The success of technology is based on constant advancement. Right now, the industry is looking toward the future in anticipation of what the “newfound” cloud will bring. IP Telephony is no different as more and more communications move to the cloud. This leads many to question, is hardware going to stick around? The on premise IP-PBX isn’t going the way of the tin can, and Grandstream proves that—the arrival of the cloud doesn’t cancel out the benefits of hardware-based solutions. But I suppose for some, the question remains how does the on premise IP PBX innovate with us? The answer to that is through customization, security, and flexibility.
Customization
Grandstream’s hardware offers a lot of advancement in the way of personalization, control, and security. Gone are the days of out of the box technology; customization is key. Companies offering cloud or hosted IP PBX solutions are all about restriction and tacking on extra fees. These hosted/cloud solutions come in a tiered form often minimizing features, the number of endpoints, users, and concurrent calls that your business can handle. This means that if your company is growing healthily, you’re going to be inconvenienced many times waiting to upgrade—and your service will be suffering in the process. Grandstream never charges licensing fees, there are no contracts, and the owner retains full control of the unit. We offer regular firmware upgrades, feature enhancements and tools for the full life of the device.
Security
Security is a big one these days. The more everything migrates to the internet the more that security vulnerabilities are discovered. With an on premise IP PBX solution, you’re in control and any changes are made immediately. The UCM Series protects against malicious use in various ways, and offers many secure encryption options including SRTP/UDP/TLS (full list here). We also offer:
- Secured Web UI Access
- Extension Security
- Trunk Security
- Firewall covering static defense, dynamic defense, and fail2ban
Super Administrators have full control to tailor the security features to your individual needs ensuring that you can build the proper level of security around your communications.
Flexibility
Depending on your business’ needs you may want to integrate with different interfaces for a streamlined experience. We’ve formed various partnerships to make this easier for you and ensure that your communications remain streamlined and effortless. Below are some options to integrate different communication software with Grandstream’s UCM IP PBX.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
We integrate with SugarCRM and SalesForce and others, for a more seamless CRM experience. By integrating the two, you make your life easier and improve customers’ experience.
Property Management Systems (PMS)
H-Mobile, a PMS system integrates with the UCM to allow for wakeup management, mini bar control, express checkout, and many other options. See the integration guide here.
Reporting
CTI Solutions, partnered with Grandstream by offering a fully compatible way to audit, account for, and analyze all telephony traffic making for an efficient way to evaluate in and outbound calls for call centers, sales employees and many more.
Softphone & CTI
We offer our own, Grandstream Wave Softphone for iOS and Android. We also offer Grandstream Affinity CTI, for those who prefer to utilize computer telephony integration.
While cloud communications have their place, on premise solutions remain a strong component of a complete, unified communications solution. Read more about Grandstream’s Award Winning IP PBX offerings here.