1. Differences

2. Branches

3. SIP Phones

4. Features

SIP Phones bring the different aspects of VOIP together. When you have an IP PBX and at least one trunk, the last part of the puzzle is the phone. SIP Phones connect to your already existing data network. Power can be supplied remotely and they can even share the connection for your computer. They allow you to make and receive calls; but that’s not all.

SIP Phones can have programmable lights, custom extensions, different ring tones, and more. They can even come with LCD screens. These screens can allow the use of XML scripts. XML scripts are basically web pages that have custom programming. It can offer something simple such as weather forecasts,  area code look-ups, movie reviews, and many more. You can also write your own scripts, allowing you to do things such as login to your company’s timeclock software. Also, many included scripts help you more easily use your phone.

These scripts allow you to more easily setup features such as Do Not Disturb, call forwarding, parking lot lookup(with caller ID), and more. As you can see, these phone allow IP PBXs to really offer many more benefits than traditional analog PBXs. Our next post will elaborate on many of the features I’ve already discussed, plus introduce you to even more.

1. Differences

2. Branches

3. SIP Phones

4. Features

IP PBXs offer the ability to instantly connect branch offices together like they were in the same building… for FREE!
That’s right. No more long distance calling to your own locations. You could have a main office in New York and a branch office in Los Angeles. You can dial an extension at the other location, intercom, conference, transfer, page, etc. just like they were in the cubical next to you.

This also gives you the added benefit of trunk sharing. You could host all trunks at one location. Then the branch would connect to your main office to dial out. For example, if you had one branch location that only needed one line out occasionally, you could just have the branch office use one of your main office trunks.
Or if you currently have a main office that needs 5 trunks and a branch office that needs 3, but you know you will never use more than 6 trunks at a time, you can just get 6 trunks and share them between branches.

Caller ID can be set many different ways, and calls can be forwarded to any branch. So if you get a call at the main office, you could transfer the call to your branch office and it can retain the original caller’s caller ID; or you could change the caller ID to the main office number; or the extension number of the employee forwarding the number; or whatever.

After possibly saving money each month just by switching to SIP trunks, you can increase your savings if you have multiple branches. And you also add many more benefits such as intra-office extension dialing and trunk sharing. Plus you get all other benefits and features previously mentioned.

1. Differences between traditional analog and IP PBXs

2. Branches

3. SIP Phones

4. Features

In a traditional PBX, you buy a number of phone lines with each one getting a phone number. This is fine but not very proficient. There is no flexibility with how you can use those numbers and lines. And each line is tied to it’s specific number. With an IP PBX running SIP trunks, you have the flexibility to organize them however you want? You can get one DID(phone number), five trunks(phone lines), and each line shares the number. You can have five DIDs, one trunk, and each DID can be assigned to a different extension.

The biggest difference most people notice is putting calls on hold and answering that line from a different extension. For example… “Hey Bob, there’s a call for you on line two.”
On a traditional PBX, Bob sees four lines. Line 1 has a solid light(someone else is talking on that line). Line 2 is blinking(this call is on hold and you can pick it up). Bob pushes line two, picks up the phone, and starts talking.

Let’s see that example a couple of different ways… “Hey Bob, I parked a call for you on 71.”
On an IP PBX, you don’t see any lines. You can have many different lights or text showing several different options. We’ll get to these in another post. Bob then dials *71, and begins talking.
Or…”I can transfer you to Bob in sales to get you taken care of. Hang on just a second please.”
Dial *21Extension and hangup.
Or… dial *22Extension and say “Hey Bob, I have someone looking for sales. Here you go.” and hangup.

And finally, IP PBXes offer many more features than traditional PBXs can offer. Again, we’ll go into more detail in a future post. These are just some of the many differences but can give you an idea on possibilities.

For example, a telephone number is referred to as a DID. On a traditional PBX, every line has a DID associated with it. If you have four lines and you want your customers to have one phone number to call, each call to that number rolled to the first DID. If you called a customer from one of the other lines, their caller ID would show the “other” number.

With SIP trunks(lines), you can have one number associated with ten trunks(lines), or you could have only one trunk(line) and give ten employees their own phone number(DID). There are also many other benefits that are too numerous to go into in this post, but I plan on discussing other benefits in future posts.

The best part about an IP PBX is the fact that all the amazing features are included. Our next post will break up the features in a table of contents for future posts. You’ve now been introduced to IP PBXs and know one of many benefits they offer. We will get you educated on the features as we progress through this series. Just one more teaser…   IP PBXs can save you or your business money and make it easier to get things done. Stay tuned!

I’ve thought for a while now that smartphones were heading this direction, but I think the natural evolution will bring greater capabilities. Android specifically has an obvious progression option. Google is also developing notebook computers using ChromeOS. This is simply a Linux based operating system only running Google’s Chrome web browser. This OS focuses on web based in the cloud applications and access. Many people wonder why Google is offering ChromeOS when Android should cover that territory nicely.

I speculate that in the near future, mobile smartphones will have enough power to run this basic ChromeOS on a larger screen with a dock. This would standardize a dock based solution for Android so there are not multiple proprietary “dock operating systems” for every manufacturer/carrier.

If they could then come up with a basic standard plug for a dock, you could easily only need one device for all your computing needs. No need to carry a laptop with your phone. Your phone(or tablet) will do it all. We will probably have to wait a while to see if this comes to fruition, but if it does, it could greatly reduce costs and waste. I guess we’ll see!

Also of note, I will be attending a conference in May to help push the start of new service offerings. Shortly after, we will be announcing IP PBX phone system installation and service. Look forward to hearing more on transitioning to IP based services in all aspects of entertainment and communication.

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