Digium Switchvox - Review 2022
If you're looking for a complete, business-set Phonation-over-IP (VoIP) service from ane company that provides a variety of modern handsets tied to its own deject-based Individual Branch Exchange (PBX), then Digium Switchvox is well worth a wait. The service starts at $24.99 per seat per month for upward to 50 users, and has a wide diversity of universal communications and collaboration (UCC) features. These features include video conferencing, presence management, instant chat, the power to create call routing preferences, and the ability to flip easily between a desk telephone and mobile device. However, while it'south a solid service for most pocket-sized to midsize business concern (SMB) operations, it lags behind 8x8 Virtual Office Pro and RingCentral Part (for Business), our Editors' Choice winners in our business VoIP and video conferencing review roundups. This is due to Digium Switchvox'southward limited number of hardware options and its fairly basic video conferencing feature set.
However, fifty-fifty though it doesn't win overall, Digium Switchvox still provides enough capability to suffice for many operations and it's bachelor at a fairly competitive toll signal. On the hardware side, its features are integrated into a choice of iv different phones, which all accept colour displays. Besides, the Digium Swichvox features travel well, with visually appealing and intuitive Android and Apple iOS applications. Digium also offers a useful administrator panel that provides useful tools for call monitoring, real-time queuing, and a variety of other reports.
Turnkey Approach
The notion of ownership phones and service from the same company goes against the grain among some pure deject PBX providers, such as 8x8 Virtual Office Pro, Intermedia Unite, RingCentral Office (for Business), and Vonage Business organization Cloud. Those cloud PBX providers, among others, promote that they don't lock customers into their own hardware equally did traditional PBX suppliers, who were notorious for locking their customers into their proprietary systems.
Instead of offer their own equipment, these providers offering diverse menus of systems from Cisco, Panasonic, Polycom, and Yealink, amongst others. But now that near new digital phones support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a client could run them on Digium's deject PBX service. Digium acknowledges this but maintains, not surprisingly, that customers will go the all-time calling experience and ease of use past using its phones. Likewise, since Digium's phones are also SIP-based, customers could theoretically motion them onto some other SIP-compatible deject PBX service, though your mileage may vary depending on how many liberties each vendor has taken with the standard.
If y'all take misgivings about using a cloud PBX service bundled with the provider's phones, or y'all but don't like the models Digium offers, so this service might not be the all-time selection for your company. But many concern buyers, especially those with limited Information technology staffs, are quite content with the i-finish-shop approach of buying phone sets tied to one service. Digium Switchvox is likewise an alternative to our consumer VoIP Editors' Choice winner Mitel MiCloud Office, which recently scooped up ShoreTel, both of which offering their ain hardware and service. Mitel offers a dozen dissimilar SIP phones. It would exist nice if Digium had a wider pick of phones as well, though the four information technology does offer—the D60, D62, D65,
Figure 1
At the loftier-finish, the D80 (Figure 2) is driven by a seven-inch, touch-screen display, and embedded carte du jour options that can return visualizations of voicemail, presence, contacts, and call handling capabilities. It too can run
Figure 2
For conference rooms, Digium said the D80 is suitable for small to midsize meeting rooms. If you have a large executive briefing room, then Digium Switchvox supports Polycom's popular SoundStation IP 6000. Otherwise, the four phones Digium offers should adjust most business organisation environments, and the low-end telephone offers a overnice display and feature set up for the cost. Pricing for the service is higher than most of the options in our review roundup. The price ranges from $24.99 to $35 per month per seat, depending on the number of seats and whether the customer opts for a three-year, annual, or month-to-month agreement.
Digium isn't purely a cloud PBX provider. The company only started offering the Switchvox cloud PBX service a few years agone. Information technology has, historically, offered and still actively provides on-premises PBXes, SIP trunking services, VoIP gateways, line cards, and phones. Asterisk, Digium's parent company, is the sponsor of its namesake
That's further complicated by the company's reticence to share besides much about its deject PBX infrastructure. When asked how many information centers it runs or whether it runs in a public cloud surroundings or defended hosting facilities, the visitor replied that it doesn't disclose this information, including whether or non it's geo-redundant, which is a fairly basic requirement for IT people interested in making sure their telephone service stay reliable. A company official would only share that information technology's highly survivable, available, and resilient, with 99.999 of availability. This might exist enough data for some customers, but for those who need more item, it could exist a deal billow.
Setup
The Switchvox service is bachelor through Digium's direct sales system, its network of partners, and online resellers CDW and VoIPSupply. The network requirements are straightforward. The phones plug into any broadband connection that has
Whether you work with a partner or direct with the company, you'll have a human relationship with someone representing Digium, which will make setup easier. This person will assemble configuration data such as how many extensions are needed, what types of permissions different employees should receive, and what other features people in the organization might need. Once you've established how many lines and phones you'll need, you lot'll configure your extensions and call routing policies through the admin console.
To assistance, the visitor or the partner with whom yous're working will provide this configuration service equally well. Call controls and preferences for users and the admin console are all spider web-based via dedicated URLs with a username.digiumcloud.net naming convention. The Digium phones are designed to auto-provision the network settings and features of the Switchvox service.
Assistants
Authorized managers can log in to the admin console past adding /admin to the end of the URL. The admin console is divided into four sections: Reports, Server, Setup, and Tools. In the Setup section, an admin can configure converged phones, Digium phones, feature packs, groups, permissions, settings, and users. Setting upward user extensions is typically among the first steps where you can create extensions, modify them, or import them from other systems. Admins can manage phones, Interactive Vocalization Response (IVR) menus, call queues, and virtual extensions.
In the Tools section, admins tin admission an IVR menu editor, create fourth dimension settings, manage phone call recording, and set up result triggers. The latter will launch a specific URL based on the caller ID of incoming calls. Other tools include management of company contacts, rapid punch list, and a tool to develop apps for the Digium phones.
Digium besides has a widget tool to create custom layouts in a feature called Switchboard, which is suited for those who need to manage call queues or users who handle numerous incoming calls and want to create customized views. The admin console too offers quite a few other tools for businesses that want to embed specific apps into the phone. The platform already has a connector for Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce apps. The Switchvox for Outlook user interface (UI) lets users dial a contact'south number direct from Outlook. When enabled, users tin dial a call straight from the Outlook contact with an embedded dial button. While that's convenient for the many workers who apply Outlook to manage their contacts, even more useful is the context information technology provides with incoming calls. Presuming the incoming caller ID matches the contact information in Outlook, the app will present a desktop notification with the contact data from Outlook.
Likewise, the Salesforce UI lets users dial calls from its client human relationship management (CRM) contact records and rails the telephone call. While those are the only connectors Digium currently offers, customers tin can link other apps, including their own custom software using the Digium application programing interface (API), which lets developers build apps in JavaScript. A developer with access to the admin console tin can just pull downwardly the Digium Phone Apps carte option, click information technology, then click the Create App button. This provides access to the tool, which lets yous upload the final packaged app.
While those are the merely connectors Digium currently offers (it would be nice to see the company ringlet out more), customers can link other apps, including their own custom software, past using the Digium API, which lets developers build apps in the widely used JavaScript language. A developer with access to the admin console tin can merely pull downwardly the Digium Phone Apps menu option, click information technology, so the Create App button and information technology volition provide admission to the tool, which besides lets you upload the final packaged app.
Reports and Call Features
The admin console has reporting tools that offer a simple way to create reports based on phones, telephone call queues,
The Switchvox user portal is straightforward. Employees can manage their voicemail and view their ain telephone call logs and reports equally well every bit fix calling features such equally Call Rules, Contacts, and status options you lot wish to use in your presence indicator. When creating your Call Rules, yous could, for example, create a dominion that will decline all queue calls while directing all direct calls to voicemail if you're in do-not-disturb mode. A secondary rule could directly calls to voicemail or your mobile phone subsequently a specified number of rings. The Phone call Rules tool as well lets you create call-blocking preferences and message prompts.
Those who like the flexibility of having calls routed to alternate locations either internally at another extension or externally such every bit their homes or mobile phones can use the Converged Phones feature. It'south easy to configure past inputting the basic information in the Setup wizard. It includes a
Many cloud PBX offerings at present provide mobile client features. User settings let y'all make up one's mind whether phone call handling goes through the PBX or your own cellular service. Information technology has one of the more aesthetically pleasing keypads, which is easy to read in less than optimal conditions and provides access to contacts, a telephone call log,
Conferencing and Collaboration
We'd similar to see Digium pay more than attention to its softphone functionality. It would exist nice to have that same mobile app human activity as a desktop softphone, particularly if you don't like to dial from the desk phone. A softphone would also be nice if you want to use your Mac or PC as a phone. The latter outcome can exist addressed by pulling up the Switchboard tool mentioned earlier. In add-on to providing managers with customized dashboards, users tin create their ain widgets as well. It as well has an embedded dialer, which lets you dial from the desktop, though, if you employ Outlook, then you can dial from a contact there also. It also includes a invitee chat spider web app that lets a presenter send a link to participants, and they tin can chat and have a uncomplicated video conference with screen sharing.
Setting up basic conference calls from the phone sets or mobile clients is also straightforward. Simply choose the Conference icon and you can dial in multiple parties. Likewise, a Briefing Room feature lets any user ready a meeting. Nether the Call Features drop-downwardly menu, you tin can choose the Conference Room pick where you create a five-digit conference ID for people to admission a briefing.
Overall, Digium Switchvox offers a solid set of features that are suited to business users with a variety of requirements. The package is quite suitable if you like their phones, which are all sturdy devices. The service and features performed well during our tests, but it would be squeamish to take a better picture of their network courage. While the company has been around for nearly two decades, it'due south non too-known every bit some of its competitors, but it does offer a solid set of features and a reasonable value if you lot intend to employ them.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/software/20803/digium-switchvox
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