MARKET REVIEW Solution diversity drives c
The market for telephony solutions is now characterised by its diversity with hosted options offering a credible alternative to the IP PBX. Here, we weigh up the pros and cons of each approach and conclude that putting the customer first ensures the right solution is delivered.
H
osted PBX bundles are fast becoming a tangible and easy- to-grasp alternative
to IP PBXs for SMEs, and with enterprise PBX spending on the slide and price pressures pulling revenue per line down across the board, traditional TDM telephony is expected to decline over time with IP-based technologies of all flavours on the rise. “We see this trend not just in the types of extension being bought by customers but in areas such as contact centres and applications, many of which are now based on SIP technology and are forming the growth areas of the communications market,” observed Colin Mann, Head of Marketing at Aastra. “Clearly, resellers can benefit from the sales of applications because of the higher margins usually associated with these and also the potential to drive additional value and increase customer retention.”
Most customers today are in a hybrid environment with both TDM and SIP but the growth trend is in IP-based technologies with both the extensions on communications systems and the underlying technology beneath applications being increasingly based on SIP
rather than TDM. “Customers also want the same apps- based experience they enjoy at home in their business life and that, combined with the rise of SIP, means that the opportunities for resellers exist in areas such as applications, unified communications and flexible, scalable solutions,” said Mann.
Over the last year the majority of the product releases by Aastra have been based on enabling multimedia communication, for example with new features in the communication servers and technologies such as video collaboration. “Aastra is focusing on creating a consistent user experience across the product portfolio with the communication servers, terminals and applications increasingly being common across the range of technologies and sharing a similar GUI,” added Mann.
“As a vendor our perspective is that the market looks more buoyant over the last year and it certainly seems to be the case that the business confidence of SMEs is growing. One of the challenges that we do see at Aastra is that end user
customers are sometimes struggling to understand the best route forwards for their communications decisions, and resellers need to solution sell the right technology.”
According to Rob Pickering, CEO at ipcortex, the whole debate has moved on from PBX versus hosted. The PBX in its traditional form as an isolated proprietary device is clearly dead, he believes. It has however evolved into a web literate communications hub that can be deployed flexibly across any architecture, including cloud, to provide real integrated communication. “The pace of change in our industry isn’t slowing down and more than ever customers need a trusted partner to help them select and implement the best future proof solutions,” said Pickering.
The next industry shift is sitting in the wings as UC and web services begin to merge under new technologies like WebRTC. “We demonstrated a WebRTC/PSTN call through one of our systems in September last year, and while this is still a development area with draft standards and beta implementations from end point vendors, we expect
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this to converge in new products and services around the turn of the 2013/14 calendar year,” he added.
“The past year has been a real growth story for ipcortex. Our Q1 2013 sales revenue was up 58 per cent on the same period a year ago with a 27 per cent increase in unit volumes. This has been achieved via a mix of engagement with new resellers as well as further developing business with our existing channel. Our most successful ipcortex resellers
emphasise their value add by listening to the customer and providing entire communications solutions.”
When comparing hosted PBX bundles to PBXs there are two key areas to focus on, noted Tony Smith, Sales Director Indirect Channel, Siemens Enterprise Communications. “Firstly, the TCO of an IP PBX versus a hosted solution is ultimately cheaper,” he said. “A PBX has a typical life span of seven years and over time a hosted solution works out
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