Corporate telephony in Russia: cloud services and installable systems. TAdviser Overview

The key feature of the "IP revolution," which turned the development of corporate telephony into the mainstream of IP technologies, lies in its "native" integration with the Internet: this makes it possible to carry out voice conferences between several subscribers, conduct video communication sessions, and the cost of calls is significantly cheaper than when using landline or mobile communications, especially for international and international communications. If for a home user IP-telephony is a replacement for stationary telephone communication, then for business it is a powerful and effective management tool that provides, in addition to voice and video calls, a wide range of various additional services, and connection requires only Internet access and any computer device: laptop, tablet, smartphone, personal computer, as well as wired or wireless headset, personal electronics with audio and image devices.

According to experts of the TelecomDaily agency, already in 2016, more than 60% of domestic companies used a virtual phone number as the main communication channel with partners and customers.

What are the hallmarks of advanced corporate telephony today? How to make the right choice between a cloud (virtual) PBX (VATS) and on-premium solution, installed in the company's contour, including in line with the planning of import-substituting migration from the products of global vendors to domestic ones? We are looking for answers to these questions together with Russian experts.

Main Types of Corporate IP PBXs

Office (corporate) PBXs based on IP protocol (IP-PBX) can be implemented in three different versions: hardware PBX, software implementation of IP telephony (softphone), cloud virtual IP-PBX.

PBX Hardware Room

A hardware-implemented IP-PBX, which includes software preinstalled by the manufacturer, can be called a receiver of a conventional analog PBX, they say in the MTT company: it is also physically located on the territory of the owner, but works on the basis of the IP protocol, while communication is provided by a SIP provider that establishes a subscriber fee for using the channel.

An advanced corporate PBX (KATS) is a flexible system in terms of implementation (hardware/software or a mix of them), which has all the necessary modern functionality. Now, according to the experience of world companies and in Russia, in particular, the customer is looking, in fact, not for a telephone exchange, but for a full-fledged unified communications platform, "says Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC.

Features that can be implemented on a modern PBX include:

• Support for various types of calls (internal, external, long-distance, international).
• Integration with other company systems and applications (e.g. CRM, ERP).
• The ability to control call settings such as call forwarding, call waiting, call hold, etc.
• Using cloud services to store and process data.
• Work with different types of telephones and headsets.
• Ensuring data security and privacy of conversations.
• Flexibility to customize and adapt to your needs.

An example of an advanced hardware solution for a corporate telephone exchange is the combined IP-PBX "MiniCom MX-1000" of the company "Informtechnika and Communications." In conjunction with the corporate messenger ROSCHAT and the VKS server, it forms a full-fledged unified communications platform.

On the one hand, the MiniCom MKh-1000 IP PBX provides support for legacy infrastructure (analog, old digital and trunk lines), provides subscribers with a wide range of additional services (parallel calls, call combining and switching, forwarding, conversation interference, etc.). On the other hand, it offers additional digital services: IVR, video conferencing (up to 300 VKS participants with HD image and sound quality, support for Web-RTC and equipment from leading world manufacturers), command and search communication, notification system, computerized dispatcher workplace, etc. Scaling capabilities allow you to combine up to 100 PBXs into a single network with support for up to 1 million subscribers and most existing billing systems, hardware redundancy (active/active, active/standby) and a monitoring and statistics system.

The ROSCHAT corporate messenger is implemented in this system as a single client working on mobile devices and personal computers. It allows you to send text messages, make direct audio and video calls, as well as organize VKS. Integration is possible with various access control systems (MCDS), with corporate telephony, AD or other LDAP directories, as well as with MS Exchange and DLP systems.

Software implementation of IP telephony

IP-PBX software (sometimes called softphones - software telephone) have the form of server software distributions for various operating systems, for example, Linux (Elastix, etc.) or Windows (3CX, etc.). Among the popular solutions of the corporate softphone are solutions based on the open source product Asterisk, which runs on various operating systems: Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc. From a technical point of view, the main advantage of this method of organizing an IP PBX is the ability to launch an application on a virtual machine.

A striking example of a modern software PBX is the 3CX Phone System of the English company 3CX. This IP PBX, built on open standards, runs on Windows or Linux, not only replaces the functionality of a proprietary telephone system, but also offers a complete system of combined communications, and can also be integrated with any applications. In 2019, 3CX acquired WP Live Chat, a free WordPress plugin for live chat integration, and integration and was added to the plugin Facebook. SMS Then integration with appeared in the product, Microsoft Teams which provided direct routing of communications through the Microsoft platform, and also added a collaboration system web conferences based on Google WebRTC, which does not require downloading additional programs and plugins.

A modern trend is the implementation of IP-PBX in the form of a software and hardware solution designed to build new generation information and communication networks. The combination of hardware and software makes it possible to flexibly create a variety of telecommunications solutions. For example, the MiniCom MKh-1000 combined PBX can be implemented as a Softswitch. In this form, Softswitch "MiniCom MKh-1000" completely duplicates the functionality of the IP-PBX "MiniCom" MKh-1000, providing data transfer between IP telephony services, public telephone networks, digital integrated service networks, intelligent networks, mobile networks and the Internet. At the same time, it can solve the problems of building communication networks for both small corporate nodes (for example, for small businesses) and operator-level nodes (up to 1 million subscribers).

The RTU platform (Russian Telephone Node) of SATEL is a comprehensive VoIP solution for organizing fully functional local, zone, MH/MH communication nodes based on IP technology. It can also take the form of software, or be implemented in the form of a firmware complex: from one server to a failover cluster of servers with the necessary gateway equipment and monitoring system.

The "Era Platform" has passed its path of evolution. This is a new solution in the market, which has grown on the basis of 20 years of experience in the development of telephony automation systems and software for call centers of Infinity and Oktell.

Previously, our solutions had a number of limitations in functionality and scalability. The field of their use, for the most part, was limited to the automation of call centers, - says Aleksei Blank, managing partner of the Era Platform. - The current Era platform is a program for organizing call centers, a distributed software PBX, a designer of information systems, and a video conferencing system.

An important feature of this software platform, according to a specialist, is the practical absence of restrictions on the scalability of the solution: on its basis, the platform can be used to create large distributed telephony systems for tens and hundreds of thousands of users.

Virtual PBX

The virtual PBX (VATS) is located in the cloud of an external provider and is provided to the client company by a telephony operator or Internet provider as a service.

Cloud technologies allow you to create telephone exchanges with multi-channel and extension numbers for employees, voice menus and call forwarding, integrate phone numbers with the site, make video calls and group conversations, record each call and filter unwanted incoming calls. All these capabilities make up the basic functionality of modern VATS. It is important that the virtual PBX is very easy to scale, depending on the current business needs - at any time you can change the number of phone lines supported.

Today, complex solutions for different industries are especially relevant on the market. Increasingly, service providers are being asked to develop customized services based on the size of the company and its business objectives. To get a client, providers must be ready to integrate completely different corporate solutions with each other. That is why ready-made integrations and an open API must be present in the product line of the cloud telephony provider.

In this case, the VATS typically provides only basic integrations. When integration is required with a specific industry or self-described CRM system of the customer or with databases, for example, medical information systems that the API protocol does not support, then individual integration is needed, says Vladislav Viryasov and adds that solving such problems most often remains on the side of office local PBXs.

For example, we have a customer - a federal online store selling goods for outdoor activities. We have set up custom integration with Bitrix24 for him. If the order is transferred to a certain stage - left the warehouse or delivered to the point of issue of orders, then telephony automatically sends notifications to the client in the form of SMS or an auto-informant. Such integration cannot be done within the framework of a cloud PBX, this is possible only in a local solution, "says Vyacheslav Viryasov.

Daria Dmitriyeva, manager of the external products department at MANGO OFFICE, notes among the most advanced VATS functions:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze conversations, automate customer response and predict customer behavior.
• Distribute calls based on customer data and their company interaction history for more personalized service.
• Integration with virtual assistants and chatbots to automate responses to repeated requests.
• Real-time analytics and reporting to monitor call center performance and make operational decisions.

Competitive situation in the Russian market of corporate telephony products and services after the departure of global vendors

Last year, global IT vendors left the Russian market, including world leaders in the field of corporate telephony: Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, Genesys, etc., vendors of departmental communications solutions, as well as suppliers of equipment for THORP.

Experts of the research company Strategy Partners note in their review of the Russian infrastructure software market and its development prospects, released in September 2023, the revival and growth of the proposals of Russian developers. At the same time, the growth rate of the IT market in the Russian Federation was twice as high as the world ones, and the software market developed faster than the IT market as a whole, repeating global trends. "At the end of 2022, against the background of a sharp decrease in the volume of software sales by foreign companies, sales of Russian players increased several times. The total revenue of Russian software developers and integrators (TOP-100 industry companies), in 2022 increased by 28.5%, the revenue of foreign companies decreased by 62%, "the review says. The market decline observed in 2022 due to the restriction of supplies of foreign software and equipment amounted to no more than 10%, and was already won back by the market - until 2030 the Russian IT market will grow at the level of 12% every year.

^{the forecast was made based on the basic scenario for the development of the Russian economy for the period 2023-2030: the average annual growth rate GDP and average annual inflation growth will be 2.3% and 4.2%, respectively)}

Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC, emphasizes: "Russian manufacturers are ready to replace Western solutions in the field of corporate telephony. Some of them already offer products that are not inferior in functionality and performance to Western counterparts. "

If we talk about maintaining the level of service, then in this case domestic solutions have advanced quite far - in terms of the set of services and services offered, Western developments can be adequately replaced, "says Vladislav Viryasov, director of Avantelecom.

In my opinion, domestic manufacturers are already ready to completely replace foreign analogues both in terms of functionality and in terms of performance and reliability. In addition, Russian solutions are superior to Western ones in terms of information security, since they meet all the requirements and standards established in our country.

Undoubtedly, Russian manufacturers are ready to replace the Western solutions of the departed brands, - agrees with colleagues Aleksei Blank, managing partner of Platform Era. - And earlier in our practice there were repeatedly examples when companies whose corporate telephony is based on the solutions of well-known Western brands used domestic solutions at the same time. As a rule, initially our systems were purchased to solve a certain range of problems. But realizing the capabilities of Russian software, given the more loyal pricing policy, customers switched the rest of the employees to it

A plus for customers is also the possibility of operational refinements of domestic solutions for the requirements of a specific business, because often the response from Western developers to the request for refinement had to wait for months and not always with a positive result.

If companies do not affect import substitution directives, they can still work on previously installed systems for a long time. At least until they feel the need to significantly expand licenses. Another incentive for the transition to domestic systems may be emerging technical problems that cannot be solved by local integrators.

Thus, the Russian market for suppliers of cloud corporate telephony today is very "hot," in terms of both the pace of its development and the level of competition. On the one hand, new opportunities have opened up for the further development of Russian solutions in the field of corporate office telephony, which have been on the market since the last century and actively competed with Western solutions long before the general trend towards import substitution appeared. On the other hand, there are new active players in the field of cloud VATS.

Among them are federal telecom operators, both cellular and stationary. So, in the first three ratings of VATS and IP-telephony providers for 2023, which the CNews resource published in November 2023, are the two largest cellular operators. For VATS of cellular operators, the standard has become easy scaling of the telephone network, multi-channel communication, free calls within the company, seamless switching of a call from a landline phone to a mobile phone and a computer, the "Qty-tracking" service, which determines by incoming calls the region of residence and the source of customer attraction, free call by number 8-800, recording of conversations, analysis of their content, integration with the CRM system. Rostelecom says that Virtual PBX is one of Rostelecom's most sought-after cloud services with an open API, which allows customers to combine the service with various applications and create a solution that is adapted to the specifics of their own business.

Interestingly, both versions of corporate telephony imply similar characteristics of the offered communication services:

• Unified communications implementation.

Both options are aimed at providing customers with a Unified Communications (UC) approach and, in terms of technical communication parameters, offer similar characteristics of service quality.

The unified communications system, by virtue of its definition, should provide the same quality of all supported types of communication as specialized solutions for voice, video, and data transmission do, says Artem Cheprak. - With a high-quality Internet connection, cloud VATS fully cope with the task of providing high-quality multimedia communication, but cannot provide the proper level of information security.

Vladislav Viryasov adds: "Multimedia communication in the cloud version can consume more network bandwidth than classic video conferencing based on the PBX hardware. This can have an impact on communication performance and quality and add additional delay to data transmission. " He emphasizes that the quality of video and audio in the cloud can be limited by network bandwidth, and in classic video conferencing it is possible to provide higher quality and reliable communication at the expense of the equipment used and the local network.

New-Tel believes that IP-PBXs in the cloud version are better than other technical implementations at solving the problem of missed calls: using special VATS options, they allow you to process almost 100% of incoming calls, including without the participation of a human operator. For example, using the "Auto Call" IP telephony service, which triggers a callback when a call is missed. In the personal account of the VATS, the system administrator can configure the parameters of this option, including the numbers from which the system will initiate auto call, time and auto call scripts.

According to Maria Tyurina, CEO of Telfin, such basic telephony capabilities as voice greeting, call forwarding, call statistics, voice mail are usually offered by all cloud telephony providers, and providers of such services compete more in terms of adapting communication platforms to customer requests and certain technical capabilities of the existing IT and telecom customer infrastructure.

• Creation of corporate telephony infrastructure for geographically distributed companies, including those with complex organizational structure.

Our corporate PBX "MiniCom MX-1000," both in software and hardware versions, can easily scale to a total capacity of 1 million subscribers. In addition, our customers have access to the option of clustering, as well as georeservation of our telephone exchanges, - says Artem Cheprak. - And in order for the deployed solution to correspond to the internal organizational structure, a role model of users and administrators is used. It works according to predetermined rules of interaction between contacts or contact groups, moreover, for each role a set of algorithms can be set to distinguish between access to resources, determine visibility, and the presence of administrative rights. All this allows you to get transparent and controlled communications and establish the right interaction between users, the expert emphasizes.

In turn, Vladislav Viryasov notes: "VATS cloud solutions allow customers to flexibly scale their communication infrastructure in accordance with the growing needs of the company: add new users, activate new numbers, expand business functionality. Important parameters are mobility, centralized management and a single number space. "

• Ease of adaptation of system support.

Artem Cheprak says this: "The corporate IP-PBX is a fairly flexible and configurable system. It can be integrated with other systems of the company's IT infrastructure, such as the enterprise management system. We provide our customers with technical support throughout their use of our products. In addition, we have training courses where their technicians receive the necessary skills to work with our developments. "

Vladislav Viryasov especially emphasizes the importance of cloud VATS for small companies - almost any IT employee can install and configure such a standard cloud PBX. "For companies of medium and large scale with its own staff of IT specialists, there is a question of customization of telephony services and scaling with the growth of business and the number of subscribers. In this case, it is important that the vendor acts not only as a provider of telephony services, but also as a full-fledged technological partner who will help choose the best option for scaling the network, including the purchase and selection of suitable equipment, "says Vladislav Viryasov.

Even in the environment of corporate telephony professionals, there is no single idea of ​ ​ the degree of competition between the cloud option and the locally installed solution.

Cloud VATS and installed IP-PBXs are not competing market segments, - Vladislav Viryasov is sure. - Cloud telephony usually involves choosing a solution for small and micro-businesses, in which there are no specific telephony tasks, except for receiving and making calls, recording conversations, integrating with the most popular CRM, as well as basic analytics (how many calls there were, how many were missed or accepted). If the business task is more complex, and speech analytics, in-depth call analysis, control of all missed calls and their automatic development, as well as compliance with legal norms on the security of personal data are required, then in this case the customer will prefer the installed solution.

Cloud services are chosen by rapidly growing companies that do not want to spend resources and time scaling and implementing. Cloud services are also relevant for companies that do not want to grow CAPEX by buying expensive hardware. On-premium solutions are often chosen by large government organizations or those companies that have such internal security regulations that do not allow cloud solutions, for example, large financial organizations.

If a company is large, then most often it needs an on-premium solution, and cloud services are usually used by medium and small businesses. It is much more profitable for small companies to install corporate telephony based on virtual PBXs or VATS, since they already include a wide range of functionality, as well as technical support services, which does not require additional personnel in the company, which, for example, is needed in the case of on-premium solutions.

Vladimir Afanasyev, director of ICE PARTNERS, rightly notes that in the customer's request there is almost never an indication of a tool for solving the problem in the style of "We want a call center with smart routing based on the binding of customers to managers in CRM." Rather, it sounds like: "We have telephony, but we need customers to get on their manager right away." According to Vladimir Afanasyev, cloud solutions imply a request for:

• give support for telephony to the side;
• to be cheap;
• Standard integrations with common CRMs.

And the installed solutions meet the client's request for:

• complete control of the system;
• complex customizations;
• high fault tolerance.

These are different segments of consumers that differ in the scale of organization and complexity of processes. Rolling scooters cannot displace cars from the market. But they can definitely complement each other, - emphasizes Vladimir Afanasyev.

Thus, the differences between cloud and locally installed enterprise telephony solutions follow the specifics of business processes, which vary greatly in different areas of activity.

If we are talking about large industrial enterprises, then, as a rule, they do not imply the organization of a hotline for processing a large stream of incoming calls. For them, the organization of a convenient IVR is relevant - a voice greeting that allows a person to easily get into the desired department, a convenient internal numbering system with the so-called short numbers, - says Vladislav Viryasov. - For example, we have clients with a common structure of offices located in different parts of the country. And this is a certain challenge - to build a convenient end-to-end numbering system for them, independent of the geographical distribution of personnel. Also, large enterprises often have a need to organize conference calls.

If we talk about retail chains, medical centers and those organizations that work with a large number of incoming requests from customers, then here we are talking about customer-centric functions: automatic processing of missed calls, call statistics that help track the load on the call center and distribute calls, organization of outgoing telemarketing campaigns (auto-informing), as well as voice analytics and voice robots.

Interviews with experts

Features of Tasks to Be Solved by an IP PBX Being Installed

There are areas of application for corporate telephony, where today only locally installed hardware IP-PBXs can work successfully. For example, the Maksikom MXM500P ship automatic telephone exchange of the Multikom company is a ship's digital ship communication system that provides internal service telephone communication on the ship regardless of its location, public address and two-way dispatch communication (when connecting hands-free channels and two-way hands-free intercoms to the PBX), external communication over IP in the presence of the Internet in a particular area, external communication over analog lines and/or digital flow for the period of the vessel's stay in the port. It supports 102 extensions, 64 SIP trunks, 3 intercom consoles.

The ship's ATS "Maxikom" provides operational and reliable telephone communication with service, domestic and residential premises, as well as operational control using a communication console to maintain order on the ship, monitor production operations and crew actions in regular and emergency situations. For these tasks, the Multicom company has developed specialized intercom devices of the Maxiphon family, which are used on ships as voice consoles of the engine room, wheelhouse, cube and other functional units and service rooms of the vessel. They provide remote access control, communication with coastal services, alarm transmission and can be equipped with a sound and light annunciator. Today, Maxikom equipment works, for example, on Atomflot icebreakers.

All-weather intercom devices of duplex communication (for two subscribers) of the Maxiphon family are designed for use outdoors in harsh climatic conditions in any field of activity, where a wide temperature range and protection of the intercom devices from moisture are required for reliable point-to-point communication and effective functioning. They are not afraid of rain and frost, withstand significant vibration loading and are suitable for transport. For example, Maxiphon intercom devices of the Client-Cashier and Director-Secretary models can be used at checkpoints, car inspection sites, truck disinfection boxes, car services, gas stations, large stores, factories, public transport, etc. - where two-way hands-free hands are needed, as well as in director communication mode in various areas.

There is a version of the communication system for the mine - it provides for group and selective loudspeaker notification, the presence of underground (mine) telephones, the ability to record conversations, listening to underground noise for subscribers, etc.

Another important area of ​ ​ modern digital telephony is professional mobile radio (PMR), which is developing together with various forms of personal and business communications. PMR networks are used by groups of users united on a professional basis, for example, production and technological divisions of industrial or transport enterprises, power structures and law enforcement agencies, emergency, municipal and other services (including security services), taxi services, etc. The popular technology of PMR is trunking communication of the TETRA standard, where the automatic distribution of a common group of radio channels among users is implemented. Advanced technologies, such as GPS navigation, are available on TETRA equipment, allowing users to obtain accurate location data. They also help store and share data with other users over wired and wireless connections, providing improved communication.

For the Russian market of the PMR, the task of accelerated import substitution and replacement of the entire fleet of foreign equipment is relevant due to the departure of foreign vendors, on which the second task is imposed - Historically brewing modernization of corporate and departmental communications as government departments and large corporate clients continue to operate disparate, highly specialized dedicated focal-coverage networks that often overlap the same area or geographic area.

As for the technological trends in the PMR, now at least three protocols are heard: LTE, TETRA, DMR, - says Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC - Everyone has their own advantages and disadvantages, there is no universal leader. Therefore, the choice of a solution must be approached very carefully and a detailed preliminary analysis should be made.

To modernize or create a new PMR based on TETRA, you can use the equipment of the MiniCom-TETRA family from Informtechnika.

The created equipment was the result of its own R&D in the development of the TETRA protocol, the production and improvement of communication equipment. Third-party subscriber equipment is supported (Sepura, Motorola, Hytera, Airbus, Cassidian), integration with third-party TETRA systems (DAMM, SELEX, Motorola), as well as integration with the ROSCHAT corporate messenger.

"MiniCom-АВР-1" subscriber radio station is used for information exchange between TETRA mobile radio network subscribers. It provides the ability to conduct duplex and half-duplex communication, as well as data transfer and telemetry using external interfaces: CAN, USB, RS485, Ethernet. The radio station can be supplied in two versions: portable (for installation on vehicles) and stationary.

Informtechnika notes that, despite the availability of public high-load LTE and 5G networks, their use for critical services faces a number of problems, and until there are successful examples of the transfer of industrial structures to LTE technology, TETRA technology will remain in demand in the long term. In the future, the company's specialists predict, convergent technologies are likely to be distributed, in which TETRA will be used for guaranteed and secure delivery of critical information, while broadband networks and related technologies will serve for data transmission.

It is important that the unified communications platform based on the MiniCom MKh-1000 IP PBX and the ROSCHAT corporate messenger, among other staff mobility functions (mobile and computer client MKh-1000, group and two-way chats, audio and video calls, file transfer, video conferencing) supports integration with TETRA, ensuring the operation of remote traveling employees in radio mode.

Goodwin Concern, which develops and manufactures industrial radio communication systems based on its own stacks of telecommunication signaling and communication protocols (DECT, ISDN, SIP, RTP, V.110, ADPC), has added industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies to its developments. The Goodwin-Neva system includes the functionality of traditional radio communications, including emergency communications, monitoring the location of employees, tracking parameters that characterize a person's condition (heart rate control - pulse, control of the availability of personal protective equipment) and the environment. In other words, the system "sees" where the employee is, assesses his condition and potential threats. Deviations from the specified parameters are displayed on the dispatcher screen and allow you to quickly contact the employee, warn about the danger, give instructions on further actions. For these purposes, a set of communication technologies is used: DECT (voice communication), LoRaWAN (telemetry and location data transmission, PPE control and heart rate assessment, environmental assessment), NB-IoT, WiFi, GSM/LTE (telemetry and location data transmission).

Another border separating the use of VATS and installed systems passes through the line of integration of corporate telephony with various corporate information systems.

Solutions from both segments support integration with widespread CRM systems: Bitrix, 1S-CRM, etc. But often customers have industry or custom-designed information systems, integration with which is quite non-trivial. In this case, the advantage is given to the installed systems, - says Aleksei Blank, managing partner of Platform Era.

Based on the need to work with unique software systems, the Era platform was designed to easily integrate into the customer's IT architecture.

It can access external IT systems for data exchange. REST API allows you to manage any objects and data from external systems, and the subscription service notifies them of all events in the platform. All data is stored in open databases, it is possible to export raw data to message brokers, BI systems, says Aleksei Blank.

This level of ease of integration is provided through support for SIP standards and protocols, SipRec, SDP, RFC specifications, and as a result, the platform is able to integrate with any information systems, SIP PBXs, telephone provider networks, web services, instant messengers and databases.

Current Enterprise Telephony Products

Cloud VATS: An Integration Course with Enterprise Applications

A key feature of modern cloud VATS is their peculiarity in integrating with corporate information systems. Integration variant no. 1 is a connection with the CRM system, with customer data. Plus to it are additional features that enrich the functionality of telephone communications with the client, which are added by different providers of cloud IP-PBXs. Among such additional features are a variety of artificial intelligence solutions: voice assistants, speech analytics.

Mechanisms for integrating enterprise telephony with enterprise applications

The integration of cloud telephony with the CRM system allows you to automatically open a customer card when an incoming call is made, display the history of communication with the client, and provide the ability to record conversations directly in CRM. This makes it easier to work with customers and improves the efficiency of communications, "says Daria Dmitriyeva, manager of external products at MANGO OFFICE.

Vladislav Viryasov, director of Avantelecom, explains: "When integrating telephony into CRM, a classic set of functionality is used, which includes automatically opening a client card when an incoming call is made, creating a task in CRM after processing an incoming call, the ability to transfer call data directly to CRM and other functions, such as, for example, click2call - a call from CRM when clicking on a subscriber's number. In the case of expanded capabilities, the functionality adjusts to specific business tasks. "

{{quote "If we are talking about the basic functionality of CRM, today absolutely any integration allows you to make calls and store call history right in the system, inform employees about who is calling, and automatically connect customers with personal managers. All these functions have already become mandatory requirements of companies, and without them no integration can simply work, "confirms Maria Tyurina, CEO of Telfin. At the same time, additional integration capabilities are constantly growing, she notes: "They depend, first of all, on the functionality of CRM itself. The more options and services the corporate system has, the wider the integration itself can be made, for example, implement different call processing scenarios, configure any stages of funnels, create a trigger notification system, etc. }}

The entire call history is displayed in the customer card in CRM. Here, the system attaches an audio recording of the call, which can be downloaded and listened to.

Providers can offer opportunities for integration with ERP systems, project management, etc., says Daria Dmitriyeva.

Popular CRM, analytics programs and Help Desk systems can be connected to the VATS, the Gravitel company says: this allows you to work with several tools in one window mode, for example, call a client directly from a card in the database, automatically create a ticket request during a call and transfer it to technical and service commands. In VATS "Gravitel" integration with Telegram is implemented: you can receive calls, as well as call customers directly in Telegram, and thanks to the integration of PBX New-Tel and "1C" managers get access to reports and calls in CRM in real time.

Any communication by phone and in instant messengers can be used to plan the load of operators, for example, in call centers, analyze the work of employees, create a vacation calendar, etc. The company itself determines which communication tasks need to be solved and automated through integration. Thus, the communication system can be built into absolutely any corporate application to simplify work with calls and analyze communication with clients, partners and colleagues, "says Maria Tyurina.

Telephony can be integrated into various intercompany databases, for example, into a platform for collecting feedback, managing technical support requests or other systems that store customer data, adds Vladislav Viryasov: "If we are talking about large corporations with a large data flow, then integration with BI systems is possible, in which data can be uploaded and analyzed already on a large scale. In addition, some of them provide APIs and customizable solution development capabilities. "

Maria Tyurina points to another important element of corporate telephony: "The integration potential is also influenced by the corporate communications platforms themselves. To combine solutions, it is important to understand exactly what data telephony services can collect and transmit to CRM, whether there are statistics and call recording, whether a callback widget from the site is connected or not, whether missed conversations are monitored, decrypted and analyzed with clients. " Thus, the expert believes, having the same functionality of the communication system, a completely different set of capabilities can be implemented on the basis of different CRMs. And since, as a rule, business telephony providers use APIs for interaction and integration of CRM and communication systems, it turns out that the wider the capabilities of APIs, telephony and CRM, the more functional and better a bundle of business applications can be obtained.

I think it's more correct to talk about some cloud "plugins," - notes Vladimir Afanasyev. - Providers of communication solutions, it doesn't matter whether they are cloud or local, are focused, first of all, on the main product to which voice traffic calls and transmits. It is difficult for even a big team to maintain additional directions. " He considers Avaya and Cisco to be a good example of the functionality of recording conversations - for this there were satellite partners with the corresponding product fucus: "I will not argue that the recording of conversations was not made inside the PBX of other vendors, but this was always the basic level. It was third-party solutions that gave something serious. The same is observed today with "chatjipitization" - third-party companies will do it better and so that it works with the maximum number of different PBXs.

Automation and intelligence of business processes

A sign of today is the need to adapt the "boxed" telephony product, for example, call center software to the individual needs of customers.

This is not just about developing a rather complex voice menu with access to corporate databases or integration with CRM systems, - notes Aleksei Blank, managing partner of Platform Era. - Customers often need to develop custom forms to display information from multiple corporate databases, develop personalized reports, or implement business logic to handle specific events.

Today's enterprise telephony solutions address these customer needs. For example, the Era platform implements a mechanism for working with scripts for performing service tasks: using scripts, various automatic handlers are programmed to implement business logic. They can also be used to initialize events in external information systems. At the same time, the REST API allows you to manage any objects and data from external systems, and the subscription service notifies external systems of all events in the platform.

Today's IP-PBXs add Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) functions, a variety of Natural Language Understanding (NLU) capabilities, including speech synthesis, and the ability to automate business processes with customers/employees.

Intelligent process automation is primarily associated with the advent of voice robots and virtual voice assistants. Thus, the voice robot takes on the routine tasks of processing incoming and outgoing calls, which helps a lot to unload the company's staff during advertising campaigns, and also relieves the burden of working with simple typical customer requests from a person. Voice robots successfully cope with the tasks of outgoing calls - notifications, reminders, order confirmation, etc.

Voice robots act according to the morphological principle, that is, they analyze certain keywords of the subscriber and act according to a given algorithm for processing such a call, - says Vladislav Viryasov, director of Avantelecom LLC. - Voice assistants work with recognition of natural human speech. When integrated with the company's knowledge base, they allow you to implement many different call processing automation scenarios.

In addition to the morphological approach to speech analytics, large language model (GPT) analysis technologies and generative speech models are gaining popularity today.

If, in the case of a morphological approach, the telephone conversation is analyzed using certain dictionaries, which allow you to assess how polite the employee was, whether he used phrases defined in the dialogue, etc., in the second case, the neural network principle allows to evaluate the dialogue as a whole in the context of a specific application, identify errors in the conversation, give recommendations to employees and assess the quality of service, "says Vladislav Viryasov.

For example, VATS Avantelecom provides the ability to analyze large volumes of recorded conversations based on semantic dictionaries (more than 100 topics are supported), and also supports integrations with ASR engines based on the Yandex Speechkit and Tinkoff VoiceKit neural network models.

Another option for automating processes is to implement scenarios that allow you to automatically fill, for example, cards or checklists in CRM after converting speech into text. "Thanks to this person, you do not need to spend time manually filling out certain fields in the CRM system," emphasizes Vladislav Viryasov. According to him, the configuration module of voice assistants using trained neural networks and NLU technologies allows you to implement scenarios of any complexity to automate incoming and outgoing calls.

For example, Evory's voice robot, developed by Avantelek, will help you find the right clients, invite them to an event, remind them of an important event, conduct a survey, and monitor how the support service and sales department work. This digital assistant can handle an unlimited number of calls at a time, limited only by the bandwidth of the IP PBX with which it is integrated, usually up to 1,500 parallel calls. Such a morphological robot is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. And if the company needs a complex multi-model assistant based on NLU, it can be developed custom on the basis of the Kaspium AI platform for any customer requirements. For example, to automate incoming and outgoing communications, maintain unified statistics, monitor calls and other functions.

MTT's VoiceBox voice robot is a ready-made boxed business solution that deals with sales and telephone consulting. The bot is positioned as a replacement for call center operators and sales managers. It integrates with any CRM system and allows you to make the necessary settings even without the involvement of IT specialists. He can not only answer frequently asked questions from customers and call customers from the database, but also make a special offer, talk about a new promotion, register a loyalty card, and place an order.

The Gravitel company offers mass service companies, for example, courier services or taxi services, to protect the client base using the AiCall voice assistant. He becomes an intermediary in communications, preventing direct contacts of his employees with customers.

SATEL has its own Ziax platform designed to create and implement voice robots in order to automate the first line of customer support: they are able to advise and interview customers, accept applications and orders, confirm order status and recording, and manage various services. The technical implementation of robots makes it possible to track the context of the dialogue in order to determine human intentions based on a context-sensitive model. The company says that you can create a chatbot for any text channel or train a voice robot to work in a telephone channel. The created robot can then be launched on all communication channels at the same time. And you can start it at the company's site.

What service infrastructure can be built on the basis of a modern call center can be judged by the example of telephony modernization projects in Kazan. There, 2 thousand employees moved to the Era platform in 45 divisions subordinate to the Executive Committee of the city of Kazan, as well as the partner of the vendor modernized the contact center in the unified reception of the Administration of the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan. In addition to a single departmental fail-safe telephony, the structural divisions of the executive committee of Kazan have implemented important services for residents of the city. At the same time, typical calls from citizens are processed around the clock by voice assistants. As a result, the process of registering citizens' appeals has been significantly simplified: thanks to the integration of virtual assistants with the regional electronic document management system, all requests received by phone are immediately registered in the EDO with an indication of a specific topic, citizen's data and comments. In addition, on the basis of the Era platform, the Kazan partner has implemented a single entry point for registering citizens for an appointment with the head of Tatarstan or wishing to leave an appeal.

And it is also planned to launch an online consultation service, which will provide an even more modern and convenient channel for communication between residents and the city, - notes Aleksei Blank.

The launch of the service saved money on the organization of a separate contact center, - notes Aleksei Blank.

Call center turns into a contact center

Therefore, today the client-centric functions of IP-PBX, rooted in the technologies of call centers, come to the fore, "says Vladislav Viryasov, director of Avantelecom. - This functionality, which was originally developed for the needs of call centers, is now used in organizations of completely different scale.

Development of telephone functions of the call center

The set of telephone functions of the call center today is quite wide: dynamic distribution of calls depending on the region, time of day or status of the caller, for example, you can create databases of VIP subscribers, as well as IVR of various types, voice greetings with voice recognition. An important element is statistics on incoming and outgoing calls, the number of received and missed calls, emphasizes Vladislav Viryasov. For example, the Avantelecom call center implements the Zero Missed 2.0 function. It allows you to automatically work out all missed calls without the participation of a person. For this purpose, a timer is set for each missed call, which, after a specified time interval, creates a call for the attendant, so that you can refuse to manually track missed calls.

VATS "Avantelecom" implements the function "Zero missed 2.0"

Avantelecom Call Center Software is a modular software product designed to build multi-channel contact centers and automate call processing. The modular assembly principle allows you to use functions that solve the tasks of a particular organization. It is focused on improving the quality of telephone service and the efficiency of operators with large flows of incoming and outgoing communication. Multi-channel contact center is arranged with the possibility of dynamic load distribution to operators.

The demand for the functionality of the call center significantly depends on the company itself, its size, on the specifics of the field of activity (B2B or B2C), notes Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC: "Sometimes it is easier to outsource this function and not build your own call center." According to the expert, important characteristics of the modern call center are: process automation, integration with third-party systems, such as ERP or CRM, as well as the ability to receive detailed call analytics.

A modern call center is able to track the Service level - the amount of time a subscriber spent on the line before the company picked up the phone. "This is an important client-centric parameter," notes Vladislav Viryasov. "If the response time is 40-60 seconds, then such calls usually go into missed ones. The corresponding statistics make you think about putting more operators on the phone lines, or another way to reduce the waiting time for a response. " That's why so much attention is paid to speech analytics in solutions for modern call centers: all kinds of voice robots allow you to close different tasks depending on what needs the company faces.

How contact centers "smarter"

We believe that the call center industry is now on the verge of dramatic changes, since artificial intelligence is literally knocking on its door, which, with a favorable set of circumstances, will simply "turn the game upside down," Artem Cheprak is sure

Today's call center solutions integrate interactive voice systems with speech recognition technologies and a variety of additional services based on them, and also use automation tools to remotely process calls coming through various communication channels. The result is a radical improvement in the quality of customer service in real time.

For example, the RTU-Atmosphere contact center of SATEL is built on the technology of modular programming based on the omnichannel platform of unified communications (e-mail, SMS/MMS, video calls, social networks, instant messengers, website calls), which allows you to create a flexible call center system. The technical solution combines and logically links the existing hardware platforms of the company, databases, software, including, for example, autonomous chat bots with speech recognition, business process designer, as well as interaction modules with the State Public services portal. This approach allows you to implement the concept of a single workspace - the user's work window reflects all the information about the call, and also reflects data from all reference books or CRM systems. In addition, the system automatically maintains a knowledge base based on the generalization and analysis of incoming requests.

Thus, the modern call center becomes a full-fledged contact center, which is implemented in the form of a universal open platform, flexibly scaled up and configured for interactions with large flows of customer requests through all available instant messengers, social networks and other communication channels. All these interactions are automatically recorded and analyzed in the company's CRM system, allowing you to radically dramatically increase the efficiency of the contact center.

Synthesis generates voice messages from text, and recognition provides communication with the system not by tone dialing, but by voice. On the basis of these technologies, both fairly simple voice menus that determine the topic of appeal and quite complex interactive systems are implemented.

Meter reading reception services are becoming more and more popular in management companies, municipalities, ERC and other structures of the housing and communal services sector. The transmission of readings in this way is convenient and in demand by older subscribers, who make up a fairly high percentage of service users, - comments Aleksei Blank.

Omnichannel communications

Support for omnichannel communications is a mandatory element of a modern contact center. It allows you to combine chat processing on the site, messages in instant messengers and social networks, correspondence in the mail client, phone calls into a single system, as well as automate these communications using artificial intelligence technologies. All these capabilities are implemented in a single interface of customer relationship management without the need to integrate several platforms and channels, and a single knowledge base across all communication channels is used to train operators and neural networks in the best interaction scenarios.

The omnichannel approach means that customers can communicate through different communication channels while maintaining continuity and consistency of service experience. For example, a client can start a chat on the company's website, and then continue communicating by phone or through a mobile application, and all this will be in one related context, says Vladislav Viryasov. - But this will require an integrated platform for managing all communication channels, which is difficult to implement in the case of cloud VATS.

In this situation, the VATS supplier Avantelecom follows the path of creating a joint solution with a technological partner - CraftTalk. According to partners, the joint all-in-one solution "Avantelecom" and CraftTalk closes the business tasks of different divisions, combining the capabilities of text and voice communications, as well as the power of the neural network to automate up to 80% of the processing of typical calls. They note that when choosing platforms and corporate communication systems, preference should be given to unified solutions that offer a comprehensive set of functions and support various communication channels. In this case, it will be possible to minimize possible problems with incompatibility with common standards and communication protocols, as well as the inability to connect via the REST API.

Multichannel Communications Analytics

The omnichannel construction of the communication system in the contact center opens up wide prospects for end-to-end analytics for the development of the company's marketing activity. Cloud providers in this part are also following the path of partnerships. Thus, the cloud telephony supplier UIS, which offers customers a set of interconnected voice services to support sales (telephony, VATS, number tracking, integration with CRM, text communications, SIM cards, applications), has entered into a partnership agreement with CoMagic, a provider of marketing analytics solutions.

As a result, as Olga Greyl, UIS Communications Development Director, said in an article on the vc.ru last October, the IP telephony operator has naive integration with end-to-end analytics. This means that all new features: widgets for lidogeneration, advertising analytics and tracking of customer calls at all stages of their interaction - are connected in "one package" and work in one interface without the need for any complex settings on the client side.

Today, the business initiates integrated advertising campaigns that simultaneously involve several channels and communication formats. Such campaigns make it more likely to "squeeze" the target audience to the lead. But the question arises of which advertising had a decisive impact on the decision-making, - this is how Marina Ivanchenko, Product and Marketing Director of MANGO OFFICE, commented on the emergence of the new service.

The Multi-Channel Analytics Service helps marketers track the entire customer's ad touch chain to conversion and understand which channels influenced the decision-making, assess each channel's contribution to lidogeneration and sales, identify effective ad channels, build the customer's path, and identify sales sources. According to MANGO OFFICE, the service can reduce the cost of attracting customers by up to 70% by using only those channels that participate in attracting a targeted action.

FMC and Corporate Mobility

In my opinion, FMC is already a familiar technology in terms of technical implementation. Today FMC is implemented as one of the services provided by corporate telephony, regardless of whether it is a cloud-based VATS or an on-premium solution, says Roman Romanov, head of the software development center of SATEL. - On our solutions, for example, FMC is implemented with any mobile operators that are today on the market.

FMC is a cool example of a product that seemed very cool and necessary, but never "took off" en masse. The reason is that the customer did not have very severe pain in this topic. Interest - yes, there was, but few people wanted to pay for such interest. And then, there is an alternative with the same DECT communication technology, where the economy looks more attractive. And the fact that another tube is needed, few people care. I am sure that with the current level of technologies, mobile operators can supply FMC service (or a similar analogue) at the level of mobile applications. But instead, operators offer cloud PBXs. Most likely, this is dictated by the banal economy of the product on the supplier's side and prices on the customer's side.

Daria Dmitriyeva, manager of the external products department at MANGO OFFICE, lists the most popular options for convergence between fixed and mobile communications today: integration of mobile phones with business telephony, the ability to redirect calls from fixed to mobile devices, a single number plan for fixed and mobile phones, the ability to manage all types of communication through a single platform.

Here, FMC 2.0 technology can become a convenient function - an option for corporate telephony with special SIM-cards, which allows you to integrate employees' mobile phones into a common corporate communication system. Then, even being in the "field," a person can always have access to the internal corporate network and be available for communication by a short number, "says Vladislav Viryasov, director of Avantelecom.

At the same time, it is possible, for example, for couriers to hide customer numbers, which is an important issue in maintaining the confidentiality of personal data: the courier will take a call or make a call, but at the same time will not see the real number from which the client called him.

At New-Tel, modern FMC capabilities mean SIM cards with virtual PBX capabilities for mobile phones, including: multi-channel (the ability to receive calls from several subscribers at once), organizing a call queue, recording calls, listening to any calls in your personal account (through a browser or after downloading a record to your computer), integration with CRM, interception and transfer of a call, IVR, as well as the functionality of an auto attendant (customizable automated distribution of calls between company specialists) and a coach (the ability to train employees by connecting a mentor to the conversation who is not heard by the client).

All of them can be integrated into our unified communications system, "emphasizes Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC. He explains: "If your smartphone has our corporate messenger ROSCHAT, you can use it as a push-to-talk walkie-talkie. Of course, not all customers need this, but the company creates products within the telecommunications ecosystem. Therefore, everything that we produce, regardless of whether it is a PMR control panel or a DECT device, can work within the same system.

Another promising direction of using SIM-cards is associated with telecommunication solutions of the M2M-solution class, when SIM-cards are used to transfer data captured by various equipment: all kinds of sensors, navigation modules, mobile cash registers, etc.

The Scientific and Technical Center of PROTEI offers its own version of the unified communications platform, which combines the capabilities of the corporate messenger, tools for digitalizing workplaces, including in industries and information security tools. The PROTEUS Unicom platform can be used as a corporate messenger for exchanging text and multimedia messages, both between employees of the organization and with external contacts, as a corporate VKS system with hardware or software terminals, as a HelpDesk solution based on text chat and synchronization with corporate CRM or ServiceDesk products. In addition, it can be used to monitor the location of employees' mobile terminals, maintain accounting logs, support the LWM (Lone Worker Management) function, collect telemetry and listen to sound from the microphone of the mobile device. In this capacity, the platform makes it possible to connect production services, carry out project customization, provides access to video cameras and a video surveillance archive with detection of video analytics events.

Another option of its application is the organization of radio dispatch (PMR) with support for individual and group calls using the Push-to-Talk method between mobile applications, SIP phones, DMR/TETRA radio stations. Integration with the LTE MCPTT platform and IMS network is also possible, as well as the delivery of a comprehensive Private LTE solution.

For municipal authorities, the application allows you to provide access to statistics and applications received by YeDDS-112 and other services with a graphical display of the operational situation, dispatching housing and communal services applications.

Industry specificity of corporate telephony

Business processes vary widely across industries. Accordingly, corporate telephony solutions implement the ability to adapt to specific features of specific industries, which greatly facilitates the implementation of a modern technologically advanced product, or the IP-PBX supplier offers ready-made solutions that are initially configured for the specifics of a specific industry.

For example, ICE PARTNERS offers a specialized corporate telephony solution for the hotel business with advanced phone call processing functionality: analysis and distribution of calls, organization of a remote office (virtual meetings, monitoring of the work of remote employees), recording of conversations and analysis of their compliance with the specified scenarios. The solution makes it possible to organize a single telephony system by combining remote employees, departments, branches, stationary and mobile devices into one network. In addition, the functionality was customized for specific business tasks based on hotel PBX: mobile applications for Android and iOS devices, a contact center with integration with CRM, chat for the Live Chat site, WhatsApp and SMS - in a single convenient interface, integrated video conferencing in one click, calls directly from the CRM system, call management from an IP phone or smartphone.

Avantelecom has a whole list of specialized industry-specific IP telephony solutions with a ready-made package of services: for travel companies, food delivery services, water delivery services, HOA and housing and communal services dispatchers, medical institutions, a trade and V2V enterprise, car dealerships and car services, online stores.

Era is also suitable for high-load projects with complex customer requirements, and will be able to provide enterprise-class speed and flexibility for small and medium businesses.

UIS positions its services as digital communications for any industry that needs a single ecosystem for communicating with customers: e-commerce, order processing automation, medicine, virtual registration, delivery services, courier communications control, call centers, operator control and workplace automation, financial services and other service organizations. IP telephony tools for them include CRM integration, multi-channel line, free communication within the company, and the virtual PBX provides recording of conversations, smart call distribution, preparation of employee performance reports and advertising analytics (number tracking, end-to-end analytics, report designer).

MANGO OFFICE, based on the experience of implementations, has formed an industry proposal for medical institutions based on communication tools that are necessary to improve business efficiency in healthcare. For example, it created a geographically distributed corporate telephony solution for the SOVA network of medical clinics, which includes 11 branches in three cities of the network's presence. The solution not only provided communication support for the centralized management of the entire structure of clinics with remote workplace services for employees, but also helped to solve important specific business problems: increasing patient access to appointments and reducing staff turnover. It was possible to build the most productive call reception system on the basis of a dedicated contact center with the support of a complex of call routing technologies and reduced response time, and the use of IVR and a voice robot helped to increase the conversion of primary calls.

The voice robot calls patients, conducts identification, requests confirmation of an appointment, making up to 40 calls at the same time and makes several attempts to get through, according to MANGO OFFICE. At the same time, the cost of SMS-informing was reduced by 30%. And transparent control over the work of remote operators and the introduction of a motivation system based on the analysis of the results of each manager made it possible to reduce staff turnover among operators by 12%.

But there is an industry, requirements for communication, in which it is so specific that just refinement of the available solutions cannot do - this is railway transport. To meet all the requirements, we release separate hardware and software solutions, the specialist notes.

In the ecosystem of corporate telephony products of Informtechnika, special attention is paid to the aspect of employee mobility. It is provided due to the unified communications system, which includes the mobile and computer client of the IP-PBX "MiniCom MX-1000," the ROSCHAT messenger (group and two-way chats, audio/video calls, file transfer, etc.), organization of video conferencing, integration with TETRA communication technologies (operation in radio mode). For production enterprises with many remote employees, the dispatcher's workplace is intended.

Also, for production enterprises, an important element of corporate telephony is two-way loudspeaker communication (DGS) and command and search communication system (KPS). The solution of Informtechnika and Svyaz provides automatic notification of employees according to pre-compiled lists and groups to landline and mobile phones, using SMS, SDS (TETRA PMR technology) messages and the ability to select priority and monitor channel occupancy. Possible multilevel alerts (its own message for each group), as well as serial/cyclic notification on all specified channels before the first subscriber's response, request for confirmation of receipt of the message. Delimitation of access of system operators and remote launch of the system is implemented by telephone notification when typing a password.

A separate important industry segment is government agencies. Here, a client-centric approach is not a wish for business, but a mandatory element of today's style of work of the state. At the same time, the demand for increased speed of interaction with government organizations is growing in proportion to the development of technologies and the accumulation of user experience of interactions with advanced digital companies in the B2C segment.

The role of telephony in public authorities has changed significantly over the past few years. Classic "iron" solutions are replaced by modern software complexes. They give many client-centric functions of working with the population, indispensable in the implementation of the federal project "State for People," says Vladislav Viryasov.

An example is the Sphere multifunctional platform developed by Avantelecom, which, according to the head of the company, closes all tasks for telephony and call automation, taking into account the recommendations for digitalization and security of critical infrastructure.

Within the framework of the Sphere platform, specialized solutions have been created for state authorities of various levels: reception heads of cities and regions, city and regional administrations, regional governments and ministries, unitary enterprises, interaction between enterprises and business.

They are offered a set of solutions:

• Building a corporate telephone network without restrictions on the number of subscribers and lines. Consolidation of branches into a single structure.
• Telephone network upgrade. Replacing foreign solutions.
• Combining the authorities into a single virtual contact center.
• Voice assistant based on AI. Autoinformer robot. Automate incoming case processing.
• A platform for creating voice assistants using AI. The module for configuring voice assistants using trained neural networks and natural language understanding technology (NLU) allows you to implement scenarios of any complexity to automate incoming and outgoing calls, Avantelecom specialists say.

Information Security of Corporate Telephony Solutions

Most often, the line of demarcation between cloud and on-premium solutions is carried out through the information security line, emphasizing that in the cloud version, all corporate data used in services is hosted by an external provider, and this does not make it possible to manage the corresponding risks.

This is a fair criterion, - confirms Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC. - One of the boundaries between these two types of corporate telephony solutions is in the field of responsibility for information security. In the case of cloud services, the provider is responsible for data security. In the case of an on-premium solution, the company itself is responsible for the security of its infrastructure. In the case of CII, it is not recommended to put the issue of data security at the mercy of third parties. "

Cloud storage is the storage of data on someone else's computer (server). If your company has CII requirements, then you cannot store data in someone else's cloud, since no one can provide you with a 100% security guarantee. Access to your data stored on someone else's server will have a third-party administrator responsible for this server, which already carries certain risks.

But Vladimir Afanasyev, director of ICE PARTNERS, offers to look at this situation from a different point of view: "Physically, there is definitely no such border. It is in the head or at the owner or at the person responsible for security. And here it is important to share the risks and measures to reduce them. There should be an adequate balance, because you can get information in many ways and even listen to an unencrypted conversation is not the easiest of them. Here, rather, we are talking about the speed and ease of access of third parties to the PBX. It is believed that having a server, the path of the attacker is as long and difficult as possible. Note the word "Counts."

Any company needs to make sure that the provider provides data protection, has a reliable infrastructure and offers operational technical support to minimize potential problems and system downtime.

Therefore, before using cloud VATS, it is necessary to conduct a risk assessment and check the compliance of these solutions with legal security requirements, says Vladislav Viryasov. - In order to reduce risks, you can use various methods: data encryption, control of access control parameters through user authentication, authorization of rights and other configuration mechanisms, protection against DDoS attacks, backup and recovery of data, as well as regular monitoring.

For example, customers of MANGO OFFICE cloud telephony are offered a special solution to help companies secure employee accounts and personal data with which they work. This is a comprehensive solution that combines several tools to protect calls.

The fact is that often attackers hunt not only for personal data, but also for access to the most advanced telephony resource, the company says, and to gain access to official phone numbers, attackers, for example, connect to SIP accounts in order to then make mass calls. To comprehensively protect communications and customer data, the company implemented a complex of several technologies, including two-factor authorization, logging security events and sending them to syslog, implementing "black" and "white" lists of IP addresses for logging in in the context of applications.

Suppliers of installed corporate telephony systems are also working to strengthen information security functionality in their systems. For example, the integration of the ROSCHAT corporate messenger, which is part of the Informtechnika Technology product ecosystem, with the InfoWatch Traffic Monitor DLP system, has been implemented. Product collaboration allows you to secure the movement of files containing confidential information and send messages through the messenger to prevent information security threats.

Technically, this is as follows: information about the movement of text messages, contact data, files and geolocation will be transmitted to the server along with information about the event initiator and message recipients, as well as information about the device in use.

The joint solution supports monitoring of various events, including sending a file, content, text message, external link in chat, channel, from a personal address book, sending geolocation data, saving a file/content to a device, taking a screenshot. At the same time, two operating modes are provided for chats and channels - with preliminary and background data verification. If one of the checks is negative, the information is removed from the chat, excluding a leak outside the perimeter of the organization. The nature of the DLP system's response to events can be configured by writing scripts in security policies.

Another interesting approach is offered by the Telephone Systems company, a manufacturer of IP-PBXs and Oktell call centers. We are talking about creating our own (private) virtual PBX - this is a virtual machine hosted on a cloud provider server with Oktell software installed. After selecting the necessary configuration: IP-PBX or call center - the client receives a completely ready-to-use system with a connection to any carrier selected by him. Telephone Systems says that such a solution provides all the advantages of virtual PBXs, along with the advantages of traditional office systems, since when using a private virtual PBX, the telephony server and data on it remain under the control of the client company. In this case, you can configure any complexity in the corporate telephony system, for example, combine several offices, company branches and remote employees in one PBX. And such a PBX can also be connected to several telecom operators, it is easy to change the cloud provider or transfer the project to an internal server in its own office.

Economics of cloud and on-premium telephony

There are many cloud service providers in our market that promote their solutions, focusing on their ease of use and the cost-effectiveness of using services from the cloud. However, usually for additional "simplicity, flexibility, lightness" you have to pay something. What is such a "fee" in the case of cloud telephony? And such an expensive corporate telephony on-premium, compared to a cloud subscription?

The "fee" for using cloud telephony is the dependence on the provider and the need to pay for a monthly subscription, says Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC. - Projects for introducing and maintaining switching solutions on your own site can be simplified by using ready-made software solutions that allow you to quickly configure the system and start using it. " The benefits of placing the solution on its own site, the expert continues, may include reducing the cost of communication services, the ability to control its quality and reliability of the system, as well as the ability to scale and adapt the solution to your needs.

For fault tolerance, cloud PBXs typically use server and network communications duplication in distributed data centers. This prevents downtime and keeps the system working even if one of the components fails. However, local solutions have greater flexibility, unlike cloud PBXs, in configuring fault tolerance and cyber threat protection parameters.

Artem Cheprak agrees with the thesis that the economic model of using corporate telephony on-premium can be more expensive than using cloud services. "This is due to the fact that when using on-premium solutions, the company must purchase and configure equipment, as well as pay for its maintenance and updates," explains Artem Cheprak. However, large companies can save on on-premium solutions by more flexible system configuration and control over communication quality. In addition, such solutions can reduce the cost of paying for provider services and reduce dependence on external factors. " At the same time, budget versions of corporate telephony, he believes, are intended only for small companies and can be implemented in any form, both cloud and on-premium, because they usually offer basic functions such as call management, integration with other systems and the ability to scale.

The choice between on-premium or VATS depends on the customer's need for functionality. If the customer has enough capabilities offered by the VATS, most likely, he will not consider professional systems with significantly greater functionality. It's like shooting a gun at sparrows, "says Aleksei Blank, managing partner of Platform Era.

The problem is solved by renting servers in data centers. Sometimes this is more profitable than an acquisition, since as the load grows, you can rent more powerful equipment.

This allowed them to use the entire necessary range of opportunities at once without additional payments, "he says.

In my own experience, from an economic point of view, the cloud is good for small and medium-sized companies. The big ones always go to on-premium. Both of them know exactly how to count. There is also a factor in the age of companies: the older it is, it is more important there to have a telephony infrastructure closer to yourself.

Low infrastructure costs, ease of use, and scalability are important for small companies. For large businesses, it is a priority to reduce operating costs for the purchase, installation and maintenance of equipment, as well as for software support and update, integration with other systems, geographical flexibility and consolidation into a single corporate contact center without the need to install a separate infrastructure for each office.

The Gravitel company notes that the introduction of cloud VATS helps to reduce the costs of long-distance and international conversations: with a connected VATS, two branches of the company in different cities can contact each other by phone for free, and calls to customers across the city will be at minimum rates. "If your employee is on vacation, on a business trip, or simply works from another country, and the FMC functionality is not configured, then you can set up temporary forwarding to the employee's personal mobile phone," the company says. "At the same time, the call will come to the softphone (softphone), or in Telegram completely free for the employee. The company will also use only standard PBX functionality at no additional cost. " Moreover, you can allow an employee to forward to his work number, and then all ordinary incoming calls to his mobile will return to him, but already over the IP protocol. This means that the company will not incur any additional costs, and the employee will additionally pay only for outgoing calls to the company's number, which is several times less than possible spending on international roaming.

Roman Romanov, head of the SATEL software development center, speaks of the "economy of scale" factor, that is, economies of scale: "The larger the company, the less costs it will incur on the on-premium system. In turn, it is costly for small enterprises to have specialists on the staff who can serve telephone exchanges and IP telephony, so cloud solutions are the most suitable option for them. "

In addition, the expert believes, the economic model of using corporate telephony on-premium also depends on the business model of the enterprise itself. For example, for a large production enterprise with a complex structure of production communications, on-premium systems are needed, and a small company and a typical business model can do with a cloud solution.

If the company manages to maintain previously invested investments by preserving the existing fleet of telephone equipment and mobile devices as communication terminals, then it invests money only in the development of the system core, that is, in the software component of corporate telephony solutions, - notes Roman Romanov.

Modernization and import substitution of corporate telephony

They provide reliable and stable communication, especially in cases where it is necessary to ensure high quality and security of voice transmission. Also, not all companies are ready to switch to IP, since it is necessary to update the fleet of telephones, as well as change the network structure, and this is a large capital investment.

Specific Demand for Corporate Telephony Modernization Solutions

The transition to fully IP technology provides advantages in terms of performance and efficiency, as users implement unified communications and collaboration capabilities, emphasizes Artem Cheprak. - Mobility, video, conference and messaging provide additional ROI. And simply providing all users with the same capabilities will help improve communication.

On the other hand, modernization projects must take into account the solid baggage of legacy telephone systems, both in the form of functionality and in the form of material resources. Corporate telephony of all types is created for a long time and costs a lot of money, so companies are in no hurry to abandon the existing infrastructure and switch to new solutions, which is tantamount to building a new network almost from scratch.

Telephony upgrades are usually in demand when the customer still has an outdated PBX and a partially or completely analog network. and also when the organization falls under the Presidential Decree No. 166 "On measures to ensure the technological independence and security of the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation," which introduces a ban on the use of foreign software at CII facilities from January 1, 2025.

Once all networks were analog, then the transition to digital (ISDN) began, then to IP. As a result, some of the company's phone network is a patchwork of technology. And at the same time, there is a task so that each subscriber can contact any other, "says Artem Cheprak. - Of course, in theory, this problem can be solved by completely migrating the network to IP technology, but in practice it is too expensive. The way out is to use different PBXs for different sections of the network. Our portfolio has the necessary PBXs: MiniCom DX-500, MX-1000.

Russian telephony solutions (we are talking about software and hardware) have developed to a large extent towards specialized solutions focused on the segment of the state and law enforcement agencies. Security is put first there. However, business looks at communication issues a little differently. In the past 3-4 years, mobility has come first, in particular, the capabilities of customers for smartphones: so that the battery does not eat much and push notifications regularly arrive. Therefore, the platform itself (and honestly, in the last 10 years, nothing new has been invented in traditional telephony) is of great importance. The company that wants to move away from Western solutions can quite easily move to independent open source products. But with mobile applications - trouble, because all good developments are proprietary and tied to a specific PBX.

True, Artem Cheprak urges not to consider open source a panacea for import substitution: "IP-PBXs developed on the basis of open source codes are usually more compatible than commercial products. This is because their code is available for viewing and editing, allowing developers to fix bugs and add new features. However, even in this case, the company may have compatibility problems, especially if non-standard protocols or codecs are used. "

In this regard, the problem of import substitution of proprietary equipment and software arises in full growth. "Today, the most common situations are when the company built a telephony infrastructure based on solutions Cisco Avaya that left the Russian market in 2022," says Vladislav Viryasov. Such organizations felt certain difficulties with proprietary equipment, lack of technical support and licensing due to the departure of international vendors. In this case, the expert believes, the seamless integration of telephony depends, firstly, on how modern the existing infrastructure is. For example, in the case of an analog network, additional resources may be needed to switch to IP telephony.

Secondly, in the case of proprietary Cisco and Avaya equipment, seamless reconnection is possible if the software, such as Avantelecom's Call Center, provides the ability to work directly with proprietary SCCP and H.323 protocols.

At the moment, there are few Russian vendors on our market whose PBX can perform such seamless integration with proprietary equipment. Therefore, serious costs arise for the customer to completely replace or reinstall the equipment, - notes Vladislav Viryasov.

In recent years, the situation on the telecom market of the Russian Federation has already begun to change: organizations began to abandon the usual "iron" solutions in favor of cloud services. The departure of foreign vendors was only an incentive for the faster transition of companies to Russian cloud corporate solutions, she says. - At this time, domestic developers and suppliers of virtual PBXs with extensive experience in introducing hybrid solutions were already represented in the market of virtual communication services in Russia, when "iron" PBXs work on a par with virtual services. Thus, providers were able to replace some of the iron equipment and seamlessly integrate new cloud solutions into the current infrastructure of companies.

True, it cannot be said that such transformations are easily given to large companies. {{quote 'For large companies, this is a forced transition. It is quite difficult for such enterprises to migrate from iron telephone exchanges to "clouds," agrees Maria Tyurina. There are also frequent situations when large companies are not ready to migrate to cloud services due to internal requirements for ensuring the safety of corporate data. "In this case, the issue of information security is easily resolved using" private clouds "based on client equipment. At the same time, service maintenance remains on the side of the virtual solution service provider, - says Maria Tyurina. }}

How to approach the issue of modernization/import substitution of corporate telephony?

We often encounter projects where the customer wants to one way or another preserve investments made in the current PBX, he explains. - This desire is quite understandable, especially since these systems could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, alas, this approach will only lead to a complication of modernization processes and the emergence of new points of limitation of the system.

As for the answer to the question of which version of telephony to switch to: to the cloud or to a local solution, Vladimir Afanasyev proposes, first of all, to compare the functionality of both options. If both paths do not limit functionality compared to the old system, then further analyze the economics of owning the new system.

"In terms of functionality, cloud and on-premium solutions are similar," said Maria Tyurina, CEO of Telfin. "At the same time, clouds help companies diversify costs and shift part of the service costs to service providers. If you choose an on-premium solution, all the costs fall on the company itself. " She also warns: "Today the market is so overheated that it is difficult enough to find a good technician to keep any inhouse solution running."

Roman Romanov, head of the SATEL software development center, notes a number of factors on which the efficiency of communication infrastructure migration to new generation corporate telephony solutions depends. Among the critical aspects are the size of the company, information security requirements, the budget for the implementation of the migration process, the tasks that need to be solved with a new solution. "Also, a significant role is played by the fact whether the company is private or state-owned," the expert said.

Aleksei Blank, Managing Partner of Platform Era, also believes that the size of the company is the most important parameter that determines the choice of solution: corporate telephony based on VATS or on-premium: "In our experience, often small companies with typical tasks of organizing a voice menu, forwarding calls to employees, recording conversations choose VATS. But if they need to adapt the system to business requirements, implement complex integrations with internal IT systems, they choose on-premium. Also, this option is a priority if there is a need for deep call analytics, report customization or the development of individual interface solutions. "

Vladimir Afanasyev adds: "The most important quality of any IP PBX for the office or other IT systems is security. With an increase in the number of services with access to Internet , infrastructure vulnerabilities also increase. With a local IP PBX, customers control the system themselves. " In addition, since cloud technologies provide for the use of the Internet, communication breaks may occur under high loads in the network. For a large organization with a large number of clients, this can become a serious problem, adds Vladimir Afanasyev, and for some companies, the presence of network failures is a critical point, for example, if you need to connect IP telephony for an inpatient medical institution, where the stability of communication is associated with the preservation of people's lives.

In addition, according to Roman Romanov, the daily life of companies today includes such modern means of communication, the functionality of which may no longer be supported by many legacy solutions. "In my opinion, the most effective will be the transition to full-fledged UC solutions that provide employee mobility and provide communication services on any device (phone, computer, smartphone)," he said. Therefore, SATEL focuses on the transition from legacy systems to solutions with new functionality to ensure employee mobility with the ability to preserve the old communication infrastructure by supporting communication protocols used by Western competitors and implemented by the customer.

Which upgrade option should I choose?

{{quote "Many customers prefer cloud PBX in IP telephony, believing that providers will offer them cool solutions," says Vladimir Afanasyev in his rbc.ru article published last October, and adds: - But operators still do not have services that would provide all the advantages of stationary stations. The functionality of a cloud IP PBX often meets the needs of small companies that previously used professional equipment like Panasonic. Cloud technologies are not very suitable for medium and large companies, since they are not able to cover all their functionality needs. Cloud solutions are always limited to a certain list of options, and when scaling the PBX infrastructure for IP telephony, quite serious difficulties arise. }}

Artem Cheprak believes that the choice between on-premium and cloud VATS depends on the needs of the company: Шаблон:Quote 'If a higher degree of control over the system is required, then on-premium solution may be more suitable. If ease of use and flexibility are required, then cloud VATS may be the best choice.

If we talk about medium and large companies, then the on-premium option is chosen if you need to process a large stream of incoming calls by hundreds of employees or make high-intensity mass calls, says Aleksei Blank. - Also, on-premium option is chosen by companies that have increased requirements for fault tolerance and the safety of personal data.

For example, the Era platform allows you to serve all organizational units, branches, departments on one group of servers. If any server or regional data center fails, the system will remain functional.

The company "Cartoon" advises to take into account when choosing a new system the type of enterprise and the ratio of external and internal (production, etc.) communications.

So, in the second case, on the basis of the installed mini PBX MAXIK MXM500-P, internal communication is organized with powerful selector communication functionality, including remote subscribers and access to the city PSTN, as well as dozens of other functions useful for the manager. The central element of IP communication is the director's console. It is a system telephone that connects to a PBX equipped with an IP module to support 64 SIP trunks and connect up to 128 IP subscribers, such as IP telephones.

Daria Dmitriyeva, manager of external products at MANGO OFFICE, emphasizes: "An on-premium solution may be preferable if the company has its own internal standards that do not provide for the use of clouds, as well as if the company has sufficient resources to maintain and maintain its own infrastructure. On the other hand, a cloud PBX is preferable for companies that want to avoid large equipment capital costs and time costs for the purchase and implementation of new hardware, quickly scale their infrastructure and have flexibility in choosing services. "

Features of migration to the new corporate telephony system

It is not enough to deploy a telephony platform, configure IVR and register employees' phones for making calls, - explains Aleksei Blank. - It is necessary to develop tens and hundreds of services already working on the new system, individual analytical reports, and make many integrations with corporate systems.

The main risk point when moving to another system is integration with third-party systems, - notes Vladimir Afanasyev. - Something can be obtained "out of the box," something can be written from scratch. If the cloud gives everything you need, and the level of information security allows it, it is better not to reinvent the wheel and follow the path of least resistance.

It provides customers with full flexibility by accessing any objects, properties, platform methods, - says Aleksei Blank. - Earlier, users of most domestic and Western solutions, if they need deep adaptation, had to contact the vendor. Now they can develop enterprise applications of almost any level of complexity on their own or by contacting our partners.

If the company already has telephony connected, has its own corporate network, and for some reason it needs to be replaced or upgraded, then a hybrid corporate solution is the best option. So companies can combine virtual telecom services with analog and mobile communications with minimal temporary and financial investments, while continuing to use current equipment.

In this implementation, enterprises can in practice assess their capabilities and needs for cloud communication services: test the quality of solutions, determine the necessary set of basic and additional functions, and assess the possibilities of scaling the network. "Using hybrid solutions, you can additionally expand the functionality of current telephony and make the transition to the cloud more comfortable for the client," she notes.

Features of migration to the cloud PBX

Avantelecom has developed the Sphere multifunctional platform, which is positioned as a domestic replacement for solutions from global vendors: Cisco, Panasonic, Avaya. According to the company, its implementation does not require the purchase of a hardware PBX, but the customer receives a set of necessary functions for the effective operation of telephony and the absence of restrictions on improvements that are in most Russian "iron" PBXs. In this case, the system can be located both on the server of the telephony service provider and in the customer's loop.

The digital communication management platform "Sphere" combines the capabilities of the IP-PBX, the functionality of the contact center and the service for creating voice models based on artificial intelligence. The platform allows you to close the entire range of telephony and call processing tasks, taking into account the recommendations for digitalization and security of critical infrastructure.

In a situation where a one-time replacement of the entire infrastructure is impossible, we see an alternative path in the re-engineering of proprietary networks Cisco, Avaya and Siemens. This approach allows you to install a solution from the register of domestic software and achieve significant savings during implementation, "says Vladislav Viryasov.

According to him, for enterprises with 1 thousand or more subscribers, the savings will be up to 20 million rubles, and the implementation period will be reduced to a couple of months.

In 2022-2023 this approach was used in the project of reengineering corporate telephony for 1200 subscribers in the Khabarovsk administration, which was completely built on proprietary Cisco equipment, and some of the subscribers were analog. Moreover, the infrastructure needed to be replaced immediately in 20 executive bodies, which were geographically located in different parts of the city.

According to Vladislav Viryasov, the customer independently calculated the option of a complete transition to the Russian monobrand solution, but in the end adopted the option of reengineering according to the Avantelecom scheme, since it turned out to be more promising, both in terms of project cost and in terms of its execution. "We managed to preserve the entire proprietary infrastructure of the customer, analog lines were connected through additional gateways, and the modernization period took no more than three months instead of six months," says Vladislav Viryasov. A big problem with import substitution of Cisco hardware is that it runs on a proprietary Cisco SCCP protocol that does not support third-party software. Typically, during network upgrades, IP phones and FXS gateways are replaced with counterparts that support standard protocols such as SIP.

Vladislav Viryasov believes that Avantelecom's approach to import substitution of telephony by global vendors is quite non-trivial: "Usually, if the company has installed proprietary Cisco equipment that does not allow using third-party software, then a typical way out of this situation is to remove proprietary equipment and purchase monobrand development, which, by the way, are also not so many on the Russian market now. This, firstly, is expensive and, secondly, long. Our company has taken a different path: it has adapted its software for proprietary equipment Cisco and Avaya. Now the customer has the opportunity to purchase a reliable solution from the register of domestic software and simply connect it to his proprietary equipment without any additional gateways and purchases of new equipment, "Vladislav Viryasov notes.

At the same time, the process of switching devices in all branches of the state institution took three days, and the switching itself was carried out seamlessly, that is, communication in the organization was not interrupted at the time of switching to a new PBX. The cost of implementation according to the results of the project turned out to be three times cheaper than if the customer completely changed the monobrand solution, including the replacement of subscriber telephones.

In the future, you can plan a gradual replacement of proprietary equipment and a transition to the equipment that can now be used and bought in Russia, he emphasizes and adds t. - Another important point is that the PBX will be built into the customer's virtualization system without the need to install an additional server. The customer does not need to revise his maintenance system, he can work in the usual mode without any changes or additions.

Features of migration to installed IP-PBX solutions

In general, a company that decides to purchase its own IP-PBX has two options: ordering custom development and purchasing a Russian mass-produced product. According to Vladimir Afanasyev, custom development always requires more investments, but as a result, customers receive solutions created individually for specific tasks of the enterprise, infrastructure and scaling prospects. In the face of a global shortage of network solutions, custom development of mini IP-PBXs becomes an excellent option, he said. But today, a number of powerful and proven serial products in various projects are presented on the Russian market. At the same time, new Russian platforms give customers a number of additional opportunities for infrastructure automation and business development.

• Informtechnika & Communications IP PBX Solution

The corporate telephony solution can be implemented as a hardware and software complex, as well as a completely software system. This provides full support for legacy infrastructure (analog, digital, and trunk) and full replacement of developments from foreign vendors such as Cisco and Avaya. This approach makes it possible to maintain previously made investments in the creation of the company's communications system and build a modern integrated communication network of organizations of any scale on a single equipment, with a single control center, to provide new functionality for subscribers and all the necessary telecommunication services. Moreover, the implementation of the new solution is carried out in the mode of seamless integration with the existing IT infrastructure.

Solution components are compatible with a wide range of hardware and enterprise software. It is possible to adapt the solution to the specifics of the enterprise.

Key functional features of the solution:

• Multi-party audio/video conferencing.
• A single mobile client for remote work of employees.
• Centralized monitoring and management system, SNMP support.
• Hardware and architectural geographically distributed redundancy.
• Integration with IP-DECT, DGS and KPS portable communication systems (two-way loudspeaker and command-search system), professional mobile radio communication standard TETRA.
• The possibility of building a full-fledged unified communications system based on the ROSCHAT corporate messenger, which is part of the corporate communications solution.

Exclusive features of this solution include:

• Integration with IP-PBX - allows you to make and receive voice calls inside the messenger/to fixed telephones in the office/on PSTN.
• Integration with "TETRA MiniCom" - the ability to organize operational radio communication on a mobile device, participation in groups, communication in PTT (Push-To-Talk) format.
• Integration with MCDS - the ability to track the time of entry/exit of an employee into the office/special. room, etc.
• Geolocation - the ability to track the location of an employee outside the office.

The company estimates that the reduction in communication costs due to migration to this solution reaches 40%.

• Agat-RT corporate telephony solution

The unified concept of IP-telephony "Agat-RT," according to the company's specialists, allows in 90 cases out of 100 to close the needs of the company for telephony, regardless of its scale and scope of activity. The concept is based on a switch or PBX, which should perform the main function - a joint between external channels of traditional telephony and IP telephony with company extensions. Additional capabilities of the basic functions of office telephone exchanges arise from their integration with computer technologies and computer telephony (CTI) solutions and cover, among other things, the possibility of organizing distributed communication networks, digital signal processing, voice and data transmission over IP channels. Thus, the system implemented on the basis of the concept of telephony "Agat-RT" allows building a distributed telephone network with flexible service and functional content, operating as a single telecommunication core.

^{Concept of corporate telephony "Agat-RT"}

The concept of Agat-RT IP telephony is implemented in the form of the following set of modules:

• The Agat UX series IP-PBX is the first hardware of the Russian IP-PBX.
• VoIP gateways that allow you to connect IP telephony to analog PBXs of third-party vendors.
• Agat CU telecommunications platform is a professional solution to ensure the operation of telemarketing services, service and sales departments.
• Systems for recording telephone conversations and conversation devices "client-cashier" of the "Sprut" family.
• Alder computer telephony boards - developer tool for creating own solutions in the field of IP telephony
• "Sprut-Inform" warning systems.

The company notes that this concept does not bind the user to the use of equipment or software of one vendor: any of the nodes of the telecommunications platform can be replaced with a product of another manufacturer. For example, if the company already has an import PBX, but does not have a built-in call recording system, then the solution from Agat-RT will easily complement it. The lack of a central control link and the independence of the telephony modules from each other is exactly what, according to Agat-RT experts, allows you to save money and get the required functionality through both analog and IP telephony.

Import substitution of subscriber telephones for corporate telephony

An important element of the processes of migration of corporate telephony to solutions of domestic manufacturers is the replacement of subscriber terminals: IP/SIP phones, DECT phones, mobile terminals of industrial radio communications, etc.

Russian phone manufacturers have solid experience in creating DECT terminals, which is considered one of the most effective solutions for organizing wireless subscriber access. The most famous manufacturers are the Goodwin concern and the Informtechnika company.

Goodwin Concern mass-produces basic and subscriber equipment based on DECT, GSM/UMTS/LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, GNSS, LoRaWAN radio technologies for use as part of two key telecommunication platforms: the Goodwin-Neva industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) system and the DECT-based microcell communication system "Goodwin Borodino." The line of subscriber equipment for these systems includes several modifications of industrial radiotelephones and wireless intercoms. All subscriber equipment is manufactured in general industrial and explosion-proof design and is GAP-compatible, that is, it can operate in other DECT communication networks.

The MPT-3IP/MPT-3EX radiotelephone (Goodwin concern) operates in DECT, LoRaWAN networks with receiving data through BLE beacon networks or through GLONASS GNSS, GPS ]]

The MiniCom TA-IP-4 telephone, which Informtechnika and Svyaz released on the market last summer, is positioned as a full-fledged replacement for the phone models of vendors who left our market: Avaya J179, Cisco CP-8961.

This is a next-generation phone with all the necessary features for business communication, with a large 3.5-inch color screen and a 4-position navigation button, and the built-in speaker and handset provide ultra-wideband noise-canceling sound capable of supporting 8 SIP lines.

You can connect expansion consoles, a wired headset, conference devices or a Wi-Fi modem to the phone via USB A and C ports, and connect to the enterprise LAN via Gigabit Ethernet port.

VP-30P is a modern and multifunctional IP phone developed by the Novosibirsk company Eltex specifically for working in the office, supports up to 6 SIP accounts. It is based on a high-performance hardware platform, which provides instant system response when working with an IP phone, and the integrated gigabit switch allows you to connect the user's PC and IP phone to the same physical port of the Ethernet switch. For stable and continuous operation of the device, chips are used to achieve high data processing speeds. All major audio codecs used in VoIP networks (G.711U, G.711A, G.729) are supported.

QTECH's line of phones includes SIP phones for managers, SIP phones for secretaries, universal and budget SIP phone models.

For example, the QVP-600PR IP phone is a next-generation intelligent desktop terminal that helps improve the operation of a modern office. It is positioned as a telephone for managers - it supports the registration of several accounts, control of several calls, easily copes with all tasks even with a large number of incoming calls through waiting functions, queuing, call redirection, busy line indication boards, as well as simple conference facilities.

With the built-in image viewer on the graphics LCD screen, users can access XML data and more detailed commercial information. Up to 192 program keys can be used with one expansion module.

FLAT-PHONE B10 IP-phone of FLAT is intended for business use. It is aimed at advanced users who need a compact IP phone with many communication tools on the desktop.

The Flat-Phone B10 has two gigabit Ethernet ports, can be equipped with WiFi and Blutoolth modules, which allows for increased flexibility of use. Simplified call management is implemented: call transfer, conference and forwarding, interception and parking, quick access to a corporate or personal directory, quick dialing and busy monitoring of PBX subscribers. Up to 20 SIP accounts, 30 line keys, conference for 6 participants with high-quality HD Voice sound, integration with the LDAP global catalog are supported.

Integration with the IP PBX provides support for XML browser, URL URI actions, messaging and tracking of new messages on the server (SMS, voice mail, MWI). Perm Telephone Plant "Telta" produces modern devices designed to work in modern digital networks of corporate telephony.

For example, the Spectrum-001 telephone is designed for open communication networks with the ability to be installed in categorized rooms. It supports working with digital PBXs using the SIP v 2.0 interaction protocol, Ethernet interconnection connections with support for the TCP/IP protocol stack, programming direct dialing keys, a set of modern audio codecs (G.711, G.722, G.723.1, G.729AB). It is possible to conduct up to five conversations simultaneously with switching between them (organization of virtual communication lines) and conference calls (up to 5 subscribers)

Important Features of a Migration Project to a New Enterprise Communications Infrastructure

Import substitution/modernization of corporate telephony is not a simple process. Experts gave a number of tips that will help Russian companies carry out such a project as efficiently as possible.

Artem Cheprak, General Director of Informtechnika and Svyaz JSC: "It is worth being realistic and aware that the transition to new equipment and software can be a complex and time-consuming process. It may also require employee training, infrastructure changes and integration with other systems. It is important for customers to maintain the usual level of services, and it should be noted that there are no intractable problems when changing telephony solutions in the company. Domestic integrators have experience in implementing projects to replace the solutions of departed vendors in such a way that the customer's telephony system retains its functionality, and the customer himself partially retains the equipment previously made by him, for example, terminal devices. But in this matter, the preparatory stage is very important. We need to conduct a thorough audit. And it is important to understand that it is necessary to change not one system to the closest one to it, but domestic, but, starting from the existing one, to build a new one, which, ideally, will be devoid of current shortcomings and have the potential for development.

Daria Dmitriyeva, Manager of External Products at MANGO OFFICE: "The main problems that import substitution projects may face are the need to adapt existing systems to new solutions, personnel training, as well as possible problems of compatibility and integration with other systems and equipment. When migrating to new solutions, customers will pay attention to maintaining the usual level of services, minimizing downtime and losses during migration, as well as ensuring the security and reliability of new systems. Migration risks can include data loss, and as mentioned, compatibility issues with other systems, the need for their personnel to adapt to new solutions. Therefore, preparation and careful process planning is a critical aspect for seamless migration to a next-generation solution. This includes reviewing current infrastructure, identifying business needs, choosing the right solution, and developing a detailed migration plan with minimal downtime and risk. "

Maria Tyurina, CEO of Telfin: "The market expects a high customer focus from the solution provider. It is necessary to offer not only a high-quality software product, but also to maintain a high level of service in the company. The winner is the one who meets the client's expectations in terms of service: a quick reaction of the client service to appeals, high-quality technical support, well-organized internal business processes. "

Vladimir Afanasyev, Director of ICE PARTNERS: "I would first of all revise the processes. Is what we use (or think we use) really needed in the work? And it would simplify everything that can be simplified. "

Prospects for Further Development of Corporate Telephony

Effective modernization and import substitution of corporate telephony implies that when choosing a practical method of such modernization, you need to look forward to promising guidelines for the further development of technologies and business services of corporate telephony.

Daria Dmitriyeva, Manager of External Products at MANGO OFFICE, lists the promising directions for the further development of corporate telephony: integration with artificial intelligence (primarily, speech recognition capabilities and those functions based on it that can improve the quality of customer service and user experience), development of data analytics functions, integration with cloud services, for example, the ability to integrate with cloud data storage and other services to improve communication and collaboration of employees, which, in turn, leads to the further development of security functions. She emphasizes the need to improve mobile integration: it is meant to develop applications for mobile devices that will allow employees to be always in touch and have access to corporate telephony from anywhere in the world.

The most active market participants connect omnichannel platforms and conduct business communications continuously where it is convenient for the client. Gradually, service providers are moving away from business telephony as an independent service and offer companies comprehensive solutions in the field of corporate communications, which include all possible communication channels: telephony, instant messengers, a website, etc.

Ultimately, we are talking about the further development of corporate mobility. According to the study "Overview of the Russian infrastructure software market and prospects for its development," which analysts at the research company Strategy Partners published in September 2023, the market for solutions for enterprise mobility management will grow at a significant pace in the coming years.

This means that in analyzing the competitive situation of suppliers of corporate telephony solutions, in addition to vendors of on-premium solutions installed and cloud VATS providers, business ambitions and technological development of domestic corporate messengers should be taken into account.

Both segments of the IP-PBX market are moving towards support for unified communications and strive to maximize the functionality of multimedia communication and data and text exchange through integration with corporate applications. Will we see a new round of competition in the near future - on the field of unified communications?

Our product line includes both solutions for corporate telephony, for example, PBX MiniCom MX-1000, and the corporate messenger ROSCHAT. They do not compete with each other, on the contrary, they complement each other. Messengers are now developing a lot, constantly increasing their functionality. And gradually they cease to be corporate messengers themselves, they become a semblance of a unified communications system. But it is obvious that a fully functional business communications system requires telephony, it can be implemented as a softswitch deployed on the server, or it can be a dedicated hardware solution in the form of an IP-PBX.

Messengers offer a wide range of features, including voice and video calls, messaging, the ability to hold online conferences and collaborate, as well as integration with other business applications. In addition, many corporate messengers offer a high level of security and data protection, which makes them an attractive choice for corporate clients. Thus, the convergence of fixed and mobile communications and the development of corporate messengers, indeed, create a competitive environment for corporate IP telephony. Companies offering cloud PBXs must constantly develop their products and functionality in order to remain competitive in the market for communication solutions for business.

Here the market standard is set by messengers. "We would be like in Telegram, only locally so that it is safe and manageable." By the way, I am waiting with interest for one of the big players in the messenger market to take a step in this direction. Telecom operators can play on the same topic, "says Vladimir Afanasyev, director of ICE PARTNERS and continues:" But for some reason this is not happening yet. I think it's a banal matter of money, or rather, the volume of the market. In the meantime, corporate services in terms of unified communications are developing fragmentally: in this application we have chats, here is the video, and we call on the phone on the table. And the point here, rather, is the established user experience and habits that cannot be changed by turning the switch.

This is not to say that IP telephony competes with instant messengers - employees use them to solve different problems, "says Evgeny Gromakovsky, co-founder and CEO of the corporate messenger Compass. - At the same time, the PBX is a more niche story that a limited number of companies need. Their desire to capture the functions of instant messengers can be understood: theoretically, this will make it possible to become a more mainstream product and expand the number of customers. However, all competition will somehow unfold not between product classes, but within these very classes.

The fact is, the expert explains, that there are no interchangeable products in the corporate communications segment: videoconferences and PBXs cannot close the functions of the corporate messenger, and vice versa. As a result, the business chooses the solutions of all the classes it needs, but does not stop at one.

So, maybe all directions in the future will lead to a new structure - a kind of supperapp installed locally?

The trend towards unification can be easily traced, so all the products that the business chooses will be permeated with mutual integrations. But it is unlikely that it will be a single superapp, - answers Evgeny Gromakovsky. - Rather, it will be integrations, as in Zapier or the online constructor Albato, so that the workflow workflow flow smoothly flows from one service to another. In addition, the bet on on-premium only works only in the "heavy" Enterprise segment - not the entire business is able to place and service all communication services in its infrastructure. Ultimately, I see a combination of on-premium for critical tools and cloud/private cloud for services that companies can allow to use in the cloud. Mutual integrations will help to combine the workflow in different products into a single stream. This also takes into account the capabilities of customers in terms of resources and equipment.

In order for a single superapp to appear on the market, which seamlessly combines all the functions necessary for operation, we need to clone Microsoft. It is still impossible to get such a product, it develops fragmentally, - Evgeny Gromakovsky explains his position. - Each fragment - videoconferences, chats, mail, collaboration on documents, etc. - is the area of ​ ​ responsibility of different vendors. They have different resources, different stages of development, their own road maps of development.

Again, with the help of mutual integrations, everyone with each. They will allow the client to choose not from what is, but to collect a full-fledged workplace from those products that most fully cover the needs of the company. Moreover, compared to the superapp, the sales market is expanding from heavy Enterprise to the entire Russian business. Even small companies will be able to choose the right services and configure workflow - as they will know that the services are integrated with each other, - Yevgeny Gromakovsky is sure.

You will not be able to make a Microsoft-level product if you limit yourself to the on-premium option. It is impossible to decide for the client how it is more comfortable and more correct to install the product - give the business the opportunity to choose, and everything will take off.

The approach to creating unified communications is not new, the idea of ​ ​ combining all types of communication within the company has been 10 years old. Microsoft Teams gave a certain impetus to its development, which tightly entered corporate processes. And of course, the pandemic and the associated remote work, which radically changed the entire user experience.

He sees the evolution of corporate telephony as an essential aspect of conservatism related to the landline phone habit. It, along with the desire to maintain investments in already implemented systems, determines the current level of demand for more innovative solutions that are associated with the use of a smartphone as a tool for work from anywhere in the world and from any platform.

In the future of integrated communications, the messenger will remain a cornerstone function. And how such a tool will be called, history will show, - says Igor Malyshev.

By this time, you will have to clarify the content of the concept of "superapp." For example, in the eXpress company, under the superapp, not only telephony applications, VKS and the messenger inside with the appropriate parameters of reliability and security of the service. According to the expert, the factor of connectivity of communication participants is critical. And there are problems with this today.

Telephony, e-mail in the whole world has a global distribution, since all subscribers are connected to each other. But modern unified communications tools were created and created often in isolation: the system can be connected internally, but it does not integrate well with neighbors, with colleagues from other companies - this is how Igor Malyshev sees the main challenge of modern unified communications. - Even within the framework of Teams, most often in practice it looked like different organizations using this product within their circuit. If unified communications tools appear, they are now most often isolated, not related to each other.

This standard of corporate communications, with the appropriate level of reliability and security, can greatly change the situation and the spread of Unified Communications, radically reverse the entire history of the distribution of unified communications in the corporate segment.

So the "biography" of corporate telephony is still "written" by different market participants. And they, as we can see, promise that the IP revolution was the first, but not the last, event of its kind.

See also

• IP telephony (Russian market)
• SIP telephony
• IP Telephony Projects
• Enterprise Telephony Solutions (Global)
• PBX - Office PBXs (Global Market)
• PBX - Office PBXs (Russian Market)
• Unified Communications (Russian Market)
• Unified Communications (Global Market)
• Video conferencing systems. TAdviser Overview
• VKS projects (video conferencing)
• Unified communications in Russia: features of the market development before and after the departure of global vendors. TAdviser 2022 review
• Unified communications: how Russian suppliers strengthen their position. TAdviser 2023 review