3CX Q & A

3CX is a software package, and while 3CX does provide a hosting service, this is not a requirement, and 3CX can be installed on ACC’s AWS Cloud environment, your own hosting account, or on an on-premise device.

Yes, 3CX can be hosted behind a NAT.

There are 3 major differences between 3CX and Hosted PBX systems.

• Flexibility & Control:  3CX is a software-based PBX, so YOU get to decide where to run that software-- either on a server at your business' premise, in a virtual server environment, or in the cloud with ACC Telecom.  ACC uses Amazon AWS for our Cloud servers.
• Price:  3CX does not charge per-user extension fees, application fees, or licensing fees.  Pay annually or purchase for a one-time cost.  3CX Pricing starts at $0 for the Standard 4 SIM Call License.
• Applications:  With 3CX, every user has access to every application available for no additional cost.

Our recommendations for a 100-user company housing the 3CX on an AWS server are as follows:

• CPU (amount/cores, and type/speed)—Intel Core i7-3770 Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.9 Ghz)
• Ram—8-10 GB
• Type of HDD (HDD vs. SSD)—SATA 100 GB
• HDD space requirements—Minimum of 100 GB.  If using call recording, then you will need more space.
• Bandwidth-- this is difficult to answer as bandwidth on AWS is determined by your company's usage.

Yes, our SIP Trunks are 3CX certified. This means that our SIP Trunks have gone through a rigorous testing and approval process by 3CX.  As a 3CX certified sip provider, we receive priority support and each new version of software updates are tested against our SIP technology before release.

Depending on the models, yes. Please contact us with your make/model of IP phone to verify compatibility. Some older phones are not supported.

Yes, 3CX licenses are available to order without having to order other services from ACC Telecom-- such as Cloud Hosting, SIP/VoIP, or Programming/Installation Service.  If you feel comfortable with programming and installing your own 3CX system, then go for it.  We are here to help if you need it. 🙂

Note:  For online 3CX License purchases, please allow up to 3 hours to receive your 3CX license key via email.

3CX includes HD video conferencing for all users for no extra cost.  There are no time limits, no apps to download, and attendees do not have to register for an account.  3CX is full-featured with screenshare, whiteboards, surveys, recording, live stream, and more.

No, the 3CX Meeting & Video Conferencing application is using Google’s WebRTC platform so there are no downloads or plug-ins needed.  The client will simply click a URL link to access the video & web conference.

There are certain features that can be limited or disabled per extension/user.  A few examples include call recording, having the ability to schedule a 3CX Video-Web Meeting, screen sharing, and accessing their web client account offsite.  Please contact ACC Telecom with specific feature removal requests.

3CX supports inbound faxing to emails.  Outgoing faxes will need the use of an FXS gateway and an analog fax machine to be sent.

3CX integrates with various CRM systems to efficiently track, record, and report on client communications. Integrating your CRM with 3CX will create tickets once a new call is handled.  Once the ticket generation process starts, the options are endless.

Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Call creates a new ticket.
• Call can create a new contact.
• Call Pops: customer record will auto-populate when an inbound call is received.
• Call & Chat Journals: calls and chats are logged as activities or notes in the CRM system.
• If call queues are set up, you can set triggers to automatically set aspects of the ticket, such as tags, categories, subcategories, Assignee’s, etc. depending on the queue the call came in from.
• You can trigger calls directly from the CRM utilizing the click to call feature in 3cx or integrated CRM dialer.
• Voicemail ticket creation- when a voicemail is left, it can create a ticket with the voicemail for follow up via CRM.
• Ticket creation when an outbound call is placed to external numbers.

These are some of the primary use cases with 3CX/CRM integration. Keeping record of all interactions with customers is key and the system does exactly that.

Yes, API integrations are welcome and encouraged!  We want your 3CX business communications system to be the most efficient, effective tool for your unique organization!

3CX relies on 3rd party DLPs (Firewalls, IDS, etc.) at the network level to prevent access to the PBX.  3CX also has a built-in anti-hacking tool, which maintains certain thresholds, where if exceeded, will place offending IPs into a global blacklist. 3CX maintains a global blacklist which is distributed amongst 3CX systems to help prevent malicious attacks across the world.

Google integrations include SSO portal logins and the option to schedule conferences with Google Calendar.

No, 3CX offers its own video platform that is highly secure, encrypted, full-featured, and HIPAA compliant (assuming you choose to store all meeting data locally so it is completely confidential).

3CX provides call center capabilities such as call queues, call recording, and advanced reporting, while also incorporating contact center omni-channel features including website chat (Live Chat by 3CX- free plug-in), business SMS, and Facebook messaging.

3CX Contact Center capabilities include, but are not limited to:

• CRM & API integrations, and custom contact center programming
• Live Chat plug-in for your website (escalate chat to phone call or video call)
• 3CX's integrated helpdesk solution
• SMS/RCS
• Facebook Messenger Integration
• WebRTC Video Conferencing
• Call Logging
• Call Queues
• Chat Queues
• Central Messaging Hub
• Call & Chat Reports (25+)
• Call Back in Queue (CBIQ)
• Call Flow Designer (CFD)
• Number in Line
• Skills Based Routing (5 Levels)
• Click-to-Call Browser Extension
• Click2Talk & Click2Meet Personal Links
• Barge in/Listen in/Whisper
• Call Recording (Audio, Transcriptions, Search & Restrictions)
• Hot Desking
• Real Time Statistics Monitoring
• SLA Alerting
• Supervisor Agent Status Override
• Switchboard
• Wallboard
• Complete Customer Interaction Documentation
• & more!

3CX PRO license offers 25+ reports.  Custom Reporting is also available.

• Messaging Reports
  • Queue Chat Performance
  • Queue Agents Chat Statistics
  • Abandoned Chats
• 25+ Call Center Reports; Customized Reporting Available
  • User Activity (Graph)
  • Extension Statistic Reports
  • Ring Group Statistics
  • Call Distribution (Graph)
  • Agents in Queue Statistics
  • Agent Login History
  • Average Queue History
  • Average Queue Waiting Time (Graph)
  • Call Cost by Extension Group
  • Call Cost by Call Type
  • Queue Answered/Unanswered Calls (Graph) Queue
  • Answered Calls (Graph)
  • Queue Unanswered Calls (Graph)
  • Statistics SLA
  • Breaches SLA
  • Trunk DID Reports
  • Queue Performance Overview
  • Detailed Queue Statistics
  • Team Queue General Statistics
  • Team Queue Lost Calls
  • Abandoned Queue Calls
  • Queue Answered Calls by Wait Time
  • Queue Callbacks
  • Queue Failed Callbacks
  • & more

To receive call reporting, you must choose the PRO or Enterprise Edition Licenses.

Updated 12/2022

Yes, 3CX provides the following Omni-Channel features for no extra cost:

Live Chat Plug-in for Your Website

• Escalate a chat to a phone call or video call
• Assign chat messages to a group automatically
• Queue-based group handling of chats
• Tickets can be assigned to first agent that responds to chat
• Transfer chat to another agent
• Can answer any message (website chat, FB message, or SMS) from Web Client or Mobile app
• Sync CRM/EMS so it identified customers and brings up their contact record, and create leads out of new visitors in your CRM/EMS
• Chat monitoring
• Includes Chat Reporting
• Archive chats centrally

SMS:

• SMS text messaging (peer to peer)
• SMS contact center queues
• Centralized messaging

Facebook Messenger Integration*

• Do not have to be logged into FB to receive & respond to messages.
• Centralized messaging

Call Flow Designer (CFD) allows you to easily create call flows and voice applications visually—without having programming or scripting knowledge.  CFD offers a drag & drop interface, includes control components such as conditions, loops and variables, and supports multi language text to speech & speech to text.

• Create Strategic Call Flows & Voice Applications so agents can more efficiently handle calls & customers can get to where they need faster.
• Create Voice Apps to automate repetitive tasks
• Create Rules for call routing based on customer type, time of day, customer input, and more.
• Secure & private Authentication, user input, & credit card
• Authenticate callers based on customer ID or other input
• Automatic outbound Dialer & callback scheduler
• Implement a voice payment gateway
• Components for encryption, CRM lookup, database access & more
• Automate responses using Text to Speech- leverages Google’s Text to Speech (TTS) and Speech to Text (STT)—recognizes over 120 languages and variant’s w/ ability to customize pronunciation of words.
• & more

Ring Groups vs. Call Queues:

Ring Groups- Ring groups can be either 'ring all' or 'prioritized ring' based on order in the group. With ring groups, the call rings the proper personnel assigned to that group then routes to a terminating destination, usually a voicemail box based on programming.

Extensions in a ring group can only receive one call at a time from that ring group, so if a user is already on a call the next call from that ring group will not ring that user, it will ring only the available users.  If all users in the ring group are busy or are in Do Not Disturb (DND) the call will immediately route to the terminating destination.

Call Queues- Call queues are a call center feature.  Agents are added to the queue, and any calls to that queue are held until someone is available to take the call.  The queue has various routing routines to choose from: ring all, prioritized hunt, round robin, longest waiting, least talk, (just to name a few), as well as skilled based routing such as skilled based ring all, skilled based hunt random start, skill based round robin and skilled based fewest answered.

Various other options come into play with queues such as announce position in line, offer a call back, play an intro prompt before the call is sent to users, set a queue as priority over others, etc.  There is also an option to set a queue time out or max callers in queue.

3CX integrates with carious CRM systems to efficiently track, record, and report on client communications.  Integrating your CRM with 3CX will create tickets once a new call is handled.  Once the ticket generation process starts, the options are endless.

Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Call creates a new ticket.
• Call can create a new contact.
• Call Pops: customer record will auto-populate when an inbound call is received.
• Call & Chat Journals: calls and chat messages are logged as activities or notes in the CRM system.
• Call Queues: If call queues are set up, you can set triggers to automatically set aspects of the ticket, such as tags, categories, subcategories, Assignee’s, etc. depending on the queue the call came in from.
• Click to Call: You can trigger calls directly from the CRM utilizing the click to call feature in 3cx or integrated CRM dialer.
• Voicemail ticket creation- when a voicemail is left, it can create a ticket with the voicemail for follow up via CRM.
• Outbound Ticket creation when an outbound call is placed to external numbers.

These are some of the primary use cases with 3CX/CRM integration. Keeping record of all interactions with customers is key and the system does exactly that.

Yes, with API integrations A.I. Technology is possible to integrate into your Contact Center; however, we would need more information on exactly how you would like to use it to determine if it can be supported.

As Hackers become more sophisticated, so does 3CX security.  3CX uses anti-hacking algorithms and global IP blacklists to block IP addresses automatically that are attempting SIP connections or admin type connections through the firewall. Security enhancements are pushed to the system and can be updated automatically or manually.  3CX provides real-time alerts of any anti-hacking attempts and SIP Trunk status, as well as the overall health and service status of the system.  3CX's in-built security includes:

Yes, 3CX offers auto-cleaning options that can be adjusted via the management portal. Examples include automatic deletion of voicemails and call recordings after X amount of days, and/or the ability to export data to an offsite location for additional storage (FTP, SMB, SFTO-SSH, Google Bucket, etc).

All communications to and from the PBX are secured via SSL communications.  3CX utilizes Let's Encrypt SSL certificates, issued free of charge and renewed as long as the license is valid.

All communications are authenticated according to the SIP protocol (RFC 3261).

Yes. Audio communications between 3CX and its applications (mobile) as well as the SBC, and the Web Client are secured via DTLS.

Yes, this is supported in V18.

HIPAA compliance does not apply to software vendors directly but to the organizations that may store, process, and transmit electronically PHI data.  As such, ACC Telecom's SIP Trunk Service and Amazon AWS Cloud Servers are certified as HIPAA compliant.  Although 3CX software itself is not audited for HIPAA compliance specifically, both the 3CX Business Communication System and the 3CX Web-Video Conferencing software are secure by design.

Since HIPAA requires physical, administrative, and technical safeguards, customers would need a certified auditor to check their network infrastructure, endpoints, and company policies to remain fully compliant.

Yes, the failover is automatic. It is based on DNS. Basically, the phone, PC software, and DNS will be looking to the server via a hosted name and when the primary goes down that DNS record will be updated to point to the IP of the backup server. The phone will reset and register to the backup one almost instantly.

Active maintenance/subscription includes the following:

• Security updates
• PBX Updates – Get the latest versions and service packs including new features for free.
• 3CX FQDN service
• Auto-renewal of Encrypted SSL Certificate
• Updates and use of the iOS and Android Mobile Apps
• 3CX SMTP Service - to receive alerts and notifications
• 3CX WebMeeting - Web & video conferencing features for all users
• IP Phone Firmware and Template Updates
• CRM Updates and Additions
• VoIP Provider Templates Updates and Additions

ACC Support is an extension of your 3CX Maintenance and includes*:

• Unlimited Help Desk Support including portal, phone, mobile & web application assistance and remote troubleshooting support.
• Major software updates are administered remotely by an ACC Telecom 3CX Advanced Certified Technician.
• Ability for ACC Telecom to directly access the 3CX ticketing system and contact live 3CX Technicians and Engineers for escalated issues.  Please note that 3CX Technical personnel will only speak to 3CX Certified Resellers, such as ACC Telecom.

*ACC Support does not include moves, adds, changes, or on-site technical support to the phone system or SIP Trunk.

Failure to renew annual 3CX Maintenance & ACC Support will result in:

• Loss of SSL Certificate
• Loss of 3CX WebMeeting- Web & Video Conferencing
• Loss of FQDN Service
• Loss of Firmware Updates
• Loss of Security Updates
• Loss of Interop Updates
• Loss of CRM Interop/API Updates
• Mobile Applications (iOS & Android) will stop working
• Remote phones will no longer function & cannot be administered over HTTPS.
• Per incident Helpdesk Support cost
• No Access to 3CX Engineering Support
• Major software updates will not be completed by a 3CX Advanced Certified ACC Telecom Technician (including entire system backup & restore).

Yes, 3CX is fully compliant with Kari's Law and Ray Baum's Act.  This includes dialing 911 without a prefix, sending specific location details to emergency responders, and notifying company personnel when 911 is dialed.  Please note that the 3CX PBX configuration of e911 is specific to the capabilities of the SIP Trunk/Provider.  ACC Telecom's SIP carriers are compliant with Kari's Law and Ray Baum's Act.

Additional 3CX/e911 information:

• E911 is configured in the "Emergency Numbers" section of the 3CX PBX to ensure proper routing as the emergency call(s) will be handled with top priority and not limited by any simultaneous call restriction due to licensing (i.e. emergency calls will be made even if the license is at its call limit).
• Company personnel will receive detailed alerts in the form of email, chat messages, and pre-recorded voice announcements when 911 is dialed.
• E911 laws are regulated at the state level.  When establishing a best practice it is recommended to discuss the requirements for each state you wish to do business in with a reputable lawyer. Some SIP providers may be able to guide further as they will be responsible at sending the correct location information, assigned to the specific ELIN (Emergency Location Identification Number), to emergency services.