sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Anyone have experience with "Virtual PBX's"?

I've had two customers now who are swearing off a traditional telephone system for a "virtual PBX". They claim these do everything a regular 'ole telephone system will. I beg to differ, but every time I put up an "argument", they have something to counter (obviously gleaned from the sales pitch they received).

The virtual PBX I'm referring to is not a VOIP box. It is a completely off-site service which acts like Bell voicemail on steroids (CCR tree, call-forwarding, messaging, etc.).

Anyone have ammo I can use to rebut these nimnods?

We have had 4 customers leave for hosted VoIP solutions and have come back in less than 60 days. That would be zero percent success. Had one customer that was going to a large hosted solution 2 months ago. They called last Friday for help with their existing Nortel PBX that served them faithfully since 1986. When inquiring why the Nortel was still online the IT guy laughed and said I was right in my prediction. 120 sets in a hosted solution crashed an burned on turnup. Vendor still hasn't made it fly although their statement is "We're throwing alot of resources at this project."

What about a virtual PBX? This would be a "system" that rings in on traditional C.O. lines, however the CCR, mailboxes, etc. is off-site. VOIP is another animal...

RBF.
Remember, we used to have virtual PBX. It was called plexar or centrex wasn't it?
Seriously though....AT&T has announced that they will be making a move in the VOIP world and this could be scarey for the interconnects. With the proper sets they could most probably offer every thing that we are offering with an on premise system. The only saving grace is that we will always provide better service!

Yeah but Centrex worked. If you're gonna have a VoIP solution I maintain that you'd better have it on site.

Centrex worked because it wasn't IP based. It was based on telecom technology.

This has been discussed and cussed many times.

I think "Virtual PBX" is just a new, high tech name for Centrex. What kind of phones are the using?

-Hal

I have a neighbor who left a lucrative cabling company about a year ago to take a posisition selling hosted IP centrex. I figured he has a pool, so I will listen to his pickup lines. It's true, the customer can use inexpensive SIP telephones and yes, it is very similar to Centrex, but that's where the beauty ends. It still rides on a router and must be distributed via expensive switches on the premises. If anything, I mean anything goes wrong, they lose everything. Even internal calling.

Now one might say that this is just as possible if using a PRI for dial tone. Perhaps, to a degree. True, outbound communication would be lost if the PRI failed, but most customers have at least one backup copper line on such a system. They would also not lose internal communications if the PRI failed.

The problem that we face with hosted IP service is that it's cheap. Just like Centrex was. Lines cost less per month, even though more are needed. Phones are cheap and generic. But that's about all that's good to be said about it.

These providers claim to provide the customer with a web-based management page to permit them to customize their "system". I have never seen one. I have also yet to see a customer that would actually use something like that. I can't tell you how many PC-based voice mails, ACD or call accounting systems we have installed that end up just sitting there. The fact is that most smaller customers aren't going to mess with that stuff. The larger ones aren't going to spend that kind of money on recurring monthly "line" expenses.

You customers should be preparted for a 24 + hour turn around on simple MACD's.

Right now Broadview is offering Virtual PBX at very competetive price. They are using Mitel's 5224 phones.The package includes T1 and 5 pnones for the price of $xxx.xx a month. Calls are Unlimited. Each phone takes about 88Kbts of bandwidth. Customer has Web based access to do any changes in programming. If the number of telephones increases they add another T1 for $xxx.xx. You have your Voice over T1 and High Speed Internet. Actually its working wery well but the only problems is a line apperances for small businesess and Hold pick up. Otherwise it is not bad. They have bigger Applications as well.