BANGALORE, INDIA: As per a Frost & Sullivan report, India’s PBX market is estimated at Rs. 13,000 to Rs. 14,000 crore in 2007-08 and is growing annually at 30-40 percent. In this connection, Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a emerging player in India’s PBX industry is eying to be among the top three players by 2010.

The company, one of the leading manufacturers of electronic and electrical products for consumer, business and industrial has a present market share of only 4-5 percent in India’s VoIP (Voice over IP) market but is looking at over 30 percent growth this fiscal.

Talking to CIOL, Ashish Dhole, Business Head – PBX of Panasonic (India), said: ``We continue to be the dominant player in the analog series of PBX below 1000 lines but with the migration from analog, digital to IP PBX two years ago, we have lost ground. But now we are eying to be among the top three by 2010.”

Reports indicate that with hybrid and IP-PBX systems gaining ground, businesses can make use of their converged IP networks to transport voice along with data and video, resulting in higher RoI.

The company reported a turnover of Rs. 60 crore in FY 2007-08 and is expecting a jump of Rs. 35 crore to reach Rs. 95 crore this fiscal. “We have started an aggressive campaign with the launch of our new products in the market and also expanded on our distributors and dealers network across the country,” said Dhole.

The company has announced the launch of its revolutionary IP-based office communication systems – the Panasonic KX-TDE series of Full-IP PBXs, IP phones and network cameras in Bangalore on Thursday.

“Globally, offices are shifting from traditional telecom systems to low-cost, flexible IP systems that take full advantage of rapid growth in IP applications. However, it is difficult to switch an existing traditional telecom line to a full-IP system all at once due to time and cost restrictions,” said Gary Gay, Product Category Owner, SAARC countries, Singapore, Indonesia & Vietnam adding that “empowered with latest SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology, Panasonic KX-TDE IP PBXs embrace full-IP telephony and offer an easy migration path.”

Dhole said that our KX-TDE series of IP-PBX systems support traditional telecom lines, allowing IP systems to be integrated with conventional telecom systems such as ISDN and analog lines – making it an optimal solution for those who wish to smoothly migrate to an IP system while continuing to use their existing telecom network. In fact, existing users of Panasonic’s Hybrid KX-TDA PBX systems can simply upgrade to the new KX-TDE series by simply replacing the main card (IPCMPR card).

In case there’s no specific desk for the user in the office or he/she moves locations, it is possible to use any extension and still have his/her extension setting available on that particular extension. Any brand or model of mobile phones can be integrated with the KX-TDE series. There’s a built in simplified voice mail feature that provides answering machine services. Panasonic KX-TDE series is easy to maintain and program as up to four TDEs connected to the network can be programmed by one PC, all of the PBX programs can be set simultaneously. 

Panasonic’s new IP-based office communication systems are specially tailored for SMEs across all categories. They can be easily scaled up to suit the requirements of enterprises like hotels / hospitality vertical, sales, administration, medical, health service, construction, customer service, call centers and BPOs / ITeS companies, production enterprises, logistics and legal industry. 

The company has already penetrated into the BPO, BFSI, Telecom, Government  segments with Adventity, Singapore Airlines, ICICI Bank, IDBI, HDFC, ING Vyasa, Railways, Etisalat, Cranes Software as their major clients.