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Selkowitz Technology | Seattle’s small business network and telecom consultant

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Microsoft has been getting a great deal of press recently for their new Response Point small business phone system. While they’re trying to pitch it as a breakthrough, there are some really great well established small business phone systems worth comparing it to. For comparison I’ve decided to compare Talkswitch - which Small Business Computing Magazine recently recognized as “the absolute best in small business.”

Features
Both systems offer the basics - transfers, on hold messaging/music, parking, etc. Response Point is generally less feature rich, but has an unusual feature - voice recognition. This means at an auto-attendant the caller can not just dial an option but speak it.

The maturity of the Talkswitch product shows in the depth of options. Talkswitch offers seven different phones (syspine has one) and works with many third party phones, it has more voicemail handling/notification options, greater call cascade capabilities, pbx and key system modes, external IP extensions, queues…the list goes on and on.

Not to forget Talkswitch add-ons like the Attendant Console which lets you manage calls, queues, and see other’s status on your PC. The Call Reporting application is also great for businesses or hotels which need to bill phone time.

In evaluating a number of phone systems over the years, I’ve noticed there’s the spec sheet of features and then there’s how they actually work and are used in a live system. Each business has different needs and call handling expectations…picking the right system for the desired feature set can be difficult. Some businesses will absolutely prefer a voice recognition autoattendant…others will want depth of configuration options.

Price
Comparing apples to apples on price is difficult. Talkswitch has three different IP phones, the syspine phone feature set puts it somewhere between the Talkswitch midrange 9133i and budget 9112i phone. On the flip side the Response Point system comes with more voicemail storage.

The Syspine phone system with capacity for 8 lines and 4 phones is $2500. The Talkswitch 840vs with capacity for 8 lines and 4 9133i phones (a better phone than the syspine) is $2211, with the 9112i phone its just $1971.

One nice thing about the Talkswitch is there’s also a less expensive, lower capacity system which can be upgraded later as needed. An office with only four phones usually would only need two lines, so a Talkswitch 240vs and four 9133i phones is just $1411 - an entry point nearly $1100 less than Response Point.

Maturity and Future
Response Point is a brand new product, while Talkswitch is one month out from their 6.0 release - a huge gap in product maturity. Just because a product is backed by Microsoft doesn’t mean it has a future - anyone remember the Microsoft Cordless PC Phone System? (It went to the way of the dodo bird) Anyone with Microsoft experience will tell you to wait for the third or fourth release of a product before they’re actually good.

Service and Support
Microsoft isn’t a company known for stellar support, nor are their hardware partners like Quanta. Microsoft is also accustomed to a paid upgrade program and obsoleting equipment every few years. Talkswitch gives their owners free phone support for life (its english as a first language support too) and free software upgrades for life.

Conclusions
There are many great small business phone systems on the market. Microsoft has an unusual spin on the concept but one nifty feature doesn’t make for a great phone system. They don’t offer any significant value and I think once the novelty wears off its clear other systems have a better package for most offices.  I’d recommend take a strong look at the mature competition instead of becoming an early adopter of Microsoft products.

5 Responses to “Response Point vs Talkswitch - a comparison of small business phone systems”

1. Steven Says:
   June 4th, 2008 at 6:40 am

   We’ve been looking for an SMB IP PBX solution, and found that the market does not really offer anything robust. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Talkswitch, and found several major weaknesses in its offering:

   1. Predefined extensions. This means any SMB with an existing phone system will need to change any/all marketing documents and business cards to reflect changes in extensions.

   2. Talkswitch also lacks scalability. To use a T1 (which makes sense to replace 8+ analog line installs). To use a T1, you need additional hardware that essentially breaks a T1 into analog circuits. 16 extensions per box.

   Other lacking features:
   No UC, no MAPI (integrate with Exchange), 3rd party softphone and a messy application for configuring the units. No transcoding (G711 - G729), no conference calls beyond 3 members

   Why I find Microsoft a more credible long term option, is that they will move faster than Talkswitch, offer flexible and international options, and eventually true MAPI integration with Exchange. It wasn’t until recently that Talkswitch offered French and Spanish (6.0). Talkswitch does not offer MAPI integration, and does not seem to acknowledge UC in its future.

   That Response Point isn’t mature, isn’t a big surprise, after all it is a version “1″.

   Either way, the market is ready for some solid competition from Microsoft. Perhaps Talkswitch will awaken from its slumber and get moving again.

   I can only advise potential buyers of an IP PBX solution to shop around first. Cisco Unified 500, Allworx, Trixbox are also potential options. Although Cisco is quite a bit more expensive than a Talkswitch, the capabilities are clearly superior, as well as offering switching, routing, firewalling, vpn, wireless options to boot.

2. Kevin Selkowitz Says:
   June 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am

   I have to largely disagree with your concerns, but you also have to keep in mind Talkswitch is a product designed to fit 90% of small businesses - its not meant to be everything to everyone.

   Predefined extensions - yes, its occasionally a problem. But even non-fixed extensions doesn’t guarantee no changes as most systems have ranges. We did one client recently with an old Partner ACS who’s extensions were two digit - I don’t know any modern system which does those. Then I had a client who’s extensions from their Virtual PBX started at 3000, even Allworx limits 4 digit extensions to 1000-2999.

   T1/PRI isn’t the future of scalability - its SIP trunking over dedicated carrier connections (not public internet). For example one local carrier is rolling out SIP trunks with unlimited LD for $29/line over a dedicated SDSL - something which seriously cuts costs over a T1/PRI. For those needing more bandwidth, another local carrier is rolling out 5-30Mb ethernet over copper with SIP trunks. Bottom line is the future is SIP and a 248vs or two is great for SIP.

   Unified Communications (UC) - this is always one of those vague things that most small businesses don’t need. But Talkswitch has been improving with things like their Attendant Console w/ IM, and 6.1 improves their voicemail to email functionality which is the most desired UC feature.

   No MAPI - in two years I’ve only had one customer that seriously desired MAPI. MAPI is usually desired by companies with CRM and most small businesses don’t have it. That may change in the coming years, but Talkswitch will adapt and updates are free for life.

   Conference calls - external conference services make a lot more sense than internal conference bridges for most companies. We sell a system with a conference bridge option (Allworx) so you have to pay for that feature plus extra lines - you’ll need enough lines for everyone to call in. Unless your business conferences all the time, keeping additional lines around just isn’t worth it. Go to http://www.freeconferencecall.com/ and conference call for free - no software licenses and no extra lines.

   No one can say for sure how fast the Response Point team will move, but lets look at some other major Microsoft products. 5 years to release Vista after XP. Only three service packs to XP in 6 years. 5 years from Internet Explorer 6 to 7.

   On the flip side Talkswitch introduced 6.0 in February 2008 and is releasing the new 6.1 in June 2008.

   Talkswitch is a terrific phone system for small businesses that need great functionality at a great price. Allworx is a terrific phone system for every feature under the sun. Response Point may be great later…we’ll see.

3. Steve Says:
   June 10th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

   Thanks for the reply!

   I simply believe it would be trivial for Talkswitch to have flexible extensions. Until they offer this, some of our customers will not make the jump, or seek other options (Cisco).

   I have seen many SMBs embrace Windows Live Messenger for chatting, and those that have voicemail to email feature completely abandon the traditional “message button + pin code” method. UC is just a matter of integrating all of these capabilities (+telephony) together. I look forward to the 6.1 release to see how “improved” their voicemail to email really is, because last I checked, you had to delete the message on both the phone system and email seperately.

   Although I agree with you in theory that SIP is the future, our problem is with the throttled/capped upload. Most Canadian SMBs that we deal with are “stuck” with assymetrical “consumer” grade internet either because of the cost of commercial ISP (>500$ for T1), distance issues (sdsl) or simply not available and/or expensive (Fiber). We also have reliability concerns - no matter how much we all want ITSPs to replace BELL, most ISPs don’t provide SLAs for the aforementioned internet access. I would prefer to see inbound calls using traditional PSTN, and an offload (with quality metrics for automatic failover) of calls to ITSPs until we have better access. Until we have that, offering a T1 solution makes sense to me. If Cisco (SMB offering) and Allworx both have a T1 solution, then there must be a market.

   That being said, I do agree with you that Talkswitch is a decent phone system, but IMHO, just shy of “great”.

   Let’s hope the next version does that, nothing would make me happier.

4. Kevin Selkowitz Says:
   June 17th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   I’ve discussed flexible extension numbering with Talkswitch, I know its on the roadmap.

   I currently have the new 6.1 prerelease for Talkswitch Partners - I can tell you 6.1 voicemail to email does allow for save/delete from email - no more calling in to delete messages. After upgrading to 6.1 you need to do a bit more setup - but once that’s done its great! Its also server agnostic - anything with POP and SMTP works fine.

   Certainly the availability of carrier grade SIP will vary by region. In Seattle 1.5Mb symmetrical DSL with a phone line (for the fax) is ~$60/month - a great connection for VoIP traffic. Also rolling out later this year is ethernet over copper which will be 5-30Mb symmetrical.

   My thoughts on T1s are if you’re small (less than 10 lines) then PSTN is cheaper as long as you don’t need DIDs. If you’re bigger then the voice lines are cutting into a lot of the T1’s bandwidth on an integrated T1. Once you hit bonded T1s, ethernet over copper will deliver more bang for the buck - word is 5Mb ethernet over copper will be in the pricing ballpark of bonded 3Mb T1s.

   I’m not saying T1s don’t have a market, but depending on the region they’ve got a limited future.

5. Kevin Selkowitz Says:
   June 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am

   One other correction, I mentioned MAPI and I meant TAPI. TAPI is the telecom standard for click to dial and other computer/phone integration.

   I know TAPI is on the Talkswitch roadmap - I can’t discuss timelines but its sooner than I expected!

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