atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems Anyone played with WESP yet?

I was part of the Webinar today. The new WESP has addressed several of the issues mentioned here. Also, the ESI-Link and Remote Phone audio problems have been addressed in the new software release.

Rcaman

The new release of WESP is a little better than the current release. I had my hands on it last week. Looks different, feels about the same. I am sure there is a lot of bugs that were fixed but have not dug into it a lot. I also do not feel as if they are "circling the drain" but can say we do not run into nearly the weird problems that we run into with ESI. Also regarding the newest com server software, we had it loaded at a 3 ESI link site, and are removing it tonight at midnight. There is too much of a delay on the calls and the customer was not happy about it. Not sure if this is inherent to this site or just some more problems with the software. Really hope they get this fixed soon. Not sure if anyone has had the chance to meet Rick with ESI, but he has been up at these sites and is very dedicated at helping your company figure out what solution ESI can get to make your customers happy.

ESI recommends Chrome for best results with WESP.

Did you have delay before installing the software? Is the delay on ESI link or incoming calls?

Rcaman

From numerous people at ESI we have always been told to use Firefox and not any other browser. For whatever reason that works the best so we always just do it.

The delay always happens on ESI Link calls. Whether it be a ICM call or a transfered co call to another location. It worked fine for 4 years. Then upgraded to 54.21 and broke. ESI loaded 55.1 and made no difference. Back loaded to 8027 (or 8021) and it worked perfectly. ESI just loaded 55.3 last week, and broke. They just loaded 8027 (or 8021) last night and fixed everything. From ESI this has been tested in the field at a bunch of locations and never a problem, just us, but they admit that the calls are night and day between the 2 releases. There is jitter buffer parameters that were adjusted after the 802X release that has affected this at our sites. Hopefully there will be a resolution or the customer will be locked into this software release.

It was mentioned in the Webinar that ESI is suggesting Chrome works best for WESP as it does not load extraneous extensions as does Firefox and IE Explorer. Personally, I like Firefox, I am just relaying what was said in the Webinar.

The latency and jitter issues were addressed in the latest release over all the platforms, meaning Comm Servers and IP 900. According to the Webinar, the WESP will have additional programming choices to adjust for jitter and latency.

Rcaman

I can only state what we are going through right now. I really hope that the new software, or soon to be released software's fix their audio problems. I have had to remove 55.3 at a customer site already (less than a week installed) and have esi fixing the new wesp functions at the other site with a 900, and the sip phones still fall off the system, even though the system thinks they are online. Anyone will tell you anything to get you amp'd up about a product. I do like the fact that you can export programming to a csv, look at it and change it, and then import it back into the system. that may save some time, but I can't figure out how to do it yet.

I think they have already become to big for their own good and abandoned their niche. Have you not dealt with ESIHosted yet?
They will throw some great support (Rick is the man at this) at trying to get a problem resolved but I think they are getting too control hungry. They need to empower techs in the field to solve issues which in turn would help them but all of the logs/reports are only viewable by them unless you are a master tech (since aborted).

I don't know if it's being control hungry or just not trusting the field techs. I have, on several occasions, requested that the system programmer include such features as system and module reset, change day/night/holiday, move SW to slot 1 and view system reports. This would free up a lot of their techs time doing mundane tasks that can be done with other systems and leave their techs to do the real problem tasks.

It would be nice if someone at ESI corporate would try and talk with their dealers and explain why such small requests can't be accommodated. I understand that the system was built with a terminal emulator in mind and the system programmer was one of those "whiz bang" idiot proof GUIs that companies release to make programming "easier." I am fine with Procom or Hyperterminal as an emulator into the system. We have done it for years on Mitel. If they would allow reasonable access to system functions as mentioned, we all would be a lot happier.

Rcaman

You can do all that you stated, except for change the mode, through master tech. You have to link to system first, then use their "terminal" option to do so. Changing day and night can be done through auto attendant, but would be nice through a command. Also easily looking through debug has bailed me out quite a few times once you learn the lingo. One thing that I would like to know more of is their ASC functions, and how that card stores and view some of the logs to troubleshoot mobile messaging. Hopefully on the 900 they will have master tech cert soon, and not have to fly to Texas. Regarding the hosted services, we have not touched it yet simply because we may have other options in that regard. And the function to export to a CSV is not available yet, even though it was supposed to be. Figure that one out.

I can do some of the things through Master Tech, but when my techs are at a location and need to do one of those operations, they end up having to contact me or worse, ESI to do a system reset or a module reset or to move software. If those operations were included in the programmer, it would save time and aggravation.

As far as features, the webinar host did mention some were not ready for "prime time" and would be rolled out in future revisions, so that may be one of them.

Rcaman