Do you have VOIP?

[Dos_Box]

Following a discussion with my boss this morning, I'm just getting the feel for the possibility of implementing VOIP telephony on our site sometime in the future and I need some questions answered.

1. Have you saved money by managing it yourselves (some places pay an annual 'rent' per handset on an analogue setup)?

2. Did you set it up yourselves or have a third party company do it for you (my preferred option)

3. Do you have a PBX and if so what make or what software?

4. Have you linked your PBX with your Exchange Server if you have one?

5. What do you estimate the initial setup cost to have been per handset (amount of handsets divided by total cost of setup)?

6. Is it reliable?

7. Are there any follow up costs to be taken into consideration?

8. How do you receive your 'line in' to your site and how does it connect to your PBX?

I think that about covers it unless I've forgotten an important question!

[BooBoo]

Hi,
We have a Toshiba Strata system. The only thing I can fault on it so far is the quality and volume of the internal calls is so good it feels like people are shouting.
1. The initial cost wasn't as much as we thought and the yearly maintainance cost is very little £200 I think(The bursar isn't here so I can't confirm). This includes unlimited service calls (Only had to make two, our fault not the phones) and they've come out and done two training days as well.

2.They set most of it up, as we use exsisting phone lines as well as VOIP. We laid new CAT5 where needed and in rooms that weren't ready the company set the VOIP phone up and left it with us, if we've moved a phone changing the settings on the phone is a breeze.

3. Toshiba, Strata IP phones :I[T 2010 Digital Phone: FDKT351F not sure about reception, they look like the digital phone with a block added on.

4.Not yet, installing Ex2007 at the minute, when that's up and running will look into it but SLT don't wan't it I doubt I'll install it.

5. Approx £5000 for system 44 phones mix of digital and ip and (32 Digital - 12 IP) new ISDN lines There is a monthly running cost on the block of number we rent.

6. More reliable than the staff. A couple of the VOIP handsets would only connect one way, there was a setting on the POE switch that sorted that out. No problems connecting the VOIP into the network and a PC into the phone so we only use one port.

7. ISDN purchase and installation cost not sure how much. ISDN line rental. Rental on Blocks of numbers. A small Service agreement cost.

8. 3 x ISDN2e provide us with 6 voice lines and an analogue fax line. BT Sorted the lines in to the school, the company rewired the extensions and laid a couple of new lines were the quality down the line was poor. We have 30 DDIs (Direct Dial In) but internal extenions. We have phones in science prep rooms which you can't dial directly to from the outside but they can dial out.

We have a couple of lines in for sports fixtures and trips so staff on the trips can ring in and leave an ETA. That way parents can phone the line and find out if they need to be in early or can have an extra two hours in bed because the ferrys delayed.

Will work over a wireless bridge and we have access codes on some 'open' phones so the students can't use them. If you wanted you could give all of your staff a code to track calls.

[matt40k]

We've got a Cisco VOIP running over Cisco 3750 (I think). It's pants quality. I think this might because we've got our systems running though it. Rather then a dedicated port per device.

I hate the echo etc. The phones are old 7940 series, so the newer ones might better. I think it was done as we're a BT partnership, plus it's less cabling

[Aurora77]

Hi Dos_Box,

If you are looking for a VoIP solution, I've been on contact recently with a company called 3CX.

It's a software VoIP, you install it on a Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008 server and you convert your server as a PaBX. For the use of phones, you have the choice of using a laptop/desktop or use your existing phone system.

You can find more info at 3CX IP PBX and VoIP software for Windows. They advertise the price on their website

I can manage to get more info if you want.

[tom_newton]

1. Yes
2. First time, yes, second time (soton office) its a DIY job - it wasnt hard, and in fact I feel the guy who set it up may have been more hinderance than help!
3. Zultys MX250 4.0.14
4. No, but I know there's an option. Exchange is hosted, so it might not work for us. Some of our users link the phone client with outlook.
5. £250ish (20 handsets) is the cost as of last month (the new system for support). It was more when we bought the one in leeds. It costs about £200 to add a new user, a bit more if you buy 1-off, tend to buy 5s
6. Amusingly so. Replaced 1 HD in 3 years (it uses RAID). Cleaned fan tray twice. ISDN has failed more than anything else. Had 1 phone failure, and the cord on my handset is ratty
7. software maintenance to keep up-to-date (worth having! we started 2 revisions ago, and new features have been good), line rental
8. 1x ISDN30, plus we overflow outbound to 4x PSTN (which we use for ADSL) which also act as a backup, and pass through to 2 PSTN phones on power failure
9. Yes it is SIP! You missed this one! Make sure you can use 3rd party handsets.

[mavhc]

We've got a Cisco VOIP running over Cisco 3750 (I think). It's pants quality. I think this might because we've got our systems running though it. Rather then a dedicated port per device.

I hate the echo etc. The phones are old 7940 series, so the newer ones might better. I think it was done as we're a BT partnership, plus it's less cabling

Do you have the phones on a different vlan with QoS?

[tom_newton]

We've got a Cisco VOIP running over Cisco 3750 (I think). It's pants quality. I think this might because we've got our systems running though it. Rather then a dedicated port per device.

I hate the echo etc. The phones are old 7940 series, so the newer ones might better. I think it was done as we're a BT partnership, plus it's less cabling

I've a semi-ancient cisco phone (think it is a 7960) and other than being a pig to use, there's little echo - and our phones are on the same LAN as the PCs, but we are vaguely using DSCP marks (not sure if every switch is honouring em).

Echo is usually caused by latency AFAIK.

[BaccyNet]

1. Bit hard to say. The system was put in a few years ago but the site has expanded so more has been invested in handsets.

2. Our local telecoms company installed it for us + setup and located handsets.

3. Mitel 3300MX running 7.1 software

4. No Exchange

5. Not sure on this one, unfortunatly I wasnt allowed to see what we paid (although I'm allowed to look after the system now it is in)

6. Only issue we had with the PBX itself was after a software upgrade that didnt take correctly. Handset wise I've lost two small handsets due to damage (both went up in smoke due to damage) and a third because of a fault that meant the inside board fractured. Not bad for 4+ years use
As for the ISDN on the other hand.....

7. Additional handsets are costed for the handset and then a license to use it. This does make new handsets quite expensive but then we are trying to move away from having these things in classrooms and only in offices/staff room.

8. Single ISDN30 connected direct to a T1/E1 card in the Mitel. Have managed to do away with old analogue lines although we shall be merging sites soon so may need to look at this in the future.

Whole system is run from a seperate VLAN although phones get IP addresses from the main DHCP server. Some computers connect through the phones where we are short of sockets.

[Dos_Box]

Thanks for that everyone. Very useful info there.

[Ric_]

I'm currently looking into this too (maybe we should club together for a discount ). The most attractive solution I have seen so far is the Sun/Mitel collaboration. Check it out at Sun and Mitel

[Geoff]

Just to note, we are in the process of replacing our system atm. But presuming we end up with the system I recommended the following answers will apply:

1. Yes lots.
2. Yes. Management is done by a web interface.
3. Yes. Its a Switchvox AA60. It's basically running Asterisk under the hood.
4. No, it will link up with our Zimbra server instead.
5. (£1600 + 48 * £75) / 48 = £108.33
6. Don't know yet.
7. No.
8. The school has an ISDN30 line. This goes into a PCI card in the back of the Switchvox. The PCI card is separate and interchangeable for various types of digital/analog lines.

[localzuk]

1. Yes
2. Did it ourselves
3. We built a generic server using ITX components, and it runs Asterisk and FreePBX.
4. The system currently emails voicemail messages to staff, having entered their email addresses in by hand. Not proper integration really.
5. For us, £162.50 per handset. That includes everything, including 2 hotswaps of all components for the 'PBX'.
6. Yes. We have a few zombie calls occasionally, and due to us choosing cheap hansets, we have a bit of echo on the ends but it hasn't 'crashed' other than that time I forgot to enable log rotation...
7. Only costs to consider are extra extensions.
8. We have 3 PSTN lines, which connect via a Digium TDM card.

The thing I would say here is, it may seem like a good deal to buy a cheap card, or cheap handsets, but it isn't. You'll spend your time telling people that the reason you have echo on the lines is because too much cost cutting occurred... Best to go for more expensive handsets and a card with onboard echo cancellation. Software echo cancellation just doesn't cut the mustard.

Also, ensure that whatever you do, you dedicate a VLAN to your phone system and enable QoS for the system.

[tom_newton]

Note: Polycom IP330 phones are roughly 60 notes a throw now.
They are PoE only (or buy 10 quids worth of wall wart) and the network cable is a pig to remove once it's in. Not the most featurey of phone, but:
* cheap
* excellent quality
* supports many headsets
* did I mention that they are cheap?

Try Rocom in wetherby, ask for Sam Haggerty

[stratisphere]

Sorry we havnt implemented VOIP yet... but I gotta say, this thread is very useful, we're thinking about doing the DIY route with Asterix and already got a few good hints. So cheers guys

[b4bob]

If you are thinking of complete comms -instant messaging, txt, VoIP and data with video and whiteboard etc look up Amteus IM Jack. They are trying to launch a hosted web based comms sytem. Plus point FREE hosting if you take their sponsors ads. We're looking at it but keep breaking it as we trying it on as more VLE than an individuals / group comms system but hey they said go and play!