3CX MyPhone and the separate SIP clients have been replaced and merged into a single 3CXPhone client for Android, iPhone and Windows. 3CXPhone for Windows is available to download and is CTI ready, allowing you to control your IP desk phone from the client. The Android and iPhone clients are coming in the next one to two weeks as this isn’t a feature complete release.

What’s New in 3CX Phone System Version 12

We have focused our efforts on improving 3CX Phone System from the users perspective and version 12 certainly gives 3CX users unparalleled mobility and productivity. We’ve really raised the bar on the new 3CXPhone client by giving it an easy to use interface and packing it with features. The new 3CXPhone client takes this version of 3CX Phone System to a whole new level.

3CXPhone is Easier to Use

• New interface with an improved Android and iPhone user experience.
• Native app for a more seamless and responsive user experience.
• Easy call forwarding setup from your smartphone.
• Many features previously available only via 3CX MyPhone can now be done from your smartphone such as:
  • Set status
  • Login and Logout of queues
  • Be alerted to new voicemails

3CXPhone is Easier to Deploy and Manage

• Network auto-sensing – 3CXPhone detects if it’s not on the LAN and changes its configuration automatically.
• Easy one click auto provisioning – 3CXPhone can now be provisioned from anywhere. Users simply click on a provisioning attachment.
• Improved troubleshooting.
• Native, easily deployable app. No more silverlight!

Integrated Softphone

The softphones have been integrated into the client and received a major revamp and many new features:

• Ability to easily perform blind or attended transfers from the interface.
• Multi Line – 3CXPhone can now handle multiple lines on all platforms – necessary for conferencing, attended transfer etc.
• Ability to easily create conference calls on 3CX Phone System.

CTI Mode

When in the office, use the 3CXPhone client with your desk phone in the CTI mode to get amazing productivity gains from your IP phone.

• Call control of Yealink, Grandstream & snom phones.
• Initiate calls with a mouse click – no retyping of phone number.
• Easy call transfer.
• Create conference calls with a few mouse clicks.
• Uses CTI API on the phone, not call back.

Multi-Platform

3CXPhone is available for all major platforms:

• Android 2.3 and up – Will be available to download from Google Play soon.
  • Tested on popular Android phones from Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony Ericsson.
• iPhone 3, 4 and 5 – Will be available to download from the Apple Appstore soon.
• Windows 7 and 8

Unmatched Mobility with PUSH Support

We’ve taken mobility to a completely new level for users as 3CX Phone System 12 is the ONLY PBX to support PUSH Technology! Both the Android and iPhone clients support the PUSH mechanism, meaning that the client will be activated on an incoming call or chat message.

• If your phone is in sleep mode, 3CX Phone System will “wake up” the client.
• Saves battery power.
• You don’t have to remember to keep it active.
• Allows users to be reachable via the phone system from anywhere.
• Slashes company call costs because users can be reached via VoIP.
• Users do not need to give out mobile number as much.

Unified Communications

The new 3CXPhone is a fully featured unified communications client, not just a softphone:

• Integrated Presence – check status of other users.
• Integrated chat, available for all platforms – Coming soon.
• Easy one click conference call setup – Coming soon.
• View voicemails and call history from your smartphone & Windows desktop.
• Ability to set status from your smartphone.

Better Integration of Phones on Cell Network

3CX Phone System now includes a mobile agent which allows better integration of calls forwarded via the cell phone network:

• Hold or Resume calls
• Transfer calls
• More features will be added in upcoming service packs.

IP Phone Management & Security

IP Phone Management
3CX Phone System has made IP phone management drastically easier for the administrator:

• Firmwares for supported phones are pre tested by 3CX.
• Easily update all IP phones on the network with a few mouse clicks.
• No more interop problems as firmwares are validated by 3CX BEFORE their release.
• This feature will require a valid maintenance agreement.

Security
3CX Phone Systems strong security has been further enhanced with the following features:

• Default HTTPS – for IIS systems – HTTPS is now enabled and configured by default.
• Improved security of provisioning folder.

Installing 3CX Phone System 12 Alpha

As version 12 is a major release, a full reinstall is required in order to upgrade from 3CX Phone System 11 to 12 and the following steps are required:

1. Take a complete backup of your 3CX Phone System 11 installation using the 3CX Backup and Restore tool (Start > All Programs > 3CX Phone System > Backup and restore Tool). Note – this might take some time depending on the amount of voicemails, recordings and call history records. Please note that only backups from 3CX Phone System version 11 will work.
2. NOTE: If you have a lot of voicemails and recordings, it is recommended to take a backup of these manually and exclude backing them up from the backup and restore. This will save a lot of time during the upgrade.
3. Uninstall 3CX Phone System 11.
4. Download and install 3CX Phone System 12 Alpha.
5. Restore your backup when prompted via the 3CX Wizard.

Downloads

• Download 3CX Phone System Version 12 Alpha from http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXPhoneSystem12.exe
• Download 3CXPhone for Windows from http://www.3cx.com/downloads/3CXPhoneforWindows12.msi
• Demo Key: SAOY-3LMW-U3OT-GLJV

We look forward to your comments and feedback on 3CX Phone System V12 Alpha

Note: Users running previous Beta versions of 3CX Phone System Version 11 should not update to service pack 1 via the service pack update. For versions prior to build 26364.600, a full uninstall and re-install is required.

New Features

• New: Added support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Previous releases of 3CX Phone System are unsupported on Windows 8 / Server 2012, and thus a new installation of SP2 is required on these OS.
• New: Added support for Exchange Server 2013. For more information on configuring an Exchange Server 2013, review this 3CX blog post.
• New: IP Whitelist for the Anti-Hacking module.
• New: Blacklist is checked for WEB requests. When someone tries to connect to the web 3CX Management Console, 3CX MyPhone or provision a phone from a blacklisted IP, the request will be blocked, and the administrator is notified (if notifications are enabled).
• New: Added support for the latest Cisco SPA 514G and 525G2 phones with the latest firmware. Please note, phones running firmware 7.4.9b need to be updated to version 7.5.2b before being upgraded to version 7.5.3. This applies to all Cisco phones.
• New: SNOM can now be configured using Plug and Play. SNOM is now supported from the firmware version 8.7.3.15.

3CX MyPhone

• Update: The Active Calls section in 3CX MyPhone has been redesigned. Users can only see their own calls by default. If allowed, they can see the calls to users in their group. The management group still sees everything.
• Update: Conference calendar request (.ics) notifications are now sent even when the email server requires authentication.
• Update: Dashes and () are stripped when an external conference number is added to the conference.
• Fixed: A bug in 3CX MyPhone when adding callers which are on hold to a conference.
• Fixed: The audio issues when creating conferences in 3CX MyPhone have been fixed.
• Fixed: The bug which caused the Microsoft Outlook plugin to not create journal entries for incoming calls
• Fixed: The organizer’s email address is now stored correctly when scheduling conference calls.
• Fixed: The organizer of a conference is now informed when a user has accepted or declined the conference invitation and details are correctly retrieved from the calendar.
• Fixed: When changing the language to Portuguese, 3CX MyPhone now loads in Portuguese.

3CX Phone System Server

• Update: 3CX Phone System User Agent string now contains the version number.
• Update: Added G729 Support for Patton Gateway Templates BRI devices which has fixed the audio issues.
• Fixed: Caller ID is not retained when call is diverted (using 302 diversion header).
• Fixed: Bug in 302 diversion header – Diversion header contents are now enclosed in <>
• Fixed: Crash of 3CX Phone System caused by incorrectly configured Outbound Rules.
• Fixed: Exception in Call History service when an email is sent to an invalid address.

IP Phone, PSTN Gateway and VoIP Provider Interoperability

• New: Grandstream HT 701, 702, and 704 templates have been added to  main 3CX Phone System installer.
• Update: Firmware auto-provisioning is removed in Grandstream templates.

3CX Web Reports

• Update: Ring group reports have been moved to Advanced Call Reports.
• Update: In the extension statistics, a limit of 10,000 call records has been hard coded which has sped up the report.
• Fixed: Call Logs are properly generated on Italian language operating systems.
• Fixed: Calls that breach SLA time are now shown correctly.
• Fixed: Bug where the SLA breach time was not being observed and all calls where marked as breaching SLA.

3CX Management Console (Interface)

• Update: Outbound rules page now shows the Extension Groups in the summary page.
• Update: Added exception in the Windows Firewall for the 3CX Windows Management Console. This is required for the 3CX Firewall Checker.
• Update: Moved configuration of the Billing Information from the top menu bar to the Advanced page.
• Update: Server Activity Log now indicates when a packet is dropped because of a hacking attempt.
• Update: Email notification sent to a 3CX Administrator or Operator extension when the 3CX Upgrade Insurance is about to expire.
• Update: Improved general speed of Windows-based 3CX Management Console.
• Update: Tagged license messages in the Server Activity Log.
• Update: The size of the Abyss webserver log file has been minimalised as the file is now backed up and recreated.
• Fixed: Service pack updating fails when Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is running on the computer.
• Fixed: Provisioning of 3CXPhone for Windows, iPhone, and Android now sets the STUN server to the Public IP address of 3CX Phone System. (Note: Public IP Address needs to be configured).
• Fixed: The 3CX VAD integration when text to speech project is deployed with characters containing an accent.
• Fixed: IP blacklisted entries not completely removed causing a delay and high CPU usage on incoming calls.
• Fixed: Crash in the Server Activity Log when logs are viewed in Google Chrome.
• Fixed: There will no longer be any blank pages within the Server Activity Log.
• Fixed: Log files were not being moved to backup folder and remained in the Logs folder. As a result this made the 3CX Management Console very slow and affected also the general performance of the computer.
• Update: The 3CX Server Activity Log now shows INVITE and RE-INVITE SIP messages. These can be seen when Verbose is enabled.

3CX Log Viewer

• Update: Gradual opening of logs to avoid high CPU usage.
• Fixed: Various memory leaks.

3CX Backup and Restore

• Fixed: The crash that occurs on Russian language Windows Operating Systems.
• Fixed: Exception in 3CX Backup and Restore when a backup is made whilst a recording or a voicemail is in progress.
• Fixed: 3CX Backup and Restore will now backup recordings when recordings path is not the default directory.
• Fixed: The restore procedure will create recordings file structure in case it does not exist.

Download 3CX Phone System 11 with Service Pack 2

• You can download the full installation of 3CX Phone System Version 11 here.
• The administration manual can be found here (PDF).
• The 3CX Extension user manual is web based and can be found here.
• Use this V11 Demo Key to activate enterprise features: DC4U-7OL5-4XTG-IUST

3CX has also created the What’s New in 3CX Phone System v11 video which discusses the latest features. This video, along with all other 3CX videos can be viewed on the 3CX Channel on YouTube.

Please post any questions and comments about 3CX Phone System 11 on the 3CX Forums and join the 3CX Community on their Facebook Page.

Users of 3CX Phone System 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are recommended to upgrade to 3CX Phone System 11.

Frost & Sullivan ICT Team Leader and Senior Industry Analyst Alaa Saayed explains how Yealink has become so successful:

Growing its SIP phone sales year over year, Yealink has achieved this leadership position due to successfully applying a best-bang-for-the-buck strategy, providing the highest ratio of value to cost, leveraging extensive customer international knowledge, and growing its partner relationships. The company’s IP devices have gradually gained the reputation of high-quality endpoints that offer compelling functionality at a compelling price point.

Among the top five SIP phone brands in the industry, Yealink offers three product lines: IP video phones, IP phones, and USB phones. These devices not only match the top international requirements in terms of quality and features, but are also very competitively priced. Furthermore, the company’s R&D department continuously introduces emerging technologies into the product lines.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.