Allen Miller : Allen Miller on SMB VoIP
Allen Miller
Microsoft Small Business Specialist, 3CX Advanced Certified Partner, Scuba Diver, amateur photographer

3CX Update

April 1, 2020

Wow, has time flown!  It's been years since I've been to this blog - since 2015 as a matter of fact.  We're still involved with 3CX and the 3CX company and product have done nothing but develop.
And now we are in the midst of a time not before experienced in our lifetimes - a global pandemic.  Most all of our support activities for 3CX customers is done via remote so we can feel pretty safe not having to go out into the world.
3CX is turning out to be an important tool for our customers in this time of extreme tele-working. 

3CX Installs - AMCC goes NATIONAL!

January 21, 2012

While we at AMCC originally perceived ourselves as a local area 3CX VOIP Phone System dealer we have learned that with remote access tools our coverage is really boundless.  Since the word has been getting out, we have begun doing 3CX PBX phone system troubleshooting and support remotely and have worked remotely on installations in several distant states.

We have just completed a 30+ extension 3CX phone system installation for the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, a print and web publisher that has been in the business for over 100 years.  The IT director there found AMCC and made an inquiry.  

Free Demo - VOIP Phone System - Cincinnati 9/1/11

August 18, 2011

3CX - Better than Ever

June 6, 2011

3CX just released v10 SP1 and it is fantastic.  With v10 3CX combined the workstation application 3CX Assistant and the My Phone web portal into a Silverlight 3CX My Phone which can be run as a web portal or a Silverlight app.  It is just so easy.  This week I was on a call with a vendor who needed to conference another party in on our call but she said her system wouldn't permit it.  

3CX - Small Business VOIP Telephone System

August 6, 2010

I guess this column title should be changed to Small Business VOIP - since there is no longer Response Point.

A few years ago I got interested in being able to offer VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone systems to my small business IT customers. I heard about Asterisk, an open source linux offering, and thought 'this is cool - a powerful phone system and it is free'. I spent a few weeks, after hours, gathering the hardware and software components and trying to get an Asterisk/Trixbox system up and running. As always, in the open source (free) world, getting technical support is difficult.

Response Point - Dead Forever

May 17, 2010

RIP Response Point

January 15, 2010

It's almost a year since I wrote here. I do write a few other places (2 blogs, facebook, twitter - all accessible from http://www.MillerManor.net). I just finished my seasonal, part-time gig as a Scuba Santa at the Newport Aquarium (http://bit.ly/scubasantaslides). This is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Now on to Response Point.  I was an early adopter of the Microsoft Response Point small business telephone system. I am an IT Consultant focusing on the SMB space. I sell and manage networks for small businesses - the Outsourced CIO/IT Provider. When RP came along I just knew it was the perfect complement for me and others like me. With a little bit of networking knowledge I was able to provide not only the computer infrastructure for my clients but the voice/telephone infrastructure as well. I abhor cliches but this is really SYNERGY - where the sum of the parts is bigger than the individual pieces. Microsoft put a lot into the development of this product and it was really exciting to be a part of it. I was fortunate to meet and correspond with most of the players in the Response Point ecosystem. I attended several IT conferences that had Response Point as an included topic and gave several presentations on this product. That is how it went for about the first year and a half of my participation in the Response Point product. MSFT had a lot of people working on the product and updates and enhancements were always eagerly awaited and exciting. Then came about May '09 when MSFT yanked the plug on the Response Point project. They took the development, support and marketing staff and knocked it down to a skeleton. The official word went pretty much like this: 1)      Microsoft will continue to support partners and customers running all current Response Point 1.0 SP2. 2)       Microsoft is NOT shutting down Response Point, and does have an engineering team assigned to the product; 3)      Microsoft is currently working on the future plan of Response Point and will share information as early as possible 4)      The best way we as partners can help the Response Point team is to continue to SELL the product. This was translated into - MSFT has not done anything since then that is visible to the partners or consumers in the way of advancing this product. The reason I am even writing this now is because I received my quarterly Response Point Newsletter from Microsoft. This newsletter is kind of a joke and I would be embarrassed to even put this thing out if I were them. The most noticeable aspect of this newsletter is that there is no content that comes from Microsoft - it is all strictly a collection of reiterating what the OEM's that are still with the product are doing. So, the biggest statement of this newsletter is what is not said - MSFT has left the building. My business is a service business. I benefit from good products (hardware and software) that tie in with technology and my company's services but I do not rely 100% on any particular product. My business will manage just fine without Response Point as an energized product but it was much more exciting when there appeared to be a future for Response Point. I still sell Response Point because it is a good product in its current incarnation. It does however have limitations and I know that this is a dead end. I think that MSFT blames the market for not beating down the doors for Response Point. MSFT, as some of you may have already figured out, does not know how to market products to the SMB space. They think that engaging partners and putting a few pages on one of the most confusing web sites in the world should drive sales. I can't tell you how many times I went to that web site looking for something that I KNEW WAS THERE and absolutely failed when I tried to find it. The piece that was missing with Response Point was Microsoft's investment in a customer facing marketing campaign (not the web site) to drive consumer awareness. This could have been great. RIP Response Point

IT Expo - Two Weeks Later

February 17, 2009

I'm back home in Cincinnati after a great time at TMCNet's IT Expo in Miami.  I spoke to my wife on the telephone while I was there - from the Packet8 reception at the beautiful Miami Botanical Gardens.  We were outside in shirt sleeves watching a very nice sunset over the palm trees and she told me "You're lucky" - since she was driving home from her studio in a blizzard back in Cincinnati.

So the IT in IT Expo stands for Internet Telephony.  My primary purpose for attending this conference was to meet more people in the Microsoft Response Point team and the rest of the RP ecosystem.  In that respect, this was a very successful trip for me.  I saw my old friend Rex Backman, met Richard Sprague finally (we've spoken and emailed quite a bit before), met XD and John Fredriksen, the new General Manager of Response Point.  I hung out with my friend Ed Carnes (an RP VAR from Nashville) and Marta and Luis from the RP Team.  Marta and Luis took Ed and me to a GREAT cuban restaurant for lunch.  We had plantains prepared three different ways and yucca prepared two different ways.  It was a tastebud's treat.

Besides all the Microsoft folks, there was a great presence by a lot of other related products and services for the RP brand.  We got to hear about what everyone is doing and some things that are coming down the pike.  Get this, D-Link is working on a new Response Point phone that will have Internet Radio!

Response Point SP2 was announced/released on the first day of the conference.  A lot of new features at absolutely NO COST to any existing customers - another FREE upgrade.

I've got a few pictures and I've learned that this blog system doesn't auto-size them - or at least I don't know how to do that.  So, I've posted them in my Picasa space and you can link to them at http://snipurl.com/itexpo.







IT Expo - see my new device

January 30, 2009

Just about ready to get out of town.  Monday starts IT Expo in Miami and it will sure be nice to leave behind the snow storm and the ice storm that we had the last two days here in Cincinnati.  The emails from the various exhibiting vendors have really picked up this week - come see us in booth # xyz.

If you are at the IT Expo next week be sure and look me up.  And, ask me to show you my new blue tooth headset.  I know it's not really an Internet Telephony device - so it's a little off topic - but it is a telephony device so it's half on topic.

And, I can't wait to hear what the Response Point Team has in store for us.

See you there.









Response Point SP2 (Service Pack 2)

January 28, 2009

You are invited to attend the Microsoft Response Point Town Hall meeting #2 on February 11 at 4pm Eastern Time.  The ID for this event is 262104 and you can register for it using this link right HERE. BTW - I just tried this link and it is not giving a 'register' option yet so you may have to check back later to register.  I sent an email to Mike @ MS to make sure they are aware of this.

This Town Hall meeting will cover current developments with Response Point and then the floor will be opened to marketing and technical questions.

SP2 is the second set of enhancements to the very cool Response Point small business VOIP telephone system.  This system came out a little over a year ago and Microsoft has already added 1 new feature set with SP1.  Service Pack 2 has been in development and some of us have been able to participate in a preview of this update.  I think you will like what you see when SP2 is released.



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