Catching Up With PanasonicCatching Up With Panasonic

The company continues to be a go-to source of telephony endpoints.

Industry watchers have been sounding PBX death knell for quite some time now (even as far back as the early '90s and the days of the Dash PC-based telephone PBX). Yet Panasonic still provides small PBXes to SMBs that need the key system features of digital (and proprietary) telephony systems.

To catch up on Panasonic, I spoke with product manager Gary Moeller. Today the company focuses on the KX-NS700G, a pre-packaged communication platform designed to support small business environments. Panasonic designed this platform, as well as all other new product lines (the KX-NTV series camera phones and the UC mobility software) for seamless integration with the entire NS series to ease installation and provide flexible expandability.

But partners still sell Panasonic's legacy KX-TA824 telephone system, too, Gary said. My friend, "Interconnect Ed," told me the same thing. In fact, over the years he's repeatedly told me that he has numerous customers that do not want IP telephony solutions but rather a "PBX without the IP."

I also asked Gary about the KX-TGP600, which he said now ships with Power over Ethernet (PoE). The KX-TGP600 is a way cool wireless SIP phone that uses DECT to support eight stations. Bundling this SIP phone with a managed PoE switch, access point, and firewall creates a strong solution that is manageable and affordable for numerous verticals minus typical wiring headaches and expenses.

Panasonic continues to improve its telephony/UC products, as I wrote about in my May post on its new integrated camera and UC solution and a January post on the wireless SIP phone solution. Most hosted providers I speak to use Panasonic SIP endpoints simply because they work really well. For example, I still use an older KX-UT670 IP phone with hosted VoIP from Jive because both the phone and service are rock-solid. This is what SMBs demand.

The real takeaway from my conversation with Gary is that Panasonic clearly is still selling huge numbers of endpoints: telephones, cameras, and door stations. These endpoints need reliable firmware, PoE for a performance boost over local power supplies, and be able to deliver a high-quality experience that doesn't leave customers second-guessing their purchases.

IP solutions can meet these demands but when they don't consistently, then you get market resistance and that resistance will be in place for a long time. Like my friend Interconnect Ed has taught me, customers vote with their purchases, and when they keep buying legacy solutions of course Panasonic has no problem making and shipping them.

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