[geeks] Phone system suggestions?

[Eric Railine]

On 9/23/05, Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366 <patrick at zill.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 13:34, Phil Brutsche wrote:
> > Patrick Giagnocavo 717-201-3366 wrote:
> 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 think it was worse before, but just as with data/computer VARs, the
market's pretty competitive these days and the raping just as often
goes the other way (so to speak).

> 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.

I don't know the specifics of your situation, but one of the things I
actually like about many phone system features is that most of the
time it IS already installed and all you need is the code to turn it
on.  Yes, it seems expensive to pay for "just a code" at first, but
it's also quite nice that getting that new feature/application just
requires either a vendor tech to dial-in & activate, or yourself to
just enter the code, and bam - it's done.  No installation required.
No extraneous access to the PBX required.  No downtime/reboot required
(theoretically, anyway).

> 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.

So you watch him when he comes out to do it the first time or two, and
then you do it  yourself all the times afterwards.  Phone stuff is a
different mindset to computer stuff, but it's pretty damn simple all
in all.

> > > 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

Those are both very important points, particularly the first.

> 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.

You'll have to keep us informed if you actually go down that route and
what your experience is like.  Actually, even if  you go with another
solution I'd still like to know - not as many good phone system
discussions as computer discussions around - that I've found anyway.

Eric