How The PC-PBXs Stack Up
May 1, 1999
In
our work with six industry-leading PC-PBXs, we had more on
our minds that producing six independent reviews. All the
while, we were weighing the strengths and weaknesses of all
the PC-PBXs, asking ourselves which PC-PBXs would excel in
different circumstances.
We have
no desire to oversimplify. Indeed, we feel strongly that it
would be next to impossible to refer to any one of the PC-PBXs
as being the "best." Each PC-PBX presents a unique constellation
of qualities, and each constellation refuses to stand still.
The stars, it seems, will never align themselves for our convenience.
Instead, each of us takes our readings of them as best we
can, and we each chart our own courses accordingly.
Still,
even though different users of PC-PBXs have different priorities,
it is still possible to examine those PC-PBX qualities that
may (or may not) assume priority status for individual users.
Qualities we've considered include price, port density, voice
mail features, telephony features, fax features, CTI features,
and Internet telephony features. We also considered ease of
use, with respect to both installation and the client interface.
For the
reader's convenience, we've highlighted these qualities in
our PC-PBX Feature Summary chart, as well as in the text that
follows. The reader need only scan the chart or the text for
the appropriate bold-faced headings to locate topics of interest.
We invite our readers to refer to our reviews, and the analysis
which follows, and to keep their own priorities in mind throughout.
That, we think, would be the best way to approach an informed
decision about which PC-PBX is most appropriate in any given
situation.
PRICE
Of course,
price is a main concern of small to medium-sized businesses
when deciding on a phone system. To be fair to all of the
manufacturers, we attempted to evaluate systems that had similar
configuration schemes. Specifically, we tried to evaluate
systems with 24 trunks and 48 extensions, or systems as close
to that configuration as possible. The prices for most of
the systems were similar, averaging around $20,000.
One exception
was the TeleSynergy TelePCX, which sells for thousands of
dollars less and even offers more extensions (24 trunks and
72 extensions was the closest they had to what we asked).
However, TeleSynegy does not yet offer as many features as
the others PC-PBXs.
The Comdial
FXS system is the most expensive of these products, especially
since Comdial charges $350 per seat for each CTI client. However,
the company offers a feature-rich solution. In addition, Comdial
may instill in some users a sense of reliability, since the
company is well known as a manufacturer of traditional PBXs.
|