Telephone Systems, Occidental Communications

Telephone Systems
There are five types of telephone systems used in enterprise communications: PABXs and ACDs, centrex services, PC-based telephone systems, LAN-based telephone systems and key systems. A directory of vendors of systems in each of the first four categories follows.

Consulting Projects Involving Telephone Systems
Occidental Communications has undertaken numerous consulting engagements involving telephone systems, with and without ACD functionality. Projects have included user requirements analysis, system specification and acquisition via requests for tender, network design analysis, networking dissimilar PABXs, traffic analysis, numbering plan preparation, service audits, analysis of communications management and advising on the future of telephone systems.

PABXs and ACDs
Used for over half a century, PABXs continue to be the backbone of enterprise voice communication, although a number of alternative technologies now vie for a slice of this pie (see below). In the call centre, the core technology is the automatic call distributor (ACD), which is provided by PABXs with this capability, stand-alone ACDs as well as some of the alternative technologies.

International Directory - PABXs and ACDs

ANZ Product Directory - PABXs and ACDs

BusinessPhone from Aastra
PABX for small to medium-sized enterprises

MX-ONE Telephony Switch (formerly named MD110) from Aastra
PABX with ACD capability, Aastra's Solidus e-Care CTI product provides more comprehensive ACD capability

OpenCom from Aastra
small to medium-sized PABX

OmniPCX Enterprise and OmniPCX Office from Alcatel-Lucent
PABXs with ACD capability

CallCenter from Aspect Software, formerly named Aspect Telecommunications
ACD

Spectrum (formerly named FirstPoint Enterprise 2002) from Aspect Software, formerly named Concerto Software
ACD offering comprehensive capability with IVR capabilities, CTI capabilities, agent-initiated audio call recording, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks and routing of e-mails to agents.

FirstPoint Business Edition (formerly named Transend) from Aspect Software, formerly named Concerto Software
ACD offering comprehensive capability

Communication Manager (formerly named Definity) from Avaya
PABX with comprehensive ACD capability

Index from Avaya
Small to medium-sized PABX with ACD capability

7400 from NEC
PABX with ACD capability, NEC partners with Genesys to provide more comprehensive ACD capability

Meridian 1 from Nortel
PABX with ACD capability

KX-TDA (formerly the TD 500) from Panasonic
PABX for small to medium-sized enterprises

OfficeServ (formerly the DCS) from Samsung
PABX with ACD capability

Hicom from Siemens
PABX with ACD capability

Coral from Tadiran Telecom
PABX with ACD capability

Centrex
Centrex is the provision of enterprise voice communications from telco exchange equipment as a managed service. Compared to a premise-based system, centrex has the advantages of requiring less operational management and being highly scalable, but may be more expensive, offered from only some exchanges and may be subject to perplexing restrictions.

ANZ Service Directory - Centrex
Australian and New Zealander customers each have a choice of two centrex services.

Primus Centrex from Primus Telecommunications
Centrex service available within 500 km of Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, with ACD capability

Centrex from Telecom New Zealand
Centrex service available throughout New Zealand with ACD capability

Spectrum from Telstra
Centrex service with ACD capability

Gateway from TelstraClear
Centrex service with ACD capability

PC-based Telephone Systems
Often referred to as an UnPABX or UnPBX, a PC-based system is functionally the same as a PABX except that it is housed in a server chassis, uses analogue handsets and provides the functional user interface via a telephony window on the user's PC. Such systems typically offer a number of capabilities that, with PABXs and centrex typically require third-party components, as integral capabilities. However, like the all-in-one stereo system, such integral capabilities are unlikely to be as featured as products dedicated to such applications.

International Directory - PC-based Telephone Systems

ANZ Product Directory - PC-based Telephone Systems

Aspect Unified IP (formerly named Concerto Unified Edition and before that Ensemble Pro) from Aspect Software, formerly named Concerto Software
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, personal and enterprise CTI facilities, predictive dialling, audio call recording capability including screen capture, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks and routing of e-mails to agents.

CIC from Interactive Intelligence
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, desktop, personal CTI facilities, audio call recording capability, predictive dialler, web chat, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks and routing of e-mails to agents.

Call Centre Automation (formerly named ATOMS) from Noble Systems
PC-based telephone system/predictive dialler that performs screen pop, screen transfer with call transfer, screen/keyboard dialling, call routing and optional IVR, predictive dialling, audio call recording, text chat, routing of e-mails to agents and off-switch ACD.

Oracle Contact Center Anywhere (formerly CallCenter@nywhere) from Oracle
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, enterprise CTI facilities, predictive dialling, audio call recording capability with screen capture, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks and routing of e-mails to agents.

SwyxWare from Swyx, distributed by IT Net World
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, personal and enterprise CTI facilities and audio call recording capability.

ShoreTel from ShoreTel
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, and personal and enterprise CTI facilities.

intelligent eXchange (iX) from Teleware
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, telephony window, personal and enterprise CTI facilities and audio call recording capability.

TeleVantage from Vertical Communications
PC-based telephone system with integral ACD, auto attendant, voice mail, integral desktop, personal CTI facilities, power dialling, audio call recording at the desktop, and collaborative browsing using callbacks.

LAN-based Telephone Systems
Although the terms UnPABX and UnPBX are often applied to both LAN-based telephone systems and PC-based telephone systems, these are architectually totally different. LAN-based telephone systems carry voice through an IP or ATM LAN between telephony-enabled PCs and/or IP or ATM handsets. As with PC-based telephone systems, LAN-based telephone systems use a telephony window to provide the functional user interface, and many offer a number of integral capabilities.

International Directory - LAN-based Telephone Systems

ANZ Product Directory - LAN-based Telephone Systems

MX-ONE from Aastra
LAN-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail, CTI, predictive dialling, audio call recording capability, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks, routing of e-mails to agents and text chat.

Avaya IP Office (formerly named ECLIPS) from Avaya
LAN-based telephone system with IVR capabilities and, by incorporating Avaya CTI, optional CTI, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks and routing of e-mails to agents.

Call Manager from Cisco
LAN-based telephone system with ACD, integral voice mail, desktop, personal CTI facilities, collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and callbacks (using CCS), routing of e-mails to agents (using CEM) and text chat (using CCS).

CosmoCall from CosmoCom, distributed in New Zealand by Value Chain Solutions
LAN-based telephone system with integral ACD, IVR, voice mail with unified messaging, personal and enterprise CTI facilities, predictive dialling (by incorporating Sytel's Softdial Plugin), collaborative browsing using both voice through the Internet and routing of e-mails to agents.

innovaphone from innovaphone, distributed by Integrated Wireless
LAN-based telephone system system with integral auto attendant, voice mail with unified messaging, personal and enterprise CTI facilities and audio call recording.

3300 from Mitel
LAN-based telephone system with integral voice mail, auto attendant and agent-initiated audio call recording and that can incorporate SX 2000 circuit cabinets.

Communications Server 1000 (formerly named Succession CSE 1000) from Nortel
LAN-based telephone system with ACD, integral telephony window, personal CTI facilities, collaborative browsing using callbacks, routing of e-mails to agents and text chat.

HiPath 5500/5300 from Siemens
LAN-based telephone system with integral desktop.

Articles on Call Centre Telephone System Applications

Consolidating the Call Centre Australian Communications August 1997

Which Switch is Which? Your Telephone System (Telcall/CRM supplement) September, 2000

Other Articles on Telephone Systems

The PABX vs. the unPABX Voice+ Asia Pacific [Hong Kong] January/February 1999

The Many Applications of Voice over IP, Part 2 Australian Communications April, 1999

How to Kill a PABX Telecom Asia May, 1999

More Than a Telephony System Australian Communications March, 2000

PC-based and LAN-based telephone systems Insight IS [UK] May, 2000

What the Future Will Hold CIO November, 2000

Disclaimer
Note that this site is not sponsored. Vendors are included because they develop and/or distribute products in Australia and/or New Zealand which fall within the specified categories. Many of the vendors listed herein also have other products. Vendors seeking inclusion click here.

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