Neon Healthcare organisation glows with 3CX!

Neon Health Services Inc., a well known organisation in Cleveland Ohio, which is now entering its 40th year as a network of community health centers, has entrusted 3CX as their telephony provider.

Neon Healthcare has an overall staff of 280 and a network of six health centers. They offer accessible, comprehensive primary care services to the entire family, including Adult Medicine, Pediatrics, Family Practice, OB / GYN, Behavioral Health, Dental Optometry and Podiatry services.

Al Barker, CIO, Neon Health Services, was looking to find a new solution to replace the complex and unreliable phone system they had. He was looking for something that was Windows based, reliable, able to accommodate to a large number of calls and to integrate their stock of existing SIP phones. After downloading and testing the free version of 3CX Phone System, Al found 3CX to be the perfect match.

A key factor to Al’s decision on implementing 3CX was that it is Windows based and easy to manage. This would have been unthinkable with Linux. Al found that not only are the cost savings impressive from installing 3CX , but it has also increased productivity and mobility to the staff by staying connected while out of office. Staff member are now able to stay in touch at all times with the free 3CXPhone (soft phone) and/or 3CX Assistant.

“..The installation of the 3CX communication system has transformed me to hero. Thanks 3CX!” says Al Barker.

The full case study can be found here.

3CX Releases Free VoIP Phone for Android

3CX, which makes the VoIP PBX 3CX Phone System and the Windows 3CX softphone, today added a free VoIP phone for the Android OS to its growing list of products.

The phone can be downloaded for free by both consummers and enterprises.

Therefore Android smartphone users on a variety of phones (including the Google Nexus, the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia) can make free phone calls via 3G and wireless.

The 3CX free VoIP phone for Android mobile works with standards based SIP servers including 3CX and other Phone Systems.
It is not locked down to a particular PBX or provider.

This gives users the flexibility to pick and choose their favorite VoIP PBX. They can also switch at any time or use different VoIP providers simultaneously.

The CEO of 3CX, Nick Galea, said: “Smartphones will soon be the defacto mobile communication option. With a docking station they can even act as a desk phone in time.
"A VoIP PBX must embrace this technology and deliver seamless integration to provide true mobility to its users.”
“Smartphone support is a key component of our strategy and the 3CXPhone for Android delivers on this vision”.

Mr Galea added: “We chose Android as our first platform because it is gaining market share and evolving at a rapid pace. Right now in the smartphone market Android has an advantage as it is standards-based, open and vendor independent. Furthermore Android mobiles are available at competitive prices.”

3CXPhone for Android is based on SiPagent. 3CX acquired this popular SIP phone for Android in June 2010. SiPagent users are able to upgrade free of charge to the 3CXPhone.

3CX Version 9 Service Pack 1

3CX has released a service pack for the version 9 build 13545 of their phone system. This service pack can be applied to the latest build without re-installing.

Updating your 3CX Phone System 9 installation

1.Log in to the 3CX WINFORMS Management console. Note that the update procedure is only available in the winforms version of the management console.
2.You will notice that the node 3CX Phone System Updates is highlighted in Red. This means that there is an update available.
3.Expand the node 3CX Phone System Updates and click on 3CX Service Packs/Updates
4.You can see the update and click on the Change log link where you will see all the comments and fixes in this update. Select the checkbox and click on Download Selected.
5.The download of the package will start automatically, The management console will close, and all the components will be updated. Status and progress will be updated on screen. The last message will be Starting Services.
After this the windows management console will come up and you can log in with your credentials.
Important Notification: On some systems, it is possible that the action Starting Services takes between 6-10 minutes. This is a known issue in the previous updater. So be patient. If after 10 minutes the message is still there, go to services.msc and start the services manually. Start/Run/Services.msc and start the 3CX Database server followed by the 3CX Configuration service and the rest of the services.

Features include

■ Ability to configure that a desk phone AND mobile number can be rung simultaneously.
■ Backup and restore automatic migration when a backup is restored on a machine which has a different IP address/network topology. Components like 3CX Tunnel, Secure SIP, Fax, Provisioning files and Outgoing default local address parameters are updated automatically
■ Android Provisioning – a new Android device can now be provioned with a new OR an existing extension (i.e. to do SIP forking)
■ Database updater can now seamlessly update all the components in the 3CX Phone System without uninstall/reinstall
■ Ability to Send call to Voicemail of another extension. Voicemail boxes will be seen in the dropdown
■ When option “Automatically log me in/out of queues” is checked in extension settings, a change in profile to away and out of office will update the profile and also log out the extension from the queues. Even if the profile change is made from the 3CX Assistant
■ Template for UKRtelecom – VoIP Provider in the Ukraine

Fixed
■ Ability to change SMTP port for sending of voicemail
■ Server core Line ID not properly generated in multiple contacts
■ Issues in Call History when call is not answered or destination is busy
■ Manual link in management console
■ Delay in connections using tunnel and one of the bridges is down
■ Cache timeout increase in Abyss webserver configurations to reduce delay in first IVR call
■ Rebound feature showing original caller caller id. (if VoIP Provider or gateway supports this)
■ Caller ID from External number to a queue is now showing correctly
■ DTMF problem in Rebound not playing call screening or disconnecting when pressing # or invalid dtmf presses
■ IP addresses starting with 169 are now showing however they will show at the end of the list because they might be AIPPA addresses
■ Issues in recording
■ Issue in special reports with answer time
■ Issue when updating destinations of forwarding rules in all profiles
■ BLF bug in blind transfer
■ Unterminated call after transfers in some scenarios
■ Issue in service starter taking long to start the services. (Fix will be applied on the next update)
■ Several issues related to Call Reporter, call history updating and query functions in the database.
■ Generation of reports when reports have over 500,000 calls. Reports with over 5000 pages will be slower but will also work
■ Active directory import users function when Caller ID is blank and other issues related to winforms
■ Database caching size to optimize speed of queries

Known issues
1.Call reporter might show time durations with a negative sign. This is a known issue caused by a bug in Version 8 and has been fixed in version 9. Unfortunately for the backups taken from version 8 we cannot fix this completely on restore because the data is already affected.
2.Call Reporter might remain for some time showing a message “Accessing Data” or “not responding”. This is because there are a lot of records and the database is busy with queries. If you query a report with a lot of records (over 5000 pages) it is advisable to take a backup of these records by generating a report in csv or pdf format and delete the old records to clean up the database. The reports that are affected by this behaviour are “Call Logs Report” and “Call Statistics”. Eventually the report will be generated however.

3CX Phone System 9 goes Unified Communications with Video support

V9 of the popular Windows Phone system adds video support, android client and enterprise capabilities

3CX has released version 9 of its popular phone system for Windows. Version 9 is a significant upgrade that adds video support as well as enterprise features such as the ability to monitor remote PBX installations via 3CX Assistant and automatic remote installation and configuration of 3CXPhone and 3CX Assistant.

“3CX Phone System 9 is now a complete Unified Communications solution –We have added standards based video and support for smartphones as clients. At the same time we have added key enterprise features that widen 3CX’s appeal to larger companies”

“3CX continues to take market share and now has over 20,000 server installations worldwide. I expect that with v9 this number will grow dramatically.”

Video support
V9 allows single click set-up of video calls with other 3CXPhone users or with standards based video phones such as from Xlite, Yealink or Grandstream.

To read more on this article, please click here.

3CX Phone System V9 gives Unified Communications solution

3CX, which offers a software based PBX for Windows, has released version 9 of its Phone System.

The Phone system V9 gives a free SIP phone for Android, video support and enterprise capabilities.

This upgrade allows clients to monitor their remote PBX installations via the 3CX Assistant. It also offers automatic remote installation and configuration of the 3CX Assistant and the 3CXPhone for a full Unified Communications solution.

The CEO of 3CX, Nick Galea, said: “The 3CX Phone System 9 is a complete Unified Communications solution. We have added support for smartphones as clients and standards-based video. Furthermore there are key enterprise features which widen 3CX’s appeal to larger companies”

He added: “3CX now has over 20,000 server installations worldwide. With v9 available this number will grow dramatically.”

The V9 Video support allows a single click set-up of video calls with other 3CXPhone users. Video calls are also possible to standards-based video phones including those made by Yealink, Xlite and Grandstream.

In terms of Android smartphone support, with 3CX v9 Android users can receive or make calls from anywhere using their extension. They just download the 3CXPhone for Android softphone and configure it to their 3CX Phone System account.

Other features are the provisioning of the 3CXphone and 3CX Assistant which makes deploying and administering installations much easier.

Phone System users can install the client apps by clicking on an HTTP link which will automatically install and configure them. Updates are automatically sent to the clients.

There is also Multi Site – Capability Monitor presence with queues on remote PBXs. This supports standards-based SIP phones, with no proprietary phones required.

The 3CX Assistant now lets you create conference calls to internal and external users easily and offers improved presence and call forwarding.

For more information on the many features available visit 3CX.

Spread the word about the Windows Messenger App for the iPhone

The Windows Messenger app for the iPhone has spread like wildfire with over one million downloads in less than a week.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: "This early momentum is fantastic and we really appreciate the feedback that we have been getting. Microsoft look forwards to updating the iPhone app shortly to address some of the issues that users have pointed out, so that we can continue to improve the experience."

Having initially seen the MSN product fall down the pecking order with the arrival of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, the Windows Messenger app has including social networking aspects like status updates and a photo album. Initial feedback from the industry has praised the app for being well designed and easy to use.

Not only is Windows Messenger available through this app, but there are millions of people who are connecting with Messenger friends on  mobile phones through a browser, client application or SMS. The download is free so it can't hurt to have a look.

Free 3CX SIP phone for Android launched

3CX, the company which created a phone system for Windows to replace your proprietary Phone Branch Exchange (PBX), has now launched a free Android Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone.

3CX has created the Android SIP phone in recognition of the increasing importance of the smartphone in conjunction with a modern VoIP PBX.

The popularity of the 3CX softphone means that a beta version has been brought out for the Android Platform, immediately available for the Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2

It can be accessed on many smartphones including Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson as well as Google HTC (including HTC Desire and HTC Elite).

The 3CXPhone for Android SIP Phone is available via the Android market place. You just open up the market place and search for 3CXPhone to install it. The 3CX VoIP Phone for Android is free of charge. Not only does it work with the 3CX Phone System, but also numerous other VoIP services.