17. Example Architecture PSTN Patton SN4638 (4BRI) Office London internet Remote workers Office New York
18. Our clients put it better than us … “ 3CX allows medium-sized businesses to work on a corporate scale. Fantastic!” - David Buckley, Network Manager, NANT Ltd. UK “ We don’t understand VOIP, but we understand 3CX” - NO TOMATO advertising agency team, The Netherlands “ The 3CX Phone System is a great Windows-based PBX solution for our company. It is a cost-effective solution which is easy to install and maintain” - Mike Faster, President, Coyote Creek Consulting, USA “ 3CX scales well, and is definitely much cheaper to scale up than comparable hardware PBX” - Ryan Crompton, Systems Administrator, ZYTO Corp. , USA
3CX Phone System is based on the open SIP protocol and can work with all popular SIP phones, VoIP providers and Gateways. This means that thanks to 3CX’ technology partnership with leading VoIP product and services providers you do not need to get locked in with one vendor. 3CX commitment to deliver a quality, innovative and OPEN IP PBX has been recognized many times over, as it has been the recipient of numerous industry awards, including Windows Editors Best IT award.
3CX does not require a proprietary hardware box but can run on any recent version of Windows. Surprisingly, most IP PBXs today run on Linux. Businesses run their data networks on Windows not Linux, therefore it’s a huge advantage that they can run their phone system on Windows, too. What’s more, it makes integration with popular Windows far applications easier. 3CX Phone System is the only IP PBX to have passed Microsoft’s Quality testing for Window Server 2003.
Nowadays you can find many PBX ‘appliances’. However a pure software-based approach is much better for many reasons. First, it is easier to manage and control since it’s just another Windows server application, so you can forget about learning an obscure home made Linux version and going through painful Linux updates. It also scales a lot better as you can add more phones and lines as you go along, without being limited by the ports or processor on the appliance. You can install it on an existing server or virtualize it and eliminate extra hardware, energy and management costs. You can easily backup your PBX to a disk and restore on another machine in case of hardware failure! Try doing that when your appliance breaks down. Windows based means we can leverage Windows features and its modern development technologies and therefore we can innovate faster than on a custom built OS.
3CX Phone System was built from the ground up for Small to Medium Businesses so we’ve made it easy to install and also manage. The software ships with a configuration wizard that simplifies the installation process. 3CX also includes templates to automate configuration of SIP phones, VoIP gateways and VoIP providers.
3CX Phone System is easier to manage than a traditional PBXs, since its just another server application and not a black box. As you can see from the screenshot, which shows the 3CX web based Management console, 3CX Phone System is very easy to configure. It can be monitored just like any other windows server application so you can use your existing network monitoring package.
AND 3CX is inexpensive to purchase and expand . Pricing starts at 295 Euros for a 4 call version. This includes enterprise features such as voice mail, auto attendant and call queues. A FREE edition is also available.
3CX integration with Outlook allows you to easily launch calls from Outlook as well as pop up the contact record of a caller automatically. It can also log calls the calls. 3CX includes a web API which allows it to be integrated with other CRM applications too, including Salesforce.com.
3CX includes a web based user portal that gives extension users complete mobility. Users can configure extension preferences from anywhere. For example, they can configure that calls outside their own working hours are routed to their voice mail. Important calls can be routed to a mobile based on the caller ID. This way you never have to miss a call from an important customer and you can avoid having to give out your mobile number!
3CX delivers Unified Communications. With 3CX users can easily see the presence of other users and avoid unnecessarily making or transferring calls. Presence is displayed in any standards-based SIP client, including 3CX VoIP Phone and other SIP hardware phones. Also, 3CX unifies voice mail & faxes with email by delivering them to the user’s inbox.
3CX includes a complete fax server that is able to route incoming faxes as PDFs to email. Users can send faxes from anywhere on the network via the Microsoft Fax client. This client is feature rich and seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Office and Windows. With 3CX, businesses can save TIME AND MONEY as they can forget about fax machines, printouts, and extra telephone lines.
3CX is the only Phone System to include a FREE Windows VoIP phone. You can use the soft phone and the hardware phone at the same time. For example, when at the office you can use the hardware phone, but when at home or on the road switch to the soft phone!
3CX automatically configures SIP phones to reduce administration. The phone is automatically provisioned with the correct Extension settings including central company phone book, Message Waiting Indicator, BLF fields and Intercom and Paging.
3CX allows you to easily setup conference calls that include employees from local and remote offices, as well as external callers. Leverage 3CX bridge infrastructure to make free conference calls between offices. Easy ad hoc call setup means you can do away with costly and unreliable conference call services.
With 3CX, branch offices can easily be connected so that all inter-office calls are routed via the internet and therefore FREE. The ability to call colleagues in other offices via an internal call IMPROVES communication. You can also setup bridges with customers or partners that use a SIP PBX and eliminate phone charges.
Other features in 3CX are the Call Queues function, which allows professional queuing of callers. Paging & Intercom is included as well. A unique feature in 3CX is its tunnel service, which channels all SIP traffic over a single TCP port. This greatly eases firewall configuration and avoids problems with external extensions and bridges, since you just have to open a single TCP port.
In this slide you can see an interesting example deployment of 3CX Phone System. This company has 2 locations and 2 remote employees. The London and New York office both make and receive calls via the PSTN using a VOIP Gateway, however they can call each other directly using the internet link and save on inter office communication cost. 2 remote employees can work seamlessly with either phone system and make and receive calls via the phone system to which they are connected. They have an extension number and can be called by other office workers – just as if they were in the office.
3CX has made a big impact on the VoIP market, it’s quickly become the most popular Windows based PBX and one of the most popular small business VoIP PBXs. 3CX has been deployed in thousands of sites. Here are just a few quotes from satisfied customers running 3CX.
For more information and to download 3CX Phone System for Windows visit our website at 3cx.com