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Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is finding its way into enterprises of all types and sizes, and presently is one of the few bright spots across an otherwise gloomy telecommunications landscape. Decision makers that buy enterprise voice services have made a collective commitment to invest in VoIP within the enterprise. Enterprise VoIP has enjoyed success despite harsh economic conditions, proving that commitment to this service is real. The question is not whether VoIP will become the predominant form of enterprise voice; the big questions are when, how, and by whom.
In this market analysis, Insight Research parses the PBX market into four segments: the traditional PBX; IP PBXs built using LAN switches, media gateways, and servers; IP-enabled PBXes that gateway to the LAN/WAN; and converged PBXes that are aware of both TDM and IP endpoints in the native modes. The products of PBX vendors with the largest share of the PBX market (Avaya, Nortel) are inspected, as well as newer PBX vendors (Cisco, 3Com). Traditional Centrex and IP Centrex service providers such as Verizon, Qwest, and GoBeam are also put under the microscope to detail the prospects for growth across the entire enterprise voice segment. This compelling study forecasts voice-extension sales by type of system including TDM, VoIP, legacy Centrex, and IP Centrex, looking closely at the associated sales revenue.
VoIP technology adoption depends on the commitment of enterprises to truly migrate to converged voice and data networks. VoIP equipment never was and never will be the least expensive way to deliver a voice extension within the enterprise. While it is true that some VoIP phone systems, such as those offered by Altigen, are less expensive than comparable TDM units, this is more the exception than the rule. The typical cost of a VoIP extension from the legacy vendors (per-port platform costs plus IP-phone costs) is only marginally higher (around 25 percent) than that of a digital extension. Likewise, the pure play IP PBX vendors currently offer per-seat pricing (i.e., the cost of both the associated hardware and the phone) that is also very competitive—again, about 25 percent higher than digital TDM-based extension pricing.
Next-generation IP-PBXs now enable truly converged communications.
Beyond voice and data on the same wire, beyond unified messaging, beyond desktop
productivity enhancements, a next generation IP-PBX brings together all of these elements and more
in a single, easy to manage solution.
Looking at traditional IP-PBXs, TMC Labs has defined IP-PBX
as a phone system that utilizes Ethernet phones for true one-wire to the desktop - converging both
voice and data across a single network wire.TMC Labs points out that there are many flavors of
IP-PBXs: traditional PBXs with add-on VoIP cards, PC-PBXs with VoIP add-on cards, and routers/switches
with embedded VoIP functionality.Typically these routers/switches were designed with IP in their
core and then telephony/voice was added on top. On the other hand, traditional PBXs and PC-PBXs were
designed with telephony/voice at their very core and then IP was added on top.
A next-generation
IP-PBX is a software-based solution built from the ground up to be a truly converged enterprise
communications system.This architecture ensures linear scalability and costs (no forklift upgrades)
, resiliency and reliability, ease of administration and management, a wide variety of end-points
and network elements (no vendor lock-in), support for legacy equipment, and a fully enabled
end-user experience all in a single system that runs on an existing heterogeneous network
environment.As a leading provider of these next-generation IP-PBX solutions, Sphere Communications
has enabled hundreds of thousands of end users across a wide variety of industries to
successfully take control of their enterprise telecommunications.
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