PABX

Best Western Asia PABX Guideline

Revision April 2019

Best Western Operations Asia

operationsasia@bestwestern.com
1 PBX REQUIREMENTS
1.1 The PBX should be fully IP at the core. It must be non-blocking. It must be computer controlled.
It must meet FCC certification. It must be expandable to 3,000 ports (if this expansion would
require an additional cabinet, this must be specified in the response). The Hotel/Motel software
must be the latest release. Vendors may bid both types of systems. Property requires the latest
cost effective technology, please bid accordingly.

Special Note: The hotel will entertain the concept of an off-premise, hosted telephony solution
and/or a “Centrex” or “Centrex-like” application. If this solution is proposed, all items within this
section of the RFP must still be addressed. Please declare if your solution will be hosted or
premise based.

The PBX must be able to function with: CO trunks, loop start and ground start, in-only, out- only
with battery reversal, 2-way with battery reversal, Centrex, trunk hunting, individual 1MB lines;
local T-1; LD T-1; ISDN PRI; and, DID wink, DID delay dialing, DID immediate start trunks; and,
both 2 and 4 wire E&M tie trunks. The PBX must be able to provide digital or IP station ports,
analog station ports, data specific ports, Caller ID (name and number, Type 1, with information
down to the station), PMS interfaces, CAS integration, and, VMS integration.

1.1.1 The PBX must be designed to handle an average combined originating and terminating
traffic load as high as 36 CCS per line at P.01 grade of service. State your traffic
capacity as configured in your response.

1.1.2 If the solution is to be an IP PBX, IP voice traffic must be able to interact with firewalls.

1.2 It must provide a minimum of 8 ports of power fail bypass.

1.3 It must have 8 channels of digital recordings available (2 wake-up, ACD Greet, ACD Hold), each
channel having a minimum of 2 minutes recording time.

1.4 Provide an audit trail printer for alarms, 911 notification and wake up calls.

1.5 Provide CDR/SMDR on all trunks with remote reporting.

1.6 Provide CDR/SMDR on all answered calls regardless of duration or digits dialed, and provide
duration periods in seconds.

1.7 Provide CDR/SMDR on incoming calls, durations in seconds.

1.8 Come with 15 minutes Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) covering all equipment, specifically
the PBX, CAS and VMS. NOTE: the hotel will have a generator, therefore, the UPS must be
able to cover the handoff from direct power to the generator in case of power outage.

1.9 Provide Automatic Route Selection (ARS), 10-digit screening and trunk group spillover.

1.10 Provide Least Cost Routing (LCR) including, 101XXXX 0+ and 101XXXX 011.

1.11 Provide internal caller’s name and extension number display on all Admin phones (and all
digital or IP phones with LCD display with a minimum of 25 characters).

1.12 Provide Call Pick Up, Call Park (minimum of 20 calls in park) and a minimum of 2 Group
Hold’s per Admin phone.

1.13 Contain PMS functions of check-in/check-out, guest name display and Housekeeping
functions from guest room phones.

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1.14 Provide Class of Service and Class of Restriction by station, by time of day.

1.15 Provide End to End signaling from all types of phones.

1.16 Provide Night Service call forwarding on attendant consoles.

1.17 Provide immediate ring back to console and console barge in.

1.18 Provide line and/or trunk lock out alarm on console with remote reporting.

1.19 Provide major/minor alarms on console with remote reporting to your Remote Diagnostics
Center and to the vendor responsible for repair.

1.20 Provide message waiting, 24 volt LED or neon, and, also, provide stutter dial tone.

1.21 Contain a music on hold (messages on hold) interface; system should be capable of
connecting to either digital CD Driver and/or tape (cassette) Music on Hold functionality.

1.22 ACD/UCD capable.

1.23 Provide single digit access and service and system wide speed dial.

1.24 Provide station and line hunting.

1.25 Allow station to station dialing and provide room to room block.

1.26 Provide Trunk Answer From Any Station.

1.27 Contain traffic measurement reporting and download or be pollable remotely.

1.28 Provide trunk release of busy out.

1.29 Provide trunk to trunk connection.

1.30 Wake up call feature should provide automatic wake-up call feature that can be used by guest
for entering their desired wake-up time with the following features.

1.30.1 Voice confirmation of guest entered wake-up calls

1.30.2 Allow a guest to place one or two desired wake-up calls within 5 minute intervals.

1.30.3 Print out of when wake up calls were entered by guests and/or operator

1.30.4 Print out of when the wake up calls are answered by guest.

1.30.5 Provide 3 wake up call attempts within 5-minute intervals

1.30.6 If there is no answer after a third wake up call attempt, the system should notify the
operator console on a “special feature key”, and provide a print out of the three (3)
attempted calls and a no answer confirmation.

1.31 Be able to block all LEC “*” services.

1.32 Contain lightening protection (optionally, warranty to cover lightening strikes) on all trunks.

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1.33 Allow up to 6 party conference calls, with the ability to add and drop parties, with SMDR
generated for each leg of the call.

1.34 Must include 8 spare card slots (for trunk, digital station and analog station) to allow for 1
expansion at any time in the future in the cabinetry proposed.

1.35 Must provide for dial by name directory from Admin phones.

1.36 Must provide dial tone.

1.37 Must provide busy tone.

1.38 Must provide audible ring back tone.

1.39 Provide reorder tones, after a configurable amount of time, to station sets when the phone is
left off hook.

1.40 Provide Do Not Disturb, programmable by extension at the phone or by the console.

1.41 Provide Automatic Ring Down on analog extensions.

1.42 Provide distinctive ringing on internal, external from console and external from DID calls.

1.43 Must maintain the original station ID in multiple call forwarding situations.

1.44 Provide direct PMS (Fidelio, Opera) interface to the PBX including:

1.44.1 Voice mail interface as described in the voice mail section of the RFP

1.44.2 Transmission of 6 or more unique room status codes

1.44.3 Automatic restriction and unrestriction of guest room telephone service upon check-in
and check-out of guest.

1.44.4 Passing of guest names and guest information from the PMS system to a directory
database in the phone system so that guest names can be shown on display
telephones (CND).

1.44.5 Passing guest room telephone call billing records for posting to guest folio.

1.45 Be able to translate 4-digits from DID numbers to 4-digit (or 5-digit) real and fictitious extension
numbers. Fictitious extension numbers to be able to be transferred or call forwarded from the
console to real extension numbers in the hotel.

1.46 Support ISDN PRI call allocation.

1.47 Restrict transfer of incoming calls over trunks or DID service from guest room phones.

1.48 Must be capable of paging.

1.49 Must have “hotel group feature” or the tagging of multiple extension numbers to a primary
extension number in the CDR/SMDR.

1.50 To have unlimited number of stations in hunt and/or pick groups.

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1.51 Provide a remote line monitoring device to verify the interfaces between PBX/PMS, PBX/VMS
and PBX/CAS. This device to be permanent and have call home alarm and pollable capabilities.

1.52 The system must be compatible for Answer Detection on analog trunk lines.

1.53 The system should provide a minimum of 5-digit dialing for access of guest room floors 10
and above.

1.54 If handset of the guestroom telephone set has been accidentally knocked off the hook, the
system should automatically place an emergency call to the attendant console. A parameter
should be set for the time between the handset going off hook and the emergency call to the
attendant console.

1.55 The Operator’s Console should be software driven that will reside on two Operator’s PC’s

1.56 The Operator’s Console shall have the following functionality:

45 Character Display Screen Access to guest’s Voice Mail
Attendant administration Autodial
Automatic Wake up Barge-in
Busy Verify Call Park
Calling Party number Display calls waiting
Display date Display destination
Display source Display time
Do-not-disturb, group Do-not-disturb, individual
Emergency notification key End-to-end signaling
Malicious Call Trace Message cancellation
Paging PBX major and/or minor alarm key
Stored number redial
Capability to break in on calls with notification alarm

1.57 Operator (console button) and station (dial access) to existing hotel radio paging system.
This interface is to include tone-to rotary conversion as necessary.

1.58 RS232 interface to call accounting system is to include a 2 way system down warning alarm.

1.59 Provide support for TAP protocol for integration with ESCAP. If integration with ESCAP
requires a 3rd party middleware solution, the middleware must be bundled into the quotation.

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2 VOICE MAIL REQUIREMENTS
2.1 The following tables provide guidance as to the port and storage size of the Voicemail
system.

Estimated Requirements per No. of Guest Rooms

Room Type
< 200 rms 201- 400 rms > 401 rms
No of Ports  8 12 12-16
Hours of storage 24 24 24-36
 Defines the number of ports recommended. A port is the number of concurrent accesses to the
voicemail system, and includes both guests and employees.

2.2 The voice mail system (VMS) must be expandable to 24 ports by 300 hours and be
specifically designed for the Hotel Industry. The software level must be the latest available.

2.3 The voicemail system should be the same system for both the guest and hotel employees.

2.4 The BW recommendation is for the PBX vendor to supply and support the voicemail system,
to ensure correct integration with the PBX system.

2.5 The VMS will provide:

2.5.1 Immediate disconnect on PBX ports.

2.5.2 Variable and programmable classes of service.

2.5.3 PMS interface for check-in/check-out with archiving of unplayed messages and saved
messages for up to 3 days. Integration of the Property Management System to the
voice mail system will provide for the necessary level of integrity in the system. This
interface must be installed directly between the voice mail system and the Property
management system. It will not be acceptable to interface through the call accounting
system.

2.5.4 Outbound dialing for pager notification with toll fraud protection.

2.5.5 Be able to provide at least 4 languages. Guest language preference must be

automatically assigned through the Property management system upon guest check-
in. The voice mail system is to offer instructions in English, in the local language, and
in at least 2 other languages depending on the main countries of origin of guests at the
hotel.

2.5.6 Provide a guest/user tutorial upon check-in.

2.5.7 The system is to distinguish between different message sources. The message-
waiting indicator is to be turned on if a voice mail message is waiting in the system, or
if a manual ‘text’ message has been entered in the PMS system. The guest is to be
advised of the different types of messages waiting by the system.

2.5.8 The message-waiting indicator is to be only turned off once all messages, both
voicemail and manual “text” messages, have been retrieved.

2.5.9 Provide group broadcast.

2.5.10 Provide bulletin board.

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2.5.11 Provide automated attendant feature with menu prompts for the Hotel’s main number
or designated DID number. Menu prompts should allow an external caller to reach up
to five (5) menu choices. Choices for the Hotel should include Reservations, Guest
Services, Restaurants, and Administrative Offices. An external caller should not have
access to guests via the menu prompts.

2.5.12 VMS ports must be dynamically engineered to be used for VMS, Automated Attendant
(AA) and Fax applications.

2.5.13 Must be configured to allow for direct DID access to guest mailboxes. When a guest is
away from their room, they need access to check their messages from a house phone
or outside of the hotel, and be able to play messages, delete messages, store
messages, record a personal greeting, and obtain/change passcode.

2.5.14 The system must allow guests to retrieve messages in the room without requiring a
passcode, while access to the guest mail box from outside of the room must be
passcode protected.

2.5.15 Must provide hard drive and power supply redundancy for the system. The system
should provide automatic switching to an appropriate back-up system in the event of a
system failure or major fault without any loss of messages or service.

2.5.16 Once the operator has connected a caller to the guest room, the call must automatically
forward to the voicemail system on busy or if no answer after a maximum of 5 rings.
The voicemail system is to offer the caller the option to leave a message or return to
the operator to be re-directed

2.5.17 Allow for guest entered, variable, minimum 2, wake up calls per room, with snooze.

2.5.18 Allow for automatic delivery of 2 pre-recorded messages. One, upon check-in. One, 24
hours after check-in.

2.5.19 The VMS to differentiate between external and internal calls and route each call to
separate greetings on admin voice mailboxes.

2.5.20 The employee is to be able to access their telephone extension’s voicemail from any
phone or an outside telephone connection, after being prompted for their voicemail
extension and passcode; and be able to play messages, delete messages, store
messages, record a personal greeting, and obtain/change passcodes.

2.5.21 In a case where the PMS activates the message light, transmit the information to the
VMS indicating a text message.

2.5.22 VMS must allow dial 0 at any time to reach hotel operator.

2.5.23 VMS to be able to program ranges of sequential mail boxes.

2.5.24 Must provide error and malfunction alarms.

2.5.25 VMS must prevent the access to any dial tone to any caller.

2.5.26 Clear, written guides shall be available in all guest rooms, and provided to all staff
during training of the system. The guides should be included with the telephone
functionality guides.

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3 CALL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
3.1 The telephone system (PBX) must interface directly into a suitable call accounting system.

3.2 The Call Accounting System should provide the following functionality:
 Call Charge Calculation
 Multiple and Flexible Charging Schemes
 Multiple and Separate Rate Table per Telephone Carrier
 Able to calculate Surcharges per destination, extension, guest category, day, etc.
 Able to handle unlimited extensions, including guest room, administration areas
 Multiple to one extension billing
 Summary Daily/Weekly/Month End Reports
 Telephone barring/unbarring
 Room status update and Mini-bar charging via guest phones

4 AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTION (ACD)

4.1 ACD should be equipped to handle the reservations call center department. ACD will provide reports
that effectively monitor traffic volumes and agent effectiveness. The department will have a manager
that will require supervisory feature functionality.

4.2 ACD Management Reporting – The reports should be capable of providing hourly, daily, weekly,
monthly, quarterly and annual statistical reports.

4.3 Windows Based Application – A windows based interface that will provide accessibly to the ACD
reports from the supervisor’s desktop computer.

4.4 Real-time Information – The reporting functionality should be equipped to handle real-time information
in a format that is easily accessible from the supervisor’s telephone set or desktop computer.

4.5 Description of Reports – The vendor is required to provide a brief description of the types of
statistical and real-time reports.

5 COMPUTER BASED ADMINISTRATION TERMINAL

5.1 Computer based Administration Tool System Administration should be included. The system should
include the software, hardware, training and database installation labor required to initially set up the
system and input the station locations. The terminal will be used for easy user friendly moves,
modifications and changes via direct link to the Telephone System. If this is not available, vendor is
asked to propose a comparable solution.

5.1.1 A windows-based interface that will provide hotel management accessibly from their desktop
computer for adds, moves and changes.

5.1.2 GUI application that provides a point and click administration tool for additions, moves and
changes.