[geeks] Phone system suggestions?

[Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366]

On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 13:34, Phil Brutsche wrote:
> Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366 wrote:
>>
> That brings out another problem with Asterisk: the phones that are cheap
> suck a$$, and the phones that don't suck a$$ cost $$$.
> 
> You get what you pay for.

Sometimes, you don't even want to get what you pay for :-)

> You *still* need to configure the phones. Sure, they use DHCP, but they
> need to know details usernames, password, exention numbers, etc for
> registering with the SIP server.

The Switchvox stuff appears (haven't examined it in depth) to do most of that.  The big win in this case would be, when someone moves their office, they take their phone with them, and everything continues to work.

> Hell, there are things you *can't* manage on the phones, you have to
> walk up to each one (or log into it's HTTP interface) and to it yourself.

Yeah, but at least you can do it yourself, using the English language, over the network.

> Do you really want to configure 96 VoIP phones by hand? Or roll your own
> configuration tools to manage them?

No, I would write up clear instructions and get someone to help me.  If it saves some money, people would be fine with that.

> Someone responsible for for that many phones shouldn't have to worry
> about BS like that.

I don't think you quite understand most companies' experiences with Phone VARs.  They rape you harder than a Novell Netware VAR used to.  Perhaps you work with a good VAR that doesn't do that.  

I remember a proposal where the VAR wanted to charge money for some ACD software that was already loaded on the system - just not turned on and we weren't aware of it being included in the distribution.

Paying $110 per hour for a guy to come out and switch an extension or two around is typical in this area.  Sometimes it requires arcane switch commands, or else the guy has to sit there with a punch tool and move wires around on the bix block.

New way:  log into an IP address with a browser and type in some stuff by hand.  No $110 guy required.  The phone is locked to a user and he can use it anywhere he has an ethernet jack (which is the typical situation).

> > The Switchvox stuff looks nice.

> a) They provide telephone support that Asterisk at Home doesn't
> b) They provide phone configuration tools Asterisk at Home doesn't
> 
> If you are responsible for a phone system for a business of that size
> you *really* should look into an established solution (ie Cisco Call
> Manager, Nortel MICS, Nortel BCM, Lucent, Avaya, etc) rather than trying
> to roll your own. You will thank yourself, your users will thank you,
> your bosses will thank you.

Right now $client has about 35 phones and is bumping up against the limits of the Nortel switch that is installed (they already added the extra cabinet).  They have ~30 people in the office and 200+ in the field, field workers having no unified voicemail box aside from their own phones (spread across multiple countries).  I think something like SwitchVox might be the answer, especially since the local telco isn't giving them a good deal on voice calls anyways.

--Patrick