BobTheMighty

the conversation with the one rep that I suggested centrex as a solution went something like "I don't think that's what you want because it doesn't act like a key system and we have a rep for your location that you need to call...

And when I asked that person about an "offsite PBX", he started talking about something for 15 grand, and didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. ah well, it's over now.

/Bob

MSYoung

Sounds like that sales rep did not want your business. Our local vendor (formerly SBC, now AT&T) still sells Centrex quite vigoously. And it comes in several different flavors from a phone with two lines on it up to a large key system or an IP version that looks, and acts, like a PBX.

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papa-bear

That is my experience and expectation of Centrex lines. They are ment to provide an small office environment for those that don't want to have to pay for and maintain their own systems. At ~$35 / line per month for a basic Centrex line then the obvious additional costs for calling line ID, voicemail, etc...

one does need to build a business case against buying a small key system, paying for a maintenance contract plus the trunk lines required (they each cost about as much as a Centrex line / month) Sometimes they come out pretty close, other times, one or the other wins hands down.

sillejo

The Telco's will still have pocket sales guys that push traditional Centrex, but that's probably dying in favor of the IP Centrex, or better yet the Hosted IP solutions. Qwest, AT&T and Verizon all have an interest in selling equipment to small business, they just have a huge sales staff that is not used to doing that.

In reality it will cost them more money to maintain Centrex as more people move to other solutions based in IP. The whole basis was minimizing cost and maximizin revenue (economies of scale.) The sales guy won't care so long as he/she knows how to sell it and they still have incentives in the system to reward the sale. Once they see incentives that are better for IP solutions (hosted, replacement, IP Centrex) they will drop the old stuf like a rock. I would guess some of the reps hired in the last couple of years have never even sold Centrex to a new client.

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