Verdict
We found everything very easy to set up and use, and were impressed by the level of functionality provided. As well as basic call handling facilities, for example, there's support for hunt groups (routing inbound calls to multiple extensions), music on hold and so on. Voicemail comes as standard, along with Outlook integration and a fax server. An Integrated Voice Response system ('Press button 1 for sales', and so on) facility is also included, and proved remarkably easy to configure.
In fact, our only real concern is scalability. Performance shouldn't be a problem: we were only able to test a small setup, but given suitably specified hardware the 3CX software ought to be handle the demands of quite large organisations. However, it does rely on the use of third-party gateways and SIP services, which means that sourcing, configuring and managing large populations of these components could be an issue -- especially if they're from multiple vendors. The 3CX software also lacks many of the survivability features found on other IP PBX products, although support for Windows clustering is built into the Enterprise edition.
Editor's note: the original price for this software is available in US Dollars or Euros. The Australian price in this review reflects the exchange rate at the time of publication. Actual price may vary.
4%
2%
This is clearly not a commericial, full featured product. Perhaps the people that tested it for the article didn't know what they were looking for...
The good: Windows, quick easy setup and administration.
The bad: Can't customize any low level items and basic features that have existed for years on other systems are missing. Implementation of Voicemail is ridiculious, can't change codes, no fast forward, can't implement a code like *86 instead of their goofy 999 access code... silly stuff. Look within the forums to see the requests for basic items that should already be there.... Lame forums support.