A 3CX phone system is a PBX, which stands for Private Branch Exchange. This is a private telephone network used within a business. The users of the PBX phone system can communicate internally (within their company) and externally (with the outside world), using different communication channels like Voice over IP, ISDN or analogue. A 3CX also allows you to have more phones than physical phone lines (PTSN) and free calls between users. Additionally, it provides features like transfer calls, voicemail, call recording, interactive voice menus (IVRs) and call queues.

Time and technology have changed the consumer telephony landscape in the past years, with the flag-bearer being the Open-Standards-based IP 3CX. Now you can telephone via the Internet Protocol technology. 3CX phone systems are available as hosted or virtual (cloud) solutions and as on-premise solutions on your own hardware.

This image gives us an idea of what a 3CX system allows in terms of connectivity and reachability. With a traditional PBX, you are typically constrained to a certain maximum number of outside telephone lines (trunks) and to a certain maximum number of internal telephone devices or extensions. Users of the PBX phone system (phones or extensions) share the outside lines for making external phone calls.

Switching to a 3CX brings many benefits and opens up possibilities, allowing for almost unlimited growth in terms of extensions and trunks, and introducing more complex functions that are more costly and difficult to implement with  a traditional PBX, such as ring groups, queues, digital receptionists, voicemail and reporting. C2 Communications relies on 3CX, as it has established itself as the leading IP-PBX manufacturer, ticking all the checkboxes for any business looking for enterprise-grade features.

What is an IP 3CX?

An IP 3CX is a complete telephony system that provides telephone calls over IP data networks. All conversations are sent as data packets over the network. The technology includes advanced communication features but also provides a significant dose of worry-free scalability and robustness. The IP 3CX is also able to connect to traditional PSTN lines via an optional gateway, so we can upgrade your business communication to the most advanced voice and data network easily.

You don’t need to disrupt your current external communication infrastructure and operations. With an IP 3CX system from C2 Communications, you can even keep your regular telephone numbers. This way, the IP 3CX switches local calls over the data network inside the enterprise and allows all users to share the same external phone lines.

How it works

An IP 3CX consists of one or more SIP phones, an IP 3CX server and optionally a VoIP gateway to connect to existing PSTN lines. The IP 3CX server functions in a similar manner to a proxy server. SIP clients, being either softphones or desk phones, register with the IP 3CX server, and when they wish to make a call they ask the IP 3CX to establish the connection. The IP 3CX has a directory of all phones / users and their corresponding SIP address and thus is able to connect an internal call or route an external call via either a VoIP gateway or a VoIP service provider.

Benefit #1: Much easier to install & configure than a proprietary phone system

An IP 3CX runs as software on a computer and can leverage the advanced processing power of the computer and user interface as well as features. C2 Communications takes care of installing and maintaining your IP C3X.

Benefit #2: Easier to manage because of web / GUI based configuration interface

An IP 3CX can be managed via a web-based configuration interface or a GUI, allowing you to easily maintain and fine tune your phone system. Proprietary phone systems have difficult-to-use interfaces which are often designed to be used only by phone technicians.

Benefit #3: Significant cost savings using C2 Communications VoIP

With an IP 3CX, you can easily use the VoIP of C2 Communications for long distance and international calls. The monthly savings are significant. If you have branch offices, you can easily connect phone systems between branches and make free phone calls.

Benefit #4: Eliminate phone wiring

An IP phone system allows you to connect hardware IP phones directly to a standard computer network port (which it can share with the adjacent computer). Software phones can be installed directly on the PC. You can now eliminate the phone wiring and make adding or moving of extensions much easier. In new offices, you can completely eliminate the need for wiring extra ports to be used by the office phone system.

Benefit #5: Eliminate vendor lock-in

IP 3CX is based on the open SIP standard. You can mix and match any SIP hardware or software phone with the SIP-based IP 3CX, PSTN gateway or C2 Communications VoIP. In contrast, a proprietary phone system often requires proprietary phones to use advanced features, and proprietary extension modules to add features.

Benefit #6: Scalable

Proprietary systems are easy to outgrow. Adding more phone lines or extensions often requires expensive hardware modules. In some cases you need an entirely new phone system. Not so with an IP 3CX from C2 Communications. A standard computer can easily handle a large number of phone lines and extensions – just add more phones to your network to expand.

Benefit #7: Better customer service & productivity

With an IP 3CX you can deliver better customer service and better productivity. Since the system is now computer-based, you can integrate phone functions with business applications. For example, bring up the customer record of the caller automatically when you receive his / her call, dramatically improve customer service and cut costs by reducing time spent on each caller. Outbound calls can be placed directly from Outlook, removing the need for the user to type in the phone number.

Benefit #8: Twice the phone system features for half the price

Since an IP 3CX is software-based, it is easy for C2 Communications to add and improve feature sets. The 3CX phone system comes with a rich feature set, including auto-attendant, voice mail, ring groups, and advanced reporting. Unified Communications features are included, to support presence, video and audio conferences and free calls via the data network. These options are often very expensive in proprietary systems.

Benefit #9: Allow hot desking & roaming

Hot desking, the process of being able to easily move offices / desks based on the task at hand, has become very popular. Unfortunately, traditional PBXs require extensions to be re-patched to the new location. With an IP 3CX, the user simply takes his phone to his new desk – no patching required.

Users can roam too – if an employee has to work from home, he / she can simply fire up their SIP software phone and is able to answer calls to their extension, just as they would in the office. Calls can be diverted anywhere in the world because of the SIP protocol characteristics.

Benefit #10: Better phone usability

Employees often struggle using advanced phone features. Setting up a conference, or transferring a call on an old PBX requires detailed instructions. Not so with an IP 3CX – all features are easily performed from a user-friendly GUI. In addition, users get a better overview of the status of other extensions, of inbound calls, call queues, and presence via the apps. Proprietary systems often require expensive “system” phones to get an idea what is going on on your phone system and even then, status information is cryptic at best.

Conclusion

Investing in a software-based IP 3CX from C2 Communications makes a lot of sense, not only for new companies buying a phone system, but also for companies who already have a PBX. An IP 3CX delivers such significant savings in management, maintenance, and call costs, that upgrading to an IP 3CX should be the obvious choice for any business.

A VoIP phone system / IP 3CX system from C2 Communications consists of one or more SIP phones / VoIP phones, an IP 3CX server and optionally includes a VoIP Gateway. The IP 3CX server is similar to a proxy server: SIP clients, being either softphones or hardware-based phones, register with the IP 3CX server, and when they wish to make a call, they ask the IP 3CX to establish the connection. The IP 3CX has a directory of all phones / users and their corresponding SIP address and thus is able to connect an internal call or route an external call via either a VoIP gateway or a VoIP service provider to the desired destination.

At the center we have the IP 3CX. Starting from the bottom, we see the corporate network. This is the company’s local network. Through that network, Computers running SIP clients such as the 3CX softphones, and IP phones connect directly to the 3CX. On the left, we see the company’s router / firewall connected to the internet. From there it can connect to remote extensions in the form of computers running the softphones, remote IP phones, mobile devices running the 3CX Android and iOS apps, and bridged PBX’s. By using the VoIP network of C2 Communications, we can connect you to the PSTN network. To the right, a VoIP Gateway connects the 3CX directly to the PSTN network.

An IP 3CX phone system has a number of benefits.

Easy Installation and Configuration

A traditional PBX is composed of proprietary hardware and software management tools. These tools are typically managed over a serial or console cable, and each vendor has different tools for this. This means that, once you have committed to a traditional system, you are bound to their professional services, and the vendor can, and will, charge premium prices for the service simply because the customer has no alternative service provider to go to.

Our 3CX, on the other hand, is a software-based solution. This automatically means that it is much easier to install and configure without training.

Ease of Management

Our 3CX solution provides a web-based configuration interface. The obvious benefit to this is that the system administrator has access to the configuration of the system – the configuration tools are no longer hidden away from the system administrator, allowing him to make the changes himself if he so desires.

IP-Based Means IP Network

Every telephone system needs to have wiring to connect phones to the PBX. But here is the point of an IP-3CX – your office already has the wiring, because your phones and IP-3CX run on the same wiring that your corporate network is already using. And again, your system administrator already knows how his LAN network is wired into the network cabinet – the phones are simply additional network devices just like any computer on the LAN.

This also means that a user can easily move his operations from one desk to another within the office. As long as the network wall sockets are connected to the network cabinet, all he needs to do is unplug his phone from the network wall socket, take the phone to his new work location, and plug the phone back into the network wall socket at his new work location. The configuration of the phone does not need to change, and the extension number also does not need to change – it will just work.

Receive and Make calls Anywhere, Everywhere

The SIP protocol is an IP-based protocol, C2 Communications offers SIP softphones for Android and iOS. This transforms your smartphone into an extension on the corporate IP-3CX, so as long as your phone has IP connectivity, it can talk to the IP-3CX – from a coffee shop, from a hotel room, from an airport lounge, from a yacht marina. Be connected – anywhere, everywhere.

Cost Reduction

You can interface a regular land line to an IP-3CX, using a gateway device. But you have an IP-3CX now – you don’t need to do this any more. Or better phrased, you are no longer at the mercy of your regular telephone communications provider. You can use the VoIP services of C2 Communications, that can deliver telephony over the internet. Just with a simple number porting, you can immediately reduce your call costs. Why? Because land-line telcos have been overcharging for telephony since the first “Hello”. This is why VoIP is sometimes considered a “disruptive” technology – it breaks the traditional telco’s model, by removing their position of control on the relationship.

Compliance with SIP Standards Eliminates Vendor Lock-In

Today’s mainstream SIP-based deskphones improves your return on investment. If you need to change from one IP-PBX to another, your phones are still usable – this is because the phones talk a universal language called SIP.

Scalability – No Limits

A traditional PBX was essentially a hardware device sitting in some corner of your office. It would have a number of empty “slots” to add hardware capacity to your system. Each “slot” would allow you to add “x” number of extensions or “y” number of lines. Once the “slots” were full, you would have reached the limit, and the search for a new telephone system would start – but not before you find the money to replace it!

An IP-3CX does not suffer from this limitation, because software does not have a limited number of “slots”. If the computer it runs on has the horsepower, you can scale upwards at will. With C2 Communications, you can simply update your licence and get more “slots” assigned – no need to touch anything on the system.

Reporting and Monitoring

Again, the power of the 3CX software-based solution from C2 Communications really shines through on the reporting and monitoring functions. For C2 Communications, extracting data from the call records is a relatively simple task. If a reporting feature is requested, then we can provide a new report simply by way of a system update. Live monitoring of activity on the system is another great bonus which web-based management offers.