2020 to 2021 RoadmapThis roadmap blog post was supposed to precede v18 but the dev team was actually progressing so fast they actually overtook me on this “road”. And so this roadmap blog post doesn't just outline our vision for 2021, but it also includes the v18 alpha for you to download and check out this christmas! It's not feature complete but it allows you to test first hand an early v18.

3CX’ Vision - A future proof communication system

3CX is growing into a full blown Omnichannel Communication System. Gone are the times that customers just want to call; they want to be able to connect via Live chat, Facebook and SMS. Using separate disparate systems is not practical for the customer nor for your company.

Your team would need to check separate systems - phone, live chat, help desk. Your admins would need to administer these separate systems. Unified Reporting is near impossible and the business will have to pay for all of these systems as well!

It's not practical for customers either - if you use different systems they will be talking to different agents each and every time. And frequently, a customer contact needs to be escalated to a phone call so they can better explain their issue. Directing the customer to a call centre at this point will frustrate them and make resolving the customer issue inefficient. To make matters worse - competition is intensifying, businesses need to up their customer experience game.

Enter 3CX v18 - the communication system of the future that will connect co-workers with customers. In one efficient, easy to manage and low cost system. Where our competitors are still very much focused on “just” connecting co-workers, 3CX connects employees to customers, allowing them to work more efficiently and make your customers happier.

3CX V18 Improvements

3CX v18 Core

We have beefed up the core system of 3CX - delivering a major OS upgrade for our 3CX ISO as well as increasing reliability and compatibility with these features:

  • 3CX ISO now deploys Debian 10 (Buster)
  • V16 users will be upgraded seamlessly to Debian 10
  • Tunnel merged in the media server:
    • Reduces memory consumption by about 20%
    • Improves audio quality
    • Reduces reconnect time and improves reconnect success (this can not be tested yet in the alpha as it requires an update to the apps)
  • SDP Renegotiation improved:
    • Better compatibility with more providers
    • Fixes one way audio issues that could occur in some cases
    • Improved accuracy of reports
    • Ability to record only internal/external calls
  • IPv6 DNS Records (AAAA)
  • Numerous fixes in the reports
  • New Gateway Service - Responsible for integration with third party systems (Will also host REST API in future)

Manageability & Deployment

  • SSO - Single Sign On for the webclient and management console.
  • E164 caller IDs - Caller IDs can be converted into standard e164 format.
  • Audit Log - System changes are logged (who changed what and when).
  • DNS Helper service - Removes the need for specifying the local and remote IP. This not only eases deployment it also means users no longer need to select whether they are outside or inside the office to use the webclient or the apps. Furthermore it simplifies a move from on-premise to the cloud.
  • Ability to provision a Raspberry PI remotely as either a PBX or an SBC. This means you can drop ship a device to a customer and there’s no need to connect a keyboard or monitor to install 3CX.

Contact Centre features

In line with our vision we are working hard on improving our Live Chat and messaging features:

  • Improved Live Chat box:
    • Themes
    • Improved collection of email and name
    • Different startup modes
    • Overall better configurability
  • RCS - (SMS 2.0)

Onboard Webmeeting Portal

The webmeeting portal will now be hosted on your 3CX instance:

  • All meeting data will be stored locally and therefore completely confidential
  • Your click2call and click2meet URLs will be unified
  • In future you can use public or private MCUs
  • Improved dial in capability

Help Desk

3CX will bundle a help desk solution to allow for efficient tracking of customer issues. This allows agents to create a support ticket from a call or a chat. In addition it is easy to connect an email address to the helpdesk system so you can resolve and track customer support requests. A separate helpdesk solution will no longer be needed, saving you additional training, admin and cost!

From the Ideas Forum

And the following features are straight from the top 10 in the features forum:

Implemented in alpha:

To be implemented for release or update 1/2:

Implementation to be reviewed:

V18 Alpha

The initial alpha is available as 3CX Linux ISO only and allows you to sample SSO, Audit log, caller ID normalization as well as the above ideas forum features. Full change log here.

You can download it here.

And finally - Merry Xmas! 

That's it from the 3CX dev team for 2020! We wish you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!