Hosted IP PBX systems (IP-Centrex)
As broadband becomes lower cost, and the quality of broadband increases, there are strong financial, environmental and flexibility incentives for companies to host their PBX services online rather than in-house. From the perspective of the IP-Centrex supplier, the IP-Centrex customer can supply an ongoing revenue stream in terms of handset rental, per extension charges, adds, moves and changes, as well as revenue streams for minutes termination and origination.
A2Billing is blended some of the “best of breed” Open Source software to provide other products and services. In the case of IP-Centrex services, it has blended A2Billing, FreePBX, Asterisk and Virtualisation to provide the IP-Centrex hosted system.
How it works
A virtualisation platform is built on which to host the Virtual PBX Systems. Star2Billing supply FreePBX templates with and without fax capability. Each Virtual PBX is assigned a fixed public IP address so that the customer can manage their own system. Calls are then trunked via Voice over IP to a standard installation of A2Billing, which on smaller lightly loaded systems can also be a virtual system, or A2Billing installed on dedicated hardware. A2Billing then rates and delivers the calls to the operator’s chosen carriers.
Customer’s Features and Benefits.
- The Blowfish effect – Customer can seem bigger than they actually are with enterprise PBX featured.
- Low or zero capital cost.
- Remote working and home-working.
- No internal servers to manage and maintain resulting in lower maintenance and energy costs.
PBX features include:-
- Support for virtually unlimited extensions.
- IVR (Interactive Voice Response Menus)
- Voice-mail, and Voice-mail to email.
- Time conditions.
- Ring groups and queues.
- Call Conferencing.
- Online Fax Facilities
- Multi-language. Default, English, Spanish and French.
- Simple web based management interface.
- Supports many types of endpoint – no vendor lock-in.
- Follow me options.
- DID routing.
- Skills and customer based routing.
- Simple to customise call flow.
NB: See www.freepbx.org for more details on this fantastic PBX system.
Operator Features and Benefits
- Lower energy costs, many systems can be installed on one piece of physical hardware.
- Simple to add a new virtual PBX system with web based GUI.
- Revenue from multiple sources, including origin, termination, monthly PBX rental and adds move and changes,
- System can be easily scaled.
- A2Billing can provide imaginative charging options for the customer, see VoIP Termination IP-PBX.
Conclusion
The entry cost of providing IP-Centrex services has never been so low, by utilising competent free and Open-source products, and blending them with A2Billing to provide charging capabilities. Usually two servers are required, The IP-Centrex server, plus one of the A2Billing products listed below, however, in lightly loaded systems, and for new starts, the A2Billing server can be hosted as a virtual server.
Products to Consider
One or more IP-Centrex Systems to contain the individual hosted PBX systems, and one of the following to terminate the calls from each PBX system.
- Managed Install (Single Server) – Installation of the single server complete with comprehensive training and support.
- Single Server – Suitable for Approximately 200 concurrent calls depending on the hardware and call Patterns.
- Enterprise System – Scalable to almost any size and capacity. Ideal for connection to the PSTN using E1 or T1 lines.
- Enterprise System with Load Balancing – Scalable to almost any size and capacity, and will load balance across multiple switches.
- OpenSBC - To assist with NAT traversal for SIP endpoints.