Key System Features Make Hosted Services More Competitive

8x8 (News - Alert) Inc. announced that it is introducing key-system features to its Virtual Office service for small businesses, including multiple line-appearances and new phones to support the feature.

The new Virtual Office key-system features may be unique among hosted small-business VoIP services, and are significant as the type of service enhancement that will help make hosted voice services more competitive in an arena where they sometimes struggle to gain acceptance: small businesses now using traditional key systems.

Besides multiple line appearances, the new 8x8 service adds an internal intercom and a searchable corporate directory to the existing features of its Virtual Office service. Virtual Office is a hosted PBX service, providing local and long-distance voice service, as well as an array of typical PBX features, at a fixed monthly rate over broadband connections.

The new features are enabled by the new Packet8 675xi series of IP desktop phones, by Aastra (News - Alert) Telecom, the North American business unit of Stockholm-based Aastra Technologies. The phones include large screens, support for multiple line-appearances and the intercom, and extras, such as wireless headsets. Packet8 also says the phones offer improved sound quality over its existing terminal adaptors.

Small business, historically has been a very conservative market, one that is reluctant to give up traditional features, such as shared line-appearances and the ability to park a call on hold and have it picked up by someone else in the office. “One of the benefits here is that they can still be comfortable in their ways, and have the same features and functions that they are used, to but with lower up-front costs,” points out David Lemelin, senior analyst, business markets In-Stat (News - Alert).

He adds: “Where they have a collaborative environment with multiple people this is a good solution ... [such as] where they are bringing a lot of people onto a call or they need the ability for anyone in an office to answer a call.”

The new features also bring VoIP’s unique ability to support distributed employees to offices that do not have that capability. “With most key systems you are limited to one geographic spot, but with this particular application you can have this functionality,” says Lemelin.

According to Packet8, the Aastra phone includes an XML browser that is customizable and will allow the company to add other features at a later date. One feature that has been a staple of older key systems is the ability to unlock a door remotely, such as a back door used for deliveries. While such a feature might be useful in shop-based businesses or retail, “it’s kind of niche-y” Lemelin says.

Meanwhile, Aastra itself launched a competitive product, an IP PBX, called Aastralink RP, a product that includes the Microsoft (News - Alert) Response Point system software. Response Point adds voice-enabled features to phone systems, such as the ability to dial a contact by saying the name.

Charlotte Wolter (News - Alert) is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.

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