VOIP PBX Case Study

BACKGROUND
Our client had a traditional PBX from the mid-1990; they had 4 incoming analog telephone lines, 1 fax line, and a T1 for Internet connectivity. The office itself had 2 fulltime employees, an individual who came sporadically, and another individual who rented a desk within the office. In the early 2000’s, their PBX was replaced with a cheaper PBX solution called TalkSwitch. The TalkSwitch interfaced with the 4 analog lines, and allowed the client to also use ‘normal’ telephones.

In 2008, the TalkSwitch failed; replacing it would have cost around $1,400. At this point in my client’s career, there are only two people in the office, so replacing the TalkSwitch seemed to be an unnecessary expense. Furthermore, the cost of the analog telephone lines from AT&T came to around $140 per month plus usage. The TalkSwitch provided rudimentary functionality for call management, voice mail, internal calling, and all the normal calling features. The ability for them to use multiple lines concurrently limited my options for their replacement.

SOLUTION
Since the client already had a high-speed Internet connection, I felt that they were the perfect candidates for VOIP. Instead of buying a $1,400 TalkSwitch, I built them a VOIP PBX that utilizes an Intel Atom processor, Compact Flash, and TrixBox, an open-source PBX solution that runs on Linux. The total cost was $325. Since the client did not want to purchase VOIP telephones, I utilized three Linksys PAP2 to interface with their analog phones, and fax machine. The total cost for all three was $150. There was an additional cost for porting the two phone numbers to the VOIP provider of $20 each.

COST SAVINGS
With their VOIP solution, their monthly cost of the phone service dropped from $150-$200 to under $20 per month. The $20 per month includes three phone numbers (including the fax line), the ability to handle multiple calls concurrently, and caller id. The TrixBox unit provides robust and highly customizable call routing, the ability for the clients to handle calls in the field as if they were in the office. International calls cost less than $5/ hour. Voice message alerts are sent to their individual e-mail addresses. The clients also noticed an improved sound quality of the voice calls, and they noticed that they have unlimited voicemail space.

Regardless of the hardware costs, the operational costs for the old system, assuming an average phone bill of $180, or $2,160 annually. The operational cost for the VOIP system, with the same usage patterns is $240 annually, saving $1,920 per year. The cost of the VOIP PBX and Linksys devices were roughly half the cost of a new TalkSwitch PBX. The cost savings would grow proportionately with a greater number of employees.