Deerfield.com 3CX Blog

Here’s a “can’t miss” webinar if you are in the process of deploying a 3CX Phone System for yourself, or others.  Learning how to properly and automatically provision phone extensions is one of the biggest time-savers in a 3CX installation.  Join Kevin Attard Compagno for the Webcast, and learn how easy it really is!

3CX will now be providing additional free training Webcasts on more advanced topics. They have changed their online conferencing solution from Webex to Microsoft Live Meeting and can now support an unlimited number of attendees. The webcast will use built-in VoIP for audio – so there will be no need to call into a conference call number.

The first one is scheduled for Tuesday 16 February 2010 at 1500hrs (GMT+1).

To Join the Webcast:

Go to https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/meetwith3cx/join?id=8KFN4K&role=attend and follow the on-screen instructions. No prior registration is necessary.

We should be able to accommodate anyone who wants to be present! (previously the limit was 25)

The Agenda

• Extension and Phone Provisioning
  • Time & Date, TimeZone, DST
  • Preparing the Extension for Provisioning via the 3CX Management Console
  • Setting the Phone to retrieve its configuration files:
    • via DHCP Option 66
    • manually

Looking forward to seeing you online!

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OK.  I have to admit I was very skeptical, if not gagging on the idea of carrying a line of SIP phones named "Yealink".  I learned of them about a year ago, actually from Nick Galea (3CX CEO) originally.  If I recall - he told me that he had been contacted by their reps and were interested in having 3CX perform interop testing on their line of products (3CX since has completed testing - and 3CX Phone System software contains templates for some models now).  My skepticism was furthered by the fact that these phones have a MSRP far below other popular quality brands, and.. oh yeah, they are called "Yealink" ..  I remember briefly inquiring about distribution of these phones and learned that at that time we'd have to purchase a full container of them and go through the import process ourselves.  They were not being warehoused in the US at that time.  I thought..  no way .. end of story, forget about them, move on ...

Then about three months ago, I'm in Mike Ryan's office (Deerfield 3CX Product Manager) and he's got some new phone sitting on his desk... yup, a Yealink.  Apparently the US Yealink rep sent one of these to him for testing, and Mike's been in discussions with him about adding them to our product portfolio.  He offered to let me try it - but then I couldn't bring myself to putting a "Yealink" on my desk.  Mike at that time told me that he was very impressed with the phone - in particular how easy is was to provision, and use.  Yeah, right (I thought) and left his office.  But then on a subsequent trip into his office, I glanced over and saw that he was actually still using the forbidden "Y" phone and the screen display was actually showing the 3CX Logo.  How cool, you mean I can put a piece of black tape over the Yealink name (I joked) and have a 3CX phone on my desk!?  Ok - so I agreed to try it.  Mike reset it back to factory defaults and gave it to me.

So back I went to my office and I provisioned it.  From a manual provisioning standpoint (when you hand enter sip account details, etc.) I have to admit that is was probably the easiest sip phone I have ever set up.  Then I started to use it, and actually by the end of the week - I grew to really like this phone.  The particular model I was testing was the T28P, which retails for $188.95.  It is very easy to use, and the sound quality rivals those phones that we have in the upper end of the price spectrum (~$250-$300).  So afterward Mike Ryan took (stole) the phone back from me - but I have to admit I am sold on the value that the "phones that start with Y" bring - and actually asked him to get them into our product portfolio.  Which he did.  BTW - they are now being warehoused and supported here in the US, and are available via our Deerfield.net VoIP and IP PBX Solutions Center.  Is it OK if I just call it the "Y" phone?

Update:  With the new release of 3CX 8.0.10824 - additional support for Yealink has been added.  Specifically, improved provisioning templates, and the ability to remotely reboot the phones from the 3CX admin.

As usual, the team at 3CX continues to improve the IP PBX Phone System and desktop components at a blistering pace.   3CX has just released a new version (8.0.10824) of the PBX along with a new version of the 3CX Assistant.

One significant advancement – a huge improvement for 3CX admin’s:
- Ability to download Service packs and Component Updates for 3CX Phone System - without the need to uninstall and re-install 3CX Phone System.
From what we understand this applies only if one is already running version 8 of 3CX.  Major upgrades v8 to v9 as example may still require an uninstall/reinstall and will be noted accordingly.

Additionally:

- Added Yealink provisioning templates and the ability to reboot remotely.
- Added: Voicemail Message includes FROM CALLER ID in email notification

The 3CX Assistant now includes a TAPI driver which will allow for greater integration with popular CRM desktop applications such as GoldMine and Act!.

•Added: Better integration between Call assistant and 3CX Phone
•Added: Call Assistant can be set to Park multiple calls either on incremental orbits or on a specific parking orbit
•Added: Call Assistant shows internal calls
NOTE:The NEW TAPI is only available if Version 8.0.10820 is newly installed.  If updates are downloaded from 3CX server, the old tapi driver will remain installed.

Complete News announcement is available at: http://www.deerfield.net/news.aspx?showarticle=24

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3CX provides monthly free training Webcasts, and the next one is scheduled for Thursday 11 February 2010 at 1500hrs (GMT+1).

This will be presented via Webex using its built-in VoIP for audio – so there will be no need to call into a conference call number.

To Sign Up

1. Go to http://meetwith3cx.webex.com
2. Under the “Attend a Meeting” Node in the left hand side, click the “Browse Meetings” option.
3. Browse through the dates and find the date for this meeting. Click the “Register” link for your meeting.
4. Enter your Personal Details and click the “Register Now” button
5. You will receive an email with instructions on how to join this meeting

The 3CX technical camp has been very busy producing training materials for the new 3CX Visual Application Designer (VAD) that was featured last week with new reduced pricing.  The 3CX VAD allows 3CX resellers, customers, and consultants to easily build integrated applications for 3CX Phone System installations.

This YouTube video will explain what a built-in component is, and explain in detail out of the box call related components.

Skills Covered by this Module

• What are built-in components?
• Concepts reused in many components:
  • Input and output properties
  • Types of properties
  • Expressions
• Component templates: how does the VAD initialize components?
• Call related components
  • Menu
  • User Input
  • Prompt Playback
  • Record
  • Transfer
  • Disconnect Call

The 3CX Voice Application Designer (VAD) is a great tool to build Voice applications that interact with callers and automate tedious tasks – thereby improving customer service and employee productivity. The 3CX VAD makes it easy to build and maintain such applications.

To make the tool within reach of all businesses, we are announcing a price reduction. The new pricing of the tool will be an MSRP of $995. See this link for full pricing.

Additionally, 3CX has produced a couple of new training videos to help get you started producing your own 3CX applications.  Please take a few moments and review the Youtube videos and you’ll be off and running in no time!

This YouTube video will introduce you to the 3CX Voice Application Designer. It explains basic but important concepts to understand how it works and what can be done with it.

To follow along with the tutorials, click here to download  the Visual Application Designer.

Skills Covered by this Module

• What is 3CX Voice Application Designer?
• How does it work?
• Available editions compared
• Basic concepts: project, call flow, built-in component and custom component
• What is the main flow, the error handler flow and the disconnect handler flow

How would you like to be the owner of a shiny new metal embossed Deerfield.com business card holder and pen set?  Enticed?  Here’s how.  Visit the Deerfield.com 3CX Facebook site and become a fan in the next 2 weeks and you will be automatically entered to win!  There is no purchase necessary, and we’ll award the lucky winner(s) purely at random.  Also – if you are already a fan of the Deerfield 3CX page, you can enter by simply posting a comment to the wall expressing your favorite v8 3CX feature.  The Deerfield.com 3CX Facebook page is a great place to stay in tune with the latest 3CX developments, while interacting with other 3CX users, and Deerfield staff!  Join up, Jump in and Connect!  Looking forward to seeing you there, you social animal you ..

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The end of 2009 marked a significant accomplishment for Deerfield Communications Inc (aka deerfield.com and deerfield.net) as a best selling 3CX distributor worldwide for a third year in a row.  This is largely due to Deerfield’s commitment as a 3CX “pure-play” relative to its VoIP IP PBX efforts; focusing solely on 3CX Phone System for Windows as Deerfield’s exclusive IP PBX offering.  I believe our commitment to customer service combined with our high degree of competence with MS Windows server applications aligns our customers on a path of success.  Whether deploying 3CX internally or at a customer site, Deerfield can provide our customers the resources necessary to ensure a smooth installation and operation.

2009 marked the opening of Deerfield.com’s VoIP Telephony and IP PBX Solution Center website, which features all of the software, hardware, and support necessary to successfully deploy a 3CX Phone System for Windows.  Additionally several other efforts to inform and interact with partners and customers of 3CX were continued with high commitment levels;  specifically the Deerfield 3CX Blog, 3CX Telephony Advisor, Deerfield’s 3CX FaceBook page, and Twitter updates.  Deerfield was also active offering onsite boot-camp style training and marketing presence for 3CX at multiple trade shows.

2010 will be the best-ever for 3CX, and its partners and customers.  Running a Windows-based IP PBX has never been more compelling than now, with 3CX’s improved simplicity, functionality, and reduced TCO.  We continue our commitment to being a leader with 3CX this year as well.  We plan to do that by earning your business, and providing the best 3CX experience possible anywhere, worldwide, period.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to all of the 3CX partners and end-user customers that have put their trust in us to be their VoIP Telephony provider of choice! – Mike Deerfield, CEO Deerfield Communications Inc.

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Deerfield Communications Inc., 3CX Phone System for Windows distributor is pleased to announce the addition of Polycom IP desk and conference phones to the Deerfield.net VoIP Solutions Website portal aimed at 3CX partners and customers.  Polycom is a longstanding and recognizable brand in the US market, and abroad – known for their superior construction, sound quality, and unmatched conference phones.

In the early life of 3CX, Polycom support within 3CX was minimalistic, requiring manual configuration for the most part.  However that all changed in the Version 8 release of 3CX, and now Polycom is one of the “preferred” supported endpoints for the popular VoIP IP PBX.  Helping to propel this forward was a newsworthy installation of 3CX by audio giant Euphonix.  Those interested in learning more about why Euphonix selected Polycom as their endpoint of choice can click here and read the case study.

Deerfield currently offers a variety of 10 phones and 2 expansion module options.  A product specific datasheet is available for each phone and downloadable from our eSupport site and on the Polycom product page. 

3CX’s popular free business soft phone gets intuitive new interface

London 12 January, 2010 – 3CX today announced a new version of its popular free VoIP softphone for Windows, 3CXPhone 4.0. 3CXPhone 4.0 sports an all new interface that should be familiar to millions of users the world over. Similar in look and feel to popular smart-phones, users will be able to make and receive calls without requiring any training.

“3CXPhone is a great VoIP phone for businesses. It’s easy to deploy and manage for network administrators. Users will love it for its cool look and intuitive interface.” Said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO.

Completely free

3CXPhone is provided completely free of charge to individuals and organizations including commercial entities. All features (including call transfer) are enabled. This makes it easy for companies to deploy it on any Windows desktop without having to worry about cost or licensing hassles.

Remote extensions are easy with the 3CX Tunnel

3CXPhone can easily be configured as a remote extension, allowing users away from the office to easily connect to the corporate phone system. The unique tunnel feature proxies all SIP & RTP traffic over a single port and makes firewall and NAT configuration a breeze. It is also possible to configure it as a remote extension using ‘direct SIP’.

“The soft-phone is becoming a serious ‘IP phone option’ for businesses.  They are easy to manage, save on electricity and administration.  3CXPhone is free of charge and is also very easy to setup as a remote extension, allowing users to connect into the company phone system from wherever they are” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO.

3CXPhone 4 is international

3CXPhone 4 is available in several languages. Besides English, it is also available in German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and very soon in French.

3CX Phone – key features:

• Choose from several popular phone interfaces
• Supports multiple SIP profiles
• Shows personal call log/history
• FREE – no license fees
• Supports G.711, GSM, iLBC and Speex codecs
• STUN support for NAT/firewall traversal
• Installation provided as MSI for easy deployment
• Works with 3CX Phone System, Asterisk and popular  VoIP providers
• Supports Plantronics headsets
• Environmentally friendly

More information and download

More information about 3CXPhone 4 can be found on its product page. A dedicated user to user support forum is available here.   3CXPhone 4 can be downloaded directly from here:

http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXPhone4.msi

About 3CX

3CX is the market leader in Windows VoIP PBX software. Its product, 3CX Phone System for Windows, has earned Windows Server Certification and has received numerous awards, including The Windowsnetworking.com Gold Award, the Windows IT Pro magazine 2008 Editor’s Best Award and a Best Buy Award by Computer Shopper Magazine. 3CX has offices in the UK, USA, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Australia and Hong Kong. For more information visit http://www.3cx.com/.

One of the greatest features found in the more recent versions of 3CX Phone System for Windows, is the ability to provide automatic provisioning for SIP phone extensions.  This is a great time saver for 3CX admins – especially in larger installations, but it can also save significant time even in deployments of 5 phones or less.  Additionally, 3CX automated provisioning will allow you to standardize the configuration of phones across the entire 3CX installation.

Below is a sub-seven minute video by 3CX’s Kevin Attard Compagno, that will get you up and running with automated provisioning in no time!

Deerfield.com highly recommends that our customers purchase paid support and upgrade protection for the products we represent whenever possible.  We recognize however that there are 30 day evaluations of most of our products available, and in the case of 3CX – even free, non-expiring versions of the software.  In order to better serve those that need access to pre-sales, or after-hours support, we’re now offering two additional avenues to our customers:

1. A searchable knowledgebase of articles related to 3CX (and accompanying hardware) configurations are located here

2. Ticket-based email access to our 3CX technical staff is located here

Both of these options are accessible via the Deerfield.com 3CX support pages located here, and the support section of the Deerfield Communications Inc. VoIP Telephony Solution Center located here.

Additionally, 3CX offers many free pre-sales support options as well to users of 3CX Phone System for Windows - free, or paid versions:

1. The 3CX forums located here

2. The 3CX Wiki located here

3. The 3CX Academy Training Site located here

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Start the New Year out right with 3CX and Deerfield.com by attending free 3CX Online Training!

3CX provides monthly free training Webcasts, and the next one is scheduled for Thursday 14 January 2010 at 1500hrs (GMT+1).

This will be presented via Webex using its built-in VoIP for audio – so there will be no need to call into a conference call number.

To Sign Up

1. Go to http://meetwith3cx.webex.com
2. Under the “Attend a Meeting” Node in the left hand side, click the “Browse Meetings” option.
3. Browse through the dates and find the date for this meeting. Click the “Register” link for your meeting.
4. Enter your Personal Details and click the “Register Now” button
5. You will receive an email with instructions on how to join this meeting

The Agenda

• Extensions
  • Creating Extensions
  • Voicemail Options for Extensions
  • Provisioning for Extensions, including BLF
  • Forwarding Rules for Extensions
  • Remote Extensions
  • VoIP Phone direct without Tunnel
  • VoIP Phone with Tunnel
  • Tunnel use with standard phones
• Gateways
  • Creating a Gateway
  • Demonstrate ease-of-implementation for Config-File-capable devices
  • Configuring DID/DDI numbers
• VoIP Providers
  • Creating a VoIP Provider
  • Demonstrate ease-of-implementation for Supported Provider Templates
  • Configuring DID/DDI numbers
• Bridge Connections
  • Master (No Tunnel)
  • Slave (NoTunnel)
• Other Features
  • Ring Groups
  • Auto Attendants / Digital Receptionists
  • Queues

Deerfield.com and 3CX is looking forward to seeing you online!

3CX has updated the configuration guides for the most popular IP phones supported in 3CX Phone System for Windows, making them easier to understand.  For each phone, they have made a detailed guide to configure it manually as well as a guide to configure the phone using the provisioning feature included in 3CX.

To provision a phone using 3CX:

• CISCO SPA series phones
• Linksys SPA series phones
• Grandstream GXP 2000, 2010, 2020
• Polycom IP Soundpoint series phones

A complete list of preferred/supported/tested phones can be found here:

http://www.3cx.com/support/index.html

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OK – so I’ve been a little quiet on the 3CX blog this week.  While behind the scenes we are still a flurry of activity, every extra waking moment has been spent in pursuit of displacing snow from various locations at the office, home, etc.  Winter hit us with a vengeance this week!  On Tuesday we essentially had no snow, but as of this morning (Friday) we’ve received a total of about 30 inches and the winds have been continuing to blow it around.  Our local schools have been closed for 3 days – giving the kids a 5 day weekend (they’re not too upset about it lol).

On the 3CX front – I am repeatedly reminded of the opportunities that it creates for our channel partners, especially those that are able to add value to their customers via ancillary products and services.  A new 3CX partner – Infosys Consulting, Inc. is just such one partner.  In the recent weeks, they are close to producing a plug-in to the 3CX Assistant for SugarCRM and have written a text-to-speech call module that will allow for automated outbound calls via 3CX for such things as appointment reminders and renewal notices.

This week, Infosys Consulting hit a home run with their first 3CX sale to a company who’s proprietary IP PBX bit the dust.  Within a matter of about 3 hours, Infosys installed and configured 3CX Phone System for Windows for their customer, and the following day were able to configure their existing Zultys SIP phones after a brief interaction with tech support from Deerfield.  Because 3CX is truly a software-based IP PBX that will run on any modern Windows machine, this was entirely possible.  Infosys saved the day for their customer, and it was the teamwork between us (as their 3CX distributor) that helped make it happen. 

On this note:  I’d like to give a “shout out” to Dan Jennings at Deerfield that responded to the incoming tech inquiry from Infosys.  Matthew Orr was so pleased by Dan’s expertise that he wrote an email to 3CX’s US sales manager Brian Conway to share his positive experience.  Below is an excerpt from that message:

Brian –

Our customer wanted to reuse their Zultys Zip 4X5 (SIP 2.0) phones with their new 3CX system.  I was able to successfully configure the phones to work in every respect except to retrieve voicemail.

Late last night, in desperation, I sent an email with the 3CX system event log to Deerfield support.  This morning I received an email identifying the problem, and helpful instructions where to change the setting – AND IT WORKED!  I now have Zultys Zip 4X5 phones working 100% with 3CX!

Hat’s off to the Deerfield guys for being there for me.

Matthew Orr

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