Friday, March 14, 2014

Webex and GoToMeeting Alternative!

Aren't you sick and tired of having to download a client every time you want to arrange a video conference? Are you looking for an alternative to Webex and GoToMeeting too, just like I was?

Well the great news is that 3CX has created 3CX WebMeeting which is fully integrated with 3CX Phone System and clientless by using WebRTC. Forget all the hassle you go through now to organise an online meeting.  Everything is done with just a few clicks of a mouse through the 3CXPhone client. I tried it and thought it was awesome, I'm totally hooked.

You can share your desktop, have an online classroom, offer remote assistance,
and share PowerPoint presentations.

Make sure you try out 3CX WebMeeting today! Download 3CX Phone System and enable 3CX WebMeeting.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Cisco 7940 IP Phones have a new boss : 3CX Phone System 12

Transition gradually to modern IP telephony with 3CX’s support for CISCO 7940 & 7960 phones

3CX Phone System can be provisioned with Cisco 7940 IP Phones, and allow users to reduce their maintenance costs. This post will take you through the benefits of using 3CX Phone System with Cisco 7940.
Cisco 7940 IP phones stand proud on many a desk - they are good quality and look surprisingly good despite their age. Their problem - The Cisco Call Manager behind them; Cumbersome to manage, expensive to expand and yearly maintenance price is scary.
The solution - 3CX Phone System 12 - a modern IP PBX that will unify your communications whilst leverage your existing CISCO 7940 / 7960 investment.

3CX is cheaper than yearly CISCO Call Manager maintenance

A new 3CX Phone System license is actually cheaper in most cases than renewing your CISCO Call Manager license. And that’s not factoring in any consultancy fees that you might need to keep CISCO Call Manager running or any expansion costs you might have during the year such as adding or replacing phones. You’ll gain a whole host of features such as softphones for Android, iPhone, Windows and MAC - free of charge.

Reduce Deployment Cost & Retraining

By using your existing CISCO 7940 / 7960 phones you will not only save greatly on the purchase of new IP Phones; You will also make deployment a lot easier. There is no need to go into each office and replace the phone. Especially in larger installations this can be a consideration. You will not need to retrain users - they will continue to use their trusted CISCO 7940 phones as they did before.

Expand your system with any IP Phones

Once you have migrated to 3CX you can expand your system with any popular IP Phone. Of course you can choose to buy new or refurbished CISCO 7940 / 7960 phones, but you can mix and match in more modern and cost effective IP Phones such as from snom or Yealink. Leverage SIP trunks, VoIP Gateways, softphones from popular vendors more easily and much more cost effectively.

How it works

The process is straightforward:
  1. Deploy 3CX Phone System for Windows. You can download 3CX here.
  2. You will need to “SIP” your CISCO 7940 phones. CISCO Call Manager uses the proprietary SCCP protocol rather than the standard SIP protocol. Using a straight forward process you can upgrade your CISCO 7940 phones to SIP. A detailed guide can be found here.
  3. Provision your phones for 3CX as described in this detailed configuration guide: http://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/cisco-7940g-7960g/
So this year, beat the dreaded CISCO Call Manager Maintenance Bill and move to 3CX!

Friday, January 17, 2014

3CX and beroNet Connect to Guarantee Full Support for Partners and Customers

Strategic partnership combines 3CX’s award-winning Windows-based IP PBX with beroNet’s VoIP Gateways for a fully interoperable enterprise unified communications solution.

LONDON UK and BERLIN, GERMANY, 15 JANUARY 2014 – 3CX, developer of the award-winning Windows VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System, and beroNet, a German-based gateway manufacturer, announce that through their strategic partnership, beroNet gateways are fully interoperable with 3CX Phone System, guaranteeing 3CX customers and resellers full support.


“beroNet is a highly regarded European gateway manufacturer and this cooperation allows us to offer our customers a front-line, best of breed PBX solution. This partnership provides an unwavering guarantee to all our customers and partners that 3CX Phone System is fully supported by both companies, and thus provides them with peace of mind,” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO.


“3CX is the world’s most innovative Windows based PBX system and it’s our aim to provide our partners and customers with quality gateways to accompany this renowned UC solution. Together, beroNet and 3CX will ensure that our gateways are fully tested with 3CX Phone System before their release, thus ensuring the entire beroNet line of gateways fit in seamlessly with 3CX,” said Christian Richter, beroNet, CEO.
Guaranteed Interop between beroNet Gateways and 3CX Phone System

The 3CX and beroNet partnership provides advanced integration and full interoperability between 3CX Phone System and beroNet gateways. All firmware will be tested on 3CX Phone System before its release, giving partners and customers peace of mind. 3CX and beroNet will work together to ensure that the gateways are automatically configured with 3CX Phone System and that any interoperability issues which may occur will be solved.
Gateways – Still a Necessity

Even though VoIP is very popular, many businesses still prefer to use their existing phone lines. Some businesses may need their VoIP phone system integrated with their existing telephony equipment and fax. There is no other way to achieve this without using a VoIP gateway.

beroNet gateways are known for their high quality standards and provide 3CX Phone System users with the ability to virtualize 3CX Phone System with Hyper-V or VMware. In the event of hardware failure, 3CX Phone System continues to run and processing usage is reduced. For businesses that want to leverage SIP trunks and break free from their proprietary PBX but at the same time use their existing phone lines, beroNet gateways are the ideal solution.

Review the social media version of this press release which includes press contact details, core facts, additional images and content.

About 3CX (www.3cx.com)
3CX is the developer of 3CX Phone System which is an open standard unified communications platform for Windows that works with standard SIP phones and replaces any proprietary PBX. 3CX Phone System is more manageable than standard PBX systems and delivers substantial cost savings while increasing productivity. Some of the world’s leading companies and organizations use the 3CX Phone System, including Boeing, the Caterham F1 Team, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, Harley Davidson, and MIT.

3CX was named a CRN Emerging Vendor in 2011 and 2012 and has been awarded CRN’s 5-Star Partner Program rating in 2013. 3CX has also been awarded Windows Server Certification and won the Windowsnetworking.com Gold Award, the Windows IT Pro 2008 Editor’s Best Award and a Best Buy Award from Computer Shopper.

3CX has offices in Australia, Cyprus, Germany, Hong Kong, Malta, South Africa, the UK and the U.S. Visit us at: http://www.3cx.com, and on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/3CXPhoneSystem.

About beroNet (www.beronet.com)
beroNet is a German company founded in 2002 by 3 engineering entrepreneurs and is a recognized expert in the development of products and technologies for both the enterprise and service provider markets that enable reliable and efficient VoIP, ISDN, Analog & GSM connectivity technologies and through access devices engineered and manufactured in Germany.

beroNet is emerging as the leading designer and manufacturer for low density, high density PSTN & GSM VoIP access technologies through VoIP Gateways and PCI / PCIe Cards and products that are gaining both in dominance and preference by a growing number of PBX, Open Source, Call Center and IVR integrators as well as PBX equipment manufacturers and operators.

beroNet is dedicated to advanced VoIP telephony solutions. We work towards the evolution and embrace of next generation IP communications: technologies that combine the best of the Internet with the best of the existing fixed and wireless telephony infrastructure, breaking down the barriers to communications and making it easier for people and businesses everywhere and anywhere to communicate.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Secure Your Mobile Devices with 3CX Mobile Device Manager

As mobile phones are here to stay, it's important to protect your privacy when using them just as you should with your desktop computer.

Unfortunately, many people overlook mobile phone security but this can be dangerous. Thanks to this lack of security awareness, many hackers can take advantage, making many people victims of. It can take countless hours to undo the harm that can be done to your reputation and finances, and sometimes a full recovery is impossible. It's crucial, then, to have security policies in place such as a strong password, in order to protect your company's sensitive data.

You don’t just have to worry about the threat from hackers and malware on your mobile devices. It's also possible that an employee may lose a phone, or have it stolen. 3CX Mobile Device Manager offers real time mobile tracking in order to find a lost mobile as well as to see what routes it has taken.

You can remote lock your device in order to protect the data on it, and as a last resort you can even remotely wipe all data from a mobile device and any attached storage cards. This feature means that you can rest assured that no identity theft can occur and no sensitive corporate data gets exposed.

By taking care of smartphone and tablet security with mobile device management, you will save a lot of hassle, pain and embarrassment. For more information on keeping a secure mobile device, visit http://www.mobiledevicemanager.com

Thursday, December 8, 2011

3CX Phone System 10 Service Pack 5

3CX has announced Service Pack 5 for 3CX Phone System 10. It comes with a number of bug fixes focusing on 3CX Wallboard issues and also introduces a new feature where you can hide caller ID information for external calls in 3CX MyPhone (Incoming and Outgoing). Calls made or received from these extensions will show ‘Private Number’ on other users’ 3CX MyPhone instances. The update is easily installed from your 3CX Management Console 3CX Phone System Updates node.

Here's a full list of the changes:

New: The ability to hide caller ID information for external calls in 3CX MyPhone (Incoming and Outgoing). Calls made or received from these extensions will show ‘Private Number’ on other users’ 3CX MyPhone. To enable this feature, click on Extensions, Edit extensions, Options, and enable the option “Hide CID Information in 3CX MyPhone”

Fixed: 3CX Wallboard – Abandoned call statistics now show total abandoned/failed queue calls.
Fixed: 3CX Wallboard – Callback calls were not added to total calls. Failed callbacks were not adding up properly.
Fixed: 3CX Wallboard – Windows firewall exception for Abyss installations was not implemented (port 4516 TCP) – requires full installation. (You can do this manually from Control Panel/Windows Firewall/Allowed programs/Add port 4516 TCP.
Fixed: Statistics were not being displayed in 3CX Wallboard.
Fixed: Call Reporter – Call records for the Russian timezone are now displayed correctly
Fixed: Issue in 3CX Updater not able to update because of zlib1.dll
Fixed: Validation in Dial Codes page – Dial Codes cannot contain the # sign. Only * and numbers are allowed. Dial codes have to be unique.
Fixed: Desktop components installation clean-up of My Documents folder on un-installation.
Fixed: 3CX MyPhone – Sometimes agents in queues were being displayed with incorrect logged in or logged out status.
Fixed: Answered calls in 3CX MyPhone Queues Tab were not counted correctly for certain calls.
Fixed: Missed, dialed and received calls in the 3CX MyPhone Call History tab were displayed with incorrect time details.
Fixed: Bug in Caller ID for external calls via VoIP Provider/PSTN Gateways that forward to an internal extension with ‘Ring My Mobile Simultaneously’.
Fixed: Variables in outbound parameters for $OutboundCallerID and $OriginatorCallerID are now respected in ‘Ring my Mobile’ calls and ‘Rebound’ calls
Fixed: Select a multiple number of extensions and apply BLF key configurations to all selected extensions. Respective provisioning files are now updated.

Improved: Cisco SPA phone provisioning template – Set “Referrer Bye Delay” = 0. After a failed blind transfer, the first 4 seconds of audio were missing and after a successful blind transfer, the transferrer remained connected for 4 seconds.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

3CX Named a 2011 CRN Emerging Technology Vendor

The international telecommunications developer of Windows-based PBX software, 3CX recently announced its selection by Everything Channel as a 2011 CRN Emerging Technology Vendor. The annual list features innovative vendors who not only deliver easy to use technology, but can generate the high margins solution providers require. 3CX has been added to the list due to its robust product, 3CX Phone System.

3CX Phone System for Windows drew praise for providing a high-value, low-cost VoIP IP PBX solution that’s software-based and provides unified communications. 3CX Phone System is easy to manage and works with any SIP IP phones as it works with the Open SIP Standard. 3CX runs on a standard Windows computer and you can virtualize it. It is far less expensive to purchase and expand compared to proprietary phone systems. For instance, adds and moves can be done in seconds with the 3CX web interface. There’s no need for separate wiring as it is an IP-based PBX and all phones use the existing computer network.

3CX saves businesses money on their telephone administration costs as it works seamlessly with leading VoIP providers and allows users to make and receive calls via Skype. It improves employees’ productivity with desktop call control presence. 3CX delivers mobility to employees by allowing them to work from home via remote extensions.

The 3CX Channel Program is open to all IT and telecoms solutions providers and gives an excellent opportunity for resellers to leverage their Windows skills so as to tap into a completely new market. 3CX Partners generate profitable recurring income as they resell 3CX products and their own services to existing customers, whilst also targeting new customers. The roll-out involves software / hardware sales and provides the opportunity for consultancy.

Benefits of the 3CX Partner Program include access to free products and technology. Numerous free partner training events held worldwide each year and direct access to the 3CX Support Team assists 3CX Partners so that they can, in turn, assist their customers.

“Enabling customers with the tools and strategies to solve real business problems has always been a priority to solution providers. The market has grown increasingly competitive over the years; so too has the demand for innovative, channel-friendly technologies.” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, Everything Channel. “From the cloud to semantic technology, this year’s list of Emerging Technology Vendors highlights the emphasis on innovation and ease of use that has been the hallmark of any successful channel offering.”

The vendors that make up the CRN Emerging Technology Vendor list were founded in 2005 or later, have revenue under $1 billion and have an active U.S. channel strategy.

“We are proud to have been included in this year’s CRN Emerging Technology Vendor list. 3CX continues to lead the market for Windows based IP PBX solutions. Companies are switching to 3CX Phone System as it allows them to make huge savings on their monthly telecoms bills and provides rich features.” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO. “3CX is a 100% channel company, providing an excellent opportunity for IT specialists to resell a high-value, low-cost PBX solution, as well as bundle in hardware and consultancy services to their existing and new customers. 3CX provides all the tools needed for our channel partners to be successful.”

Monday, May 16, 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, has 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 were 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.