Salt River Fields Picks Saddleback Communications' Virtual PBX Solution

Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the Spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, has recently implemented BusinessFlex virtual iPBX from Saddleback Communications, with Aastra SIP phones to provide voice and data communications.

Saddleback Communications, an incumbent local carrier (ILEC), has formed a partnership with Aastra, a provider of enterprise communications solutions including hosted VoIP and virtual PBX, to implement BusinessFlex hosted iPBX for Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.

The implementation of the BusinessFlex iPBX with Aastra SIP phones provides voice and data communications at Salt River Fields’ new facility – the $100 million complex that was opened in February 2011.

BusinessFlex iPBX, based on MetaSphere’s Call Feature Server, is a hosted, fully managed voice and data solution which integrates local telephone service, IP business phones and high speed Internet, available on a per seat subscription, the company said. The virtual PBX solution provides “out of the box” flexibility needed for adding and reducing users throughout the year.

Salt River Fields was desperately in need of a highly flexible and scalable virtual PBX solution, as they needed to be able to support three independent organizations under one roof: the Salt River Fields administrative offices, the Arizona Diamondbacks staff and coaches and the Colorado Rockies staff and coaches.

The training organization selected the virtual PBX from Saddleback Communications because it was impressed with the Metaswitch CommPortal which is an easy-to-use Web-based configuration tool, as well as a variety of Aastra SIP phones.

 “We’ve been impressed with the flexibility of the system,” said Dave Dunne, general manager of Salt River Fields, in a statement. “IP phones that were initially installed in our construction trailer were seamlessly moved to the permanent offices and we quickly added phones in a temporary sales office to support retail ticket sales during the holiday season.”

Recent research from Eastern Management Group, a strategic research company, found that the sales of virtual PBX have increased, despite the increase of unemployment across the globe in 2010.

Purchases of business phone systems jumped 16 percent in North America and 14 percent worldwide to reach $59 billion, while unemployment reached 8.5 percent in 2010 up from 6.1 percent in 2008, the report revealed.

Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for virtual-pbx. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein