MAC costs in legacy PBX vs. IP telephony environments

What are some examples of actual MAC (moves, adds and changes) costs in legacy PBX environments versus IP telephony?

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The savings are quantifiable in three ways: ability to manage your own IP-PBX; savings on calling configurations that in a legacy, key-based PBX would have required service-provider contracts; as well as the economic benefits of cheaper calling via IP telephony vs. traditional long distance.

The traditional MAC savings generally are calculated on the basis of $100 for each calling change saved for larger businesses and $50 for each change for smaller businesses. These changes can be addition or deletion of new employees, alteration of access privileges (such as when a probationary employee becomes a permanent one) or other modifications such as a changed voicemail greeting, call forwarding, automatic call notification, the addition or revision of other contact phone numbers and e-mail addresses for employees.

Because most IP-PBXs allow configuration for multiparty (more than three parties) calling, third-party bridging services will be required less, if at all. Traditional bridging services can cost 40 cents or more per minute per line. A single, one-hour, 50-participant call can easily reach $1,000. Some service providers also insist on a 24-hour notification -- not practical for businesses with sudden, ad-hoc conferencing needs. With IP-PBX, the cost of that conference bridge is absorbed with just a few such sessions.

And, of course, there are savings on long-distance charges! A good VoIP plan should reduce your calling fees by at least half, and often more.

I often discuss these IP telephony ROI specifics in my What Works at Work features for Von (Voice Over Net) Magazine.

This was first published in May 2006