FEATURED VIDEO

Sponsored By:


SLIDE SHOWS
In minutes, OpenSpan's unique codeless integration platform can service enable any Windows desktop and legacy applications.
Tape may be dead, but don't tell Sun, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, or Sony, all of whom this week introduced new versions of their tape formats.
Too many cars and too few parking spaces leave many San Franciscans frustrated and angry. One company is looking to change that by beaming parking information straight to your smartphone.
INSIDE CHANNELWEB
techcareers logo Search Jobs:


  

Post Resume|Employers

Recent Post:


Director of New Product Development
ACCO Brands seeking Director of New Product Development in Lincolnshire, IL
spacer

Bake-Off: Small Business VoIP Contenders

Five rivals go head-to-head for small-business IP telephony crown

ChannelWeb logo By Fahmida Y. Rashid, ChannelWeb
12:00 AM EST Mon. Feb. 18, 2008
From the February 18, 2008 issue of CRN Tech
Page 1 of 4
The increasing availability of VoIP products specifically targeting small businesses means it's easier than ever for channel partners to design a solution that fits customers' needs.

Small businesses have limited technology budgets: It doesn't matter how feature-rich the VoIP product is if the up-front fees are too high. When watching every dollar spent, each little bit helps, such as analog line support and the ability to support other networking functions.

For a closer look at VoIP, the Test Center selected products from five vendors to see how well they cater to the small-business market. Reviewers tested the NetVanta 7100 from Adtran Inc., Quick Edition from Avaya Inc., Smart Business Communications System from Cisco Systems Inc., PBXtra from Fonality and Business Communications Manager 50 from Nortel Networks Corp.

Methodology
VoIP is often bundled in as a component in a larger unified communications solution. To put all the solutions on an equal playing field, the scope of this review was limited to testing the voice component. To participate in this comparison, the solution had to be affordable for a small-business budget, especially when considering up-front costs, support for analog lines and support for fewer than 100 users. All products were premise-based IP-PBX solutions.

Each product was rated on both technical and channel merits. For each product submission, reviewers stepped through the entire setup process to configure the system. After getting a working VoIP solution up and running, reviewers evaluated the ease with which other phones and mailboxes could be added. Advanced features, such as auto-attendant, groups and call escalation were also added.

For this comparative analysis, reviewers focused on the deployment activities and management options solution providers would face when rolling out the VoIP solution.

NEXT: Avaya Quick Edition


RATE THIS ARTICLE Worse 1 2 3 4 5 Better
CHANNELWEB MARKETSPACE >> (Sponsored Links)
RELATED BLOG >>
Photo
China has big plans for use of IPv6 in delivering streaming media of the Olympic games it will host, opening a door for adoption of the technology to speed up.
ADVERTISEMENT




CHANNEL SERVICES >>