The NEAX platform from NEC locked down the silver Product Leadership Award for best hybrid PBX. With NEC's peer-to-peer switching, users can access all of NEC's networking services and digital phone features via an IP network. Boasting more than 780 service features, NEC's modular hardware and software design allows companies to cleanly stagger VoIP migration steps.

Nearly 55% of survey respondents rated NEC's NEAX network integration, interoperability and manageability good to excellent. Survivability scored comparably, and 63% of users positioned NEC's vendor service and support in the good to excellent range. Voice quality pulled in the highest scores, with 72% of voters giving it a good to excellent grade. Do you get your money's worth with NEAX? Thirty-six percent of respondents were lukewarm, rating ROI at fair. Nearly half -- 45% -- were more enthusiastic, sizing up good to excellent ROI.