UniVoIP's Virtual PBX Analyzed by DigiNet President

Mark A. Miller, president of DigiNet Corporation, a Denver-based consulting engineering firm, has written a recent profile of UniVoIP.

The company is headquartered in El Segundo, California, and was founded in 2006 by a group of telecom veterans with over 30 years of industry experience, and today offers Internet connectivity, managed business VoIP, and hosted PBX (News - Alert) solutions to small and medium-size companies, Miller said.

The company provides subscribers in a rather unusual assemblage of states - Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, and Tennessee - with "benefits from cost savings, extensive network management and control features, and full customization capabilities," Miller notes.

UniVoIP officials themselves say their customers have a "secure, reliable" electronic faxing product in UniFax: "They can now save time, money and precious natural resources, all while managing their inbound and outbound faxes from their computer without the use of a fax machine."

The company makes what Miller finds to be "an interesting distinction between what they refer to as the virtual PBX systems offered by some of their competitors, and the hosted PBX telephone systems that they provide." Basically the company likens the virtual PBX to an automated answering service, which answers calls for a business, and then forwards those calls to employees or locations anywhere in the world, Miller explains:

"Each of the remote locations requires its own separate phone service, which cannot be connected with extension dialing, or use workgroup collaboration features such as unified messaging or presence."

In contrast, as Miller says, the hosted PBX "is equivalent to a traditional phone system, complete with multiple lines, auto-attendant, voicemail, and extensive call control features." End users can be anywhere in the world, and still use the communications capabilities, such as call transfer and three way calling, "within their universe of co-users."

UniVoIP markets the Mitel (News - Alert) line of VoIP phones, including the Model 5321 dual-mode speakerphone, the Model 5324 speakerphone with optional IP peripherals and the Model 5340 executive telephone. The company targets businesses with 5 to 200 end users, and provides two different pricing options for their customers.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Kelly McGuire

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