8el a provider of express and data networks to businesses in the UK is about to launch integration between its IP Centrex offering and Microsoft Active Directory.
Reading-based 8el was founded in 1999. It is privately held but differs from many start-ups in that rather than being VC-funded it is owned by 150 private investors. It serves 120 corporate customers including law firms consultancies and charities. 8el managing director Justin Hamilton-Martin said it targets companies with between 50 and 1,500 employees.
It initially provided aggregated voice and data services on leased lines but has now added a VoIP portfolio named Callport developed because broadband connectivity has change state more widespread in the UK.
“We have lots of customers running VoIP with their own PBX infrastructure on our network with us supporting features such as QoS bandwidth and queuing so the addition of a managed IP Centrex service was a natural one,” said Hamilton-Martin. He said 8el opted not to get into a managed IP PBX function because “on-premise PBX have a limited lifespan particularly as a be of our customers are looking for disaster recovery which is exceed delivered in the cloud.”
However. 8el’s IP Centrex offering is unusual in that it has a CPE component. “We looked at about 10 vendors of hardware and software for IP Centrex but they all had issues,” said Hamilton-Martin. “Some couldn’t do multi-site conferencing from the switchboard others had a hardware-specific issue that limited domiciliate working some had poor opt-in and opt–out capabilities and so on.”
As a result. 8el took a spec of what it required to Redwood Technologies a developer of network services platforms headquartered in Bracknell. UK that came up with a Linux-based CPE device 8el calls the IPFreeport.
“This device allocates individual telecommunicate numbers within an IP address and has local ISDN find for scenarios where there is a problem with the go,” Hamilton-Martin said. "[It was developed with plug-n-playability in mind so that] we can affix it out to customers and use its hardware MAC address for validation once it’s plugged in.”
The Active Directory integration benefits from the in-the-cloud nature of IP Centrex. “It has the advantages that you can easily configure meeting rooms for different constituencies such as suppliers partners or support with the participants’ phone numbers and hierarchies and they are customizable,” said Hamilton-Martin. “This is different from IP PBX where meeting rooms are a contend for integration with AD. On the other hand when an IP PBX is integrated with the directory there is the problem that if the AD server goes drink users can’t dial out.”
8el charges managed VoIP service customers on a per-seat basis on contracts that are usually for a minimum of three years. “For a 50-seat environment it typically works out at 10 to 15 pounds a month including the CPE hardware and with remove local and national calling to any destination,” said Hamilton-Martin.
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