Did you know the PBX treats a cell phone like an extension on the PBX? This means the PBX will call the cell phone at the same time as your local extension. This is not a call-forward! but something we name call forking, it is simultaneous ringing.

This feature is one of the most useful features (amongst many others), however I get the feeling people just don't know what to do or how to use it. So here is a whole section dedicated to Cell Phone and the integration with pbxnsip.

Click here to see some interesting tips on Cell Phone Integration.

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Dutch distributor TopIT, announced two free half day technical open days last month and we are please to annouce the huge success of the first session.

Brigitte Jacobs, TopIT executive commented: ‘Thanks to all who attended the seminar, we thoroughly enjoyed the day and are looking forward to working closely with all our partners in 2009. We are hoping to host several more reseller open days and have planned reseller accreditation and training dates throughout the year and are investing in channel development and aiming our efforts towards support and presales in order to meet the demands of our customers’.

Click here to see the agenda and information for the next open day.

We would like to announce the much anticipated release of our NEW Office Basic license edition, a development aimed at the SMB and Enterprise environment and created in response to high market demand.

The project is the latest in pbxnsip advancements, which has opened many new avenues in cost saving activities for communications deployments in the current climate. This pbxnsip product offers an array of the latest pbxnsip IP PBX features and sits side by side with the Office Pro and Office Pro Plus licenses as a scalable, robust and future proof product for the business looking for a reliable, complete solution.

pbxnsip are looking to the Office Basic License as an alternative, affordable yet feature rich product, to address the growing demand for an aggressively priced ‘starting line’ product. Market research has shown that a high level of pbxnsip resellers and distributors are looking for a product that will serve entry level VoIP installations or hybrid installations where customers are looking to 'glue' their existing PBX with the pbxnsip IP PBX.

The Office Basic edition offers features such as auto attendant, hunt groups, voicemail, voicemail to email, hot desking, call forking, pbxnsip attendant console, cell phone integration, plug and play, security and advance routing. The Office Basic license paired with Upgrade Protection and resilience is a more than adequate solution for any company looking for a start with an IP PBX, with the ability to scale in the future if required.

Used in a Hybrid deployment, the Basic edition allows integrators the ability to glue existing traditional PBX/PABX with pbxnsip via a media gateway such as a VegaStream. In these types of deployments, the PBX acts as a routing engine or possibly an add on module for home workers, conferencing or voicemail.

Questions you are too afraid to ask!

Learn some Easy 'Know How'

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that is used for establishing a secure connection between a client and a server. In this case the client is your phone and the server is the PBX.

Information displayed under Log level 9 is everything that is going on with the server. Log level 0 will only report important trace. Log Level 9 should only be switched on whilst you capture the trace, on a busy system this could slow things down.

With SIP, the number you call is actually sent with the domain information included (just like email). Sometimes this can cause the call to come back into the domain and therefore create a loop. Loops can come round many hundreds of time in 1 second.

Session Border Controller (SBC) is a device or application that governs the manner in which calls, also called sessions, are initiated, conducted and terminated in a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) network.

The outbound proxy is the field which identifies the SIP server or Gateway, this can be a full DNS domain or an IP address.

e.g. sip:your-sip-domain.com

Central Office (CO Lines) is a way the IP PBX can replicate a set number of lines entering the PBX.

If you set the trunk to have 6 CO lines (like so ..."co1 co2 co3 co4 co5 co6") the PBX will create 6 virtual extension called co1, co2, co3, co4, co5 and co6. Like any other extension on the PBX, these lines can be monitored via a BLF. You can also a CO line as way to pass calls round the office... "call for Terry on Line 1"

The direction field on a trunk is a great new feature and it allows you to control the calling direction of the trunk. This makes a trunk very configurable, especially if you want to control access to and from you system and restrict who can call from or call to.

Options include - Inbound and Outbound Calls, Inbound Only or Outbound Only.

Some questions Cell Phone Integration

The cell phone feature on pbxnsip is powerful and can save you some time and money by simply using the PBX feature to help you day to day operations.

The Cell Phone is treated as an extension of the PBX, it is not a call forward or redirect, but a forked call. This means the PBX will call your cell phone simultaneously as your extension is also called.

If your extension is configured with a cell phone number, you call have the PBX call your cell phone and give you full access to the mailbox features on the PBX.

A cell phone could be switched off, out of signal or engaged. In these cases the cell phone voicemail would normally answer every call. This was a problem to users. Now the PBX can be configured to prompt for a the user to press 1 on answer. The PBX will ignore the answered call until the number 1 is pressed.

If your extension is configured with a cell phone number and you call the PBX, it will match on the cell phone number and prompt you for a pin number. You will then be directed to your mailbox for use within the mailbox as if you were an registered phone on the PBX.

The cell phone integration can be activated or deactivated by the use of an existing service flag or as an individual configuration at extension level.

Most people configure the cell phone time of day routing to all calls to their phone during in office hours only. This prevents your personal phone from receiving calls at all time of the night!

If you dial into the PBX by your cell phone and the you have the cell phone number assigned to the extension, use the smart features of the PBX as if you were in the office. If you dial in, call an extension and it the extension is busy, the PBX will offer a call back when the extension becomes available. This is offered to your cell phone OR desk phone.

If the calling card account is configured and set to call back the pbx can call you back and connect you and the other leg of the call. The net effect is - you get the PBX to make both calls at cheaper prices than a cell phone tariffs.

Learn some Sales 'Know How'



Installation Cost Saving - In comparison with other TDM hardware or IP PBX's, pbxnsip offers home working functionality and standard with no extra cost for service activation or ongoing.

Expense and time spent travelling to and from work. Either save hours each day by working during the rush hour then travelling to work off peak or work from your home office and your extension can ring as if you were in the office.

Cost office space and overheads - businesses save money by downsizing their office space and remote register working to the pbx over the internet and take advantage of home working.

Resilience - Network outages can be easily overcome, send workers home with their phones and register back to the pbx as if they were still in the office.

Flexibility - Call forking / dual ring means that you never need miss a call again, have your extension registered at multiple sites that all ring at the same time or hotdesk at any location connected to you pbxnsip server.

Efficiency in today’s business is vital.

Customers expect their calls to be handled quickly and professionally, this can either mean that you manually screen calls through an operator or you can work smart and action and agent group which means that you allow your IP PBX to do the hard work before the call gets to you. Agent Groups / ACD Queues are designed so that the customer has the option to direct them self to the correct department and can then be distributed to the next available operator with minimal fuss and whilst maintaining the look and feel of a large corporation, even if you are not.

From a commercial point of view this has both cost saving potential and offers a new dynamic to sales and support when your business looks pro active in a tough industry and whilst no one likes sitting in a queue if you know your position in that queue and that you are moving forward you are much more likely to hold the client on the call rather that lose them to plain old on hold music.

Some Other useful Sales Tips

Tired of configuring IP Phones?

Voice Over IP is a fast growing and soon to be a dominant force in the communications market. Whilst the established users and providers are sold on the technology and its flexibility, the customers not familiar with the background to the protocol and the advantages of SIP based IP Telephony still need educating as to the importance of the convergence to IP.

Every one would like an easy life, with as little complications as possible.

With PNP applications featured in pbxnsip IP PBX you have the option to plug and play devices such as Snom, Cisco, Linksys and Polycom handsets.

This means that instead of manually programming each and every handset manually with several stages of administration and config, the server will automatically programme the device with the necessary information in order to register the handset with the pbx and save time and energy in config and testing for engineers in the field.

In the need for an Intercom System?

Very simple but effective.

Most warehouse operation and large supermarkets or even small shopping stores use intercom to communicate in across several areas in a company, when they need something or have to call on somebody to do a job. This is an advanced feature that offers the client an inbuilt intercom with their actual IP PBX, not a secondary, independent system.

The intercom has functionality for one or two way traffic, this means that you can hold a conversation through your handset using the intercom or that you can have one way call out over the network with the message being read out in specific areas of a shop floor or on all speakers in the warehouse.

Time saving functionality is a much needed resource in a busy environment.