IPitomy IP-PBX VS Hosted

The Dilemma

Many companies today are faced with a dilemma of sorts in trying to decide what direction to take their business communications in. Do they go with a premise based IP-PBX solution, or do they take their company in the offsite hosted direction? Hosted marketing material boasts a low monthly cost and a low maintenance model, while the premise based solution boasts more control and the advantage of not being tied to a monthly cost for the life of the business’s communications needs. In order to make a good choice based on the facts, we must closely examine the real cost, features, and benefits of each.

Are You In Control?

As soon as you make the decision to hand off your communications needs to a hosted company, you are no longer in control. Although your hosted company may boast of having essentially no “downtime” you are still at the mercy of the hosted provider’s connections, data center issues and your local internet company. Also, you are not able to troubleshoot issues as easily as you can with a premise based system. Having a hosted solution adds another layer of support to your model; just like calling the phone company. That means you have to rely on someone who may be located halfway across the globe to help you troubleshoot your problems. Your local IT group or local communications vendor can be available in person to troubleshoot your premise based solution. Finally you can customize and make changes to a premise based system much easier than a hosted. You control the system, its upgrades and growth. The key question is, do you want control?

Is Hosted Really A Better Value?

The short answer is no, it is more expensive. To start with, in order to compare apples to apples we are going to break both solutions into a monthly cost. The one misleading marketing tactic that the hosted providers do is compare a large upfront cost of a premise based solution vs. an apparent low monthly cost of the hosted. They also fail to tell you that you are going to be paying their monthly cost forever, as long as you use their service. The truth is, once you break the IPitomy premise based solution down to a monthly payment, the hosted solution begins to lose its shine. Additionally, when you begin to compare them feature for feature, the IPitomy premise based system really leaves the hosted competition lacking.

IPitomy Premise Based Solution

IPitomy IP1100 SIP ready with 20 phones

Features included:

IPitomy IP320 phones with 12 programmable buttons

Busy lamp fields

1000 hours of voicemail with no port limitations

32 party conference bridge

20 park zones

Unlimited Music on hold options per phone, groups, menus

Unlimited auto attendant

Unlimited call groups and queuing

Voicemail/Email integration

Find me follow me

Click to call

Unlimited Paging

16 Q-Manager desktop call management software licenses

Remote phones

Branch offices

Ad-hoc call record for all users

Cost for IPitomy premise based system

20 Phone IPitomy System	$7000.00  $117 (60) month
6 SIP Trunks unlimited	$131.00 month constant
Total monthly 60 month	$248.00
After system payoff	$131.00 month

          Business Savings per month   $328.00

Average Hosted Solution

Hosted with 20 phones

Features included:

Non-proprietary phone (Panasonic/Polycom)

Voicemail/Email integration

Voicemail in the Cloud

1 Auto Attendant

Find me follow me

Click to call

Park zones

Typical Add on Features:

Busy lamp fields

More auto attendants 5.95 month, 49.95 setup per.

Queuing- 49.95 setup

Conferencing $1.50 month and 10 cents per minute

Call record if it is available from your hosted provider

What they don’t typically have.

No desktop call management software

Cost for Hosted Solution without add on features

20 Hosted Phones	$3780.00 $57 (60)month
22.95 per seat unlimited	$459.00 month constant
Total monthly 60 month	$516.00
After phone payoff	$459.00 month

           Business Deficit per month $-328.00 

Notes: If you wanted analogue lines added for dial tone redundancy it would be about $50.00 a month per line; this is something that hosted cannot offer. If your internet goes down you have no service. Even with several backup lines on your premise based system, your monthly cost is still much less than hosted.

Both solutions need adequate internet bandwidth, hosted typically uses more due to cloud routing for all calls.


Reliability

The number one point of failure for any IP network is the Internet pipe, which is needed for both a premise and a hosted solution. Both are equally susceptible to this failure point in regard to outside calling. The premise based system however would still be able to call extension to extension without the Internet.

Premise Based Dial Tone Redundancy

One option that the premise based solution will offer if your internet goes down is that your premise based system can host another type of dial tone, such as backup analogue lines or a PRI which would give you redundancy that your hosted solution cannot provide if the Internet goes down.

Traditional Dial Tone as Primary

Some customers prefer the traditional phone service over Internet phone Service. This is possible with IPitomy and IMPOSSIBLE with hosted. Traditional Digital phone service such as PRI is now available at very affordable prices due to strong completion between carriers. Using a traditional source of dial tone can also be combined with SIP trunks to reduce costs while having a built in redundancy as the SIP trunks will use the Internet and the traditional dial tone use the phone network. Having two providers reduces the chances of catastrophic failure and greatly increases reliability at a minimal cost.

Redundancy

IPitomy systems have the advantage of redundant drives and redundant power to reduce downtime. All of the phones can be programmed to use a secondary server during an outage which can be automatically deployed in the unlikely event of a serious equipment failure. IPitomy has several plans for redundancy that can be quickly deployed when required at a reasonable cost.

New Features and Upgrades

IPitomy offers free software updates for its IP-PBX, which contain new user features that integrates with our proprietary phones. Hosted features are not typically as extensive or robust as our premise based solution, IPitomy can easily integrate new user features into your system.

Contracts

The average hosted provider has the business locked into a three year contract for their entire service. If you have your own PBX the only contract you are locked into is with your Telco provider. If the hosted provider goes out of business you could have problems getting your phone numbers back. With your premise based system you could have a SIP provider along with some analogue lines or even a PRI all with different carriers, which offers you more options for porting, etc.

The IPitomy IP-PBX Makes Sense

Setting QOS Is Important for VoIP

There are many threats that can jeopardize voice traffic on a network.

1. Bandwidth/Packet Loss- The first key to having voice run on your network is having enough bandwidth to handle the amount of voice trffic you will typically have on your network. The IPitomy system typically uses the G.711 codec which uses about 160kbps for each active call. It is mportant to calculate the maximum amount of simultaneous calls you will have to ensure your bandwidth will meet your requirements, otherwise you will experience packet loss.

2. Latency- Latency is another term for delay. As packets pass through the network they are often delayed by network congestion. This is not as big of a problem for data as it is for voice traffic. Anything more than a 250ms roundtrip delay for voice traffic will most likely be noticeable to the caller. Common symptoms of this problem may be echo.

3.  Jitter- Jitter is how much variation there is in that packet delay over a period of time. As the delay time changes it causes what is known as jitter. For example poor LAN connections are a common source of jitter. Setting Quality of Service on the data switch ensures that voice packets have priority on the LAN.

The QOS Solution

Quality of Service gives preferential delivery to your VoIP traffic on your network. This substantially reduces latency, jittter and packet loss. The IPitomy system is capable of many QOS settings. Default it comes set up for DSCP 24 (CS3). On your Netgear Switch, turn on DSCP and then go to DSCP mapping and set CS3 to the highest setting. This will match up your default IPitomy QOS setting (PBX setup/SIP/Advanced) to your Netgear.

 

Note: Not all Netgear GUI interfaces will be the same.

Sales Tip #2: Attitude Matters

In today’s economy many small businesses are doing more with less. It is not uncommon to have an employee filling two roles, that of a technician and a sales adviser for example. Coming from personal experience, it is very hard for most technicians to see themselves as “sales” advisers  It is true that there are many people in certain industries in the field of sales which have given the name “sales” a bad image. We all have experienced that used car salesman who is more concerned with moving a pile of junk off his lot, than he is concerned for the needs of his customer. We should not however let this stereotypical image ruin the image of what real salesmanship is and should be. Whether or not you are exclusively in sales or you wear two hats, attitude is of the utmost importance.

I have spoken before of the importance of building relationships with customers and filling their actual needs and wants. In other words, we need to listen, and then fill a need that we are capable of filling with our service or product. As important as this is to being a successful sales adviser  nothing can make up for a bad attitude. No one likes a sour personality, no matter how great their product or service may be. There has been much said about positive thinking, and much of it is useful. If we have a tendency to be negative, much of our outcomes in life will be negative. Negative people are generally not as successful as positive thinking people.

Part of being in sales is the reality of dealing with rejection. Surveys regularly confirm that there are two top fears that all people have. The top fear is death, and the second is fear of rejection. They say that 75% of sales people fold in the first 90 days because they simply cannot deal with rejection. If they do make it through the first 90 days many develop a negative attitude towards selling, and their sales numbers are poor. Rejection often paralyzes them from making sales calls.

While it is true that not everyone has the calling to be involved in sales, most of us, if we have the right attitude and drive, can be fairly successful at it. If we have the right outlook on ourselves, our product, and on those we will be engaging with, “sales” becomes an art in finding solutions for people, rather than being a numbers game. When we are genuinely concerned with the needs of others, and we have a positive attitude to drive ourselves towards meeting their needs, the negative aspect of rejection disappears.

Here are a few pointers that will help you to realize the importance of a positive attitude.

1. Act: If you have a product that you really think will benefit your customers, then what are you waiting for? They are not coming to you, you have to go to them. Call on companies by phone or in person and introduce yourself. You are never going to sell anyone anything if they do not know anything about you. Procrastinating is the worst thing you can do in sales. If you do not act each day to make contact with as many people as you can, then chances are you are missing a lot of opportunities, and others will cash in on your lack of action. Procrastination and lack of action result from dwelling on negative thoughts. True action follows from positive thoughts.

      2. Introduce Yourself: It is important to make a good first impression. Most people do not like overly aggressive sales people. The key point to understand is that you want to introduce yourself, your company, and your product briefly, for an opportunity that may arise in the future where you can help them find a solution to a challenge or need. Never aggressively imply that you are assuming that they want or need your product when you first meet someone. Always bring down the barrier by letting them know that you are not assuming they are looking for a new product or another company to do business with, but that if in the future, should the need arise, here is what you have to offer. This takes the pressure off you and the customer, but leaves the door wide open for a future relationship. Most sales do not happen the first time you meet someone. Rest assured, if they are in need of your product at the present time they will let you know once you briefly introduce it.

      3. Believe: It is important to believe that you will succeed in winning over your potential customers. A lack of confidence is easily spotted by most people. Confidence, not arrogance, puts people at ease. It conveys the idea that they are going to do business with a well-established person and company. If you don’t believe in your product, neither will they.

      4. Smile: No one likes an angry looking sales advisor. A smile is worth a thousand words and can open up doors very easily. Nothing can turn away a potential customer faster than an unenthusiastic stick in the mud. Present yourself positively and with genuine enthusiasm.

      5. Follow Through: Once you make initial contact with a possible customer, do not wait for them to call you back unless they explicitly tell you not to follow up. Always let them know that you will check back with them in a defined period of time. This allows you to further develop your relationship and to see if they have any questions or feedback for you. If you say you are going to call them back in two weeks, be sure to follow through on that promise. If they are not available be sure to leave a message to let them know that you were following up as promised.

      6. Keep the Doors Open: Always do everything you can to keep relationships alive even if there is no immediate probability they will do business with you. A ‘no’ today can often be a ‘yes’ several months or even years later. There is nothing wrong with a periodic check in to see if anything has changed for them.

      7. Know When To Drop It: Sometimes there will be instances where you cannot meet the needs of the customer. Although these instances should be rare, when this happens it is crucial to let your customer know that your product or company is not a good fit for them. They will appreciate the honesty in not trying to sell them something that is not going to work for them. There are many times where they will even refer a friend of theirs to you, who you may be able to help. 

    

Programming Dialed Emergency Alerts

With our release of the 4.8.6 software, our new alerts application is now available as an add-on. With the increasing need for schools and other organizations to be informed in times of emergencies or threats, this application is sure to be widely utilized. This video explains how to program a dialed alert on the IPitomy system. 

Programming IPitomy Menus

Our new training video explains the power of IPitomy menus and how to program them on your system. To view on YouTube click here. 

Sales Tip #1- What Is Important To You Is Not Always Important To Your Customer

When it comes to being a successful sales adviser, it is important to listen to your potential customer. They may be interested in purchasing a new phone system for a variety of reasons. Their old system may be old and in need of replacement, or their needs may have changed since their last purchase, where certain features or options were not available. Some of your future customers may not be actively looking for a phone system, thinking that it is out of their price range. Regardless of which of these categories they fall into, there will be one or two particular reasons that they will be interested in doing business with you. It is your job to find out what they are. Here are few things to keep in mind to as you engage your potential customer. 

1. Build a relationship, not a sales opportunity. 

Those who are in the business of making a fast buck will not be successful in the long haul. A good sales adviser is one who actually cares what his customer is interested in. They want to help their customer rather than sell them. Most people do not buy from those they do not like or do not see as being sincere. Trust is a key factor. Build a sincere relationship, and you will have a customer for life. 

2. Find out what is important to them. 

We all have a tendency to project our own ideas of what is important to us onto others. This is not to say that you should not point out things that the customer may have overlooked that could be of importance to them. However, if you dismiss their initial concerns only to replace them with your own ideas, you are most likely to turn your customer off and lose their interest or trust. 

3. Listen first, offer solutions second. 

When you have the opportunity to meet with your potential customer be sure to afford them the opportunity to speak and express their concerns first. Ask questions so that you can find out the best way to meet their needs. Write them down when they are speaking so that you can address them specifically, offering solutions for each. 

4. Know your product. 

None of these steps will work unless you have them underpinned by product knowledge. In order to offer solutions, you have to know what solutions you have to offer them. The more solutions your product and company can offer the more likely you are able to fill your customer's needs. 

In summary, you must build a good relationship with your potential customers and truly be interested in helping them find solutions, if you want to win their trust and their business. Learn first what is important to them, fill those needs, and then offer additional solutions that they may be interested in. Know your product well so you can offer them legitimate solutions to their concerns. 

IPitomy offers our dealers free technical training online through our IPItomy Academy. The IPitomy WIKI is also a valuable resource when it comes to finding solutions for your customer's needs. 

Free Live Seminar Los Angeles July 18th

For those living near Los Angeles who are interested in learning more about IPitomy and its robust IP-PBX system, we will be having a live seminar. On July 18th at the Double Tree- Garden Grove, we will cover a variety of topics including navigating the programming interface, new features, and troubleshooting network issues, to name a few. It will last from about 9AM to 4PM and includes lunch. Don't wait to register, seating is limited. For more information and registration go to this link. 

IPitomy Solutions for Your Business!

IPitomy Solutions for Your Business!

FIVE KEY SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

We are not assuming that you are looking for another product or company to do business with. However, if you are considering looking at an IP-PBX solution, we are here to help. Whether you are looking for your first IP-PBX or looking to add another product to your lineup, we believe IPitomy will enhance your business and help you stand out in the industry.

Our company is built around finding cutting edge solutions for today’s communications industry. There are five key solutions that IPitomy offers that make us a sound choice.

1. Remarkable Price Point

2. Largest Standard Feature Set in the Industry

3. Amazing Dealer Support

4. Ease of Installation

5. Cutting Edge Technology

“When you sign on as a dealer with IPitomy you are getting much more than the robust IPitomy IP-PBX that you can build your business upon. You actually have chosen to enter into a relationship with our team, so that we can help you overcome the challenges you face day to day.”

REMARKABLE PRICEPOINT

We have met the needs of the industry by providing a cutting edge product at an amazing cost. Our remarkable pricepoint usually sets us at least 30% below the competition. That means you can pass that savings on to your customer while giving them access to the latest technology. That means that you are able to provide the best value for your customer in the industry.

LARGEST STANDARD FEATURE SET IN THE INDUSTRY

IPitomy has listened to the demands of our dealers and their customers. We have developed applications for individual customer needs. Our robust call presence software, ‘Q-Manager’ was first developed for a florist. It now comes standard on most of our system packages. IPitomy has standardized its robust feature set across all four system platforms to include features such as our 1000 hours of voicemail with no port limitations, a 32 party amplified conference bridge, unlimited auto attendant, unlimited call queuing, unlimited call groups, remote extensions, and unified email/voicemail integration.

AMAZING DEALER SUPPORT

 While IPitomy offers “the” state of the art “Pure” IP-PBX at an incredible price, we understand that the product alone does not assure you or your customer’s needs are met. Our relationship with our dealers is important to us. We are committed to giving our active dealers free training and free technical support. All of our licensing is “one time” licensing. That means no annual fees!

Another concern for dealers was having a quota hanging over their heads in order to retain better pricing or service from their venders. IPitomy believes that all of our dealers deserve the same low price and service regardless of volume. So we require no sales quotas. Instead we look for ways to help you sell. Our sales advisers offer live webinars with our dealers and their prospective customers to help make the sale.

EASE OF INSTALLATION

We know your time is important, so we believe in making things easy. We have designed one of the easiest to use GUI interfaces in the industry. This allows you program systems quickly, which saves you time, and money. It also means that your customer has a smoother transition from their old system to their new state of the art system. By using your Internet browser you can access the system locally or remotely and make programming changes or software upgrades.

CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY

IPitomy is always looking to the future to bring you the latest and most usable features to the industry. We have just introduced our new emergency notification application and Cloud services to our platform, and there are many new applications in the works. Our open source technology allows us to stay ahead of the large proprietary based manufacturers. Choose IPitomy, it’s the smart choice!

IPitomy: Not Just a Cool Product, You Join a Team

In today’s market most companies want you to buy their stellar product or service, yet few actually want to understand your needs, challenges and goals, and then help you tackle them. While products and services are an integral part of a company, it cannot be separated from the company and its employees who stand behind them, essentially holding them up and giving them life. There are many companies out there that have a great product, yet a few negative experiences with a customer service rep, or a refusal to help solve a problem can kill the customer’s relationship with the product. This is why IPitomy has spent so much of its effort building team relationships with its dealers.

While IPitomy offers the state of the art “Pure” IP-PBX at an incredible price, we understand that the product alone does not assure you or your customer’s needs are met, or if the current challenge you are facing can be overcome. Our sales advisers, tech support agents, and engineers however can team with you to offer solutions to these concerns. When you sign on as a dealer with IPitomy you are getting much more than the robust IPitomy IP-PBX that you can actually build your business upon. You actually have chosen to enter into a relationship with our team, so that we can help you overcome the challenges you face day to day. Whether it is needing advice on how to meet the needs of your customer, or finding the answer to your challenging network issue, we are here to help.

IPitomy does not just sign you up as a dealer, send you a demo pack and then push you into the street. We want to help you along as you take your business in an exciting new direction. We have an excellent online training academy so you can learn the system at your own pace. Our tech support is second to none with an average wait time around 60 to 90 seconds.  Our engineering department has actually developed applications upon request, such as our powerful Q-Manager, designed for the specific needs of a florist. It was such a success that it has now become part of our basic system packages.

Our team of sales advisers are always eager to share our company and its product with live webinars. In fact, if you have a potential customer who is not sure about their purchasing decision, schedule them to meet you on a webinar with us and we will be glad to share IPitomy with them. Sometimes it is nice to have another person who can give the customer another perspective when they are considering their next large purchase. Not only does it give them another perspective, it gives them confidence in the product and service they are buying. We want to create a true team experience for you and for them.  When you need help selling, our sales advisers are there to give you a hand. We are not hounding you to meet next month’s quota, since we have no quotas. Instead we are here to help you find solutions to you and your customer’s concerns, challenges and needs.  We know that ultimately it’s the relationship with our dealers, and their relationships with their customers is what really brings our cool, state of the art communications system to life!

Recent testimonial

Hello,

I'm not sure where this email should go, but I just wanted to say a few things about the support staff. So I hope this makes it to the right place. I've been in IT for roughly 17 years now, and I have seen the steady decline of customer/vendor support. These days it is normal to either place an email and hope someone gets back with you or place a call and hope you can understand the person on the other side (Usually very smart individuals, but still very hard to understand). 

You can imagine my surprise when Steve gave me a number to call and someone answered... And not just answered but helped! Every time I have called in, whether it is a basic question or something a little more out there, the support staff has always helped. IPitomy seems like a close knit company so I'm sure everyone already knows how well the support division handles their duties but I felt it important to let you and everyone there know just how great the team has been! 

Thanks again! 

Using the IPitomy Worksheet For Extension Programming

One of the great benefits of using the IPitomy system is its ease of programming. Our GUI interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, and it saves you time and money on your installation. One of the first steps in programming is setting up your extensions. Our IPitomy worksheet allows you to type in all of your extension and email information, and convert it to a CSV file which can be loaded into the system that will set up all of your extensions for you. Just click on the lightning bolt and it converts it for you. On top of that, there are other tabs in which you can gather information from the customer that will assist you in completing the rest of your programming in the GIU.  Below are a few screenshots of the worksheet. For a closer look, click on each image. At IPitomy we make it easy. 

IPitomy Call Routing Configuration

This video is part II of the last trunking video. It covers the configuration of call routing on the IPitomy IP-PBX. 

IPitomy Trunking Configuration

Here is our latest tech video for setting up your trunks on your IPitomy IP-PBX. It covers analogue, PRI and SIP trunking setup.