3CX is the manufacturer of the 3CX Phone System for Windows, a software-based IP PBX designed to replace a traditional proprietary hardware PBX (News - Alert). 3CX’s IP PBX has been developed specifically for Microsoft Windows and is based on the SIP standard — all of which is designed to help businesses manage their IP communications systems and allow them to use any SIP phone (software or hardware).

 

Nick Galea is CEO of 3CX. I caught up with Galea, and asked him to share his thoughts regarding the industry, his company, and what attendees would be able to see at the 3CX booth at the upcoming ITEXPO (News - Alert) in Miami Beach.

 

NG: Our biggest achievement in 2007 was the launch of 3CX Phone System for Windows — an innovative software-based IP PBX solution for the small and medium business market.

 

Another major achievement is that in a very short time we have gained industry recognition by becoming a Microsoft (News - Alert) Gold Certified Partner and by winning numerous awards, such as Best of Show at the ITEXPO West 2007 and the INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year Award, among many others.

 

Also, in less than one year we have reached 1,000 downloads of our product per day. This is an important milestone in telephony software.

 

NG: We have just released version 5 of 3CX Phone System for Windows with a set of new features that put our product way ahead of the competition. Key features include: phone provisioning, integrated fax server, G729 codec support, 3CX bridges and SIP Trunking support.

 

In the coming weeks we will release 3CX VoIP Client, which will make advanced phone user requirements a breeze to deliver, and combined with the innovative 3CX User Portal will allow users to avoid telephone tag and at the same time manage their own forwarding rules and voice mail.

 

Throughout 2008 we will develop our product further to ensure we deliver what the market needs from an innovative software-based phone system.

 

NG: According to a research conducted by Forrester, while 23 percent of large U.S. companies have already deployed IP PBXs, it is expected that 90 percent would have migrated to IP PBX by 2012. This means that the market is expected to grow from $6B in 2005 to over $19.5B in the next 4–5 years.

 

This growing interest in IP PBX is triggered by the increasing trend of American and European businesses to replace their obsolete traditional hardware PBX systems with IP PBX technology.

 

NG: 3CX Phone System’s Presence feature has been key in the success of the product. It has proved essential to many of our clients, as it enables businesses to eliminate costly telephone tag, allowing staff to become more productive.

 

I believe SIP is the main driver in the acceleration of the IP Telephony revolution. Our product is entirely based on the SIP standard, allowing it to work with most popular SIP Phones, VoIP gateways and VoIP providers. This is great news for businesses, as it enables them to have total vendor independence.

 

Our system already supports video, but we are planning to extend that functionality during 2008.

 

NG: SIP based. I can foresee the success of open standards with best of breed solutions for software, hardware, add-ons and so on.

 

NG: IP Telephony is growing everywhere. This phenomenon is not particularly different in the U.S. and our own growth reflects this. We currently have a network of over 600 partners and resellers worldwide.

NG: Open source technologies are not changing the market. I think the emergence of standards such as SIP is what is changing the market.

 

I believe that the open source principle has some major flaws. For example, it assumes that companies want to get into the source code of products, which is generally not what they wish to do.

 

Open source does not encourage long-term investment in a code base, something that is required to build stable and mature products. I think that closed source with substantial investment and long term commitment is what will lead to IP telephony platforms that will help businesses increase mobility and productivity.

 

NG: Hosted solutions can bring more problems to a company than solutions. For example, if the Internet is down, then the phone system goes down, too. Also, hosted solutions can incur high bandwidth costs and can have a complex configuration. Considering that most companies still host their own mail server, hosted solutions is not where the future of communications is.

 

NG: We know from research that by 2012 it is expected that 90 percent of companies in the U.S. would have migrated to IP PBX. So when it comes to telephony communication, the future looks pretty much software-based.

 

NG: They will see our innovative 3CX Phone System for Windows — a revolutionary and award-wining software-based IP PBX that is easy to install, manage and use.

 

NG: Any business that wants to break free from proprietary hardware PBX and migrate to IP Telephony, who is looking for a solution that offers easy installation, configuration and management, and is therefore not Linux.

 

NG: Because 3CX Phone System helps businesses give employees mobility, rids them of costly telephone tag, reduces administration and training time by IT Staff, is easy to install, manage and use, and very important: is priced competitively.

 

NG: I think we will see some VoIP companies, both PBX and VoIP providers, not being able to gain enough momentum to succeed. There will be some consolidation, which will result in more reliable solutions for customers.