Thursday, May 19, 2011

Unified Communications Finally Unified with New 3CX Phone System v10

New 3CX MyPhone user portal makes Unified Communications features understandable to the average business user

3CX, international telecommunications developer, today announced the availability of 3CX Phone System version 10. This new release includes a new user-friendly web-based app, 3CX MyPhone. Other PBX’s that include unified communications do not make features such as conferencing easily accessible for the end user. The new 3CX MyPhone portal makes it easier for users to take advantage of advanced unified communications and VoIP features by bringing conferencing, presence, transferring of calls and other rich features together in one easy to use application.

“3CX has raised the bar in the unified communications market by providing a new, easy to use, lightweight user portal that makes it much easier for users to take advantage of unified communications, whilst at the same time making life easier for administrators” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO

New Advanced User Portal – 3CX MyPhone

The new user portal – 3CX MyPhone – is web-based, but leverages Silverlight to provide a rich –“desktop like” user-friendly experience. With 3CX MyPhone, users can easily manage their extension from their netbook or desktop and avoid having to use a cryptic phone interface. 3CX MyPhone works in tandem with softphones, IP phones and even iPhone and Android smartphones, retaining flexibility for users to choose what phone device best suits them.

3CX MyPhone Allows Users to:
See status/presence of other users
Launch calls from a web page, outlook or phonebook
Transfer calls to other users.
Divert calls to voice mail
Monitor queue calls (if they have the rights to)
See missed / inbound / outbound calls
Create and manage conference calls
Configure call forwarding options when away/out of the office

More Manageability and Security Features

Version 10 has also gained enhanced management and security features. Administrators have finer control over blacklisting of clients trying to register against the server. It is possible to automatically block outbound calls during night time or when the office is closed, as well as block outbound calls to countries or continents to which a company never makes calls. 3CX server event notifications we’re expanded, and administrators can now be notified by e-mail of critical system events such as a losing connection to a remote office or SIP trunk.

Improved PBX Performance

3CX Phone System v10 is the only native SIP PBX for Windows. This focus on Windows allows us to optimize our code for the platform. 3CX Phone System v10 performance was improved, whilst significantly reducing memory and processor usage. 3CX Phone System can run virtualized or alongside other server applications – thus not requiring a dedicated server!

Improved IP Phone & Smartphone Integration

3CX Phone System is SIP standard based and integrates with a range of popular SIP phones. In 3CX v10 integration was further beefed up with seamless support for PnP deployment of IP Phones, softphones and smartphones. Administrators just plug in an IP Phone or ask the user to install the 3CX smartphone app on their smartphone (via the Appstore/Android Market). The new clients will be visible in the management console and allow the administrator to push out the settings automatically.

Improved IP Phone Management

3CX Phone System has gone further in easing the life of the network administrator. IP Phones can now be managed end to end from the 3CX Management Console. Vendor Independent! IP phone firmware versions can be checked and upgraded remotely – either one by one or in batch mode. This significantly reduces administration time and increases control for the administrators.

Improve Customer Service

3CX Phone System can now match caller IDs to customer names, and show these in 3CX MyPhone or even on the IP Phone. Employees will be able to answer the phone knowing the customer’s name and significantly increase customer service.

What’s new in 3CX Phone System V10?

All Versions

Easier to use 3CX MyPhone that incorporates 3CX Assistant
3CX MyPhone is now Silverlight based, incorporating the old assistant and is therefore much easier to deploy
3CX MyPhone now also supported on Macs
Notification to Windows Event log, 3CX Event Log and optionally by e-mail on key events (show Event log)
Ability to blacklist IPs
Ability to block extensions being registered from outside the network
You can configure that particular extensions can not be used outside of the local network
Ability to limit extensions registering externally to use tunnel (which provides additional layer of security via password)
Ability to record prompts via the phone – simply click on prompt, enter extension name and record prompt
Reduced memory footprint and elimination of extra service
Class of Service – Specify extension group in outbound rules to easily create Class of Service rules
Themes support in 3CX MyPhone / 3CX Assistant

Small Business, Pro and Enterprise Editions

Improved conferencing page in 3CX MyPhone allows for easier setup of conference calls
Queue tab in 3CX MyPhone which gives an overview of the status of queues
Improved BLF page – now allows provisioning of Speed dials, custom codes
Complete G722 support (Requires G722 capable phone)
Server will query phone book to match Caller IDS to a specific name
3CX has also created the What’s New in 3CX Phone System v10 video which discusses the latest features which can boost your company’s sales and increase productivity. This video, along with all other 3CX videos can be viewed on the 3CX Channel on YouTube.

For more information, visit http://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/unified-communications-new-3cx-version-10/

Use this V10 Demo Key to activate enterprise features: I8VM-OXW5-GRI6-EIV4

About 3CX

3CX is the developer of 3CX Phone System – an open standard unified communications platform for Windows that works with standard SIP phones and replaces a proprietary PBX. 3CX is more manageable and can deliver substantial cost savings besides increasing productivity. 3CX Phone System has earned numerous awards; Windows Server Certification, Windowsnetworking.com Gold Award, Windows IT Pro magazine 2008 and a Best Buy Award by Computer Shopper Magazine. For more information visit: http://www.3cx.com.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

3CX Releases Version 10 BETA!

3CX, the company behind the IP 3CX Phone System, have announced BETA of their new version 10 PBX. Version 10 is a major release, using Silverlight for the user portal, 3CX MyPhone, for the first time. MyPhone now replaces the 3CX Assistant and the old 3CX MyPhone portal because everything has been put together in one easy to use portal.

The new 3CX MyPhone is web based, but users can also install MyPhone as a desktop app (working on Macs as well). 3CX say that in this mode it uses the browser in the background and allows the user to resize 3CX MyPhone as they wish as well as launch it automatically.

There are some nice features which make it worth checking out:
  • Notification to Windows Event log, 3CX Event Log and optionally by e-mail on key events
  • PnP support for 3CXPhone for iPhone, Android and Windows, Grandstream Executive GXP-21xx and Yealink phones. This means that you can just plug in the phone, assign extension in the management console and the phone will be automatically configured. This eliminates the need to specify the provisioning URL in the phone or via DHCP option 66.
  • Complete support for the new Grandstream GXP-1450, GXP 2100, GXP 2110 and GXP 2120 phones. Requires firmware v. 1.0.1.56 and up. Note that these phones are still in BETA
  • Support for the Grandstream GXP 3140, GXP 3175 video phones
  • Support for the Yealink VP 2009 video phones
  • Ability to black list IPs
  • Ability to block extensions being registered from outside the network
  • You can configure that particular extensions can not be used outside of the local network
  • Ability to limit extensions registering externally to use tunnel
  • Native 64 bit version (not available in beta)
  • Ability to record prompts via the phone – simply click on prompt, enter extension name and record prompt
  • Reduced memory footprint and elimination of extra service
  • Specify extension group in outbound rules to easily create Class of Service rules
3CX have provided a downloads section where you can try out the BETA version 10.

3CX BETA Version 10 Phone System can be downloaded here. The administration manual can be found here (PDF). The 3CX MyPhone and Extension user manual is web based and can be found here while users can post any questions about the BETA here in the 3CX Phone System V10 BETA forum.

You can use this Beta V10 Demo Key to activate enterprise features: LFMD-4QDR-7OHP-ZZO2