PETROFAC Malaysia Ltd needed a new enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) system that was feature-rich to accommodate its expanding business needs. The system also must easily connect its Malaysian headquarters located at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, offshore oil production platforms and drilling rigs through the current satellite-based data links.

Keith Collins, general manager of Petrofac Malaysia, pointed out that identifying the solution to the problem took about two months plus another two months to go through the bidding process.

“Based on commercial evaluation, Asterisk has the advantage because there are no licence fees for either the server (PBX) or actual IP (Internet protocol) telephone, and there is no vendor lock-in. This means that we can buy the telephone handsets on the open market rather than being tied to one supplier. Based on our experience, new handsets are the biggest single cost when switching from one telephony system to another, so to be able to choose the type and model of the phone is a big plus. “The open source, feature-rich nature of Asterisk also means that an expansion or adding additional features is not a financial decision, but an operational one. This removes a big consideration and places the decision-making in the hands of the business managers and not the accountants.” Once Petrofac decided on the Asterisk system, it took about a month for regional Asterisk specialist Intuit Innovation Sdn Bhd to deliver the solution, including end-user training. The time taken was primarily driven by hardware equipment delivery.

“The main Asterisk servers are installed at our headquarters at the Petronas Twin Towers in the server rooms. That is an additional benefit because we do not need a dedicated PABX (private automatic branch exchange) room anymore,” Collins said.

“The HQ Asterisk server is connected (trunked through voice over IP) via satellite to the Asterisk PABX at our Mobile Offshore Platform Unit, our new drilling rig and our new office in Kuala Lumpur. The total cost of implementation is a combination of hardware and services provided by Intuit Innovation.” He added, “The cost factors are, of course, the type of IP phone you choose. The server hardware is off the shelf. All in, the system is up to two to five times more affordable than any full hybrid IP-PABX in the market that we have evaluated.” Besides the benefits from the Asterisk implementation, the biggest benefit, according to Collins, is the improvement in communication with its offshore operations and the new office extension. “Since we are all in virtually one PABX system, the users only need to remember the extension number and the call will be automatically routed to the right person. And since our managers travel a lot, the possibility of virtually connecting to the PABX via the Internet from anywhere in the world helps bring down mobile charges as well.”