The Dreadnoughts: Enterprise Class PBXs

As of this writing, the majority of organizations with thousands of employees at one location continue to use traditional, TDM enterprise class PBXs. For the next few years, these mainframe-like machines will continue to dominate the seas of telephony. They have extremely high reliability, more features than any person with a real job would ever use, and a vast flotilla of accessories/applications. The large installations cost millions.

Business needs should dominate technology "coolness." If the organization must have a new telephone system with all the advantages of mature technology, then cost analysis shifts away from technical architecture and toward features, needs, and smart planning. In evaluating competing vendors such as Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, and others that play in the large PBX world, the following should be included in the analysis:

• Has an accurate count of users, stations, and non-voice devices such as modems and faxes been obtained? Organizations often overbuy because the actual number of necessary lines is not known. Analog lines (for faxes and modems) are particularly prone to excess.

• Do voicemail and other proprietary links match the organization's infrastructure? For example, will the PBX vendor's unified messaging offering work with the installed e-mail system?

• What functions are really required for each station? Some organizations buy low-end telephones for lower-level employees and then upgrade as they are promoted. Sometimes, the cost of this transition can exceed the cost of providing a standard, strong feature set telephone for all employees, with only individuals in specialty positions having "more buttons."

• How much expansion room is available? Traditional PBXs scale well but usually in steps rather than on a continuous curve of users versus costs. Once a shelf is filled up, for example, a new shelf and cards must be purchased, at a substantial incremental price. Of course, most of the big PBXs network with one another easily (as long as they are from the same manufacturer).

• How much of the implementation effort is the vendor willing to do? Implementation is a significant human and financial drain, so responsibilities should be drawn early. Assume for example that the firm is converting from Siemens to Avaya technology. Understanding what each user needs to have programmed into the station and how that relates to the new system (station programming) is a big job. The translation is not straight-forward and requires considerable manual effort.

• Do the PBX and related systems support hoteling — a setup that allows employees infrequently in the office to direct the system (usually via a kiosk) to ring their assigned number at the telephone they are using that day?

Having discussed premise equipment or alternatives, we can turn to public network access and related cost reduction.