Comments on: Death of the Small Business IP PBX? http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx An outcome-driven leader, proven technology product developer, and marketer with over 20 years of hands-on experience including start-up, small and large business environments, and the board room. This is my blog. Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:15:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: tropicaljantie http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-309 tropicaljantie Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:05:54 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-309 and who is going to the support anyways ? you ? and who is going to the support anyways ? you ?

]]> By: tropicaljantie http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-308 tropicaljantie Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11:05:34 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-308 "Why would a small business ever buy an IP PBX if they could reach their customers with Skype?" You are all dreaming. No business wants a skype icon on all their computers in their office. Employees will piss away globally their time. There is no skype for business version. It is not manageable, there is no accountability and nobody (unless you are a geek) will sit with a headset in the office to get a call or be attached to some usb-phone. On top of that no b2b vendor will love to bring skype in the office, since they can't easily make money with it. Skype does not offer any guarantees also. Who wants an Ebay / Advertising phone linked to the office - system ? On top of that there are security problems and network management issues. Ask any IT-manager. The current Skype is for consumers and for Ebay. Get real. Maybe it will change, but not yet. Skype has been called a freeloader in many situations too... "Why would a small business ever buy an IP PBX if they could reach their customers with Skype?"

You are all dreaming. No business wants a skype icon on all their computers in their office. Employees will piss away globally their time. There is no skype for business version. It is not manageable, there is no accountability and nobody (unless you are a geek) will sit with a headset in the office to get a call or be attached to some usb-phone. On top of that no b2b vendor will love to bring skype in the office, since they can't easily make money with it. Skype does not offer any guarantees also. Who wants an Ebay / Advertising phone linked to the office – system ? On top of that there are security problems and network management issues. Ask any IT-manager. The current Skype is for consumers and for Ebay. Get real.

Maybe it will change, but not yet. Skype has been called a freeloader in many situations too…

]]> By: Tim Welch http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-307 Tim Welch Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:42:13 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-307 Skype call forward doesn't resolve the incoming call handling dilemma. Nor does it resolve numerous other "one to many" scalability issues that will be encountered by Skype, which is as Aswath mentions a pure point-to-point solution. Routing calls made to a single number out to tens or hundreds of endpoints and handling that call through non-answers, forwards, etc. cannot be readily achieved by the Skype we know today. Skype also needs to address the mobile user; until a call to your Skype-In number can be routed to a cell phone - quickly and efficiently - you will not see mass adoption of the service as the sole communication method to small or micro business. The last issue is reliability. We all want to say that the Internet is very stable and reliable, but a small or micro business on an ADSL connection is at the mercy of their service provider and do not have the "5 nines" uptime needed for constant communications. Home wireless connections to a mobile Skype-enabled wi-fi phone can be disrupted by little Johnny firing up the microwave to heat his pizza pocket - and the important call to your main client is gone. It will be five years or more until Skype and its like will be able to match the reliability and instantaneous use of a cell or office PSTN phone - plain and simple. Skype call forward doesn't resolve the incoming call handling dilemma. Nor does it resolve numerous other "one to many" scalability issues that will be encountered by Skype, which is as Aswath mentions a pure point-to-point solution. Routing calls made to a single number out to tens or hundreds of endpoints and handling that call through non-answers, forwards, etc. cannot be readily achieved by the Skype we know today. Skype also needs to address the mobile user; until a call to your Skype-In number can be routed to a cell phone – quickly and efficiently – you will not see mass adoption of the service as the sole communication method to small or micro business. The last issue is reliability. We all want to say that the Internet is very stable and reliable, but a small or micro business on an ADSL connection is at the mercy of their service provider and do not have the "5 nines" uptime needed for constant communications. Home wireless connections to a mobile Skype-enabled wi-fi phone can be disrupted by little Johnny firing up the microwave to heat his pizza pocket – and the important call to your main client is gone. It will be five years or more until Skype and its like will be able to match the reliability and instantaneous use of a cell or office PSTN phone – plain and simple.

]]> By: Alec http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-306 Alec Thu, 15 Sep 2005 08:27:15 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-306 True, but there are people already using the Skype Call Forward feature to send calls from a single Skype client to multiple others, effectively distributing an incoming call to multiple workgroup members. True, but there are people already using the Skype Call Forward feature to send calls from a single Skype client to multiple others, effectively distributing an incoming call to multiple workgroup members.

]]> By: Aswath http://www.saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-305 Aswath Wed, 14 Sep 2005 13:13:27 +0000 http://saunderslog.com/2005/09/13/death-of-the-small-business-ip-pbx/#comment-305 Most of the features of PBX can be grouped under one of two categories - incoming call handling and sharing among a workgroup. The latter can be done by the end-points among themselves. But the former requires a central point. I feel this breaks Skype architecture. For example, you mention Skype-enables CRM. If it is a central entity, then I submit to you that it is not Skype anymore. It may be a hosted IP PBX and is labelled Skype. But it is not "Skype". Most of the features of PBX can be grouped under one of two categories – incoming call handling and sharing among a workgroup. The latter can be done by the end-points among themselves. But the former requires a central point. I feel this breaks Skype architecture. For example, you mention Skype-enables CRM. If it is a central entity, then I submit to you that it is not Skype anymore. It may be a hosted IP PBX and is labelled Skype. But it is not “Skype”.

]]>