Your phone system is the core of your business. It's what connects you to your clients and
vendors. Unfortunately, phone systems are not cheap - often costing thousands of dollars.
Especially ones that have the features you need. And forget about the ones that you
really want. For small businesses, this can be very frustrating. Not to mention shopping
for a phone system can be overwhelming in itself. Terms, features, pricing plans can be
complex.
Enter trixbox. trixbox is an open-source, IP PBX phone system. trixbox has the features
of a large corporation's phone system, but with a small price tag. trixbox is open-source,
so it is free. It is built upon a collection of software, the core of the system being Asterisk.
All you need to have is a PC to install trixbox on and compatible IP-phones to connect to it.
Blacklist, Call Forward, Call Monitoring, Call Parking, Call Queuing, Call Recording, Conference,
Do Not Disturb, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Music on Hold, Overhead/Local Paging,
Remote Call Pickup, Remote Office Support, Voicemail Visual/Audio Indication, Voicemail
to Email and the list goes on. For full features, visit
www.asterisk.org/support/features.
Other features can be added fairly easily such as Wake-Up Calls, Weather Reports, and
more.
Another great thing about trixbox is that included in this distribution is the popular
web-interface called FreePBX. It makes configuring your phone system a lot more simple
and straightforward. Adding an extension is as easy as clicking a few links and filling
out a few form fields. So if your company has any tech-savvy employees, you could
probably set up and/or modify your own extensions after we set the system up for
you initially.
Not only can trixbox save you money in the short-term, but it can save you money in the
long-term too. It allows you to use ITSPs (Internet Telephony Service Providers) to provide
outgoing and/or incoming phone service which are generally cheaper than your local
telephone company.
If you have more questions or would like to know more, then please
contact me. Or if you
think you are ready to start saving money and have a more robust phone system,
then please don't hesitate to
contact me.
