Mitel Taking New Approach To IP

Mitel Corp., a maker of private branch exchange (PBX) systems, this month rolled out a three-phase approach designed to cash in on the burgeoning market for IP-based telephony.

The Kanata-based company's plans encompass new IP-enabled phones and the porting of legacy PBXes to an all-IP voice network.

"IP is the latest step in our VoiceLAN strategy, [wherein] a LAN-based call server handles call control previously provided by a PBX," said Ken Dumont, Mitel's vice president of marketing, voice systems.

The first phase of Mitel's IP-PBX road map, to start in early 2000, calls for porting IP-enabled phone sets to the company's SX-2000 for Windows NT.

Designed for businesses with 40 to 120 users, the NT-based PBX, unveiled in April 1998, supports desktop call control, digital trunking, peripheral interfaces, auto attendant, call center routing and management, computer-telephone integration and intelligent messaging.

In phase two, scheduled for the first quarter of 2001, Mitel intends to unveil a stackable phone hub to support network-attached analog devices, among them fax machines and point-of-sale equipment.

In phase three, planned for the first quarter of 2003, Mitel's IP-PBX will support the company's legacy SX2000 and SX200 peripheral line cards, cabinets and phone sets.

Mitel is targeting the new products primarily at small and midsize businesses.

In 1998, Mitel took 8.2 percent of the 101-to-400-station segment, according to San Jose, Calif.-based Dataquest.

Of its 130 top-tier VARs, Mitel has tapped approximately 20 that will market the IP products within the vendor's new Platinum Elite Dealer program. Mitel expects all 130 dealers to join the Platinum program, said Dumont.

"The key to our IP strategy is having a base of competent VARs who can sell the converged solutions to IT managers," said Dumont. "We'll be working a lot during the next eight months in this area."

Other components, including product pricing and where call-processing applications will ride on IP-based switches, remain unresolved.

Some PBX watchers were critical of Mitel's plans. "Mitel is late to the game," said Jonathan Andres, president of IntraSource Inc., a Lexington, Ky.-based VAR. "There are plenty of LAN-based IP telephony solutions in the market today, including gateways to legacy PBXes."

In fact, LAN-based IP still has few takers, said Brian Strachman, CTI voice processing analyst at researcher Cahner's In-Stat Group, Scottsdale, Ariz.

"Everyone's doing [IP], but no one is buying it," said Strachman. "Most businesses are happy just having dial tone and being able to transfer calls."

Added Amanda McCarthy, analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.: "Equipment solutions for voice-over-IP are not being adopted in the corporate space. . . . We're seeing greater demand [for IP] in the carrier market."