s existing IT infrastructure, find out what equipment and software they already have in order to use them as much as possible in the project and implement the new solution most effectively. They assumed that the customer already uses (or plans to use - if the company is being created from scratch) such infrastructure services as the Microsoft Active Directory directory service and the Microsoft Exchange corporate email system, and users work with documents in Microsoft Office. In 70–80% of cases this is true. Taking into account these assumptions, Microsoft Lync 2013 unified communications system was selected as the most suitable solution (see Table 1).

Unified communications refers to a solution that combines all types of communications in a single product. In addition to business telephony itself, Microsoft Lync 2013 will provide a single corporate address book with the presence status of all subscribers, free calls to Skype subscribers, video conferencing, instant messaging, desktop sharing, Web conferencing, and mobile access. The obvious advantage of implementing Microsoft Lync in this case will be close integration with all customer services, namely Active Directory, Exchange, Microsoft Office products and Microsoft CRM (the future implementation of which the customer is thinking about). As LanKey representatives note, the customer receives a fairly impressive list of capabilities that no classic office PBX will provide him with.

LanKey specialists analyzed two approaches to the issue of using Microsoft Lync: local implementation in the customer’s infrastructure and rental in the cloud (using the SaaS model). Taking into account the small size of the customer’s company, we can assume that he hardly has his own data center, a large number of powerful underloaded servers, and most importantly, a significant number of qualified IT specialists. Thus, LanKey concluded, with a high degree of probability, it will be much more profitable for the customer to rent the Cloud Lync service in the cloud.

The price of this LanKey service is 500 rubles/month. per subscriber for the most complete functionality (see Table 2). Since the customer has 100 employees, the costs will be 50,000 rubles/month. For comparison: if you implement Lync for 100 users within a company, then the cost of the software alone will exceed 1 million rubles. - and this does not take into account the costs of servers and implementation. In addition, if you implement your own service, the customer will have to purchase the software again every three years and pay for migration work. The LanKey company itself updates its service to new versions of Lync as they are released, and also provides its technical support and administration free of charge.

LanKey specialists approached the issue of selecting terminal equipment most carefully, presenting the customer with a large number of options and recommendations, but leaving freedom of choice: “take what you like and what your budget allows.” At the same time, they noted that with the growing popularity of the BYOD concept, equipment for employees is often no longer chosen by the company, but by the employees themselves.

Typical terminals of the Microsoft Lync 2013 system are computers and laptops with software clients installed on them. To use all the capabilities of the system, just connect a wired or wireless headset to your computer. The headset can be anything, but LanKey specialists recommended a wired headset Microsoft LX6000 (priced at 2,000 rubles), which has buttons to pick up/hang up, turn off the microphone and volume. They also noted the wide selection of wired and wireless headsets from Jabra, Plantronics and Logitech. Those employees who do not like a headset can use USB phones - for example, from Polycom, Jabra and Plantronics at a price of 3,000 to 6,000 rubles.

The choice of IP phones is not as wide as headsets, but there are still plenty of options: from relatively inexpensive models such as the Snom 710 and AudioCodes HD420 (RUB 5,000) to top-end devices with color screens for management, such as the Polycom cx600 and HP 4120 ( 13,000 rub.).

Mobile employees will be able to use any smartphones and tablets running Android, iOS, Windows Phone and RT. You can download the Lync 2013 Mobile app for free from the app store. A smartphone on a Wi-Fi network is a wireless phone for Lync. In addition, even if there is no Wi-Fi, the Lync Mobile application still works - in this case, calls to the mobile are forwarded through the GSM network.

Video conferencing in Microsoft Lync is organized using a regular computer and a USB camera. For PCs, LanKey experts recommend the Full HD camera Logitech C930e for 5,000 rubles, for small groups - the controlled camera Logitech CC3000e (35,000 rubles). For round tables there are cameras with a 360° viewing angle (Round Table), for example Polycom cx5000 for 200,000 rubles. Since Microsoft Lync integrates with almost any videoconferencing systems from Polycom, if funds allow, the customer can purchase personal terminals with a monitor for top managers (for example, Polycom HDX 4500), and codecs for meeting rooms - for example, HDX 7000 or HDX 8000 , which cost from 400,000 rubles. For meeting rooms, there are solutions with large dual touch screens and high-quality cameras for 1 million rubles. and more.

CISCO OFFER

Taking into account the current needs of the customer and the potential for further development of its infrastructure, Cisco specialists proposed using the Cisco Business Edition 6000 (hereinafter referred to as BE6K) communication platform, which is based on the Cisco Unified Communications Manager UC system. This platform was specifically designed for small businesses and is optimized to reduce total cost of ownership through hardware consolidation, reduced power and cooling costs, and easy-to-use configuration and administration tools. As noted by Cisco, the core software and a set of integrated applications provide full-featured, comprehensive collaboration services and naturally integrate with the data network. Cisco BE6K supports capacity expansion up to 1000 subscribers and 2500 registered devices and provides the ability to combine up to 50 remote offices into a single network.

To implement the project, it is proposed to use a fault-tolerant hardware and software complex Cisco BE6K consisting of two Cisco UCS servers and a VMware vSphere 5 hypervisor. A number of applications (in the form of virtual machines) are deployed on the basis of this platform:

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager 10.5 (CUCM) provides registration of subscriber devices and applications, management of the number plan, establishment of audio and video connections.
  • Cisco IM & Presence is based on the XMPP protocol and provides user status monitoring (Presence) and instant messaging (IM) services for Cisco Jabber software clients (including mobile devices). This service is available not only to CUCM subscribers, but also (free of charge) to all employees of the organization as part of the Jabber for Everyone program.
  • Cisco Expressway provides secure remote access for system subscribers to all corporate communication services without the need for VPN connections, as well as the ability to provide full-featured external communications with business partners and clients.
  • Cisco Unity Connection is a voicemail service integrated with Cisco Jabber email services and software clients.
  • Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, a solution for organizing a contact center for up to 100 operators, provides multi-level IVR, detailed call statistics, an automated workstation for CC operators and supervisors, integration with business systems and CRM.

To implement a single multi-channel number, the customer is encouraged to use a digital or IP connection to the PSTN or telecom operator based on a Cisco router with a gateway or CUBE function for the SIP trunk. Depending on the customer's needs, this serial number can be terminated on an automated attendant system, contact center or secretary workstations equipped with a Unified Attendant console.

The platform is administered using built-in Cisco Prime Collaboration applications. As noted by Cisco, the user-friendly user interface and automation tools of this tool significantly speed up system deployment and significantly reduce the time required to make ongoing changes. In addition, the user self-service portal built into CUCM can radically reduce the load on the system administrator for setting up and customizing functions. A “one-window” service is implemented for users, where they can independently (via the Web interface) simply and clearly personalize the basic functions of telephony, connect mobile devices, set up a mobile number or schedule a conference.

Cisco offered its Jabber software clients (for Windows, MAC, iPad, iPhone, Android) as a means of communication for mobile employees, and for managers it also offered Cisco 8851 IP desktop phones with Intelligence Proximity functions for integration with mobile devices. Jabber clients are also available for homeworkers. For “stationary” office employees - Cisco 7821 IP desktop phones and also Jabber clients, which will provide instant messaging, presence status monitoring and desk phone management. For those 20 employees who actively move within offices, Cisco 7821 phones in Hot-Desking mode and Jabber clients for iPhone and Android are recommended.

Although Cisco specialists suggested that the customer deploy the Cisco BE6K platform at their site, they did not rule out other models for consuming telephony/UFC services. As Maxim Repin notes, the functionality of the proposed solution can be implemented on the basis of a cloud service on the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) platform from Cisco partner operators (such an offer to the customer was received from CTI - see below). “Furthermore, by supporting a common set of applications, endpoints and software clients, a hybrid solution model can be implemented,” he says. - For example, often the customer’s head office historically uses its own platform, and the infrastructure for fast-growing branches or sales offices that frequently change locations, means of supporting mobile/home-based employees are deployed using a cloud service. At the same time, for the company’s employees, the method of delivery of services is ‘transparent’ - they do not feel any difference.”

Cisco offered ample opportunities to develop its solution in terms of video conferencing. Managers can use DX series terminals as personal video conferencing terminals, which are registered and operate under the control of CUCM, which is part of the BE6K platform. The Cisco BE6K platform provides a number of additional functions - in particular, for compatibility with H.323/SIP terminal equipment and the organization of inter-corporate conferencing (TelePresence Video Communication Server) and Web conferencing.

ferences (WebEx Meeting Center). In addition, as an option for a cloud or hybrid model of consumption of communication services, you can consider expanding the telephony functionality with a video conferencing service. Such offers are in the portfolio of Russian providers - Cisco partners.

Everyone is happy with Cisco's offer, but the customer did not receive information about its cost. Without prices, it is difficult to compare this offer with others and make a final decision.

CTI OFFER

The CTI company offers the customer the opportunity to use telephony/UFC services both on the basis of a server solution purchased for their own use, and from the cloud. But at the same time, the company’s specialists focus his attention on the advantages of the cloud model. Using a branded portal, the customer can gain full control of all services, connect and delete users, change their profiles, receive reports on the use of services and call statistics.

The CTI solution provides all business telephony functions requested by the customer. All calls within the company, including between branches in the regions, become free, long-distance calls to local numbers are paid at local rates, and thanks to the use of mobile applications for a smartphone or laptop, savings on mobile calls are achieved. There are several options for connecting city telephone numbers. If the customer already has numbers that have been used by customers for a long time, then they can be saved by purchasing additional ones, if necessary. It is possible to provide a multi-channel number from scratch.

CTI representatives emphasize that when connecting to the service, the customer receives a complete ecosystem with the full functionality of UfK services, closely integrated with each other, including multimedia chat and text messages, display of user presence status, unified mail, video calls. The proposed service provides single-number accessibility with automatic call switching between tablets, smartphones and desk phones, as well as a single corporate directory in a single corporate environment.

“A single telephone directory, available on any device along with presence status, allows you to quickly contact the right person. With one click, you can send an instant message, call a colleague back, switch to a video call, hold an audio conference, or collaborate on a document via Webex, explains Nikita Dogadchenko. - IP-PBX services ideally expand the capabilities of other corporate information systems. For example, calls to colleagues can be made directly from the employee directory on the portal, or legacy analog PBXs can be connected to the new system.”

For those employees who plan to “keep in touch” most of the time from their mobile devices, CTI specialists offered a full-featured Cisco Jabber software client that supports all UfK functionality, including video communication. For those employees who move around the office, Cisco Jabber plus a USB headset is also recommended for use at their workplaces. “Thus, our solution does not require the construction and maintenance of additional DECT infrastructure, and there is also no need to purchase Wi-Fi handsets - it is enough to use existing employee smartphones with Cisco Jabber installed,” notes Nikita Dogadchenko.

For home-based employees who will use their PCs for voice communication, we recommend the Cisco Jabber Desktop client with a set of the following services: voice, video, instant messaging, presence status, and availability via a single number. In addition, each such user is encouraged to use a USB headset. For “stationary” office users, CTI experts recommend Cisco Jabber Desktop + Cisco 7821 IP phone with an equally complete set of services.

Finally, the customer’s top managers will receive Cisco DX80 terminals, which CTI representatives described as “the most advanced desktop communications solution available at the moment.” These devices with 23-inch touch screens are full-fledged video conferencing terminals with Full HD cameras (1080p resolution). In general, the solution from CTI is ready for multi-user video conferencing. At the same time, users of Jabber clients have the opportunity to connect to multipoint conferences together with video terminals that will be installed in meeting rooms.

CTI's offering appears to be one of the most functional and attractive. Unfortunately, the company did not provide the customer with a quote. According to the Journal of Networking/LAN Solutions, the DX80 terminal alone costs about $4,000, which is more than all the terminal equipment costs included in the Mango Office offering.

MANGO OFFER

The company proposed a solution to the customer’s problems based on the virtual PBX (VATS) Mango Office. As the customer requested, he was offered a single 100-channel number for all offices: this could be a number in the codes of Moscow (both 499 and 495), St. Petersburg, Kazan or 8-800. But Mango experts recommended using a single local multi-channel number in each city of presence and, if necessary, an 800 number. Any company employee can receive a call to any of the numbers, regardless of his location. Local and long-distance/international communication services will be available on all numbers. Internal communication between employees, including those located in different cities, will be free.

The basic functionality of VATS is quite rich: two-level IVR, voice mail, conference calling, call recording, notification of subscribers about the estimated time until the operator responds, connecting numbers of other operators, Caller ID (your choice of displaying the number to which the subscriber called or the subscriber's number), black/white lists, calls from the website, fax reception by email. Employees can be divided into groups and each of them can use one of five call distribution algorithms, the scheme of which can depend on the time of day, the number of the caller, and call history of subscribers (forwarding to an employee with whom you recently spoke). Detailed statistics on calls are provided for employees and groups: received, made, missed calls, load by hour, average response speed, average talk time.

Setting up a VATS, listening to conversation recordings and accessing information and analytical services are carried out through a simple Web interface of your personal account - no special technical knowledge is required for this.

In its proposal, Mango detailed the benefits of additional functionality implemented through its Call Center (CC) service. It is convenient to use for sales or customer service departments, receptionists, and employees who handle a large flow of calls. The head of the department can monitor the work of employees in real time: track their status and the number of workers on the line, bring additional operators onto the line if the load increases, see who is talking to whom and for how long, connect to conversations in listening, conference or prompting mode . In addition, the manager can obtain final statistics of employee performance.

In this case, employee monitoring capabilities will likely be very useful in monitoring the activities of remote employees working from home. In turn, all employees get the opportunity to see the call queue in real time, which colleagues are on the line and who is free to transfer a call, intercept calls from the queue, change their status (“On line”, “Break”, “Do not disturb”) . Calls are forwarded, made and received with a mouse click, and any telephone or softphone can be used. When a call comes in, the caller's card appears on the screen with information about him and his contact history.

For employees working in an office at fixed workstations, the most convenient terminal, according to Mango experts, is a landline SIP phone. True, this is also the most expensive option. Such phones for 30 office users can be selected in the Mango Office online store. The cost of the cheapest model (Panasonic KX-UT113) is 2900 rubles. Popular phone models are Yealink SIP-T21 (4100 rub.) and Grandstream GXP1400 (3100 rub.), the latter option is included in the offer for the customer (see Table 3). Other possible options for office workers are a regular analog phone connected via a gateway (the cost starts from about 1,300 rubles per port) or a softphone for a PC. The latter option is likely to be the main one for home workers. Owners of PCs with Windows OS can install the free softphone Mango Talker, for MacOS there are free softphones Telephone and Linphone, and for Linux - ZoiPer, and a number of other applications are also available.

Employees moving around the office can use softphones (Android or iOS) that work through the office Wi-Fi network (free option), or, which is much more convenient, DECT-SIP phones. A popular model is the Panasonic TGP500 (RUB 3,800), which supports up to six handsets and up to three simultaneous conversations.

Employees who plan to work primarily from mobile devices can use SIP softphones or GSM communications. Mango experts recommend such free softphones as CSIPSimple, Linphone, ZoiPer and Bria for Android, ZoiPer and Linphone for iOS, and other options are also available. All VATS functions will be supported. If the IP connection at the employee’s location is of poor quality, then you can receive calls coming to a single VATS number via GSM. Full VATS functionality will be supported for incoming calls.

Mango Office provides three integrated cloud services - VATS, Call Center and CRM system. If a company decides to connect CRM, then combining it with VATS will not be difficult. All calls will be recorded in the CRM; through its interface you can conveniently search and listen to recordings of conversations related to the selected client or employee. A pop-up card will provide the employee with complete information about the client when calling, allowing him to quickly enter data based on the results of the conversation and plan further work.

Video communication between employees can be carried out within the framework of an ongoing project if you purchase SIP video terminals (for example, landline SIP video phones).

Among the many advantages of their solution, Mango specialists call the “one-window” principle: VATS, telephone numbers, communication services, telephone sets (for help in setting up telephone sets, you can order an engineer’s visit), plus simple connection of additional Call Center and CRM systems with integration of services without additional boards and software improvements. In addition, they indicate increased fault tolerance of the solution: in the event of an emergency (for example, a power outage in one of the offices), calls will be automatically forwarded through alternative communication channels (for example, through cellular operators) or sent to employees of other offices. According to Mango, setting up and administering VATS does not require the involvement of third-party qualified specialists.

PANASONIC OFFER

The company proposed to the customer to implement a communication system based on IP platforms (IP-PBX) Panasonic KX-NS series, which are distinguished by rich functionality, as well as ample opportunities for optimizing communication costs within the organization. The developed solution will allow you to have a unified corporate directory and dial plan, centrally manage all PBXs via a Web interface, ensure employee mobility, receive detailed statistics on calls and perform other tasks specified in the task.

It is proposed to install a KX-NS1000 IP-PBX at the central office in Moscow, and a KX-NS500 IP-PBX at the branches. As Panasonic representatives note, one of the main advantages of their IP-PBX is the ability to quickly expand due to the modular structure and continuity of equipment generations. The new IP platforms are compatible with all Panasonic telecommunications equipment, including telephones. A previously installed PBX can also be used as a stack gateway to expand capacity and make calls over traditional telephony channels.

IP-PBX KX-NS1000 allows you to connect up to 256 external lines with various types of signaling: in particular, up to 256 IP lines using the SIP protocol and up to 96 external IP lines using the H.323 protocol. The system supports up to 640 internal lines and the same number of SIP/IP telephones, and if necessary, up to 512 DECT microcellular telephones and 64 IP or SIP base stations can be connected to it. Obviously, this functionality provides wide scope for the development of the customer’s system.

Small IP platforms IP-PBX KX-NS500, which are planned to be installed in offices in St. Petersburg and Kazan, combine the advantages of traditional and IP telephony, as well as UC servers (KX-NS1000). According to Panasonic experts, this is an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses due to the ability to expand capacity from six basic analog lines and 18 subscribers to 288 internal lines. The KX-NS500 offers a wide range of features that can be customized to suit a customer's specific needs. In particular, the built-in unified communications system allows you to use the most useful functions based on IP telephony. The system also comes pre-installed with advanced voicemail and applications for creating a small call center.

In order for company employees to be able to move freely around the office, IP base stations must be installed in each city to deploy a microcellular wireless communication system. In the central office, it is proposed to use KX-NCP058 as a base station, and KX-TCA series models as DECT system phones.

All offices are offered to use the Communication Assistant CTI application - a multifunctional program with a user-friendly interface that allows you to receive and process calls, as well as manage many other Panasonic IP-PBX services. This is a client-server class application, and its server part is already built into the KX-NS series IP-PBX. The customer only needs to install the client part on the employees’ computers. Communication Assistant supports integration with various CRM applications, in particular with the 1C:Enterprise product.

IP conference phones KX-NT700 are recommended for organizing telephone conferences in branches. According to tests conducted by Panasonic, this conference phone provides better sound quality compared to similar equipment in this segment presented on the Russian market. An important distinguishing feature of the KX-NT700 is the ability to convert speech in real time. Depending on the situation, this option allows, for example, to slow down the listening of a conversation by reducing pauses in speech and thus improve the perception of the interlocutor.

Thanks to the built-in repeater in the KX-NS series models, IP phones can be installed not only directly in the office, but also at home for remote employees, as well as mobile personnel using softphones on their smartphones can be included in the network - the latter are also registered as internal subscribers of a corporate networks.

Panasonic's new IP platforms allow each employee of the company to be assigned a short single internal number, which can be used to record up to three telephones - both mobile or SIP, and traditional. To communicate with a subscriber, just dial his short internal number, and he will answer on any of the telephones convenient for him, regardless of where exactly he is.

As noted in Panasonic's proposal, the implementation of such projects is a technically complex task; one of the key factors for its successful solution is the installation and configuration of the system by qualified specialists. The company's specialists always recommend that clients contact partners who have the status of a Panasonic PBX technical center. In this case, installation and maintenance will be carried out to the highest level, and all equipment is provided with a five-year guarantee.

The company believes that Panasonic's many years of experience in the field of corporate telephony, modern terminals with highly sensitive microphones, wideband speakers and a variety of capabilities provide the organization with an optimal solution in terms of cost and capabilities.

Panasonic's proposal does not contain information on the cost of the proposed solutions, but it is indicated that on average the cost of its own PBX in terms of 20 subscribers approximately coincides with the cost of paying for cloud PBX services during the year for the same subscribers, and after the first year the cost of owning its own IP -PBX becomes lower than cloud one.

BRIEF CONCLUSION

So, our customer has plenty to choose from. Unfortunately, not all companies indicated the price of their products and services. Apparently, an additional round of negotiations will have to be held with those who did not indicate cost indicators. Or choose from those options where all the important characteristics are indicated. Moreover, among them there are quite decent in terms of functionality and very attractive in price.

Alexander Barskov- Leading editor of the Journal of Network Solutions/LAN. He can be contacted at: