PBXs are the keystone in corporate communications infrastructures, and changing out proprietary ones is going to be the biggest task in the inevitable migration from TDM to VoIP networks. Given a little patience, forethought and careful buying decisions, however, it doesn't have to be a painful task. Transitional products and thoughtfully planned transition programs can ease the disruption to staff and customers.
Changing PBXs is one of three major tasks in the VoIP transition. The other two are beefing up networks to handle the extra packet traffic and replacing TDM handsets with VoIP-compliant ones. That's the point where most companies balk. They invest as much as $350-$400 each on TDM handsets and hesitate to replace them before they have paid for themselves. Yet if they resist completely, they risk losing ground to competitors who implement cost-effective VoIP solutions on IP networks.
With a new class of hybrid PBXs, companies have to neither fall behind competitors nor break the bank. They enable companies to begin migrating toward VoIP without losing investments in TDM handsets. Hybrid PBXs with both IP interfaces and slots for TDM cards can support both kinds of traffic simultaneously. That offers the flexibility to retire TDM handsets in segments, according to which departments or divisions could most benefit from a VoIP migration. Or they can simply put new employees on VoIP while leaving established employees on TDM until later in the migration cycle. They achieve this phased migration by creating VoIP subnets within the IT infrastructure. Extending the VoIP network is a fairly simple matter of swapping out TDM cards for IP interfaces as the company replaces more handsets.
Even though IT is running two parallel networks for a period of time, maintenance costs don't grow because PBX specialists are not needed to maintain the subnets. Since the IP-PBXs are standards-based, they can be absorbed into the overall maintenance structure.
Standards-based components provide the most flexibility in hybrid environments. Companies with such call processing software, for example, can upgrade their TDM-PBX to an IP-PBX with little or no change to the application. This also allows them to choose IP contact center applications for speech-enabled self service, call routing and automated response, which can make it easier to deploy the features and characteristics required.
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