Unified Communication, Anywhere Communications

The migration to FULL IP and the abandonment of traditional telephone lines force us to rethink the structure of corporate communications in this new key.
In truth, this migration has already started a few years ago, guaranteeing advantages exclusively to operators who have adopted it, in fact several operators instead of traditional telephone lines have been providing for some time lines that apparently seem traditional, but which are generated by the equipment provided by the operator himself.
So the operator has already made the switch to FULL IP, but providing the user with a traditional connection.

In this scenario, the user completely loses the advantages of FULL IP while suffering to some extent the disadvantages.

The FULL IP allows access to most of the communication and entertainment services, in a convergent way, using the IP network and the Internet.
This allows to offer all users a greater number of services in order to simplify and extend the potential of corporate communication both internally and towards customers, including Mobility, Unified Communication, Collaboration, and more.

In fact, the operator delivers the “traditional” telephone lines you need, using your data line, purchased for internet access, to transport them, with the disadvantage of concentrating all the risks on a single type of service, precisely the internet access, which if not available, would compromise not only internet access but also your telephone communications.
This happens because the operator’s goal is to simplify his own network and service management, neglecting the user’s needs: for example in case of needing a greater number of simultaneous channels while using your access band. to the internet, you should in any case pay the operator a higher fee for the additional channels requested, without this being automatically converted into a greater available bandwidth.

Unlike traditional operators, we are able to propose solutions for migration to FULL IP, perfectly in line with your needs, with immediately visible advantages:

• Greater bandwidth capacity for internet connections, which will make it possible to obtain a greater number of simultaneous voice channels, freely choosing the best service and cost conditions from among the operators on the market, managing migrations from one operator to another without disruption, ensuring efficiency and continuity of the telephone and communication service in general.
  
  
• Fees for VoIP numbers, significantly lower than traditional operators.
  
  
• Better security conditions and service availability, integrating VoIP lines (on which calls will transit under normal conditions) and traditional ISDN lines (as long as they are still available, mainly used for redundancy and backup, therefore with a lower economic impact), to achieve unparalleled redundancy configurations and service availability.
  Alternatively, or once the traditional lines are completely decommissioned, it will be possible to obtain the same result by having an additional data line from an operator other than the main one to obtain the same service.
  
  
• Visibility of your switchboard on the internet, to also allow mobility services (to be reachable as extensions of your switchboard even when off-site, anywhere in the world), home working services (as for mobility, you can equip employees with a fixed telephone terminal, even when they operate from home and / or part time).
  Each extension can be freely configured to operate in predefined time slots, allowing the operator, if necessary, to suspend or activate his own extension, even outside the predefined time slots, transferring calls to other colleagues in the event of suspension.
  Both on the move and in home working, the user always has the same services and the same functions available on company landline phones, therefore not a simple call transfer, but complete inter-operability with their colleagues and with groups of call configured, while being out of office.
  

• Chat, Conference and Collaboration services available to both internal users and customers, improving and extending communication skills.
  For example, from the website the customer can request information and telephone assistance, at no cost to the customer and at no cost to you.
  
  
• A number of simultaneous channels adequate to the needs of the company without additional costs for interfaces and fees, precisely because the largest number of calls that occur is normally incoming.
  The solution is also suitable not only for larger companies and users, but also for smaller companies that need, in certain periods, a greater number of channels, to be sure of being able to provide an adequate service. with traditional solutions, to pay for a service that will be used only for short periods throughout the year.

A logical consequence of FULL IP are the Virtual Switchboard and Cloud PBX solutions that allow, thanks to FULL IP, to have a completely Cloud solution.

The Virtual Switchboard solution is the most widespread and is normally an active solution on a shared platform, it usually has some limitations:

1. A greater consumption of internet bandwidth, in fact even when two users of the same office are in conversation with each other their conversation is not local, but two channels are active towards the Cloud, thus using the company’s internet band.
2. The lack of internet connection is usually a problem for this solution, resulting in a complete or partial unavailability of the service.
   In fact, the absence of an internet connection will not allow company terminals to register with the virtual switchboard in the Cloud, for example also preventing conversations between users present in the same company headquarters
3. The fact that to remedy the problem, some operators claim to provide some backup configurations, which usually limit the active services (group calls and announcement and automatic answer services).

When the operator also has the mobile service, it offers the ONE NUMBER as a function, that is the possibility of answering both landline and mobile network calls from your mobile device.
Apparently, while presenting itself as an advantage and a useful functionality, the service is disconnected from the company logic, according to which, for example, a service and/or a user is available in a pre-defined time slot that can be modified by the user.
However, this is a functionality of the operator’s control unit and not a functionality of the virtual switchboard, therefore any modification must be requested from the operator and is permanent until a new modification request is made and there is no possibility for the user to manage it independently.

On the other hand, the CLOUD PBX solution is not available to operators except with some exceptions that provide for a specific project and are intended almost exclusively for medium and large companies.
CLOUD PBX is usually meant a virtual switchboard but intended only for a company, this allows greater customization of the service, getting closer to the needs of the company.

Basically it has the same limitations as the virtual switchboard, and even if in medium and large companies it is possible to have redundant internet access and/or with extremely limited repair times in case of breakdowns, disruptions to the internet connection can reduce significantly the services, as described above.
In some scenarios it is possible to create redundant solutions with local PBXs, with more limited resources and functionalities, within each office, but which normally do not guarantee the same functionalities of the solution in optimal conditions and do not allow the local PBX to be redundant. present in some particular situations that need an absolutely mission critical infrastructure, especially in communication.

Our solution is the Virtual Switchboard and Cloud PBX – ICS CLOUD PBX and it stands out from other solutions available on the market because it allows you to fully interpret the customer’s needs, regardless of the size and sectors to which they belong and the need for availability and continuity of the service.

Both in the Virtual Switchboard version (shared platform) and in the CLOUD PBX solution (dedicated platform), there is a local switchboard with ISDN interfaces at the customer’s premises.
The local PBX operates in slave mode, that is as an extension of the Cloud PBX, it accepts configurations and services from the Virtual PBX in the Cloud but does not use any channel to the cloud for conversations between internal users.
It thus significantly reduces bandwidth consumption and, consequently, the need to have a particularly expensive internet connection.
The only consideration in choosing the band of your internet connection is exclusively related to external communications, even in the presence of several hundreds or thousands of users within the same office, they will be able to freely communicate with each other without any limit and without consuming internet bandwidth.

The solutions of Virtual Switchboard and CLOUD PBX, in general, respond to the company’s desire to completely outsource the service to the advantage of certain costs that include assistance and maintenance services, allowing you to always have a state-of-the-art solution, able to cover the panorama of internal and external corporate communications, which is increasingly fundamental in the life of every company.

So the first difference between our solution and that of our competitors is the local installation of a switchboard that eliminates traffic to the internet for local calls, under normal conditions, and that can operate as a backup switchboard in the presence of problems with the company internet connection.

But our solution guarantees additional levels of redundancy:

• Redundancy is active in both directions, not only when the local internet connection is unavailable, but also in the event of a local switchboard failure.
  So until the reset, the terminals will automatically register to the Cloud.
  For needs of total security, the local switchboard can be locally redundant and in any case, whatever scenario is activated, both in normal conditions and in backup conditions, the complete functions will always be available.
  The redundancy service and functionalities are available and within the reach of any type of company and of any size, from the smallest to the large and very large ones and / or public administration.
• Redundancy with the local switchboard achieves 100% availability and continuity of service for internal communications.
  However, it can also be extended to VoIP numbers, in two different modes chosen by the company, by configuring one or more backup ISDN lines on the local switchboard (BRI and PRI, until the service is available) or by activating a second data line of a different operator that will be activated automatically in case of failure of the main connection.
  In both scenarios, the absence of inefficiencies for events of this type is guaranteed, allowing to reach 100% redundancy even towards external lines.

Another, and not secondary, problem is the security of communications.
Knowledge and information have always been a corporate asset, which every company undertakes to protect in all ways, but telephone communications are almost always left out.
Wiretapping and telephone spying are increasingly widespread activities, they can be carried out at the operator, on the mandate of the Authority and therefore in a legal way, but often, as the news shows us, in a non-legal way.
In our solution, internal and/or thowards internal calls are always end-to-end type and can be protected by encryption, therefore no parts of the voice traffic transits on the local switchboard and/or in the cloud, guaranteeing greater security in your own communications.
Our solution cannot be configured in any way in “MAN IN THE MIDDLE” mode, without the user’s knowledge.

The redundancy functions, to be efficient and really available, must include within the scenarios themselves, that all the components of the project, from the operator to the last terminal, must support the redundancy functions, without requiring human intervention.
Each component we use is able to perform the task, guaranteeing redundancy scenarios up to 100%, the service is therefore suitable for companies operating in critical sectors, such as finance, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical, transport, public administrations, etc., where the availability of communications must be 100% guaranteed and where special equipment for the disabled, for Ex environments, with man down warning, etc. must be available. which in critical conditions can make a difference.

All the functions described can also be demonstrated not only in a protected environment, such as our laboratory, but also at your company, obviously without any commitment.
Also aks our competitors, field comparisons are always stimulating for us.