PBX in the Cloud or Cell Phones for Business 2.0?

Ed is either crazy or brilliant. We're currently in a techie spat over what direction we should take with the phone systems here at TechnologyEvangelist.com. Ed has a really crazy idea that's either the best idea ever, or won't scale past about 2 people. Rather than just fight about it internally I thought I would let everyone in on our debate.

While TechnologyEvangelist.com isn't terribly large, we do share a building and have to work as a group with a bunch of other people. We're also expanding, so for now assume that we need a phone system for 30 to 50 people. A small business. The phone system we have now is super old, inflexible and needs to be replaced. We have a chance to start from scratch and do whatever we want. I'm proposing moving to a VoIP solution where a single number can get you no matter where you are. Cell phone, home phone, desk phone, soft phone and even faxing to the desk... It can ring them all based on business rules on a per DID basis. I'm currently looking at a SIP trunk and something like and Asterisk server or if I'm feeling really spendy then a Cisco CallManager solution.

Ed seems to agree with the one number idea but is taking a radically different approach. Ed wants to give everyone a cell phone and that's the only phone system we have. No land lines, no personal fax lines, nothing, nada. Only a cell phone. One line per person, with them all the time.

This is either absolutely brilliant and the future of where voice communication is going, or he's freaking nuts. While our PBX is old it does allow us to transfer voicemail messages between users (which I can do on some wireless networks as long as I stay inside the network), we also use the paging feature, automatic call distribution groups for technical support and we have an attendant who routes calls. With a cell phone we'll loose a lot of these features, but do we really need them? With a single device and one number, no matter who you call will have your proper caller ID number. With a VoIP solution when an outbound call is made from the cell phone it will be a different caller ID than when an outbound call is made with the softphone, etc. Having one caller ID number per person does have its advantages.

For our technical support staff it might be possible to simply get a RingCentral number and have that automatically forward to whatever cell phones we want. RingCentral holds voicemail as audio files that can be played back on the computer and it can e-mail our support team when a new call comes in. I thought about using GrandCentral but we would need call distribution rules that are simply more advanced than what GrandCentral has to offer. RingCentral could also be used as a basic front desk. We would loose the ability to page as well as intra-office communication from phone to phone, but maybe we could get by without that. Adapt.

So which is it? A growing company of 30 to 50 employees. Do we rock the boat and do only cell phones or do we go with more of a traditional unified messaging solution? Is Ed crazy or brilliant? Ed, you can't vote.

I think the cell idea works fine for a small company. If you get bigger than that or you find your needs are growing, I will presume you are doing well enough to decide whether a greater investment is needed.

There was a panel at this year's SXSW on virtual teaming. [panel description] [podcast] They said they found a professional sounding phone system and not having to provide customers with a whole list of cell phone numbers to be very important.

I vote for a slightly different approach. It would require the creation of a whole new company altogether, or severe arm-twisting of an existing one (I'd honestly prefer a completely new company...), but then I'm getting ahead of myself.

The current proposals are all based on adapting user habits to technology. But isn't TechnologyEvangelist about how technology is adapting to user habits? Also, why should any business - especially a small one - have to deal with paying several different companies for the different parts of their communications infrastructure? Why should they have to pay the cell phone company for each employee's phone, only to turn around and pay for VOIP services somewhere else, various fax numbers through a third company, and number unification through yet another? I realize this is a bit more complex an example than is being recommended here, but it seems to me that this kind of situation has a high chance of cropping up.

I vote for a smart entrepreneur or service provider catching on and offering a solution where your cell phone number comes attached to a VOIP account - one which automatically supports "advanced" business features such as fax and voice mail forwarding and the numerous other features mentioned above. Text messages could easily be sent (in the form of an instant messaging window) to whichever machine(s) the user is logged into over VOIP as well as to their cell phone. Hell, even save them on an IMAP server whose accounts are tied into the VOIP account login. Quick and easy conversation logging right there - especially useful since most cell phones run out of memory so quickly that the beginning of a conversation often has to be deleted to receive the end - or worse, the middle. While you're at it, the IMAP account would be a great place to store those faxes, and maybe even the voice-mail messages. With a bit of header magic (MIME, anyone?), I'd wager even contact info could be stored on the IMAP server for easy access to phone numbers and email addresses and the like from cell, VOIP, or email client alike.

The various call-forwarding and number unification services out there do an admirable job of trying to integrate all the various methods of communication as seamlessly as possible, but there's only so much they can do. As an example, here's another instant advantage that I can see to providing all of the services under a single roof - a feature you're not likely to see ANYWHERE today, much less in a small business workplace: the ability to continue a call on your cell while you log out of your VOIP (say to reboot your machine or move to another room/machine), and then pick the call back up on your PC (I consider Apple's computers to be PCs since they invented the concept) when you've gotten your VOIP account back up - and all without any interruption or the other party (or parties) even necessarily being aware of the switch. How useful could a feature like that be in a workplace?

Comments

1. Posted by: J.B. Malik on November 8, 2007 8:58 AM:

Great article! Ed is right - My vote is to use RingCentral. It's hands-down the most reliable of all the other Virtual PBX Providers. I also use GrandCentral for another business, but it clearly won't help your multiple-employee needs, auto attendant needs, etc. The great thing about RingCentral is that it's scalable as your company grows.

The best part is that you'll be beating the pants off your competition - the same folks that demand a phone system with equipment, wires, ridiculous line charges, etc. It's incredible, the amount of companies that blow cash on a 'traditional' phone system because they snub the concept of a "virtual" solution like RingCentral.

If you want to read my review of RingCentral, visit:
http://small-business-phone.com/?p=4

Good luck!

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