Benefits of Switchvox

The internet has changed the way business operate, this allows a variety of companies; including small and medium sized organizations to compete with enterprise companies without having to spend huge marketing dollars to be recognized in the industry.

However all companies still rely on a phone system.  Digium’s Switchvox PBX is one of the most popular phone systems in today’s IP PBX market.

The benefits of a Switchvox system include easy self administration, and feature rich choices that allow business of all size to stay connected at an affordable price point.

Flexible Options

Switchvox allows you the choice of three platforms and two software options to better suit the needs of the size and type of your business.  The AA355 and AA305 are 3U units suitable for larger organizations and are typically deployed with Switchvox SMB software.  The AA60 and AA65 are appliance sized “mini” servers that will run Switchvox SOHO or SMB, respectively.  The SMB software is geared for a larger office and has the added benefit of having call-center-type features.  The SOHO software is geared toward smaller businesses that might not need the same amount of involvement with their phone system.

Easy to Install

By allowing software to run on only four selections, hardware issues are virtually non-existent when deploying these systems. The SMB or SOHO software automatically detects a Digium card for quick configuration from the admin GUI; no drivers need to be loaded!

Easy to administer

The SMB and SOHO use a very simple to use web GUI to make self administration intuitive and easy for time-constrained IT staff, or first-time phone system installers. The switchvox IP PBX also takes advantage of a provisioning ‘token’ system whereby several prominent IP Phone manufacturers are automatically detected and configured through the Switchvox web admin; Polycom phones are just one popular choice that functions with this feature.  The other excellent benefit to administering a Switchvox system is the outstanding Digium support options.  So if you’re still stuck on configuring the phones, or you have questions on how to operate the seemingly infinite number of features such as IVR, call queues, or reporting you have silver, gold, or platinum support options to assist you.  For quick reference, silver is email support (9x5x5), gold is phone and email support (9x5x5), and platinum is 24×7 phone and email support!

Feature Rich

As mentioned the phone system offers a large variety of features on both the SMB and SOHO platforms; up to but not limited to distinctive rings on extensions, call control features, call queues / ACD, conferencing, reporting, IVR, and most importantly switchboard.

The Switchvox switchboard (SMB only) is a java applet that resides on your users desktops that displays the profile of the users on the system including options to send a call to voicemail, transfer a call or park a call (all by simply clicking and dragging your mouse!).

Another one of my customer’s favorite features is the ‘Follow Me’ feature which will transfer the caller to another phone number, or extension if the call goes unanswered, and essentially “hunt you down” until you are found.  You can set up the amount of time before this feature kicks in, and therefore your customers can hunt through a sequence of options without having to dial multiple numbers.  This feature can also be set to forward to a voicemail after one or several points of contact have been attempted.