atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Phone system recommendation request

Actually we have expanded to all these locations as the agency grew. We have 3 administration offices and 9 program locations (group home and crisis program homes).

Part of the problem we are running into is it all expanded fast, and now I am playing catch up with the technology.

Most of the program locations only have one or two phone lines with 2-4 phones. Problem there is the lack of individual extensions and voicemail boxes. Leading to issues we are now experiencing.

Thanks again for the help.

What do the big boys suggest?

I'm sorry if this comes off wrong, but really determining what you need is is part of their job. We have given plenty of suggestions as to some general alternatives to entertain and I doubt any will drastically change.

You mentioned you have had some bad dealings with some of the independents, have you had any good dealings with the others? Or are they just not able to do what you need? I also understand that the national may be your best bet. Whomever you decide to go with needs to sit down and address your needs, give you a warm fuzzy feeling and then make it work. Anyone of them can do what we are doing here, throwing out systems until one sticks, you need to have them provide the service they should and give you what you want and need.

So one last thing that will be a game changer. Each site having a PSTN, will it be required to be accessed by the phones? or will a stand alone fax machine with a handset be sufficient.

Yes we have had good dealings with one local independent. Unfortunately He is no longer around.

Of the larger providers one recommended a Hosted solution, was to expensive monthly, and it was a new product to the vendor. Did not give me a warm fuzzy at all.

One recommended the Shortel system, which will do what we want, but the cost is out of our price range.

The last recommended the Cisco solution, which will also do what we like and is much closer to our price range.

As for the PSTN lines, no they do not necessarily need to work with the system, they will be used for fax, no power situations.

When I first started this post I was missing the last quote once I got that Shortel quote I thought we were in for an even larger quote for the cisco gear as coming from a data background Cisco is usually the priciest of the bunch.

I was surprised at the cost of the Cisco solution but was warned about hidden support/maintenance fees, which the vendor confirmed for me today that there are no hidden costs in his quote.

I would still love to hear other options, such as the NEC gear that was posted early in this thread.

I am a data guy and this place has steered me in the right direction a few times before, that's why I came here for some advice.

I do appreciate all the help!

Brian

Brian,

Get the "no further cost" from Cisco in writing....they are notorious for licensing fees on an annual basis.

And, remember, if it is too good to be true.....


:read: :thumb:

Keep
What you are decribing is AVAYA IP Office.
I'm supprised you have not looked at that.

It's not really a game changer.

All that's needed is an FXO gateway to take that PSTN line and turn it into VoIP. It can then be routed anywhere on the VoIP system for answering, or with a suitable dialplan used for outgoing calls to take advantage of any local call tariffs.

Something like a Cisco SPA8800 might be useful for the branch offices - four Foreign eXchange Office (FXO) and four Foreign eXchange Subscriber (FXS) ports to connect to existing analog phones. Can be used as an FXO gateway to an Asterisk open source IP exchange, so it might not need to be deployed as an all-Cisco solution.

Other manufacturers will have similar boxes.

Personally I'd prefer to stick with open standard SIP rather than proprietary implementations otherwise you end up with proprietary phone hardware, licencing costs, etc etc.

True an FXO would work but in a no power situation it may not work.

Keep describes a stand alone "off the system" POTS so any old analog set will work.

Like Mentioned earlier Whoever you decide upon needs to meet your needs. You may end up having to deal with an independant if you go with an NEC or IPoffice, or whatever "erm" key system you go with. (there are so many out there, it really does come down to the warm fuzzy feeling)

Pretty sure the vendor with the Cisco quote also deals with Avaya. I will ask them about that one as well.

hahahaha what? Most of that post went right over my head, and that's why I come here for info.

The PSTN lines would not be plugged into the system, but just kept in case of no power.

Though if I could tie them into the system as a "use if the WAN goes down" situation then that would be a big bonus.

You really need to look at Allworx as well. It will do all that you ask and more.