There’s only one way to stay ahead of the competition, and that’s to keep improving. This certainly appears to be 3CX’s approach, as it has won PC Pro’s annual roundup of business phone systems for almost a decade. With this update, it’s embracing AI more than ever before – but not as a tickbox exercise, instead focusing on ways it can help drive its customers’ business.
Those customers now include over 350,000 companies, with 3CX trusted by everyone from BMW to Coca-Cola and Porsche. Now those businesses can benefit from automatic AI transcription of voicemails, enhanced AI analytics and a streamlined admin interface.
Here are just a few of the highlights from 3CX V20 Update 5.
Automatic AI transcription
There are few things more annoying than listening to rambling voicemails that hide away key details right at the end – forcing you to listen to the whole thing over again as you realise you didn’t catch it in time. Automatic transcriptions are a brilliant way to avoid this tedium, while also providing a searchable archive for keywords.
With 3CX V20 Update 5, all PRO subscribers benefit from free voicemail transcription using the OpenAI and Google engines.
Previously, only ENT users could take advantage of OpenAI voicemail transcription. What’s more, any PRO and ENT users with more than eight simultaneous call (SC) licences can use the custom 3CX engine for transcription, which has been specially created for call centres.
And you don’t need to do a thing, other than enable it. What’s more, if you’re using the 3CX engine for voicemail transcription then it will be served faster, so as soon as you receive a notification of a new voicemail you can check its transcription. Perfect if you’re caught up in a meeting and can’t listen to voicemails there and then.
If you want to go beyond voicemails, 3CX offers call transcription too. Again, this is a great way to capture key information – and analyse it for customer sentiment. The 3CX engine is now available to all ENT users with 8SC licences and above.
Call center agent on customer call
V20 Update 5 gives businesses even easier access to customer data(Image credit: Getty Images)
Enhanced AI analytics
We all want a better understanding of our customers, but the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming. One of 3CX’s key aims with V20 Update 5 is to give businesses easy access to this data and to present it in an attractive way.
This includes an instant mood analysis, so that you can track customer sentiment across agents and queues to identify trends as they develop. More detailed, AI-powered reports can track sentiment and performance trends across logs, extensions, ring groups and queues. And, as described above, 3CX offers a range of transcription services across voicemails and calls that you can analyse at your leisure.
You can drill down deeper, too. For example, you can track the effectiveness of particular agents over time, including an operator empathy rating. 3CX can also suggest follow-up topics, as well as keeping track of products and companies mentioned during calls – and you can ask natural language questions in a familiar chatbot interface.
As time goes by, and AI tools improve yet further, 3CX is committed to making it as easy as possible to understand your customers, measure and boost your agents’ performance and help you grow your business as a result.
Google Workspace & Microsoft 365 integration
3 ways to host 3CX
Call center agents
(Image credit: Getty Images)
One much-loved feature of 3CX is that it allows you to host the Phone System however you like. Here, we run through the three main options:
1) Hosted by 3CX: This is a nice and simple option as you leave system management to 3CX, including all upgrades, updates and daily backups. Prices start at £320 exc VAT for an 8SC PRO licence, which is enough for up to 25 users.
2) Private cloud: More technical users may prefer to run 3CX in their own private cloud, with a choice of Google, Amazon, Amazon Lightsail, Azure and DigitalOcean as cloud providers. 3CX is free (up to ten users), but you will of course have to pay for your hosting costs and the SIP trunk provider.
3) On-premise: You can also install 3CX on Windows or Linux (you’ll need to virtualise using VMware, Hyper-V or KVM) and run it in your office. You’ll need a static IP address and a firewall that allows you to configure the ports properly, but you may be surprised that it can even run on a Raspberry Pi...
Whether you use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, 3CX V20 Update 5 offers deeper integration than ever before. The biggest change is to Google Workspace, with support for quick and easy synchronisation of users, personal contacts, calendars and user profile photos.
It’s also become much easier for Google Workspace users to sign on, thanks to support for single sign-on (SSO). This not only reduces issues arising from forgotten passwords but also cuts down on helpdesk requests. Add support for extension number mapping and Workspace has never been easier to set up.
Microsoft 365 users already benefited from these features, and you may remember that Update 4 made it even simpler to synchronise presence information between Teams and 3CX. Now, you can configure what status to sync and how that shows in the other system. For example, you might want a 3CX status of “Away” to show as “Do Not Disturb” in Teams.
And it’s worth emphasising how closely 3CX and Microsoft 365 integrate – it’s one of the features that lifts 3CX apart from its rivals. Not just the seamless interaction between Teams and 3CX, including the ability to connect the platforms to reduce Teams’ licences and cut costs, but also the fact that you can automatically store call recordings and backups in SharePoint. Your users can even start calls directly from the Microsoft 365 interface.
Streamline admin
3CX aims to make life easier for admins with every release, and V20 Update 5 is no different. For example, admins can now generate temporary links for remote access to the Web Admin Console. That could be particularly useful if 3CX partners, or 3CX itself, needs to provide technical support or troubleshoot a problem. Provide a temporary link, let them solve the issue, terminate access.
3CX has also provided two new call flow scripts to simplify how calls are managed. First up, Inbound Caller ID Routing. This script matches incoming caller IDs with predefined rules and routes them to the destination you specify. Updates are quick and effortless, with no need for regular manual imports or adjustments.
Then there’s the new script to ensure anyone calling a direct number is routed to the right person or department. This script imports each DID (standing for direct inline dialling) and includes the inbound route so they can be automatically assigned to the specified extension. Now, admins can update routing rules easily without needing to import changes.
It’s also easier to manage multi-tenant setups with a bunch of new features. Highlights include trunk creation for department owners, transcription control per tenant, holiday prompts and configurable paging and multicasting. Together, that means V20 Update 5 provides more flexibility and control for admins managing multi-tenant setups than ever before.
Conclusion
As ever, all these changes are simply one update to what is already PC Pro’s A-Listed phone system. One that Dave Mitchell described as “the perfect solution for businesses that want total control over their VoIP services”.
You have full control on how to host it, too, as explained in the boxout. And you don’t need to spend a penny, because 3CX is still sticking to its mantra of free forever (for up to ten users). All you’ll need is an account at a supported SIP trunk provider to supply your numbers – they will give you the phone lines, which you can connect to your 3CX for inbound and outbound calling.
Simply sign up for your free 3CX SMB Free account using the link below and follow the instructions.
Try 3CX FREEwww.3cx.com/signup