THE PBX: We Hardly Knew You

BY RICH TEHRANI

Call me sentimental, but while the PBX deathwatch inspires giddiness and even a twisted delight in some, it seems to me a somber affair. I find myself anticipating the final day ahead, the final dark day, when I'll have no choice but to write the PBX's obituary. Could I find the words that would do justice to the PBX, that would offer some solace to other mourners - interconnects, say, sorrowful souls who had, perhaps, grown all too accustomed to pushing boxes? And I wonder, would my reminiscences wring a wry smile from those who never like technological artifacts better than when they finally become museum pieces? Would the PBX, in the end, appeal the sort of people who make free with their compassion, but only after it is already too late?

Perhaps I take my hand wringing to an extreme. In any case, I realize that by now the sensitive reader will have gathered why it is I torture myself so. I am, to be completely forthright, more than a little wracked by guilt. Now, I didn't kill the PBX, but I did contribute to its demise. I am, after all, the publisher of CTI magazine, which not only chronicles but also perpetuates the advance of CTI (computer-telephony integration) technology. And it is CTI technology that is bringing an end to the PBX as we know it. Indeed, CTI has utterly and irrevocably changed the business communications model, leaving no room for the PBX, ushering in its place a variety of next-generation devices.

IS IT TRUE THAT RUST NEVER SLEEPS?
Known affectionately as "big iron," the traditional PBX is destined for the junkyard. Of course, that statement may seem too strong to some readers, but I think it a plain statement of fact. Indeed, I'm prepared to withstand wave after wave of e-mail messages challenging my point of view. (Outraged readers, do your worst!)

How can I be so confident? I base my judgment not only on my own hunches, but also on what I observe all around me. I see a proliferation of PBX alternatives. I see the alternatives gaining ground on the traditional PBX, forcing PBX manufacturers to augment or enhance their devices. I see the leading vendors in data communications taking a serious interest in PBX alternatives. And, last but not least, I see the leading telephony vendors demonstrating their willingness to participate in (and not just react to) the emerging field of voice/data convergence.

Will the PBX disappear overnight? Not likely. Just as the PC revolution didn't kill the mainframe market overnight, the next generation of PBX replacements will be hybrid devices integrating the best features of telephone and computer systems. Just as the mainframe morphed into a computer system comprised of the best mainframe and PC features, expect the PBX to do the same.

THE PBX CEDES GROUND TO OTHER DEVICES
This transition started innocuously enough, in the early 80s. Back then, CTI was just getting started, acting as a link between the PBX and the PC server. A lot has happened in CTI since then, however. Now, CTI is considerably broader, and is represented by a variety of applications, devices, and network architectures. (Incidentally, we've been predicting the marginalization of the PBX for some time. In fact, in our January 1998 issue, we ran a piece on just this topic by Jim Burton.)

The PC-Based PBX
CTI is responsible for stuffing an entire PBX into a PC, yielding more flexibility and typically a dramatically improved GUI interface to boot. We refer to this CTI offshoot as a PC-PBX.

PC-PBX vendors include companies such as AltiGen, Picazo, and Artisoft   Comdial ,one of the leading mid-range PBX vendors, has also staked a claim in the next-generation PBX market by introducing a PC-based PBX that is substantially compatible with its standalone traditional PBX.

The Voice/Data Switch
Another group of vendors is pursuing a different course. These vendors decided that the PBX of the future would be IP telephony enabled. They also chose to base their version of the PBX on standard server-based components and to situate it on the LAN. Thus the voice/data switch was born. Please see our February 1999 issue featured a survey of 14 of the leading edge voice/data switches. 

The IP-Enabled PBX
Today's PBX has already changed substantially in the last few years. Lucent and Nortel Networks  have PBXs with IP telephony cards that allow these traditional PBXs to transmit IP telephony as if they were voice/data switches.

A TELLING SPATE OF ACQUISITIONS
The voice/data convergence market is in tremendous flux. Indeed, tracking this market is difficult because it seems to evolve daily, with announcements of one acquisition after another.

One of the major industry acquisitions happened when Cisco   purchased Selsius Systems, one of the leading voice/data switch vendors. More recently, 3Com   purchased voice/data switch vendor NBX and Ericsson  purchased TouchWave . Perhaps by the time you read this column, another acquisition, or two or three, will have taken place. There is no stopping this market.

But data networking companies are not alone in demonstrating tremendous interest in voice/data switches. Rumor has it that Cisco, in its acquisition of Selsius, outbid an offer by Nortel Networks by approximately 100 percent! Although Nortel was outbid in this instance, the company is clearly serious about next-generation voice/data communications. Nortel did, after all, acquire Bay Networks.

I expect that Nortel Networks will join the voice/data switch market any day now. Another telephony mainstay, Lucent, has also demonstrated its commitment to convergence. For example, Lucent has released its IP Exchange System, which I wrote about in the December 1998 issue of Internet Telephony magazine.

YET ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO THE PBX'S PRIMACY
As if I hadn't already gathered enough examples of how the PBX is being relegated to the sidelines of business communications, I recently received word of another instance of voice/data convergence. This new development gives my arguments even greater force.

I received a call from Stefan Karapetkov of Siemens Business Communications  Stefan had read my recent column on voice/data switches in the February 1999 issue of CTI , and he responded enthusiastically, letting me know that Siemens had also thrown its hat into the voice/data switch ring.

Siemens introduced the HiNet RC 3000. With Siemens' introduction of this voice/data switch, it seems as though there is not a soul alive that doesn't see voice/data switches or PC-PBXs as the future of the PBX. With support from Lucent, Nortel Networks, Cisco, 3Com, Ericsson, and Siemens, do we need anyone else to tell us something revolutionary is taking place in telecommunications?

What Is The HiNet RC 3000?
The Siemens voice/data switch is a client-server-based switch that operates in a switched Ethernet LAN environment or intranet. Similar to the offerings from other vendors, the HiNet RC 3000 offers a browser administration interface, greatly simplifying remote management. The HiNet RC 3000 also provides H.323 compatibility and T.128 application sharing so you can easily work with products such as NetMeeting. JTAPI will be the language of choice for developers.

The server itself is composed of a 300-MHz Pentium II, Windows NT, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft SQL V6.5. The clients need to a Pentium 90 at the least (a Pentium 166 is recommended). Other requirements include a full-duplex sound card and a microphone, headset, and handset.

How Siemens Characterizes The RC 3000's Place In The Market
Stefan was nice enough to send me many fascinating internal documents on how Siemens views the future of multimedia communications and IP telephony. I have always had tremendous respect for the surveys that Siemens has put together and have taken them quite seriously. For example, with the help of focus groups, Siemens has devoted considerable effort toward understanding the telecom and call center markets. Many of the company's predictions in the late '80s and '90s have been right on the mark. So, we may do well to pay attention to the company's stance on the following issues:

The market potential for the RC 3000 and IP telephony: According to Siemens, IP telephony between corporate locations will prove popular because it promises rapid cost savings. Also: multimedia applications in the corporation with the addition of enhanced services

The first potential applications for the RC 3000: Siemens expects that the RC 3000 will make inroads among help desks and call centers that require voice, data, and information integration.

The voice/data switch as a PBX replacement: Siemens is very careful to position the PBX (in their case, the Hicom) as evolving into a communications server similar to a voice/data switch. It seems that on this point Siemens expresses views very much like those expressed by all the other PBX manufacturers. In addition, it seems that the Siemens voice/data switch, like other voice/data switches, will be much less expensive than traditional PBXs.

The possibility that the RC 3000 has arrived too late: We couldn't resist asking Siemens about this issue, since it occurred to us that the RC 3000 might be unable to compete with the voice/data switch developed by Selsius, and acquired by Cisco. It seemed to us that Cisco voice/data switch already had a very large head start, and that the RC 3000 might have difficulty catching up.

As you might expect, Siemens vigorously rejected these concerns. In fact, they discussed the issue so thoroughly that this column could scarcely include all of the company's arguments. But, to summarize, Siemens' point of view is something like this: Siemens has the benefit of experience, since Siemens has been in the telephone market for over 150 years, whereas Cisco has been in the market since October 1998. Cisco has no field service capability of its own. Instead, it relies on VARs and service partners (HP and Unisys).

Siemens also cites the importance of customer confidence. The company asks whether newcomers such as Cisco are willing to make the sort of service commitments that Siemens does on its PBXs (dial in within one hour, two-hour on-site response on "majors").

Siemens raises other issues: Is the Selsius system capable of self-diagnostics and opening its own trouble-tickets? Does the Selsius product offer features such as emergency bypass lines, power redundancy, processor redundancy, etc.? Is Cisco really ready to be responsible for keeping company's telephone system up and running 24x7?

I am sure other PBX vendors would react to our question in a similar way. Moreover, I take the Siemens response as just another indication that we can expect the battle between datacom and telecom companies to get even more heated. I must agree that telecom does pose some unique challenges, and that it may take the datacom companies some time to come to grips with these challenges. For example, it will take time for datacom companies to digest telecom-oriented companies they've acquired. Datacom companies need to absorb not only telecom technology and expertise but also the intricate distribution models so prevalent in telecom.

CONCLUSION
At this point, you might still be wondering whether I really think the PBX is dead. I do. I must add, however, that I am speaking of the traditional PBX. It is still possible for PBX companies to evolve, and to provide network devices that demonstrate the sort of innovation we see with PC-PBXs and voice/data switches.

As a matter of fact, there are already encouraging signs. Providers of traditional PBXs are enhancing their "big iron" switches, and rolling out voice/data switches of their own. We can expect to see large PBX manufacturers continue their two-pronged strategy of voice/data switches on the low end, and PBXs that incorporate IP telephony interfaces on the high end.

Datacom companies will likely focus exclusively on voice/data switches that can be connected together in a way similar to that used to connect network hubs. I expect that PBXs of the future will resemble network hubs or routers and will have analog and IP telephony interfaces. Indeed, the voice/data switches will in this respect resemble hubs that have 10BaseT and coax connections.

Expect to see similarities developing on other fronts, too. Once distinct categories - PBXs, PC-PBXs, voice/data switches, and IP-enabled PBXs - will begin to merge. Almost all PC-PBX vendors have announced IP telephony interfaces into their switches. (Are you surprised?) So it seems that no matter what choice you make, the most important differentiator that a company can have over another is its commitment to technology and an open architecture that will allow seamless product upgrades regardless of how the telecom industry evolves.

Rich Tehrani welcomes your feedback at rtehrani@tmcnet.com.

It's one thing to observe that PC-PBXs are establishing themselves, and to say they really are ready for business. But it is quite another to put your money where your mouth is, and to use a PC-PBX yourself.

Well, I'm pleased to say that TMC practices what it preaches: We have already deployed a PC-PBX, and it has been handling our new office's phone system needs for the past six months.

Recent growth at TMC gave us an opportunity we couldn't pass up. (Incidentally, we attribute our growth to the overall growth of the industry we server. The CTI industry, which encompasses the markets for Internet telephony and call centers, among other things, is surging with renewed growth, ingenuity, and hundreds of millions if not billions in venture capital. In response to all this growth, TMC has, in the past two years, launched CTI™ EXPO Spring and Fall as well as Internet Telephony magazine and Internet Telephony EXPO.)

But I digress… To return to my original point, our growth resulted in the need for more office space. And, to address this need, we decided to move both our art and editorial departments, as well as TMC Labs, into new quarters approximately one mile away from our main office. (Perhaps the most important result of our recent move is freedom it has given TMC Labs, which has more than tripled in size. Now, the TMC Labs engineers have plenty of room to fill with the state-of-the-art testing equipment and products you look forward to reading about in every TMC publication. Please see Tom Keating's CC: column for more information about the growth of TMC Labs)

But again, I digress… The point is, our move presented us with a very big decision: Which PBX should we purchase for the new location? We knew that other people in the industry might well scrutinize our decision, since many people in the industry look to us for guidance in such matters. Also, we realized that whichever product we picked would have the de facto endorsement of TMC behind it. For this reason, I have waited about six months before even disclosing which product we decided to purchase for ourselves. I wanted to make sure the product worked flawlessly for us before I endorsed it for anyone else.

The product we decided to purchase was TeleVantage from Artisoft, which was installed on an industrial computer from Alliance Systems. The industrial computer looks as though it could withstand a drop from a rooftop. It seems indestructible. It contains multiple fans and multiple levels of redundancy.

I must say that our PC-PBX has performed almost flawlessly since we've installed it. Although Artisoft's T1 implementation was barely out of beta when we received it, it is absolutely rugged and unbelievably resilient. It seems impervious to system crashes.

If you have any doubts about the reliability of a PC-PBX based on Windows NT (I did), you can lay those fears to rest. If anyone can crash a computer, it is TMC Labs, which delights in "pushing the envelope" of anything they get their hands on. Our former MIS director used to frequently experience network crashes as a result of the Lab staff installing something new on the corporate network. I can tell you wholeheartedly that if we cannot get a PC-PBX to crash in our environment, it is unlikely that you will either!

So, if our PC-PBX is as reliable as a PBX, does that mean the decision between a PC-PBX and a PBX is a tossup? Or does the PC-PBX offer you things a standard PBX doesn't? I asked all of the users for their likes and dislikes about the TeleVantage system as opposed to the former PBX that they used, and here is what they told me.

Likes:

• Can save multiple greetings.
• Can save messages indefinitely and organize them much more effectively.
• Can use rules that filter callers based on caller-ID info.
• Dial tone pulses when you voice mail in case you’ve missed the GUI alert.
• CTI Application opens prior to phone ringing (Admittedly, some of the people in our art department were taken aback by this screen-pop feature.)
• Calls are announced through PC speakers.
• Can initiate speed dials with pauses to bypass auto-attendants (for example, you can use dial strings such as 9,8526800,,,111).
• Can forward voice mail messages over the Internet

Dislikes:

• CTI software sometimes crashes your PC.

Other benefits of using a PC-PBX include new possibilities for improving productivity. I feel it is important to bring up this point because many people focus on underlying CTI products and technologies and forget to focus on the leaps in productivity these products provide. CTI products, and especially PC-PBXs, are incredible productivity boosters.

Often, productivity increases result from the design of your business tools. In the case of CTI products, many are designed from scratch, accounting for features and functionality that may prove to be critical in the new millenium.

One last point: We anticipate that the PC-PBX will appeal to MIS departments since then tend to be happier with PC-based products. So, whether you are a user or a reseller of PC-PBXs, you can look forward to these products consistently being more user friendly than traditional PBXs, and a lot more open as well.

As I write this column, I am preparing to go to CTI™ EXPO Spring '99 in Washington, D.C. Incredibly, our pre-registration numbers are through the roof, and it looks like we will exceed our estimates of 15,000 attendees. CTI EXPO has become one of the fastest growing technology shows ever. The convergence of datacom and telecom has become an incredible story of innovation featuring Microsoft, Lucent, Nortel Networks, and Cisco Systems as companies vie to become major players in the voice/data convergence revolution. To accommodate this rapid expansion, we have moved CTI EXPO Fall 1999 to Las Vegas, Nevada, December 7-9. Las Vegas is a natural place to hold such a rapidly growing expo that covers such a rapidly advancing industry.

At the last three CTI EXPOs in a row, local hotel rooms were sold out weeks in advance of the event. Vegas has an abundant supply of inexpensive and conveniently located hotel rooms, and the city itself has so much to offer: amusement parks, wild animal parks, and some of the country's best shopping destinations, restaurants, and shows. Couple this with easy access to the city and a venue that has minimal traffic congestion, and you have perfect trade show location with the potential for a great vacation getaway once the show is over.

Internet Telephony '99 And Next-Gen Services '99
The field of Internet telephony has had a larger presence at each successive CTI EXPO, and we have decided to break it out into a freestanding event with its own conference program. You will find Internet Telephony '99 to have a complete conference track including voice and fax over IP, standards, billing systems, and IP-PBXs (voice/data switches).

One of the fastest growing areas of Internet telephony is the service provider implementation of enhanced services such as IP fax, Web-based unified messaging, Internet call waiting, and Web based Centrex-style call control. As a result of the growth of this market, we have also launched Next-Gen Services '99, a conference program designed to provide CLECs, ISPs, IXCs, cable providers, wireless providers, RBOCs, ILECs, and PTTs with the information they need to get into the competitive next-gen telco market. Some of the conference sessions you can look forward to include: programmable switches, new next-gen telco revenue streams, IP-based value-added services, real-life stories from the network, and broadband options such as DSL and cable modems.

ConvergeNet:
A live, open, on-site, next-gen IP telephony network
IP-based data networks have gained widespread popularity as the unifying platform to carry voice, video, and fax, as well as data. IP telephony gateways have emerged as cutting-edge devices that allow the packetization and transportation of voice over IP, and also serve to bridge the gap between the traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and IP-based data networks, allowing voice calls to traverse voice and data networks seamlessly. One of the considerable challenges facing the IP telephony industry is a lack of standardization and interoperability among different vendor's products (for more on this, see this issue's article "A Guide To IP Telephony Standards," p. 98). The ITU's H.323 protocol is the front-runner in the standards space, but there are also a number of other specifications competing for industry mindshare.

TMC's ConvergeNET is a TCP/IP-based network that will bring IP telephony gateways and gatekeepers together in a proof-of-concept environment at CTI EXPO Fall 1999. The ConvergeNET platform will provide the means to interface various gateways and gatekeepers and examine their degree of standards compliance and interoperability. ConvergeNET will be a network that we construct, allowing exhibitors to connect with other exhibitors for the purpose of demonstrating product interoperability.

You go to trade shows to compare products and learn firsthand the information you need to make informed decisions about how to be more successful in your business. With the help of TMC Labs and our editorial team - who are in constant touch with all aspects of the CTI industry - we will continue to evolve CTI EXPO sot that it remains the industry's incomparable event.