What’s new in 3CX version 15?

We take a walk through Nick Galea’s v15 update

what new in 3cx version 15
Unified Communications

Published: January 24, 2017

Rob Scott

Rob Scott

Publisher

Unified Communications vendor 3CX announced their v15 release around Summer of 2016 and so in an effort to get up to speed on the latest software I thought I’d give you a brief walk through of this release.

I have embedded the official video in the article, it’s well worth a watch and in particular the Q&A at the end is very interactive and informative.

  • Zero Admin
  • Faster Installation
  • Improved security
  • New appliance support for small business
  • Enhanced management console
  • Improved User Interface (UI)
  • Open Integration
  • Re-engineered Video Conferencing
  • Even more competitive

Zero Admin PBX

It was announced in the live launch that all from the new home page dashboard admins can now see all critical messages in one place. All firmware updates and security updates are now automatic including firmware updates to IP phones.

A Standby license is now included in the Enterprise edition. This allows admins to have a fully resilient solution with an active instance of 3CX software ready to go in the event of a failure to primary 3CX host.

Faster Installation

3CX claims that a system can now be deployed in under 15 minutes making it the easiest system to deploy. In an effort to make life even easier for installers there is now no requirement to create a FQDN and buying and configuring a security certificate. Admins can now select a 3CX supplied FQDN with choice of sub domain and have the SSL certificates created and managed by 3CX.

Thanks to the 3CX provisioning service using the RPS server, remote IP phones are now even easier to configure.

Improved Security

All session border controller (SBC) tunnels are now automatically encrypted and the web server has been also locked down even tighter.

3CX have partnered with Let’s Encrypt which provide SSL certificates free of charge. This now means all supported IP phones are connected back to the 3CX server using HTTPS, proving a much more secure way of connecting over the public internet (including all console connections to the server are now SSL).

New appliance support for small business

Where a dedicated server appliance is required in an office (where a virtual machine is not available), 3CX have now reduced the footprint of their code, so companies can now use smaller, more compact micro servers to install it on.

Underpinning the reduction of memory consumption was the move to the new NGINX web server. 3CX software will now run on miniPCs with Windows 8 or 10 operating systems that cost under $100. Nick Galea went onto say that this is a perfect environment for up to 32 simultaneous calls (subject to other engineering guidelines).

Enhanced management console

Utilising Google’s latest web toolkit, it now sports a much sleeker and modern web interface. It’s faster and more reliable allowing for a more intuitive user experience.

Day to day administration of the phones on your 3CX system has been made even easier, you can now log into the remote phone admin interfaces without separately logging in. (very nice)

SIP trunk configuration has also been made easier, you can now assign DDI numbers directly to extensions or queues. Therefore no need for inbound rules.

Improved User Interface of 3CX Client

Like all new software releases its always great to see an improved user interface (UI). In this release presence has been improved, new and improved themes with custom backgrounds.

Open Integration

3rd party integration with CRMs and help desk systems continues to be of high importance to 3CX. More apps are now supported out of the box, in fact 10 new integrations have now been released.

  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Salesforce
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Sugar CRM
  • Act!
  • Google Contacts
  • MS Exchange
  • Office 365
  • Exact
  • Freshdesk
  • Datev
  • Zendesk
  • Nutshell
  • Vtiger
  • EBP

Plugins can now be deployed to client machines centrally from the management interface, in addition a new easy to use scripting interface is now built in which allows you to integrate virtually any CRM with your telephone system.

Re-engineered Video Conferencing

3CX have re-developed the core web conferencing functionality, their new single stream technology enables for better quality video using less bandwidth.

Support for Firefox has been added, an improved iOS client and a new Android mobile app has been added.

Web conferencing is now automatically setup on new installations.

Click to meet URLs have now been added into making the connection to web meetings much easier and simpler for users.

Even more competitive

3CX is now even more competitive. The FREE edition has been re-introduced and now supports up to 8 simultaneous calls and 1 x PSTN connection.

They have reduced the price of the smaller packages and also now included hospitality in the Pro edition license.

In the future

All the new version 15 features of 3CX software will be built into the 3CX Cloud PBX server very soon.

If you watch the video below, the 3CX team go onto answer some valuable questions. What I really like about 3CX is the way they encourage reseller/partner feedback, questions and ideas.

3CX have a public ideas page which you can post your wishes to and if the idea gets enough votes they’ll build it into their development road map. I wish some of the other PBX vendors were as transparent as this! Here’s is a link to the 3CX Ideas Forum.

So its all good from 3CX in version 15, stay tuned for more updates as they come through.


About 3CX

3CX was recognised in 2016 by Frost & Sullivan as price/performance value leader in the unified communications market due to its innovative solutions and strong value proposition that addresses changing market requirements and increasing competitive pressures.

Pricing for on-site installations is based on the number of simultaneous calls (no per extension licensing). Up to date 3CX pricing can be found here.

3CX is a 100% channel company, they restructured their Partner Program in 2016 by adding new partner levels, a new points system and a free certification program.

Today, 3CX has offices across the globe in the US, UK, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, Russia and Australia, serving some 50,000 customers worldwide, including Boeing, McDonalds, Harley Davidson, Pepsi and other major corporations.

Read a short 3CX history here

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