For this entry I’d like to talk about another question that arises quite often during my discussions with hoteliers, and that question is ‘how does the Think Simplicity hosted pbx work?’
There are 2 parts to the answer… the 1st part includes the ‘PBX’ portion or on-site equipment and the 2nd part includes the monthly telephone services (which will be discussed in the next post)
The ‘PBX portion’ or hardware component of our system utilizes 24-port Ethernet switches and (or) Analog to IP gateways, depending on the type of guest room telephone. This provides the hotel with the option of keeping the existing analog guest room telephones or replacing them with IP guest room telephones.
In addition to the Ethernet switches and (or) Gateways, we utilize a 4 Port PSTN gateway in which up to 4 traditional copper lines can be plugged in for 911 dialing and failover purposes.
Also included with this equipment is our SimplyVX QoS firewall router, which is used to control the bandwidth and provide the SIP routing.
Lastly, outside of the Telco room, the administrative telephones will be replaced with Polycom Soundpoint IP telephones for the administrative and front desk purposes. The phone models vary from a 2-line phone up to a 6-line phone with an expansion module option that allows for an additional 14 lines.
You will notice that our solution is setup similar to a data network as opposed to a traditional phone system- and this allows for easier scalability and also allows us to troubleshoot 95% of the issues remotely.
From a space saving standpoint- a standard 120-room hotel would only require a 3-foot wall mountable rack to house the equipment – not much space at all!
In a nutshell… the Think Simplicity hosted PBX system does require some onsite equipment, which, overall is normally much more energy efficient and space saving than a traditional on premise PBX. The administrative telephones will be replaced with new Polycom IP telephones and the hotel does have the option of keeping their existing guestroom telephones or replacing them with IP telephones. I hope this provides some insight in to how our hosted PBX works from an equipment standpoint.
Stay tuned for the next blog when I review the monthly telephone services.
-Joe