In simple terms, a virtual PBX is like a digital telephone system, but it doesn’t need the traditional telecom equipment or copper wires. Instead, it uses VoIP telephony over the internet to handle calls. This makes it much cheaper since it doesn’t require expensive infrastructure or maintenance.
Virtual PBXs have helped modern businesses save a lot on internal communications and customer service because VoIP calls is cheaper than analog or mobile phone services. Let’s take a look at the technical aspects and components of a virtual PBX using the example of Global Bilgi’s virtual PBX. But first, let’s talk about the benefits of virtual PBX for businesses.
Benefits of Virtual PBX
Virtual PBX is a beneficial solution for businesses for various reasons. We’ve already mentioned the absence of the need for equipment and laying copper wires. Among other key advantages of using virtual PBX:
Mobility and Flexibility
Virtual PBX allows you to integrate various branches or departments into a unified system. You can establish a comprehensive omnichannel contact center where operators can assist customers from any location with internet access. Through Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC phone calls) technology, internet communication and mobile telephony can seamlessly integrate into the virtual PBX. Overall, setting up a virtual PBX enables you to implement diverse communication scenarios between employees and customers.
Scalability
The capabilities of a virtual PBX can be adjusted according to business needs with minimal costs. Whether it’s expanding the business, increasing the number of employees, or handling a growing volume of calls at the call center, virtual PBX makes it simple. You can expand your operations without the requirement of purchasing and installing new equipment.
Functionality
Virtual PBX offers a wide range of features, including telephony, IVR menus, call queues, auto-dialing, live chats and web chats, email processing, and integration with popular messaging platforms. But that’s not all! You can enhance functionality by integrating with CRM systems, enabling supervision and performance evaluation, accessing online statistics and reports, and more. These features illustrate why businesses opt for virtual PBX to meet their communication needs.
To find out more about functionality and benefits of virtual PBX, explore our material, where we delve into deployment options and the components that constitute the virtual PBX from Global Bilgi.
Deployment Options for Global Bilgi Virtual PBX
Our virtual PBX is set up across two physically distant data centers, ensuring redundancy and allowing for data backup in a third location if needed. Each data center’s server components are fortified with diesel generators, backup power systems, and network protection, guaranteeing the security, reliability, and resilience of our virtual PBX.
For ease of use of the multi-module system, our engineers have developed the OneAccess program based on the OAuth 2.0 protocol for desktop applications, which provides transparent access to all components of the system.
The server infrastructure forms the backbone of our virtual PBX deployment. For our clients, the most straightforward solution is to procure our comprehensive cloud-based virtual PBX platform under the CCaaS model (Contact Center as a Service). This model offers access to the contact center’s infrastructure and functionalities via the Internet, eliminating the need for clients to invest in their own equipment and software. With this option, clients access the software online, and our service includes setup, support, and updates.
Alternatively, clients have the option to deploy Global Bilgi Virtual PBX on third-party cloud storage or on their own servers under the on-premises model. This choice may be driven by internal security requirements or the need to manage large volumes of sensitive data. However, it’s worth noting that upfront capital costs may be higher in such cases.
Components of the Global Bilgi Virtual PBX
The interface of the Global Bilgi Virtual PBX is a multilingual web application with flexible access rights and powerful functionality. Let’s look at its main components and services.
Session Border Controller (SBC)
At the hypervisor level of the virtual server, there is a clustered SBC (Session Border Controller) server – the entry point into the system. It receives SIP signaling, controls the availability of media servers, and distributes the load within the cluster. The SBC provides a range of voice traffic functions, including:
- hiding the internal network topology from external interference;
- performing full packet inspection at any level;
- protecting the network from intrusion, DoD/DDoS attacks;
- stabilizing system operation when using different SIP clients;
- ensuring compatibility of the virtual PBX with any third-party solutions;
- traffic type separation across different interfaces, and so on.
Media Server
A media server is a component of the Global Bilgi virtual PBX that processes incoming voice traffic, handles IVR menus, call queues, and outbound IVR. When ordering a solution under the on-premises model to ensure resilience to failures, it is recommended to have N+1 servers, where N is the number calculated according to the workload.
Registrar Server
The registrar server handles the registration of SIP clients at the operator’s workstation, delivers calls to the operator from the queue or from another operator, and records call audio. The registrar server is responsible for routing all outbound calls, as well as dialer calls.
CTI Server (Computer Telephone Integration)
The CTI server is software for the virtual PBX that enables interaction with computer applications and telephones, ensuring seamless operation of all system components.
Webphone
The webphone is a software alternative to traditional desk phones and is a vital part of the virtual PBX system. It serves as the workstation for call center operators. This single-page web interface integrates telephony panel features with administrative functions like monitoring, tooltips, and status changes. The webphone offers the following functionality:
- Flexible access rights and user group settings within the system.
- Customizable user statuses with comprehensive tracking of all changes.
- Calls and chats consolidated on one tab, with the option to request supervisor assistance.
- Support for up to 6 simultaneous phone lines, conference calls, and SMS sending.
- Recording of all calls, chats, and correspondence, including screen recording capabilities.
- Call scheduling and notifications.
One of the primary advantages of the Global Bilgi webphone is that it’s a fully web-based application, accessible from any device – whether it’s a PC, laptop, smartphone, or tablet through a simple link.
In the virtual PBX from Global Bilgi, voice calls can be received directly on the operator’s PC using the following methods:
- WebRTC, provided that the browser supports the protocol.
- A system service installed on the PC, acting as a SIP client controlled via WebSocket from the operator’s workstation page.
The virtual PBX utilizes adaptive codecs Opus/iLBC on the operator’s side to maintain the best possible voice quality in case of low internet connection speed or limited system resources.
Agent Desktop
Agent Desktop is a call center CRM system with a dialog builder feature for operators. It stores customer cards with data for each contact, dynamic dialog scripts displayed during calls, and key customer information with a history of interactions. The system allows you to:
- Create and store contact cards with different sets of data.
- Develop dynamic conversation scripts, at each stage of which you can input or view various contact details or useful information.
- Schedule calls and, if necessary, transfer them to another operator.
To display news in the Agent Desktop, a ticker is provided – a visual interface element where important information is dynamically updated and displayed in real-time mode.
Information Panel (Dashboard)
A system for accumulating, computing, and visualizing statistical indicators of virtual PBX performance in real-time. Through the API interface, other virtual PBX applications can access 169 statistical indicators, including:
- Individually customized statistics for each user.
- Dialing results, topic distribution, and call outcomes.
- Calculation and display of telecommunications expenses.
- IVR customer action statistics.
- Customizable thresholds for highlighting critical values.
Information on the call center dashboard can be displayed in the form of pie charts, columns, and graphs for data visualization.
GB Webchat
A service for handling text inquiries. Through API mechanisms, webchat can be installed on the client’s website with the ability to connect a chat bot, automation tools, and any CRM system. With the Instant Messenger Interpreter (IMI) solution, webchat integration with Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, BiP is possible. Depending on the settings, a call center operator can handle one or multiple chats simultaneously. Supervisors can monitor chat processing just like calls.
Advanced Interaction Distribution Server
The virtual PBX server responsible for distributing all inquiries to the contact center. The components of this server include:
Advanced Interaction Distribution (AID) Service
A service for advanced distribution of interactions, such as calls, messages in online chats, and any other inquiries, among operators in the call center according to predefined rules. In simple terms, it answers the question “which operator will handle the call or chat based on the current configured conditions?” You can learn more about this from our article “What is Automatic Call Distribution ACD, and why is it important for call centers?”
Queue Selection and Queue Engine Services
The Queue Selection Service is a service that enables automatic selection of various call or chat queues according to established rules, conditions, and selected strategies. It answers the question “which queue to place the chat or call in based on the configured rules and conditions?”
Rules for distribution among queues may include the language of the inquiry, the source of the inquiry, and so on.
Strategies may include:
- distribution among queues in specified proportions;
- distribution based on the maximum value of a statistic indicator (available operators, inquiries in the queue, processed inquiries, waiting time, etc.) among all considered queues.
Queue Engine is a service that manages the processing of call queues and call handling functions while in the queue. It is responsible for advancing inquiries in the queue according to input conditions, the key of which is the priority at which the inquiry entered the queue, and the weight of the queue itself among others.
For example, the weight of the call queue for VIP clients may be higher than the queue for clients from another segment. Therefore, it will have a higher priority. Calls with higher priority are advanced more quickly.
Global Bilgi Power Dialer
The Power Dialer auto-dialing program allows for outbound mass calling campaigns with various outbound dialing modes: Outbound IVR, Preview, Progressive, Predictive. The auto-dialer supports call retry strategies and call scheduling based on the result code. It integrates with web services for pre-call number verification. The system can be programmed for automatic callbacks. When ordering the on-premises model solution to ensure fault tolerance, it is recommended to have at least 2 active-standby servers managed by a hypervisor.
AQoS – Assessment and Quality of Service
This component is responsible for recording and storing audio and video conversations, chat transcriptions processed through the virtual PBX system. AQoS provides the ability to search, evaluate, listen to, or view these conversations, chats, and operator screens, as well as download them. Quality assessment is conducted by users according to configured permissions using different evaluation templates, the number of which is unlimited in the system. The operator who has been evaluated receives a notification of the assessment and can review it. Based on the assessments over a period, incentive programs for operators can be developed.
When ordering a solution under the on-premises model to ensure reliability, specialists from Global Bilgi recommend setting up disk replication for storing media to a backup repository and deploying 2 servers in an active-passive scheme managed by a hypervisor.
Database Server
The Global Bilgi virtual PBX has a reliable architecture with support for horizontal scaling, ensuring stable operation even in case of failure of half of the components (in the case of deployment with 2N redundancy instead of N+1).
To operate the virtual PBX, a database server is required. Currently supported database management systems include MS-SQL 2016, 2019, Oracle (v11, v12), PostgreSQL 12+ with duplication functionality and automatic failover to the duplicated database in case of primary failure.
Interaction Outcome Notifier
In the virtual PBX system, the Interaction Outcome Notifier service automatically sends a set of call or chat data in JSON format to external information systems via the HTTP POST method once the processing of interactions is completed. The volume and content of the data are configured separately for each destination. Interaction Outcome Notifier enables the integration of customer interaction data with external systems for further analysis, processing, or storage.
Components of the Virtual PBX: Conclusions
The Virtual PBX from Global Bilgi is comprehensive software for organizing contact centers of any scale with guaranteed fault tolerance. The Virtual PBX software from Global Bilgi is available both as a SaaS model and On-premise (deployment on the customer’s hardware). In both cases, we guarantee technical and information-consultative support.
Our Virtual PBX is a powerful infrastructure suitable for achieving the most ambitious business goals, from improving customer service to maximizing revenue from telephone sales. Moreover, we continually update the Virtual PBX system by incorporating the latest technologies. Our engineers are always ready to work on expanding functionality and customizing components according to the needs of your business.
Join the leaders of Ukrainian and global business who are already using the Virtual PBX from Global Bilgi. You can do this by requesting a callback from our blog. Click on the widget button, fill out the form, and our managers will contact you at your convenience.
