Session Initiation Protocol

Direct Inward Dial (DID) Calls

Contact Center Telephony Routing Highlights

Support Any SIP Provider Contivio.com has the ability to work with any
SIP service provider.

Support Any SIP Gateway Contivio.com has the ability to work with any
SIP gateway to connect to the PSTN.

Support Any SIP PBX Contivio.com has the ability to work with any SIP
PBX device.

Support 3rd Party Call Controlling (3PCC) Allows one entity to set up
and manage a communications relationship or telephone call between two or
more other parties.

Support Any SIP Device The unique ability to use any SIP device (SIP
phone or SIP PBX).

Support PSTN Agents Ability to use PSTN Agents.

Least Cost Routing (LCR) Process of selecting the path of outbound

communications traffic based on least cost.

Outbound Dial Plan

Agent Designated Trunk Agents may use their own personal SIP trunk.

Agent Group & Location Designated Trunk Agents may be grouped

together and share a SIP trunk.

Queue-Based Designated Trunk Agents have the ability to select their

desired SIP trunk.

Identity Designated Trunk Agents have the ability to select and choose a
Direct Inbound Dial Number (DID).

International Routing Ability to route calls internationally as a least cost

alternative.

Inbound Caller ID The Inbound Caller ID will be displayed when Inbound

Calls are received.

Outbound Caller ID The Outbound Caller ID will be displayed when

Outbound Calls are performed.

Dynamic Call ID Allows you to present any phone number on your account
as your Outbound Caller ID.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Features

Overview

Reduce costs and simplify your telephony needs by having Contivio.com as your PBX solution.
If you dont need all the bells and whistles of our contact center solution, use our PBX offering
to connect your organization.

Contact Center PBX Highlights

Direct Inward Dial (DID) Calls DID numbers from SIP enabled VoIP
providers may be configured for individual extensions/users.

Call Recording Recorded conversations may reside on a Contivio.com

cloud server or stored to your internal server of choice.

4-Digit Extension Number The ability to reach an agent directly by

accessing the company directory.

Stutter Dial Tone Message waiting indicator that alerts you to an unheard
voicemail.

Outbound Caller ID When placing outbound calls your caller ID will be

displayed.

Voicemail-To-Email Notification When a Voicemail is received the Agent

will receive an email notification.

Outbound Caller ID Blocking The ability to block Outbound Caller ID

when performing calls.

Voicemail Management Agents can create their own personal Voicemail

message when calls are not answered.

Multiple Greetings Agents will have the ability to create multiple

Voicemail greetings for different roles.

Call Waiting Allow another Inbound call to be received while already on a

call session.

Message Waiting Indicator Indicates a Voicemail has been received.

Click-to-Dial Select a number and have it dialed through Contivio.coms

app.

Multi-line Appearance Allows for multiple lines (i.e., subscribers) to be

assigned to a keyset and for a line to be assigned to multiple keysets.

Video Calls (Coming Soon) Agents using the Contivio.com App with an
active webcam can place video calls to other Agents or VoIP Systems allowing
video transport.

Contact Center PBX Benefits

No Integrations Costs With Contivio.coms CloudConnect, theres no

implementation cost and tedious APIs to worry about when interfacing with
your CRM to screen pop.

Lower VoIP costs With the freedom of choice to select any SIP-compliant
VoIP service, you can select any provider of your choice to help reduce the
total cost of ownership. With Contivio.com you dont have to worry about
hidden, by-the-minute fees.

Contact Center Agent App Benefits

Improve Agent Productivity: Agents can manage all of their needs without having to
navigate through different systems.

Reduce Agent Fatigue: An easy-to-use solution is critical to keep your agents happy and
their spirits high so their energy is directed towards working with your customers rather
than searching for records and fighting data entry.

Increase Agent Retention: Contact centers, especially, telemarketing firms, are known
for high employee turnover. Simplifying and streamlining workflow will help maintain
your workforce and prevent additional onboarding costs.

Contact Center Agent App Highlights

Interactive Toolbar Browser The power of Contivio.com located within your web
browser will full functionality and media handling capabilities.

Telephone Soft Pad On-screen dialing pad used to perform outbound calls.

Call Conferencing Establish call sessions with multiple participantsUp to 5

additional callers using the Contivio.com soft phone.

Call Transfer Relocate or push an existing telephone call to another phone/Agent.

Call Transfer Hold Allows a person to transfer a call to a designated agent where the
call remains on hold until the agent is available.

Call Hold The ability to temporarily place a caller on hold.

Find Me, Follow Me External phones will be dialed to find Agents if the initial line is
not answered.

On-demand Call Recording The ability to manually record calls and store those calls
as a hyperlink in your CRM.

Agent Instant Messaging The ability to message internally using the Contivio.com
agent instant messaging app.

Voicemail Management Agents can create their own personal Voicemail message
when calls are not answered.

Break Codes Define Agent work status and availability.

Call Dispositions Classify calls with a predefined result (e.g., call back customer, etc.).

Call Scripts Scribe exactly what your Agents should say and/or ask when engaged with
a Customer.

Agent Notepad Built in notepad that will route to additional agents when calls are
transferred.

Agent Chat Agents may engage with customers or internally with other
Agents/Supervisors using the web chat feature.

Recent Activity Up to date activity list for quick call back abilities.

Call Wrap Up Allocate a call wrap up period once the call is concluded to close out
your notes or send follow up emails.

History Search The ability to review your prior communication with a customer by
identifiers such as customer account ID.

Online Help 24/7 online help documentation for configuration of your Contivio.com
contact center.

Contact Center Management Apps

Contact center management apps have features like call & media blending, quality assurance &
monitoring, real-time statistics & reporting, and workforce management all of this and more
empower administrators and supervisors alike to run an effective and efficient contact center.

Call & Media Blending Workforce Management QA & Monitoring Reporting

Call & Media Blending

Overview

Contivio.coms call & media blending is a mix of multi-channel inbound and outbound
capabilities that work together seamlessly to improve agent productivity and increase customer
satisfaction. Agents can balance and prioritize their workflow to manage their customers by
sending emails, taking incoming chats or placing calls theres no limitation to how you want to
route or manage all communication traffic exactly what you need from contact center
management apps.

Contact Center Media Blending Highlights

Automatic Call Back The ability to request a call back at a later time while
waiting on hold in the IVR

Multi-session Management The ability to communicate via multiple

channels (e.g., chat sessions) at once

Multi-media Management The ability to manage the priority of

multichannels available to a user dont take an incoming chat if on a voice
call)

Contact Center Media Blending Benefits

Improve Agent Productivity: Downtime is minimized as various

communications channels are open to your customers. When your agents
arent taking a chat or talking on the phone, they can be listening to
voicemail or responding to emails.

Improve Customer Satisfaction: Agents and customers can interact and

communicate in the method of their choosing rather than the traditional
methods of voice.

Workforce Management
Overview

Managing your contact center is a balancing act between great customer satisfaction and low
costs. By prioritizing your agents schedules and leveraging their skill sets, youre already at the
forefront of improving the customer experience.

Contact Center Workforce Management Highlights

Multi-level Administration Ability to have Administrators and SubAdministrators with different privileges.

Large Organization Department Segmentation Breakdown of larger

groups to smaller departments and teams for more granular access
privileges.

Holiday Schedules Ability to upload your holiday schedules to ensure

proper routing.

Operating Hours Select your daily operational hours dictating the IVR flow.

Staff Scheduling Create staff schedules for Agent availability and move
into creating shifts.

Shift Management Manage your agents shifts by assigning specific tasks

At Home Agents Ability to support home based Agents handling customer

communications and providing customer service.

Hot-desking Agents working in different shifts may use a single physical

work-station and/or IP Phone

Contact Center Workforce Management Benefits

Lower Costs By having the right people at the right time and place for the
right price, you minimize overtime, lower call abandon rates, and retain your
workforce.

Quality Assurance & Monitoring

Overview

Contact center managers can easily assess the quality of the customer experience by reviewing
conversations between agents and callers.
As consumers become more accustomed to self-service, and less-frequent personal interactions
with the companies they trust with their business, the stakes with each interaction become much
higher. Many contact centers are now considered the face of the company and executives are
eager to ensure that every customer is greeted and serviced in a friendly and accommodating
manner. The Contivio.com cloud contact center software allows you to variable record the
communication between agents and customers, and review them afterwards. By saving the
recordings as activities in your CRM, they can be stored indefinitely for compliance or agent
training purposes.
Real-time monitoring and reporting provides critical contact center metrics and gives supervisors
the ability to manage their agent teams effectively. Authorized supervisors can monitor live agent
and customer interactions from any location, at any time.
Authorized supervisors are able to see in real time the status of their contact center through a
web browser. Available statistics such as Service Levels versus Goals, the number of calls in
progress, the number waiting, and the longest waiting interaction per queue/skill are available to
the supervisor, as well as real-time agent status graphs indicating the percentage of time in
various states (e.g., on call, waiting, wrap up, on break, etc.). The intuitive web based report
writer allows you to tailor any type of report for your specific needs, and export them to your inhouse reporting solution.

Contact Center Quality Assurance Highlights

Call Recording With full automated call recording, you maintain a record of
all the calls. Easy integration with your CRM enables exporting and
forwarding of recorded calls to facilitate quality control, archival, and
transcription.

Variable Percentage Recording Select a variable percentage of calls to

record anywhere from 1-100% (E.g., 50% will record every other call, whereas
10% recording will record 1 out of 10 calls).

Screen Recording (Coming Soon) Capture the Agents desktop/screen

and convert to video format for playback and archiving.

Call Scripting Scribe exactly what your Agents should say and/or ask when
engaged with a Customer.

Audio Injection Inject Audio into calls (Useful for playback of Terms and
Conditions, or repetitive voice-mails).

Co-Browsing Agents Agents may send URL hyperlinks to customers via

web chat to ensure both parties are viewing the same page.

Contact Center Quality Assurance Benefits

By regularly reviewing your communication recordings, your contact center

will deliver on your executives business objectives. You will be able to ensure
a consistent and quality customer experience, make agents more effective
and productive in sales and service, and improve customer loyalty.

Complete visibility into your contact center operations.

Customer service quality assurance.

Real-time Reporting & Live Statistics

Overview

Contivio.com provides historical, best-in-class Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with

extensive filtering capabilities. Real-time reports can be generated on demand and can be
selected by time frame, agents, campaigns, queues and media type. Live statistics are also
accessible to both Supervisors and Agents to track their activity and the heartbeat of the contact
center.

Contact Center Reporting Highlights

Leaderboard/Wallboard Real time statistics by agent, queue and media

type.

Color-coded Dashboard Ability to set your statistical thresholds that will

change colors to alert a supervisor of an issue (e.g., Total calls waiting is set
to five (5), if six (6) or more calls are waiting in the queue the calls waiting
dashboard indicator will change colors.

Best-of-class Key Performance Indicators Track your performance

measurements to evaluate if you contact center is running up to company
standards.

Live Statistics View Queue Statistics for metrics such as Abandons,

Longest Wait Time, and Average Time to Answer.

User-Friendly Custom Reporting Ability to create on-the-fly custom

reports from the best-in-class real-time KPIs.

Scheduled Reporting Reports may be generated automatically and

scheduled to be sent to an email address or to an external reporting
application (e.g., XML or CSV).

Agent Activity Tracking Detailed reporting will describe time-stamps of

login/logouts, calls made/received, and much more.

Email Notifications Contivio.com will send an email alert to agents if a call

is waiting in the queue.

Agent Status View the current status of all Agents, e.g., who is ready,
busy, and/or on break.

Contact Center Reporting Benefits

On-demand access to Contact Center and/or Agent-level, live statistics for

more immediate tracking and actiongreat for contact center wallboards!

Analyze historical KPI reports and trends for productivity and areas of
improvement.

Automatic call distributor

computer telephony integration (CTI)

Call Center
What Is A Call Center?

Call centers special offices that are purpose-built to handle a large volume of phone calls. Call
centers typically handle customer service, support, telemarketing, telesales and collections
functions. The employees who staff call centers are referred to as agents or customer service
representatives (frequently abbreviated as CSRs). Call centers range from very small informal
operations to massive, highly optimized sites with hundreds or even thousands of agents.

Call centers use specialized telephone equipment to maximize productivity. Specialized

telephony switching systems called Automatic Call Distributors or ACDs are used to queue
and route inbound calls to agents based on a wide variety of criteria. Outbound calls are
frequently generated by an automated system called a Predictive Dialer that monitors the status
of agents and places calls on their behalf. Other common call center tools include desktop
integration (frequently referred to as screen pop), Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
applications, call recording solutions, productivity monitoring utilities, workforce planning
systems and various methods of historical and near real-time reporting.
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

An ACD is a specialized phone system that routes (distributes) incoming calls to

teams of agents assigned to various call queues. Queues are simply ordered list of calls to be
dispatched to agents. The ACD oversees the process of placing incoming calls into the proper
queue, assigning priority to those calls based on various factors (the order of their arrival, the
importance of the caller, the urgency of the callers situation), and ultimately dispatching those
calls to an available agent. The algorithm by which calls are dispatched is called the queue
strategy.
Queue Strategies

A simple ACD system consists of a source of calls (a pool of lines, trunks or

virtual trunks), a FIFO (first-in, first-out) queue and a pool of agents who are selected using a
ring-all strategy. In this case, when a call arrives the system rings the phones of all agents who
are not already on a call. The first agent to answer the call is connected with the calling party. All
the other phones stop ringing.
A more complex (and likely more useful) configuration would have the call offered to the agent
who had been in the idle state longest. This most idle strategy is frequently used when all
agents are considered equally qualified to handle a task. Other common strategies include round
robin, linear hunt, least-recently-called, fewest calls and random. In some cases, the ACD can
weight its selection based on the callers need (generally collected using an IVR application) and
a list of skills associated with each agent. This is generally referred to as skills-based routing.
Caller Experience

While waiting in queue, callers generally hear a combination of marketing

messages, queue status messages and music. Marketing messages are simply audio recordings
that are piped into the queue on a periodic basis. Status messages provide the caller with specific
information about their status the number of callers ahead of them in the queue, the estimated
wait time and sometimes alternatives to waiting in queue. Some more advanced call queueing
systems support virtual queueing. A virtual queueing system allows callers to provide a callback
number, then disconnect. Their position in the queue is preserved and when an agent becomes
available the system places an outbound call to the caller.
Dialers

Outbound call centers frequently use a dialer application to connect agents with
targets. Dialers can be simple desktop applications that implement a basic click-to-call
function, or much more advanced systems
Desktop Dialer

Desktop dialer applications are generally integrated with Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) software or other business applications. When an agent needs to make a
call, the click a button or link in the dialer application rather than manually entering the digits on
the keypad of their phone. The dialer application then places the call on their behalf by sending a
command to the phone (known as first person integration) or to the phone system (known as
third person integration). Automating the dialing process reduces errors and increases
productivity.
Power Dialer

Large-scale cold-calling operations commonly associated with tele-sales, collections

and political campaigns, require more aggressive dialer systems. Some of these are simply
power dialers which essentially place one outbound call for each available agent. When an
agent hangs up, the system automatically dials another call and connects it to the agents phone.

This pattern continues as long as the agent remains logged into the system. Power dialers allow
an outbound call center to place far more calls than could be accomplished manually. However,
there is still some agent time wasted handling calls that do not connect, reach answering
machines or otherwise fail to reach the target.
Predictive Dialer

Predictive dialers are essentially smarter power dialers. They carefully monitor the
average handle time for each agent and attempt to predict when an agent will become available.
Rather than placing calls on a one-agent-to-one-call basis, they place more calls than there are
agents available. When a call is answered the system uses various methods to determine if the
answering party is a human or an answering machine. Answering machines are either dropped or
fed a pre-recorded message while live answers are handed off to agents.
Robo Dialer

Sometimes dialer systems are completely automated. These place calls then play
messages to the answering party or machine. These systems are commonly used for notification
purposes (i.e. reminder of a doctors appointment, notice that school has been cancelled) as well
as marketing and political messaging. Some automatic dialer systems support additional features
like surveys or transfers to live agents.
Dialer Considerations

In most jurisdictions there are many laws governing the use of dialers. Before
deploying a dialer be certain to review these to avoid significant penalties or even criminal
charges.
Adjunct Technologies

While ACDs and dialer systems are quite powerful on their own, interconnecting
them with a number of related technologies has the potential to increase the efficiency and in
some cases improve customer experience.
Automated Attendant

Automated attendant systems have long been paired with ACDs, allowing callers to
route themselves into the appropriate call queue. Automated attendants are simply menu systems
that prompt callers to indicate their preference using the keys on their phone or, in some cases,
by speaking keywords. Callers are generally willing to accept up to two levels of menu before
reaching a live agent. More than two levels tends to annoy most callers and can result in an
increase in abandoned calls.
Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response or IVR applications are another technology frequently

integrated with ACDs. IVR systems prompt callers for data items things like account
numbers, prescription refill codes or package tracking numbers and use those values to look
up caller-specific information from remote data sources. In some cases the IVR application can
handle an entire transaction without human intervention. In other cases the IVR feeds data to the
ACD to help it route the call appropriately.
CTI / Screen Pop

To increase agent productivity, desktop business applications are frequently

integrated with the ACD in such a way that data related to the caller is automatically displayed
when a call is delivered. This is commonly referred to as either Computer-Telephony
Integration or simply as a screen pop. There are several ways to accomplish this. In some
cases the business applications support a CTI standard like TAPI or TSAPI. In other cases the
applications are custom and communicate directly with the ACD or a CTI server that acts as a
proxy for the ACD.

Call Recording

Call centers frequently record calls either to monitor the performance of their
agents or for regulatory compliance. Call recording systems handle the process of capturing the
audio from all participants in the call, mixing it, storing it and producing an index that allows
administrators or regulators to locate and review recordings. A properly built recording system
makes it easy to pinpoint conversations using common keys including Caller ID, date, time and
agent ID.

Conference Bridge
What Is A Conference Bridge?

A conference bridge allows a group of people to participate in phone call. The most common
form of bridge allows participants dial into a virtual meeting room from their own phone.
Meeting rooms can hold dozens or even hundreds of participants. This is in contrast to threeway calling, a standard feature of most phone systems which only allows a total of three
participants. For most phone systems, conference bridging is an add-on feature that costs
thousands of dollars.
Key Features

Conferencing systems typically support multiple conference rooms, each of which can contain
multiple participants. The total number of rooms and participants varies depending on the
model, hardware capabilities and licensing terms.
Most conference bridge systems allow the administrator to assign DID numbers to conference
rooms. In some cases as single DID number connects callers with an IVR application that
prompts for a room number.
Conference rooms can optionally be secured by a PIN number. Some systems use a common
PIN for all participants while others use custom PINs for each.
Advanced conferencing systems include a graphical user interface that allows all participants to
see who is currently speaking and optionally who has joined the conference. Admnistrators and
moderators generally have a more comprehensive view that includes advanced controls.
Some conference bridge systems include dynamic meeting rooms: rooms that are created on a
scheduled basis. This is particularly common for larger systems where capacity planning is an
issue.

Key Benefits

Conferencing allows companies to save significantly on travel costs. In-person meetings are
costly and time consuming. A conference bridge system can pay for itself in just one avoided
"on-site" meeting.
Conferencing is the core of collaboration and enables distributed or virtual teams. Combined
with VoIP connectivity for remote workers, conferencing makes it simple and affordable for a
team to function across a diverse geography.

Voicemail
What Is Voice Messaging?

Also known as "voicemail," voice messaging lets callers leave messages for subscribers (users)
of the system. Voice messaging systems are frequently used in conjunction with PBX systems,
mobile phones and residential phone services.
Voice messaging includes several core components. The message collection process is activated
when a caller is unable to reach a system user. The message collection application receives data
from the phone system indicating which subscriber the caller was attempting to reach. The
application plays a greeting then records the message. The greeting may be a standard system
greeting or a custom outgoing message recorded by the subscriber.
Once the message has been recorded, the notification component of the voicemail system takes
over and lets the subscriber know that a new message is available. This is handled in different
ways depending on the type of phone system with which the voice messaging platform is
integrated. In most cases, the voicemail system will send a command to the upstream system
(PBX, mobile switching platform, etc.), telling it to turn on the message waiting indicator (MWI)
for the subscriber's phone. The notification system may also send an email which may include an
audio file attachement of the message.
When the subscriber receives the notification they will access the message using one of several
methods. Legacy voice messaging systems require the subscribe to call into an application,
authenticate using their extension number and password, and listen to their store messages
sequentially. More modern systems allow the subscriber to review their messages on their
desktop or mobile phone directly using "visual voicemail." If the message was delivered in an
email, the subscriber can listen using their computer as well.
Once the message(s) have been reviewed, the messaging system sends another command to the
upstream phone system, instructing it to turn off the message waiting indictator and/or decrease
the message count.

Advanced voice messaging is a key component of "unified messaging" platforms -- systems that
combine multiple messaging formats into a single point of access for the subscriber. In a unified
messaging system, the inbox will contains voice, email, fax and sometimes text (IM and/or SMS)
messages. Unified messaging is frequently bundled into an even more comprehensive platform
called Unified Communications or UC.
Key Facts & Features

All voice messaging systems are able to record messages, notfiy subscribers of waiting messages
and provide secured access to those messages. Voice messaging has become a standard feature
on most phone systems, but most vendors still sell it as an add-on or "adjunct" product.
Advanced voice messaging systems can forward messages directly to subscribers as an email. In
some cases the subscriber will still need to delete old messages from the voice messaging
system. More advanced, unified systems will synchronize message status automatically.
There are several standards for integrating voice messaging systems with PBXs and other
telephony platforms. These include simple "in-band" integrations that use touch-tones and more
complex "out-of-band" integrations that use various technolgies. One of the more common
standards is "System Message Desk Interface" or SMDI.
Key Benefits

If properly implemented, voice messaging can increase productivity and enhance customer
service.
What Is A VoIP Gateway?

A VoIP gateway is used to build a bridge between the worlds of legacy telephony and the VoIP.
Gateways are typically used to connect legacy phone systems (PBXs or ACDs) with VoIP
resources, or to connect modern VoIP phone systems with legacy phone lines.
Adding VoIP to a legacy PBX system is a great way to add features and reduce costs. The
gateway connects to the legacy system through either analog or digital trunk ports. The PBX
sees the gateway as either the phone company or as another networked PBX. Calls from the
PBX to the outside world are converted into VoIP calls and sent over the Internet to a VoIP
service provider or other VoIP peer. Calls coming from VoIP sources are converted into the
appropriate legacy protocol and delivered to the PBX.
Using a gateway to connect a VoIP phone system to traditional phone lines makes sense in
situations where SIP trunks are not available or where your application requires the reliability of
the PSTN. It also makes it easy to build redundant systems. The gateway normally

communicates with a primary IP PBX. In the event of a failure on the primary the gateway can
communicate with a backup system.
Other uses for VoIP gateways include staged migrations, where the gateway acts as a bridge
between the PSTN, a legacy PBX and a new IP PBX. In this case, the PSTN trunks are
connected to one interface on the gateway. Another interface connects to the trunk port on the
legacy PBX. The new IP PBX is integrated over a VoIP protocol (generally SIP). The gateway
directs some incoming calls to the legacy PBX and others to the IP PBX. It also passes calls
between the two PBXs. This allows some department or other subdivisions of the company to
remain on the legacy system while others move to the IP system.
Key Facts & Features

Gateways come in several formats. Analog gateways convert between VoIP protocols and
traditional analog phone lines and/or phones. Digital gateways convert between VoIP and various
kinds of digital phone services: T1, E1, PRI and/or BRI, depending on the gateway.
Gateways can typically connect to multiple VoIP endpoints (devices or services), which allows
PSTN resources to be shared between multiple IP communications systems.
The routing functions built into a gateway allow it to intelligently adapt calls from one medium
to another. For example, they can add or remove digits in the dial string when passing a call.
They can also recognize various patterns and route them across different interfaces.
Gateways can be used to convert VoIP calls from one code to another, a process known as
transcoding. This can be useful when bridging multiple VoIP solutions together.
Key Benefits

Gateways can extend the life of legacy equipment by "VoIP enabling" it. This can include
replacing traditional trunk lines with SIP trunks or routing some subset of traffic over VoIP to a
remote PBX or gateway -- a process known as toll bypass.
Gateways enable flexibility. Rather than moving from a traditional PBX to an IP PBX in one
step, a company can stage the migration using the gateway as a bridge between the two systems.

IP PBX
What Is A PBX?

Also known as an IP PBX, Unified Communications System or business phone system, a PBX
acts as the central switching system for phone calls within a business. PBX systems handle
internal traffic between stations and act as the gatekeeper to the outside world. The initials PBX

stand for Private Branch Exchange, a very old fashioned term for a system that has evolved
significantly over the past century.
A traditional PBX is made up of two key elements: lines and stations. The lines, sometimes
called trunks, are connections to the global public switched telephony network (PSTN) by way
of a telephone company. Stations are simply telephones or other endpoint devices like fax
machines, modems and credit card terminals.
The original mission of the PBX was to provide shared access to limited resources. Rather than
having a separate phone line for each phone, a business could share a small pool of lines across a
much larger pool of stations. When a call came it was answered by an operator who then
connected it with the appropriate person or department. When someone inside needed to make a
call, the operator connected them with an available line. Frequently these early systems were
simply called switchboards.
Over time, operators were replaced by electromechanical and later electronic systems for
managing access to lines. Additional features were added to automatically route incoming calls,
to allow active calls to be transferred between stations and to permit or deny calls based on
various rules. Adjunct systems were added for voice messaging, call queuing and other value
added services.
Today, a business phone system is much more than just a simple switch. Adjunct technologies
like automated attendant, voice messaging, call queuing and multi-party conferencing have
become standard features. Basic analog and proprietary digital phones are giving way to
standards-based IP phones. Outside connectivity is now available over the Internet in the form of
SIP trunks or other VoIP services.
When PBXs were originally developed, wireline phone calls were the only type of electronic
communication available. Today, the communications landscape has expanded to include email,
instant messaging, video conferencing, desktop sharing, SMS and mobile telephony. Unified
Communications is a catch-all term that describes the process of merging all of these
technologies and integrating them with business processes. Unified Communications aims to
increase efficiency while simplifying management.
Key PBX Features

If youre looking for a PBX, here are some of the features you should be sure are included:

VoIP Ready: The world is moving away from legacy PSTN lines and towards VoIP. Make
sure your PBX can support IP stations (phones) and IP trunks (service). SIP is the current
de facto standard, so dont buy a phone system that doesnt support it.

Voice Messaging: Once upon a time, voicemail was an optional add-on. Today, its table
stakes. Look for PBXs that can forward voicemail messages to your email as
attachments. If possible, look for IP phones that support visual voicemail.

Mobility: Most businesses have at least some road warriors who spend much of their time
out of the office. Make sure your PBX supports mobility features like Find Me / Follow
Me, remote IP extensions and fixed / mobile convergence.

Conferencing: One of the best ways to cut down on travel costs is teleconferencing. Make
sure your phone system has native support for true multi-party conferences (not just basic
three-way calling).

Reporting: If you cant measure it, you cant manage it. Make sure that the PBX you pick
includes basic call history reporting features.

Product menu
Call Features
ADSI On-Screen Menu System
Alarm Receiver
Append Message
Authentication
Automated Attendant
Blacklists
Blind Transfer
Call Detail Records
Call Forward on Busy
Call Forward on No Answer
Call Forward Variable
Call Monitoring
Call Parking
Call Queuing
Call Recording
Call Retrieval
Call Routing (DID & ANI)
Call Snooping
Call Transfer
Call Waiting
Caller ID
Caller ID Blocking
Caller ID on Call Waiting
Calling Cards
Conference Bridging
Database Store / Retrieve
Database Integration
Dial by Name
Direct Inward System Access
Distinctive Ring
Distributed Universal Number Discovery (DUNDi)
Do Not Disturb
E911
ENUM
Fax Transmit and Receive
Flexible Extension Logic
Interactive Directory Listing

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Local and Remote Call Agents
Macros
Music On Hold
Music On Transfer:

Flexible Mp3-based System

Random or Linear Play

Volume Control

Privacy
Open Settlement Protocol (OSP)
Overhead Paging
Protocol Conversion
Remote Call Pickup
Remote Office Support
Roaming Extensions
Route by Caller ID

Call Features
SMS Messaging
Spell / Say
Streaming Hold Music
Supervised Transfer
Talk Detection
Text-to-Speech (via Festival)
Three-way Calling
Time and Date
Transcoding
Trunking
VoIP Gateways
Voicemail:

Visual Indicator for Message Waiting

Stutter Dialtone for Message Waiting

Voicemail to email

Voicemail Groups

Web Voicemail Interface

Zapateller

Computer-Telephony Integration
Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)
Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI)
Asterisk REST Interface (ARI)
Outbound Call Spooling

Scalability
TDMoE (Time Division Multiplex over Ethernet)
Allows direct connection of Asterisk PBX
Zero latency
Uses commodity Ethernet hardware
Voice-over IP
Allows for integration of physically separate installations
Uses commonly deployed data connections
Allows a unified dialplan across multiple offices

Speech
Cepstral TTS
Lumenvox ASR

Codecs
ADPCM
CELT (pass through)
G.711 (A-Law & -Law)
G.719 (pass through)
G.722
G.722.1 licensed from Polycom
G.722.1 Annex C licensed from Polycom
G.723.1 (pass through)
G.726
G.729a
GSM
iLBC
Linear

LPC-10
Speex
SILK

VoIP Protocols
Google Talk
H.323
IAX (Inter-Asterisk eXchange)
Jingle/XMPP
MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol
SCCP (Cisco Skinny)
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
UNIStim

Traditional Telephony Protocols

E&M
E&M Wink
Feature Group D
FXS
FXO
GR-303
Loopstart
Groundstart
Kewlstart
MF and DTMF support
Robbed-bit Signaling (RBS) Types
MFC-R2 (Not supported. However, a patch is available)

ISDN Protocols
AT&T 4ESS
EuroISDN PRI and BRI
Lucent 5ESS
National ISDN 1
National ISDN 2
NFAS
Nortel DMS100
Q.SIG