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Voice Communication in Business Volume 1
Essays on telecommunications, 1969-1980

Chapter 8
Those Awful PBX Proposals

Once the interconnect revolution got rolling, some of us tried to make logical business decisions based on the available facts. Fools that we were! There was (and is) no way to get logical information. Further, a beneficent government decided to make our work even more challenging by introducing double-digit inflation based on a jet propelled prime interest rate (the tables in my college economics text only go to 80/0; fortunately, my computer knows no limits). The higher the interest rate, the less the impact of the distant future or, to put it another way, the sooner the distant future, which does not affect present worth appreciably, begins. To prove in an interconnected PBX, it was often necessary to use many years after the equipment had been paid off to show an overall lower cost. With these years wiped out, the here and now was often unfavorable to anything.

The major problem, however, was simply knowing what was being offered. Vendor proposals were (and are) beyond belief. Finally, I took typewriter in hand and composed "Those Awful PBX Proposals" for Business Communications Review. Run in four parts (MIA, M/J, J/A and S/O, 1978), the article attracted considerable attention. The Bell System reprinted Part I in its house organ, Marketing Focus, August, 1978, and Jerry Goldstone and I used it in our BCR seminar on "Understanding Modern PBXs."

***

I am an incurable optimist. I believe that knife sharpeners advertised on TV will sharpen knives, newfangled can openers will remove the tops from recalcitrant containers, and PBX proposals will contain meaningful information. Needless to say, I lead a life of infinite frustration. My knives are dull, I open cans with a Boy Scout hatchet, and go quietly to a corner to gibber when a client leaves me with eight or ten PBX proposals to evaluate.

Sharpeners and openers I can forgive; after all, they are part of the American tradition. But I simply cannot understand why companies trying to sell a million dollar item will go out of their way to convince the customer that he would do better with cans and strings. It's not as if they were flying blind. I have prepared a specification including size, growth, traffic, special applications, etc. I have spent endless hours on the phone with salesmen explaining about line pick-up, how a DID extension can hunt to a non-DID extension, and what is meant by "trunk queuing," I have even gathered with the guys at the factory to explain why information about heat and floor loading is needed. And still the proposals contain 30 or 40 pages of badly Xeroxed boiler-plate and three pages of incomplete financial data. Not just from one vendor. From them all: telco and interconnect supplier alike. I'm beginning to think I simply do not understand modern marketing techniques. Maybe I should get Harry Newton (self-styled marketing expert) to straighten me out. Or Arch McGill (VP marketing AT&T).

But I know I'm not alone. All you guys and gals out there in customer-land have had the same experience. You have opened the proposal to find five or six pages about how great the vendor is, followed by the ritual section extolling the wonders of owning your own equipment if the vendor is an interconnect supplier. If the proposal comes from a telco, other ritual paragraphs warn sternly about service and the difficulties of carrying your own insurance on a privately owned PBX.

If you read on, you come to a vast segment that includes all possible PBX features arranged in alphabetical order. Then, if you are lucky, you get a section on system operation with emphasis on how features ought to work but with no clue about how to proceed if you make a mistake. There then may be a list of satisfied customers, usually from other branches of the company for products other than PBXs, possibly followed by a mention of maintenance under warranty during the first year.

Then comes the financial data. Although you have begged and pleaded, there is no clue about the cost of adding another extension or trunk, or even if you can. No information is given about adding a second cabinet, and the cost of the maintenance contract for years 2 through N is often as vague from an interconnect supplier as the B part of the two tier pricing (about 80 percent of the bill) if you deal with a utility.

Table 1
BASIC CONTENTS OF A PROPOSAL

  1. Cover sheet

  2. Executive summary

  3. Table of contents

  4. Financial data

  5. Vendor qualifications

  6. Appendices

    1. System description

    2. Features

      1. System

      2. Console

      3. Station

      4. Maintenance

    3. List of customers

    4. Manuals and advertisements

      1. Station user's manual

      2. Console operator's manual

      3. Message accounting format

      4. Etc

      5. Etc

But we've all been there, and continued screams of anguish will not help. So let us light one small candle rather than curse the darkness. Let's consider what ought to be in a proposal in the first place; then, if you agree, let's all demand, loud and clear, that proposals contain this information. If we all make enough noise, maybe somebody will hear us.

A proposal proposal

Table 1 lists the items I think belong in a proposal. Let's go through them one at a time, considering first the cover sheet. It might look something like this:

THE ZILCH TELEPHONE COMPANY
123 Fourth Street
Florid Park, NJ 08080
(201) 555-1234

Presents a Proposal for
A Surprise II Solid State PBX
for
The Main Offices of

AMALGAMATED ZITHER, INC.
623 Snerk Street
East Pipsqueek, NJ 07777

This proposal was prepared by John Grump who can be reached for questions on Ext. 27. If Mr. Grump is unavailable, Mr. Phil Emdy, Ext. 33 will take your call. Both Mr. Grump and Mr. Emdy report to John Zilch, president of the company.

The SIISS PBX is manufactured by Analog-Digital Systems, Inc., of 541 Swamp St., Lonesome, GA. Mr. Abner Scrum, on 404-555-6294, Ext. 95, will respond to technical questions if necessary.

This may look dumb, but observe what we have. We have a positive identification of not only the vendor but the manufacturer, and we have the names and phone numbers of responsible people who can answer any questions that may come up. Further, the vendor has shown that he knows the name and address of the client, and has, hopefully, spelled the company name correctly. Some vendors are quite insensitive to a customer's desire to be properly identified; vanity, perhaps, but customers do have some rights.

Executive summary

Turning to the second page, we find an executive summary, a brief description of the offered system:

The SIISS PBX is an all solid-state system with stored program control using PCM time-division for switching and a Bloop 86 microprocessor for control.

The PBX will be wired for 150 lines and 30 trunks, and equipped for 130 lines and 22 trunks.

Seventy-five telephones will be 2500-type standard instruments in the customer's choice of colors with single-pair wiring to the switch. These telephones, combined with such PBX features as station transfer, consultation hold, three-way conference, pick-up, hunting and call-forwarding will meet the needs of most of the present personnel.

Six 20-button call directors will be provided to meet special needs in Catalog Sales, and the remaining sets, 50 in all, including one bridged extension, will be 6-button key sets to facilitate the boss-secretary relationship among department heads and other executives.

Trunk queuing will be provided on the three FX lines to West Pipsqueek; automatic route selection, although an integral part of the program, does not appear to be required at this time. Being a program feature, it can be activated when needed at a minimal cost.

Four levels of restriction will be provided: intra-PBX calling only, calls to local (MU) area, intra-state calls, and unrestricted, all based on extension line class marks. Calls via the FX lines will be limited to 16 office codes in the general area of West Pipsqueek, independent of the calling extension classmark.

This is merely to indicate how much can be said about a system in a very small space. Obviously, what is said would differ from customer to customer. That, in fact, is the whole idea. It may be less expensive to hand the customer 50 pages of junk and let him try to find what the system will do, but the customer just may give up and stick with his 701.

But let's recap just how much information the executive summary contains. First, it tells us the basic facts about how the switch works, and how it is controlled. Then, it gives us the capacity intended, including the growth space available before an addition, at extra expense, must be made. Types of telephone sets and their application to the specific installation are discussed, and cost-saving features applicable are put in perspective. The customer, upon reading this summary, knows what he is getting and what it will do for him. He doesn't have to wade through pages and pages of material to extract the pertinent data.

Table of contents

The table of contents, which comes next, is not particularly complicated. It implies, however, that the information that follows can be located. This, in turn, implies numbered pages or some similar artifice. I am no longer surprised at proposals with unnumbered pages. Since most of the pages are boilerplate, numbering them would apparently be an extra expense.

Financial data

After the table of contents, the financial data section of the proposal should provide the potential customer with useful cost information. Obviously, the cost of the equipment, perhaps under several pricing plans, is listed. Ideally, it should be broken down to show how much goes for the switch itself, the consoles, the station equipment, external modules (if any) for restriction and message accounting, and installation.

But this is just the beginning. An estimate should be offered for the required facilities not provided by the vendor: trunks, interface devices (if still required), processing message accounting data, etc. Several of these items have both an installation cost as well as a continuing cost each month.

Then, the continuing costs should be estimated. These costs include, in particular, maintenance and moves and changes. Maintenance is usually covered by the warranty during the first year, and it should be discussed for the years that follow. Moves and changes are usually done on a time and charges basis, but again, they can be estimated. With stored-program systems, savings are expected, particularly on changes that involve only program operations. However, with the coming of multi-level class marking, queuing and route optimization, etc., there are many more things that can be done and, of course, paid for.

Finally, any particular features of the system that can save money should be flagged. Trunk queuing and route optimization are the most obvious of these, and a slightly higher initial cost may be readily offset by savings on tolls. Toll and message unit costs are often five times as much as the total equipment cost on a monthly basis, so savings are important and should be indicated.

Ideally, the financial section should summarize the overall costs on both a present worth and time-series basis so that vendor proposals from both telcos and interconnect suppliers can be compared on a more or less equal footing. The customer (or his consultant) will have to provide this analysis in any event; but the vendor might well suggest special items that would otherwise be missed. Ultimately, the customer should be able to compare the complete costs of the proposed system with his present system and the systems in other proposals.

Vendor evaluation and maintenance

Now that the customer knows what he is getting and what it costs, he is in a position to evaluate the vendor. Telcos need not include much of this information, since they are usually pretty well known. But interconnect vendors have to make an effort to convince the customer that they really can operate their business successfully.

Thus, the minimum information should include the time the vendor has been in business, number and types of employees, type and quantity of spare parts inventory kept on hand for the particular PBX being offered, etc. Reference should also be made to the list of customers (a separate item in the appendix). These customers, as I have indicated, should be for the particular branch of the company offering the proposal, and should be possessors of the same type of system. Useful evaluation of the particular branch office can, of course, be made in terms of other systems as long as this is made clear. And an appreciation for the proposed system's popularity can be obtained from the number sold by other branch offices as well as the one in question. But the customer must know what is going on.

With regard to maintenance, it is important to know who will be responsible, and what his or her qualifications are. Further, since most repairs and moves and changes will be made by ordinary craftsmen, it may be more important to know about them than about the local manager in charge of installation and maintenance. What is the turnover, for instance, in the ranks? How many people have been to the manufacturer's school for the particular PBX? How much experience have they had?

Back-up is also important. What personnel can be flown in from the home office or the factory in case of emergency? Who will provide the training for station, users and console operators? How often can such services be expected? Is there a charge for them?

In addition to personnel back-up, equipment backup should be discussed. What happens if the PBX is destroyed by fire, flood or flying saucers? Is there a standby unit that can be run in? How quickly can it get there? How quickly can a replacement designed to meet the destroyed PBX's specs be provided? The telcos do these things very well. Interconnect suppliers should be able to indicate how well they can compete.

The appendix

To finish out the proposal, an appendix should contain detailed information. Here is the place where a station users' manual should be included along with a console attendant's manual. The message accounting format is also desirable, along with the coding form for establishing station class-marks. But more important, this is the place to detail the system features.

After a basic description of the system, features should be broken down into logical groups. I recommend system, console, station and maintenance as basic categories, but other divisions are obviously possible. In any event, Tables 2 through 6 are intended as checklists to show what I mean. Take any recent proposal you have received and go over it. Then run through the tables. Check what you know about each item listed. You will almost certainly find whole categories that your proposal hasn't even mentioned.

In the following chapters, we'll run through these tables in greater detail and provide comments on some of the currently available PBXs. The intent is not to tell you what to buy, but to alert you to what you ought to know before buying. When you buy something you don't really want, you are encouraging manufacturers to supply the wrong product.

Table 2 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Size

  1. Maximum number of lines

  2. Minimum economical number

  3. Maximum number of trunks
    Circuits per plug-in

  4. Cabinets

  5. MDF

  6. Floor space

  7. Floor loading

  8. Heat loading

  9. Traffic loading

Type of Matrix

  1. Electronic or metallic

  2. Space, frequency or time-division

  3. PAM, PWM, PCM or delta mod

  4. Four-wire internally

  5. Four-wire connecting circuits

  6. Traffic balancing required

  7. Non-blocking

Type of Control

  1. Wired logic/ROM

  2. Processor

  3. Duplicated

  4. Stored program

  5. Power failure strategy

Type of Console

  1. Key per trunk or switched loop

  2. Cable size to switch

  3. LED or lamps

  4. Extension status lamps

  5. Direct station selection

  6. Call displays for line/trunk class/status

  7. Special purpose consoles

Types of Trunks—CO

  1. One way

  2. Combination (ground start)

  3. DID
    Wink start

Types of Trunks—Tie

  1. Two-wire

  2. Four-wire

  3. E&M or loop supervision

  4. Detect distant wink start, delay dial

  5. Detect dial tone

  6. Must transmit wink start, delay dial

  7. Direct T-line interface

  8. Pad control

  9. Facilitate Centralization of attendants?

  10. Facilitate remote access to public network?

Trunk Interfaces (If Required)

  1. Trunks designed for direct connection
    Box provided to meet interface

  2. Trunks designed to meet interface
    Strategy when interface removed

Telephone Instruments

  1. Conventional single line
    Rotary
    DTMF
    Power ringing
    Message waiting lamp

  2. Conventional key sets
    Standard KTU
    Built-in KTU equivalent
    Electronic KTU

  3. Special sets
    4-wire
    Voice announce
    Additional displays
    Hands-free phone
    Digital signaling
    Line pick-up buttons
    Tone ringing
    Feature-select buttons

Station Wiring

  1. One pair for type 500, 2500 sets

  2. Multi-pair for conventional key, built-in KTU

  3. Pairs for electronic KTU

  4. Pairs for electronic sets

  5. Minimum pairs per set for universal wiring

Table 3 SYSTEM FEATURES

  1. Number/line translation

  2. Directory

  3. Hunting

    1. Circular

    2. Terminal

    3. Secretarial

  4. Restriction

    1. Multi-level based on class-mark

    2. Independent of class-mark, based on trunk group identity only

  5. Distinctive/immediate ringing

  6. Trunk queuing

  7. Automatic route selection

    1. Hunt over several trunk groups

    2. Modify hunt by time of day, day of week

    3. Add, delete digits as required by trunk

    4. Cut through to trunk

    5. Operate register-sender

      1. User dials number without interruption

      2. System selects trunk group

      3. System can outpulse DP
        Overlap outpulsing available

      4. System can outpulse DTMF
        Digits sent in burst after dialing

      5. Can mix DP, DTMF on same call

      6. Dial-tone detector initiates outpulsing

      7. Requires uniform numbering plan

  8. Message accounting

    1. Built into system

    2. Needs external recorder

    3. Monitors

      1. Outgoing toll calls

      2. All outgoing calls

      3. Also tie-trunk calls

      4. Also intra-switch calls

    4. Call record includes

      1. Calling extension

      2. Called number

      3. Facility used

      4. Trunk seizure time Trunk answer time

      5. How determined?

      6. Hang-up time

      7. Call duration

      8. Authorization/billing code

      9. Originating tie-trunk group identify

    5. Processing provided by whom?

  9. Traffic recording

  10. Tie-trunk switching

Table 4 CONSOLE FEATURES

  1. Straightforward completion

  2. Priority access to trunk groups

  3. Splitting

  4. Camp-on
    With indication

  5. Timed recall
    Incoming via console
    DID calls
    Tie-trunk calls

  6. Transfer

  7. Heavy traffic overflow

  8. Universal night answer

  9. Fixed night answer

  10. Trunk group use monitor

  11. Conference

  12. Alarm display

  13. Operate without a console

  14. Maximum number of consoles

  15. Number of customers

Table 5 STATION FEATURES

  1. Station transfer

  2. Consultation hold

  3. Three-way conference

    1. Are these features a group'?

    2. How are busy, no answer handled'?

    3. Must transfer wait for answer'?

  4. Pick-up

    1. Group

    2. Special extension

  5. Call forwarding

    1. All calls

    2. Busy

    3. Override hunt?

    4. No answer

    5. Independent of CF on busy?

  6. Executive override

  7. Call waiting

    1. Indication

  8. Automatic call-back

  9. Feature codes

    1. Identified on sets

  10. Feature keys

  11. Line pick-up keys

  12. Automatic connection to

    1. Main line on origination

    2. Ringing line on termination

  13. Extension made busy at

    1. All appearances

    2. Busy appearance only

  14. Extension made busy only at busy appearance

  15. Abbreviated dialing

    1. On feature key

    2. Hot line

    3. Dial common list

    4. Dial private list

Table 6 MAINTENANCE FEATURES

  1. Trouble alarms

    1. Audible

    2. Visual

    3. TTY

    4. Other

  2. Internal diagnostics

  3. Test connecting circuits

  4. No-test, no-hunt capability

  5. Special maintenance console

  6. Remote testing capability

    1. Via dial-up connection

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Copyright 2006 Lee Goeller. All Rights Reserved.