In this update:

  • Wrapping up 2021
  • Plan for the Christmas shutdown
  • Summer holidays… a great time for maintenance of systems
  • Promotion reminders
  • iOS and Android app betas
  • 3CX blogs and latest news
  • Want news first? Join our LinkedIn VoIP community
  • Happy holidays
Wrapping up 2021

2021 has been another roller coaster year with the global pandemic kicking up a notch. For us, and our Auckland VoIP partners, the short lockdowns and then our very long lockdown have been challenging. We also know that the rest of NZ has faced challenges. So many lockdowns along with their related restrictions. The good news is that through it all, VoIP technologies continue to enable your customers to work more effectively from their office; home; or even the beach! Our team’s focus for 2021 was ensuring you get the information, to support you with opportunities. We took on a new look in 2021 with a few staff changes. Kenny embraced his Technical Specialist and Trainer role. Anoop’s experience and expertise shone through to handle support. And Jordan joined us during our long lockdown, as our newest Technical Specialist. We are looking forward to our summer break to re-charge the batteries. Bring on 2022 and whatever it holds.

Plan for the Christmas shutdown

Our Soft Solutions team will be having a much-deserved rest over the festive season. We’ll have less staff working next week in the final lead up to Christmas. Our last day of work is Thursday 23rd December and then our team return on Monday 10th January 2022. It’s very important to plan ahead and ensure that you’ve ordered any 3CX licenses or renewals that you need during this period. Our team will be processing right up to Christmas to ensure there is no disruption. For hardware, order quickly as couriers are still overwhelmed and we cannot guarantee their normal delivery standards.

Summer holidays… a great time for maintenance of systems

With the summer holiday season, it’s the perfect time to look at what maintenance is required on your customers’ 3CX systems.

  • Have you updated them to v18 yet
  • Did you know that update 2 for v18 is already released?
    • This has an important FQDN update within it.
  • Do you have customers not quite ready to move from v16?
    • Then they need to be on update 8A to avoid issues with FQDN.
  • Have you done a system audit with your customers?
    • Do they have enough SIP lines?
    • Do they need their call flows reviewed?
    • Is their hardware up-to-date or does it need reviewing? Do they have the latest firmware on them?
    • Do they want to implement any of the newer 3CX functions such as LiveChat for their website, Facebook Messenger implementation, MS Teams integration or more?

This is just a small list of things to consider and open new conversations with your customers.

Promotion reminders

Just a quick reminder of current promotions/offers from 3CX that your customers can take advantage of:

  • Free upgrade to Enterprise for Professional licenses:
    • Must be on v18 and an Annual Subscription license.
    • Do they need their call flows reviewed?
    • Free upgrade is done from the Customer Portal with the customer credentials for login – see this blog
    • This is a limited time offer – 3CX are yet to announce when the promotion will finish.
  • Trade-in Perpetual licenses for Annual Subscriptions:
    • Any customers still on a Perpetual license are now paying the same price for a renewal as an Annual Subscription license.
    • You can complete their trade-in from within your Partner Portal.
    • Trading in for an Annual Subscription gives the customer 1 year of licensing for free.
    • Customers must be on the current version 18 product to complete the trade-in process.
iOS and Android app betas

The ongoing development and improvements for both the iOS and Android app continue. The latest betas have just released:

  • iOS – featuring fast voicemail access and improved notifications for chat. Read the full details and access via TestFlight here.
  • Android – focused on improvements to responsiveness to chats – fast reply and mark as read, from the notifications. Full details and access is here.
3CX blogs and latest news

With a new version of 3CX, comes a lot of information to learn and digest. There are some key IMPORTANT updates below. We’ve shared a lot of details via our newsletters since August, and also in our LinkedIn community group (are you a member?). Below are some recent blog articles, to stay up to date on new enhancements. With a new version, things move rapidly. It’s important to be across what’s happening to keep your customers well informed and plan your maintenance on customer systems.

  • IMPORTANT: Change of FQDN endpoint due with update 2 Beta – this is an important blog to review and know what is changing from 1st February. This affects customers still on v16 as well. Read more here.
  • IMPORTANT: 3CX Support Holiday hours – this blog covers the support from the 3CX team during the holiday season.
  • IMPORTANT: 3CX v18 update 2 final – the lasted update 2 for v18 is now live. This update includes the return of the global search; finetuning of MS Teams integration; fixes and improvements; and the updated Click2Call extension for Chrome and Edge. This is also the update you require for the impending FQDN change. Read the full notes here and please note that “Hosted by 3CX” is not available in the ANZ market. Earlier in the month, the first beta of update 2 blog here had further insights to the background of the changes.
  • IMPORTANT: v16 update 8a beta – this update for customers still on v16 allows you to restore their Click2Call functionality and prepares for the FQDN changes. Note this update is a temporary resolution to both issues and all customers do need to be migrated across to v18. The browser extension will be removed from the Google store in June 2022 and browser updates in the interim could cause issues and 3CX won’t be able to fix those. The FQDN update is only available until the beginning of November 2022. Read the full release here and then start planning to migrate your customers up to v18.
  • Features of the 3CX LiveChat solution and how to use them – this blog focusses on the customisations available and what using LiveChat in conjunction with your 3CX allows you to do. Review it here.
  • What exactly is the Microsoft Teams integration? – this blog is a walkthrough explanation around the integration and what is possible. It’s well worth a read here.
  • Android: No ring or calls? Android app Help Guide – 3CX recently released a troubleshooting guide around their Android app. This blog gives an overview and links through to the guide.
  • Don’t get caught out, make a disaster recovery plan! – this blog focuses on security of your 3CX PBX. With the many highly publicised DDOS attacks it’s a good time to check your security and this blog walks you through where to start including a recovery plan if the worst happens. Read more here.
Want news first? Join our LinkedIn VoIP community

Our “Soft Solutions NZ VoIP Community” group has been created for our VoIP customers. We only allow valid members into the group. We share the latest news here first and it will show up on your LinkedIn feed. Keep up to date with upcoming Soft Solutions events, VoIP updates and any other general VoIP news. Join the LinkedIn group here.

Happy holidays

From our entire team, thank you for your support in 2021. Enjoy your chance to spend time with friends and family, and recharge over the summer holidays. We look forward to working with you next year.

Thank you for reading.

The VoIP Team at Soft Solutions

Phone: 09 306 0450, Freephone: 0800 733 233, E-mail: voip@sofsol.co.nz.

Android app