Mobilizing the PBX

By Khali Henderson

ONE OF THE QUICKEST WAYS TO show your customers the advantages of seamless mobility is by mobilizing their existing PBXs. Software vendors are teaming with solutions providers often interconnects or wireless dealers to extend the capabilities of the PBX to mobile devices from wireless phones to softphones.

Ascendent Systems, for example, offers the PowerConnect Voice Mobility Suite. By bridging legacy infrastructures with IP-based systems, the SIP-based PowerConnect solution enables users to access remotely PBX features without requiring an overhaul in the infrastructure. A new version released last fall adds support for softphones.

Theron Dodson, vice president of marketing and product management, says the software also now extends PBX functionality to enterprise instant messaging software like Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005. Using the IM tool, users can click-to-call and reach coworkers at any device they have registered with the PowerConnect system.

The PowerConnect Voice Mobility Suite version 4.1 is available through Ascendents partners and resellers. The companys reseller program was started in July 2005 and is targeted toward interconnects and wireless dealers.

Installation is simple, Dodson says, noting it requires installing software on a server, integrating with the PBXs existing dialing plan and instructing the PBX to look to PowerConnect for routing. We are not ripping out or rearchitecting, says Dodson. The PBX sees it as another device [much like it does a voice mail system], he says.

An entry-level system is about $40,000, Dodson says. Translated to a yearlong service subscription, he says, the cost is typically $7 to $12 per user per month. Commissions to dealers are tiered based on volume.

Traverse Networks also last fall rolled out CallConnect with Visual Voicemail software. The product enables users to control their IP PBX phones through a visual interface designed for mobile phones, Blackberry devices and Palm Treo devices.

Heres how it works: The CallConnect mobile client is loaded on the device and enables users to manage delivery of incoming calls, initiate outbound calls and see and hear voice mail through an e-mail-like inbox. The CallConnect Mobility Server is deployed within the enterprise, and integrates with the IP PBX and voice mail platforms.

The time people spend working outside a traditional office has exploded in recent years, with employees typically distributing both a cell phone number and an office phone number to customers, clients and colleagues. This practice increases businesses cell phone expenses, forces customers to try multiple numbers and causes the enterprise to lose control of critical communication records, says Durk Stelter, president and CEO of Traverse Networks. CallConnect with Visual Voicemail provides a powerful mobile interface to IP PBX based phone systems, reducing cost, increasing productivity and ensuring that the enterprise manages all business calls and associated call records.

Among the features enabled by CallConnet are simultaneous ringing at both the desk phone and mobile phone; redirecting calls from the business phone number to any designated phone on demand or on a pre-defined schedule; and originating calls from the desk phone even when the caller is mobile to allow the call record to remain inside the enterprise system and calling plan.

In addition, the Visual Voicemail function eliminates the need for a dial-in voice mail system and touch-tone menu. An e-maillike inbox on the mobile phone displays office voice mail messages, who theyre from, when they were sent and their duration. The user then can select one or more messages, press play and listen. The system allows the user to save or delete a voice mail message and that action is synchronized throughout, simultaneously deleting or saving the message on the voice mail system at the employees office.

The software server runs $2,500 for small enterprises (limited users) and $5,000 for larger enterprises (unlimited users); both charge an additional $200 per user licensing fee. CallConnect is available through certified resellers, who are part of its VARConnect Program. They are provided with a discount on list price, which they can mark up, according to a spokesperson for the company.