IP PBX - a Great Component to Be Integrated into the Organization - Case Study Example

IP PBX Number: Lecturer: Outline Introduction Will give the introduction of the paper stating the basic items that will be covered. Background information It will give what has been happening in the industry. It will give the basics of IP PBX and how it has evolved from PBX. Purpose Will give the purpose of the paper and why there is aneed to have a different solution Existing solutions Will give what has been done in the com[pany to switch between telephone calls. Reasons Will give the rationale why shifting to IP PBX will be better when compared to other solutions that have been offered. Requirements Will give the requirements that will have to be there in order to have the solution fully implemented Industry scenario Will give what has been used in the industry and how effective it has been. System analysis Will give a comparison of the IP PBX vendors. It will assess the vendors in terms of the ease with which they have been working. References Will give the references of the paper. Introduction Managing calls in an organization is a significant aspect that needs to be done effectively. PBX has been a significant component that has helped companies and organizations to manage their calls. Network connectivity is an important aspect that needs to be effectively provided for any organization. There is a need to ensure that there is significant information that will be useful while undertaking the required processes. With the integration of web-based services, it is important to have optimized connectivity for organizations. IP PBX is a significant component that need to be integrated in the organization (Manville et al., 2012). This paper will focus on comparison and assessment of different vendors for IP PBX. It will focus on the requirements of the organization. Background information PBX is a VoIP phone system that is used to manage communications and phone calls. There are many SIP phones which have been connected and working together to achieve the desired results. It is a private branch exchange that is used to switch private calls between different VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) users that are using local lines. The users are allowed to share a certain number of external phone lines. It also has the possibility of switching calls between a VoIP users and a local user who is using local telephone lines. It can also switch two users who are using traditional lines to communicate. It does this switching in the same manner that a conventional PBX would have done. In a PBX, there would be a need to have several networks that would be used to handle voice and data communications. One of the advantages of using IP PBX is that it does not have to have different networks in order to handle voice and data communications. With IP PBX, there is converged data and voice networks. It means that it is possible to have internet access and at the same time have someone using VoIP using one line. With the use of IP PBX, there is reduced operation costs and decreased cost of maintenance. The IP PBX is owned by the enterprise. There are SIP phones, an IP PBX server, and a VoIP Gateway. In this case, the VoIP Gateway is optional. The IP PBX is the same as that of Proxy Server. The SIP clients can either be soft telephones to hardware based phones. These phones will be used in the entire process and will have the required aspects that will be used in the communication. The SIP clients will have to be registered with IP PBX server. When they want to make a call, they will have to establish a connection with the IP PBX server. The IP PBX server has a list of all the users together with their corresponding SIP numbers. It makes it easier to establish a connection as it will enable the users to have a connection with the external entities when the time is needed. PBX or private branch exchange is a telephone switching system that belongs to a private individual. It is used to provide keep a large number of telephone lines remotely relieving the owner the burden of hiring from the phone company. Basically, PBX replaces the central office of the phone company by providing routing service. It directs both incoming and outgoing calls. Addition, other services such as voice mails, forwarding call and provision of the caller ID is facilitated. The technology that is used to connect local area network and the traditional telephone network is Telco trunk. This is a very high speed interface between central offices in the PSTN using trunk lines which are digital. It uses time-division multiplexing and modulation where a signal is split into small segment to ensure signal quality Apart from internet phone software and the telco trunk, the other requirement needed to replace PBX is VoIP form Telos. It links the internet phone system processing unit to audio interfaces, phone sets and controllers using Ethernet. It enables the user to distribute the phone lines to a large number of stations. This device is a fifth-generation adaptive that is made using a technology that is geared to retrieve a very clear signal from any incoming call that is made including the mobile phones that are very noisy. It makes use of FhG that assist in eliminating acoustic echo and also a nice AGC that make sure that the signal is consistent. The advances that this technology has brought into the business world are unbelievable. It has simplified the process of communication between the different departments in the organization and also with the outside world. Purpose The company requires to have IP PBX because of the many advantages that have been associated with the solution that is presented. Most of what the organization has is the traditional PBX. PBX does not offer the solution that is required on the internet. With the provision of the solution that is seen at the moment, there is a lack of sufficient information that has been provided that will serve the growing number of internet users. As many organizations shift to the use of the internet, there has been the need to have solutions that will serve VoIP. VoIP is becoming popular with many users striving to make use of the internet. With the growing population and the population of the internet, there is a need for the company to tap to this opportunity in order to ensure that there is an understanding of the requirements that will have to be met by the company. The company would use IP PBX to ensure that there is communication for international clients within the company. It is a significant move that will enable the company to have enhanced communication in the company. Existing solution The company already has PBX in its infrastructure. The solution that has been provided by the company serves only calls which are internal. There is no use of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). There is the use of the traditional PBX in place where there are issues that have been put in place in the company to ensure that there is switching of the telephone calls within the company. Reasons The reasons for the company to seek for other solutions for telephone switching is due to the need to have internet capability. With internet capability, the company will be able to offer switching for calls which are made outside the tenets of the company. There has been no centralization of the calls. With the traditional setup, calls have been handled within the telephony switching devices. There has also been wastage of resources because of the need to have two networks. What is offered at the moment is that the company offers two networks that will handle voice and another network that will handle data. In the new solution that is being offered, there is integration of both data and voice over the network. In the integration, there has been the possibility of having the systems to manage the internet calls and at the same time handle the local calls that are wired to the hardware telephone gadgets. The centralizations and the use of centralized call centers, there will be saving on costs for the company. It will enable the company to have optimized communication because it will contain the current trends in communications (Prasad, & Kumar, 2011). Requirements IP telephony communications have enabled organizations to be able to make calls over the internet. It is possible with the introduction of VoIP. It is a move that has been seen to enable organizations to be able to reduce costs significantly due to centralization and the integration of multiple networks. There will be the reduction of trunk lines due to the management and the reduction of the installation of new lines onto existing ones. With the existence of SIP Trunks and Ethernet backbone, it is now possible to offer IP telephony with the use of the infrastructure that is available (Patel et al., 2013). There is more reliance on virtualized servers which makes them be able to have fewer hardware installation costs. The operational costs will be reduced because of the reduction of the hardware has been installed. Industry scenario New developments which have been made it possible to replace the hardware-based PBX for some classes of users. With the provision of these new solutions, there are other features that are associated with the solutions provided. The features include conferencing and collaboration, applications programming interface, and presence/IM. The communications will be embedded in the communication networks which have already been integrated in the system. With the integration of these systems, it is now possible to have newer systems that will be able to undertake communication without including the hardware that has been included before. System analysis Comparison of IP PBX vendors Table 1 shows a list of vendors that can provide the required IP PBX connectivity and the benefits that will be achieved when this is the case. It is important to understand the issues that are in place and have the measures that will be used in the case. The scale that will be used is an on 0-5 where 0 is poor and 5 is excellent. Avaya Genesys Interactive Intelligence Mitel Siemens Experience 5 5 2 3 5 ACD based on Windows 5 5 5 5 4 400 agents in call center 4 5 4 3 4 Connectivity to current Avaya PBX 5 2 2 3 3 Email 5 5 5 5 5 Chat 5 5 5 4 4 Voice Mail 5 4 3 4 4 Chat 5 4 4 3 3 IVR 3 3 4 4 2 Outbound dial 5 4 4 3 3 CTI Integration 4 4 4 3 4 URL browsing 3 4 3 4 3 CRM support 4 5 3 4 5 Total cost 2 3 4 5 4 Total score 60 58 52 53 53 From the comparson matrix, Avaya is seen to be the most successful and will be used in the development of the solution that is needed in the process. References Manville, J. T., Elias, S. A., Palevo Jr, P., Shaw, S. R., & John, A. R. (2012).U.S. Patent No. 8,296,837. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patel, D. T., Curtis, J., Jones, J. C., & Cummings, D. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,588,746. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prasad, J. K., & Kumar, B. A. (2011, April). Analysis of SIP and realization of advanced IP-PBX features. In Electronics Computer Technology (ICECT), 2011 3rd International Conference on (Vol. 6, pp. 218-222). IEEE. Read More