After a few weeks of sourcing equipment and another couple of weeks in my test lab, I put together a videocast overview of each of the following leading Small/Medium Business IP phone systems to find out some of the key differences from a business owner, administrative, and end-user perspective:
1. Fonality PBXtra
2. Digium / Asterisk AA60
3. TrixBox / Asterisk Virtual PBX
4. Microsoft Response Point Version 1, Service Pack 2
5. Nortel BCM 50
During this project, my plan was to look at the following categories in examining each system:
1. Cost
2. Administrative Complexity
3. End-user intuitiveness
For the full video case study, there is a HD streaming video hosted via Vimeo.com (which is the only site I have found that provides the ability to upload large HD videos over 10 minutes in length). The video can be viewed using the following link: http://vimeo.com/4053457
In regards to my report, the following is my summarized feedback from the videocast on each system:
Fonality PBXtra
Overall Response
I was extremely impressed with this system. Although the PBXtra is a bit costly and is managed and monitored through the http://cp.fonality.com website, the system is packed with features and allows me to use the phones I like best (Aastra). One of my favorite features has to be the integration with Boingo which allows me to connect my mobile, through Boingo, to continue calls to and from my deskphone or softphone to my mobile device with one key, *1. More feedback in the video.
Cost
Overall the cost is a bit high for a Small Business, but definitely not for a company with over 25 employees/users. The system I tested was around $8K, specifics in the video, which is not bad at all, but extremely expensive when compared to Microsoft's Response Point system at $2,500.
Administrative Complexity
The beauty of this system lies within its administrative complexity, which is very little. The entire system is managed via the intuitive http://cp.fonality.com website where as an IT Administrator, can do everything from upload the latest music I just heard overseas there from my cafe on a WiFi connection to deploy and amdminister phones, users, trunks, and advanced routing.
End-user intuitiveness
As an end-user, I have a phone so I don't really play a lot with the admin console via the web. This experience is pretty much ubiquitous with the other systems outside of Microsoft Response Point where I actually have speech recognition. I do like the auto-configuration of the phones and the Boingo wireless phone solution as well as the ability to use XLite on my PC, Mac, or Linux machine. I also love HUD (Heads Up Display). This awesome client lets me see what's going on in regards to current calls, conferences, etc. Love it!
Bottom line, Fonality rocks and gives Microsoft Response Point a lot to look up to in regards to a virtualized PBX, wide range of phone device and softphone support, advanced/custom call routes, and a web-based management console. A bit pricy still though, but Fonality will definitely guide you towards TrixBox for a smaller price point with most of the same features outside of HUD and advanced routing at a fraction of the price.
Digium / SwitchVox / Asterisk AA60
Overall Response
The AA60 SMB Appliance provided to me from Digium was pretty slick. It had the web-based admin console that I liked and was able to be managed and controlled locally, opposite of the Fonality PBXtra. More info in the video. The admin features were easy to walk through in respect to provisioning phones, adding users, etc and the price point was more within a Small Business' range at around $4K for the system I tested which included the appliance at around $3200 and 2 SoundPoint IP Phones at $160 each. What I also like about Asterisk, the underlying PBX for Fonality's PBXtra, TrixBox Pro, and Digium is the wide range of IP phone device and softphone support. Digium gets 2 thumbs up!
Cost
As mentioned above, the price point for my setup was around $3,195 and the Polycom SoundPoint IP Phones were around $160 each which provided HD-Audio were really cool and easy to setup. That’s still more than double the cost of a Response Point system in that there are support fees, subscriptions, and you’re obviously going to want more than 2 phones, so to compete with a Response Point 50 phone system at less than $10K with cool Aastra phones, Digium would be well over $15K.
Administrative Complexity
The setup for the AA60 was really simple and very similar to the Response Point system. Idea is plug in, browse to the IP address of the system to view the web management console, provision, and you’re ready to go. Digium provides a nice, crisp web-based UI for the SwithVox AA60 and it’s pretty simple to provision new phones, users, routes, trunks, etc. on a local IP system rather than through an actual managed environment like the Fonality system.
End-user intuitiveness
Again, like the other systems, pretty plain Jane. I have a phone and can use it. Checkout the video for the actual experience.
TrixBox / Asterisk Virtual PBX
Overall Experience
Ok, TrixBox is freaking cool man! Not to mention that I can download the package, unzip, self-install the Linux-based Asterisk system in less than an hour for free and to top it off, download a free XLite client for my Mac, and I’m ready to go. Not ideal for businesses over 5 employees, but that’s why they have TrixBox Pro, managed again via the web by Fonality.
Cost
It’s free. That’s it. TrixBox Pro requires some additional subscription costs, but can be manageable for less than about $1500 if you use XLite as your client softphone application.
Administrative Complexity
The overall experience took me about an hour to download and about 15 minutes to setup. There is a self-extracting and building package that unpacks a Linux/Asterisk-based virtual image and you’re ready to go. The only bit of time is spent waiting for the download. See video for more details.
End-user intuitiveness
XLite is awesome and so is EyeBeam. Being able to chat, have telephony, and see each other is just bliss, isn’t it? You can also provision phones to communicate with the system just like you can from the Fonality website.
Microsoft Response Point Version 1, Service Pack 2
Overall Experience
I helped market this system so I am a bit biased here, so I’ll try to not be as much as possible without risking my job. The Response Point system is a classic Microsoft product. Try something out, then dominate. Well, we’re still in the try phase, but it’s really close to dominate. Bottom line, this system is packed with features and promise for a wicked cheap price of less than $2,500 for a 5-phone system and less than $10K price for 50 phones.
So, what are my complaints? Here you go:
1. Response Point has to go virtual to compete. The future of voice is software, but RP version 1 addresses the keyset phone system hardware!
2. Need a web-based admin console. No more Windows-based apps. If I’m on a Linux box or Mac, I still want the same experience as on a Windows PC, plus I don’t want to have to install anything.
3. Have to have support for existing SIP phones and softphones, not just RP phones. I get the RP button, but come on, it’s a button. Pressing zero on the phone does the same thing so I’d like to do this from an XLite phone on a Mac, Windows Live Call, or some cool softphone that you come out with.
Cost
By far, the most cost efficient, top in its class here!
Administrative Complexity
Absolutely no Administrative Complexity. Leave it to Microsoft to create a wizards-based telephony console. The Microsoft enterprise voice team has some learning to do here!
End-user intuitiveness
Speech recognition in the phones is cool and innovative. What I like is the Response Point Admin console, which hopefully will turn into a softphone, in regards to the cool Park/Retrieve features, and self-administration, which none of the other systems tackle. Nobody wants Ernest from telecom or that outsourced annoying consultant that most companies pay a couple hundred bucks to come out and fix my phone or change my maiden name to my married name. Response Point owns end-user intuitiveness.
Nortel BCM 50
Overall Experience
My overall experience was similar to that of the CS1K in the enterprise world. I am a big Nortel fan, have some very key friends and colleagues there and these guys know telephony, but do not know SMB or how to build a user interface. By far, this was the most expensive, annoying, piece of s&@# equipment I have ever put my hands on, outside of the CS1K that is. The phones are cool though!
Cost
Overall cost for a small business could be as small as about $5K for a BCM and a few phones via eBay and for a medium-sized business would be looking at over $15k for a 20-phone plus system.
Administrative Complexity
The subtitle pretty much sums it up. Even though there are enough setup and admin guides to kill the entire Northwest Passage, I had to contact an engineer to figure out how to connect to the system to manage it through what I can only compare to as a UI that bridges the gap between Microsoft’s Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 platform. Why Microsoft continues to invest in companies like this, I have no idea. Provisioning the phones took a while as well as I could not get them to auto-register. I finally had to contact the same engineer and find out that I have to enter the TFT address of each phone manually to connect the phones to the PBX. Because this process took so long, I never had time to actually assign user names nor could find the place to do so.
End-user intuitiveness
Pretty much the same phone device experience. I did not have Nortel’s MCS Unified Communications solution to play with so it was really just playing with the phones and making calls. The one phone I had which was an 1120e was pretty cool and I liked the startup noise. What I didn’t like? Waiting for the Nortel logo to appear to hit the four top buttons in preceding order in order to change the TFT address to connect each!
Remember to watch the videocast via http://vimeo.com/4053457 or below using the embedded video:
SMB IP-PBX Review from Joe Schurman on Vimeo.
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