Traditionally focused on telephony systems for Small and Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs), Inter-Tel (News - Alert) has expanded its target market to include medium- to large-sized businesses and enterprises. The newest platform from Inter-Tel, Inter-Tel 7000, is a standards-based SIP softswitch that scales to 2,500 users in its first release, though theoretically, as a software solution, can scale further with adequate hardware capacity and memory. The Inter-Tel 7000 is fully standards-based, supporting SIP/SIP-B at the core, SIMPLE for presence and instant messaging and BTXML for display control. Inter-Tel plans to publish a number of interfaces for the third-party developer community. A variety of third-party SIP and PSTN gateways from Cisco, Quintum, and AudioCodes can be attached for analog FXS, FXO and digital T1, E1, PRI and BRI connections.

 

 

 

The basic Inter-Tel 7000 configuration includes the Inter-Tel Communicator server (Linux server) for call processing, database and media processing and a Windows Server for voice mail, unified messaging and management (the System Manager and Messaging Central server). The system can be deployed in one of three hardware configurations (or Tier packages) for capacities of up to 250 users, up to 1,000 users or up to 2,500 users. Every configuration includes an additional Inter-Tel Communicator server for server redundancy (split or redundant servers for database), while the Messaging Central and System Manager server has internal component redundancy (redundant power supplies, fans, hard drives) as an option for Tiers 2 and 3.

 

Unique for the Inter-Tel 7000 is the Inter-Tel Personal Communicator (pictured), a built-in application that requires no licenses to activate. The application addresses employee productivity and “reach me” functionality enabling users to easily manage voice and text communications and set up and view presence information on a desktop PC, Web portal, Web browser, e-mail client, PDA, or phone. Personal Communicator also integrates with Outlook Calendar for automatic status updates according to meetings and other tasks defined in the calendar. Attendant Communicator, another new application for Inter-Tel 7000, is a SIP soft phone for drag and drop call control, endpoint status, directory search, call logs and statistics. Licensed centrally, attendants can be located anywhere to handle call traffic. Inter-Tel 7000 accommodates several Inter-Tel 8600 Series IP telephones also supported by the Inter-Tel Axxess and Inter-Tel 5000 platforms, as well as third-party SIP hard and soft endpoints.

 

As an open, standards-based platform, users can choose to add third-party applications, but also can take advantage of Inter-Tel’s own array of business solutions, including a SIP-based centralized messaging and auto attendant application, Inter-Tel's Contact Center Suite and SIP-based collaboration tools such as Audio & Web Conferencing.

 

Inter-Tel 7000 is priced at $650 to $750 per user with prices lower for pure analog deployments. General availability is expected in October 2006.

 

Look for full reports on Inter-Tel platforms in TelecomTactics.

Platform	Introduction	Application	Maximum Stations
Inter-Tel Axxess	1993	PBX (News - Alert)	1,700
Inter-Tel EncoreCX	2003	Key	40
Inter-Tel CS-5000	2005/2006	IP PBX	350
Inter-Tel 7000	2006	SIP Softswitch	2,500 (users) or 20,000 (devices)

 

 

Contact Sandra M. Gustavsen [email protected] or visit TelecomWeb or TelecomTactics