Maximum Extension Policy Enforcement

[N_G]

And an improved 1:8 call ratio for larger licenses.​

Many customers and partners are asking how we might enforce the maximum extension limits described here. This blog sets out some of the current thinking on the direction we’re taking and what we’re planning to do over the coming months.

• Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[gorbros]

While these updates present new opportunities, I believe 3CX should also consider limiting the addition of new resellers in the LATAM market. The region is already becoming saturated, and this dynamic is starting to negatively impact experienced partners who have invested years of effort in building and maintaining their customer base.


LATAM is made up largely of small markets — many with limited business volumes, challenging exchange rates, and economic constraints. Continuously adding new resellers in such conditions dilutes existing efforts and makes it increasingly difficult for current partners to sustain growth or maintain their status.


A more balanced approach — allowing established resellers to consolidate and further develop their markets — would strengthen the ecosystem and ensure long-term success for both 3CX and its committed partners.

 

[SweetAction]

While these updates present new opportunities, I believe 3CX should also consider limiting the addition of new resellers in the LATAM market. The region is already becoming saturated, and this dynamic is starting to negatively impact experienced partners who have invested years of effort in building and maintaining their customer base.


LATAM is made up largely of small markets — many with limited business volumes, challenging exchange rates, and economic constraints. Continuously adding new resellers in such conditions dilutes existing efforts and makes it increasingly difficult for current partners to sustain growth or maintain their status.


A more balanced approach — allowing established resellers to consolidate and further develop their markets — would strengthen the ecosystem and ensure long-term success for both 3CX and its committed partners.

I think this attitude is harmful to everyone involved - 3CX, resellers, and end users.

Limiting 3CX - less partners pushing 3CX means less exposure for 3CX in the market. No matter how much 1 person is offering 3CX, they will never have the reach of 2 people.
Limiting resellers - not only is this a "pull up the ladder after myself" approach, but it stifles innovation. With more partners in the market, you have to demonstrate your value better which means you find new ways to present it, which is a win for both you and the end user.
Limiting end users - they will have less resources to help them with all aspects of 3CX (implementing, upgrading, supporting, enhancing, etc.)

Look - 3CX sells direct and has no plans to change that - so any person who doesn't see the value in going with a partner will just avoid the partner all together - no matter how limited the partner choices are. You won't be able to win business on the approach of "I'm the only option here"

I don't know your market as I'm US based, so it's possible I'm missing something here.

 

[Richard10]

Thanks for the clarification and showing you listen to people's concerns and providing a good solution for them. I hope your company flourishes as your continue to improve the product.

 

[N_G]

Thank you for the heads-up.

I think overall corporate strategy has meant that we are working with less, but more committed partners. To focusing on bigger customers and supporting better those partners that agree with our strategy. @SweetAction 90%+ (I don't know exact amount it might even be 95%) of products are sold via partners.

 

[ArneDery]

Thanks for the clear update. Also listening to the community on how dummy users can be fixed for example voicemails is a great.

 

[YuranL]

Thank you for the clarification. One example of how we use extensions is to forward calls based on different days of the week, using the exception rules of the extension.

Some companies use multiple extensions because they have offices in different locations with varying office hours.
Unfortunately, calls need to be routed to different queues, IVRs, etc., depending on the day of the week.
Does this type of 'dummy extension' used for call routing also count as a user?

I understand this could be implemented as a call script, which you’ve made very easy to use from within the Store (timebasecallscript.cs). For us, using this script is straightforward, but for a receptionist at Company X, it’s not as simple.

 

[gorbros]

I think this attitude is harmful to everyone involved - 3CX, resellers, and end users.

Limiting 3CX - less partners pushing 3CX means less exposure for 3CX in the market. No matter how much 1 person is offering 3CX, they will never have the reach of 2 people.
Limiting resellers - not only is this a "pull up the ladder after myself" approach, but it stifles innovation. With more partners in the market, you have to demonstrate your value better which means you find new ways to present it, which is a win for both you and the end user.
Limiting end users - they will have less resources to help them with all aspects of 3CX (implementing, upgrading, supporting, enhancing, etc.)

Look - 3CX sells direct and has no plans to change that - so any person who doesn't see the value in going with a partner will just avoid the partner all together - no matter how limited the partner choices are. You won't be able to win business on the approach of "I'm the only option here"

I don't know your market as I'm US based, so it's possible I'm missing something here.

Hey @SweetAction your last statement is correct. YOU DON'T know our market and yes YOUARE missing something and such it would be best for you to do so.

 

[gorbros]

Hey @SweetAction your last statement is correct. YOU DON'T know our market and yes YOUARE missing something and such it would be best for you to do so.

And then after becoming educated, you will then be in a better position to comment on the matter. Have a great day

 

[SweetAction]

Hey @SweetAction your last statement is correct. YOU DON'T know our market and yes YOUARE missing something and such it would be best for you to do so.

Best for me to do what?

And then after becoming educated, you will then be in a better position to comment on the matter. Have a great day

So you're going to educate me? You're going to explain here in simple english why this would be helpful instead of harmful? After all, I explained in simple english why I thought it would be harmful for each group.

Or are you just going to be an aggressive poster on the forum? Because in that case, I'm happy to add you to my block list so I don't have to see your negativity.

 

[N_G]

Thank you for the clarification. One example of how we use extensions is to forward calls based on different days of the week, using the exception rules of the extension.

Some companies use multiple extensions because they have offices in different locations with varying office hours.
Unfortunately, calls need to be routed to different queues, IVRs, etc., depending on the day of the week.
Does this type of 'dummy extension' used for call routing also count as a user?

I understand this could be implemented as a call script, which you’ve made very easy to use from within the Store (timebasecallscript.cs). For us, using this script is straightforward, but for a receptionist at Company X, it’s not as simple.

If it requires a separate user then yes it's a user. A otherwise just implement those rules in the actual extension

 

[John_OMalley]

"We’re also considering a comeback of the Standard Edition with a minimum feature set and lower price."

YES PLEASE!

The Pro and Ent are selling well with our business Customers, we have a lot of smaller ones who the previous Standard Edition just suited so well.

 

[Peter PBX]

Thank you for the clarification.

Yes, the Standard Edition would be very welcome!

 

[mrpostmaster]

Standard addition is great but we have just 1 incoming number and it really needed to ring sequentially around people rather than ring all at once and that was a pro feature (Hunt Group I think?), so we accepted the price hike to pro as we're on the 8 SC plan, we hardly get any calls really, 1200 incoming and 100 outgoing over 30 days, about 300 internal, I'm not sure how that compares to others? I feel like 8x extensions would be better, we are 8SC so 40ext but we have about 55, I bet 10 of those have made 1 or 2 calls in the past 30 days, but taking their phones away is going to be a battle

Is there a way to see how many Simultaneous calls we have to see how close we are ever getting to the 8SC we have? Thanks

 

[Nico.K]

I've been notified by our reseller that this is no more 4 years and 5 years and renew is blocked to 2 years.
This a huge change for our business.
What i've missed in recent communication to not seeing this coming ?

 

[HannesCLP]

It is good to read that 3CX is listening to their customers but this new pricing model will still be a deal breaker for some industries.

We are operating hotels all over Germany. Some of them are quite large with > 300 rooms. In currently two properties we have been testing 3CX in production for more than a year now. Statistically we have never been seeing simultaneous call / room ratios exceeding 1:30. Guests simply use cell phones.

I have read the post of @NatalyS_3CX (https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/new-ai-features-and-extension-fair-usage.135454/post-648113) and I simply disagree. The pressure of cost efficiency is just too high on the it depts plus there are at least two competing, good products in the market with a way lower price point even calculating the 1:8 ratio.

It is sad because 3CX is a great product but the new pricing model simply does not fit hospitality use cases anymore.

 

[N_G]

Thank you for your feedback. A hotel with 300 rooms has invested close to 10-20 million in the building alone, maybe more. Our software will cost about 2200 euros per year - I think its nothing to be frank. And that's for the PRO edition. Sure you might find something cheaper, but you have to keep the whole picture in mind - reliability, security, manaegability. Also I think AI and queues are very useful in hotels for for example room service or the reception. The hotel software is probably many times the cost of 3CX (which is OK but just mentioning it)

Any case thank you for your interest in our product and I would be curious to hear how you fare with the other product over a 2 year time period!

 

[HannesCLP]

Thank you for your feedback. A hotel with 300 rooms has invested close to 10-20 million in the building alone, maybe more. Our software will cost about 2200 euros per year - I think its nothing to be frank. And that's for the PRO edition. Sure you might find something cheaper, but you have to keep the whole picture in mind - reliability, security, manaegability. Also I think AI and queues are very useful in hotels for for example room service or the reception. The hotel software is probably many times the cost of 3CX (which is OK but just mentioning it)

Any case thank you for your interest in our product and I would be curious to hear how you fare with the other product over a 2 year time period!

Thank you for your quick reply. Yes - you are correct about the building cost and you can even take them 3x of your guess in metro areas ;-) Well and PMS systems are cost heavy as well not mentioning M365 and all those others out there putting pressure on it budgets.

Looking at our real-world example: We are not increasing the cost by about 10% like some others do but almost by 600% (336 rooms + additional outlets + team + admin; coming from a 16sc license). Well and then we have to consider that in scale.

I understand that you think 3cx is worth it and I agree for an office use case. For hospitality it simply breaks the deal.

 

[N_G]

@HannesCLP Thank you for your detailed reply..... But in our view its just what you value more or not. You have PMS, M365 that are both costing for sure more than 750 euro per year. Invest millions in the building. Probably firewalls and other IT products that cost quite a bit.

And the usage in the room doesn't come into it.... Its still requires complexity with IP phone hardware that requires firmware updates that need to be tested, back and forth with the vendor, then deployed etc. You still require dependability and be sure that in case of emergency that call will be made. Manageability and security to save you daily admin time (not free either)

All for the yearly price of a few hotel nights you can leave your phone system running knowing a company with 20 years experience in the market is designing and developing it.

Its sad that you think 3CX is only worth 750 euro for such an install.....But so be it At that price its not interesting at all for us. Thanks for considering us though and giving us your views.

 

[HarryI]

I am confused... I have been reading a lot about the changes lately and yes, there are changes, yes there is a price increase, yes there are new limits, BUT... there is constant innovation... CONSTANT! For a product that simply works. And it works well.

We pay thousands of $$$ for other products, like Microsoft Windows Servers and Desktop OSs that are badly implemented and infested with security holes while at the same time they are providing zero support unless you pay for it! And they get worse every month. Now MS is switching everyone to a subscription model and just like that everyone is ok with that too. Zero conversation about the unresolved security issues.

I don't see why 3CX should be the cheapest even though from my comparisons, it is still cheaper than other solutions when you compare apples to apples and not apples to paperclips. They provide a solid product with a great support team behind it.

Thank you for your quick reply. Yes - you are correct about the building cost and you can even take them 3x of your guess in metro areas ;-) Well and PMS systems are cost heavy as well not mentioning M365 and all those others out there putting pressure on it budgets.

The same way we pay for what you mentioned here, we should be budgeting for 3CX. Yes, it is a cost. But you need it if you want a phone in every room. Or you can do what a hotel owner I support does. You have no desk-phones in the rooms. Zero.
But you offer it as a free add-on like the digital key. And if the customer wants it, you send them the invite, they download the app and use it. Exactly like they use the digital key. IF they want it. Unused extensions problem solved. Just my 2c