Today more and more vendors are offering desktop applications integrated with various capabilities and applications like e-mail, instant messaging, directory services, and CRM. There has been a significant effort in providing these services across enterprises regardless of geography and the type of equipment-whether a TDM- or IP-based PBX. With ubiquity being the expected norm these applications are available with a mix of communication methods. This enables increased productivity with improved communication and interconnectivity of various communication devices to the systems.

Technology options
From circuit to packet switch: PBX systems in their traditional offerings have reached a maturity level. Though there has not been any significant growth on the pure-PBX market, there has been a transformation on the technology front. With a high demand for convergence, there is a shift from digital, circuit-switched voice communication toward a convergence of voice- and data-communication on networks, where IP and packet switching is used as the underlying communication technology.

Another trend, which has been catching attention, is centrex. In centrex, all the switching happens at a local telecom operator's ends instead of the organization's premises. It is a very cost-effective way of having a PBX within an enterprise. The PBX will be a virtual PBX in the customer premises and actual voice features will come from the central switch at the service provider exchange.

Deployment trends
There are two clear trends in communication system deployments.

• First, the existing PBX users are looking at easy steps for IP migration, without disrupting the existing investment. Here the converged IP systems are very well positioned to offer legacy connectivity and the feature richness of IP.

• Second, deployment trend is to go for pure-IP deployment. This trend is popular for the greenfield projects, small overseas call centers, etc.

The voice communication over an IP-PBX system is more efficient. In VoIP systems voice signals are transferred as data in an IP network. Today VoIP and data capability are being added to the traditional PBX voice systems. Also voice TDM line cards can be swapped with IP-enabled ports in new systems.

With the help of open systems, both voice and data can be handled using IP. This means that value-added services like CRM, supply-chain automation, and streaming media can be supported. Most PBX systems are being modified to enable Internet data exchange, video communications, and the likes.

VPBX is another business phone system which requires no customer-installed equipment. It provides call routing, follow-me calling, voicemail, fax-mail, and ACD queues delivered over a PSTN system.

The way forward
The industry is moving towards unification. Enterprise and carrier networks are overlapping in functionality. The way forward in such scenarios is to offer comprehensive solutions catering to different market segments like SOHO, SME, and large enterprises. Extensive customer reach backed up by high-quality service support will be a differentiating factor. Offering solutions for the specialized verticals like hospitality, trading etc. will generate a new market segment.

IP-converged network is a basic requirement of an enterprise. However, offering the real-time IP applications on converged networks will revolutionize the enterprise communication market.

In-Stat/MDR expects the number of IP lines shipped in PBX systems to touch 15.9 million by 2008.

User issues
Users today need easy graphical user interfaces. Most of the time, end users do not use the rich telephony features because of complexity. In such situations, intelligent terminals with context sensitive help for users is in demand. End users also look for easy moves, changes, and relocations.

The Challenges
PBX industry is witnessing a drastic change on the technology front. With introduction of technologies like IP telephony, the definition of enterprise communication itself has changed. So continuous enhancement of product line, to cater to the latest IP technologies and simultaneously decreasing price levels, are the main challenges faced by PBX industry.

Also many more customers are looking for pure-IP deployments but the prohibitive costs of IP terminals restricts the large-scale deployment of pure IP systems. On an average, the converged systems are available at Rs 4,000 per user while pure-IP systems, including IP terminals, are available at Rs 15,000 per user.

Looking Ahead
In the coming years, traditional PBX market will shrink. This will be replaced by the IP-enabled PBXs, IPconverged systems and pure-IP systems. In a nutshell, the market for enterprise communication systems will grow at the rate of 25 percent.

Exactly what would the adoption of IP-PBX. Will it replace TDM in the coming years? Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a type of digital multiplexing in which two or more apparently simultaneous channels are derived from a given frequency spectrum, i.e., bit stream, by interleaving pulses representing bits from different channels.

Replacement of digital proprietary voice systems with systems that can handle the Internet with combined voice, data, and video will favored. Music, Internet TV, and VoIP are the market drivers. Companies will increase the use of data over networks.

While galloping technological advancements have ushered in amazing new features and inversely lower prices for most office equipment, full-featured phone systems have remained largely out of reach for small companies. Most small companies are forced to cobble together telephone solutions with a combination of multi-line telephones, answering machines, and costly monthly telephone company services.

On the SOHO market front, customers are still going for the regular EPABX/KTS systems but they are looking for IP-ready and broadband-ready systems.

Small Business Solutions
Are small companies without phone systems getting their voicemail? How are they handling incoming calls? How do they integrate teleworkers and mobile workers? They might be using services like centrex; telephone-company voicemail, and separate lines for each phone user: all of which boost the the monthly phone bills.

And there's no real integration with offsite workers, other than simple call forwarding.

PBX for SOHO
PBXs have traditionally been systems used by organizations with thousands of employees. The few manufacturers who looked at small-sized companies could not scale the concept down and did not have the complete domain knowledge to offer cost-effective profitable solutions.

The challenges which the SOHO segment faced were: installation, ease of use of the product, and expensive proprietary equipment. Very few vendors cater to the small businesses, but the ones who do offer products, mostly have all the features of traditional counterparts at effective prices.

When shopping
When shopping for a system, look for the ability to easily install and configure it on your own. Installation can cost a significant percentage of the total cost of traditional phone systems. User-configurable systems allow you to control the way your phone system works without having to pay the manufacturer or a third-party technician to do it for you. The best of these new small business phone systems enable you to do it yourself and save on cost.

Phone Integration
Another important feature to look for is cellphone and cordless phone integration. If you have tele-workers and mobile workers, you need to be able to collaborate smoothly without giving out dozens of different numbers to your clients. There are systems in the market that can connect all of your phones through one central system with one number.

Scalable Systems
Expandability is crucial too. Make sure that the system you buy today can grow to accommodate the changes in your company tomorrow. And the changes in the industry-with the emergence of VoIP technology and new advanced Internet telephony services-your phone system needs to be ready to connect to the IP network while maintaining your connections to the traditional telephone network. Look for hybrid systems that are built with SIP standards to ensure compatibility and avoid obsolescence.

No doubt IPBXs are substituting legacy PBXs. Asterisk-based solutions are for the reseller with Linux expertise and the need for full control of the solution.

IP-PBX in Europe
According to a recent study titled 'European IP-PBX equipment market-moving toward converged networks' by Frost & Sullivan, the Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP-PBX) market demonstrated strong growth last year, generating total revenue of EUR 589.35 million. The study predicts the technology to continue expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.3 percent to reach EUR 1.78 billion in 2008.

Adoption of universal standards like session initiation protocol (SIP) will eventually lead to the adoption of IP-PBX solutions within the corporate world. The analysis forecasts IP-enabled, PBX line shipments in Europe as likely to increase to 2.34 million lines in 2008. Growth of IP-enabledline shipments is expected to be particularly high in 2005 due to higher adoption in France and Germany. However, it is expected to reduce from 2006 onwards due to the increased adoption of converged solutions and hosted IP telephony.

Among the most cautious countries to adopt the technology are Germany and France-probably because of the huge investments made by Deutsche Telekom and its preference for a system of phased migration.

CIO speak
Replacing existing systems with a completely new IP-PBX solution is not feasible, neither in terms of cost nor ease of replacement. The preferred route to be adopted is the evolutionary approach, to avoid disruption in the communications at the organization.

More often, businesses take the migration path to new system instead of the rip-and-replace approach. There are some applications that allow businesses to migrate on a budget and a pace that suits them best. For example, a TDM-based PBX will continue to run the headoffice while you deploy IP-PBXs in your branch offices.

With the recent applications, phones have become devices that enable instant messaging, transfer of information and documents, status on availability of colleagues, and much more. Complete business information and directories can be accessed, thereby enabling timely communication and increased productivity. This has truly integrated ubiquity in day-to-day operations.

One does not need to wait for SIP to be ubiquitously deployed for this kind of robust application support. Such systems and capabilities are not only available today but can also be deployed on the new IP-telephony system, older TDM telephone system, or a mix of systems.