Hosted PBX - Anyone made the move yet?

[1066girl]

Hi all,

 

I am interested in hearing experiences from any schools that may have switched to a hosted PBX model for their phone system.

 

I have inherited an ageing Nortel system and a part-implemented Mitel based system which I seriously doubt the school can afford to complete and am keen to look at alternatives.

 

On paper, the hosted PBX solution looks like a win win for us.

 

It removes the need for us to have internal telecoms technical skills (which we barely have at the moment), it provides a portal for us to administer the phone extensions, we only pay for concurrent licences (so effectively can have an extension for all staff, but only pay for physical phone connections), it allows the porting of existing ddi's at a one off cost and there are no ongoing ddi leasing costs, it integrates with AD and voicemails can be sent to your email, you can have a selection of Polycom handsets, you can have soft phones, etc.

 

We would need to maintain 12-15 BT analogue phone lines for critical incident/emergency phones (as we have regular power cuts onsite here) but otherwise it seems an easy process to transfer and manage such a system.

 

I have yet to investigate costs, so it would be interesting to hear from any schools that have fairly up to date cost models that they are happy to share.

 

Thanks in advance

[ThePurpleK]

I've heard good things about OpenVBX (OpenVBX: the Web-based, Open Source Phone System for Business) outside of the education sector. Maybe it's worth taking a look?

[Geoff]

What are the bandwidth requirements for a hosted PBX?

[Blue_Cookeh]

What's your Internet connection like? Bandwidth isn't the only issue, your voice traffic will be contending with whatever else is going down your pipe, and latency/jitter can become a large problem.

 

In your position I'd be finishing off or looking at a cheaper internal system (judging by the need for 12-15 BT lines, which you should be looking at ISDN for btw). We had great success both financially and in functionality with Avaya IP Office. I'm far from a telephony background and managed to figure it all out fairly easily.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Blue_Cookeh

[Geoff]

You could DIY a FreePBX box too. They are very powerful little setups.

[psydii]

10-15 emergency landlines? Surely 1 + some pay-as-you-go mobiles should cover it? (Coverage depending obvs)

 

Even if you have poor mobile coverage a couple of lines ought to be sufficient, what is the justification for the number suggested?

 

If you really do need that number, you might be better off sticking with a a digital pbx with analogue fallback capability.

 

 

However, to answer your question as you asked it: take a look at http://www.MyCommunications.co.uk

 

With their offer they can redirect calls very quickly wherever you want. Or if you have Internet access (e.g 3G) you could quickly update the auto-attendant to report power problem to callers, callers can still get to voicemail, and you can install a soft phone(Bria App) on some smartphones to take over the role of the main office until power returns.

 

And https://askozia.com for a very low cost on-prem solution.

[cpjitservices]

3cx.

 

Easy & simple.

[1066girl]

10-15 emergency landlines? Surely 1 + some pay-as-you-go mobiles should cover it? (Coverage depending obvs)

 

Even if you have poor mobile coverage a couple of lines ought to be sufficient, what is the justification for the number suggested?

 

If you really do need that number, you might be better off sticking with a a digital pbx with analogue fallback capability.

 

 

However, to answer your question as you asked it: take a look at My Communications

 

With their offer they can redirect calls very quickly wherever you want. Or if you have Internet access (e.g 3G) you could quickly update the auto-attendant to report power problem to callers, callers can still get to voicemail, and you can install a soft phone(Bria App) on some smartphones to take over the role of the main office until power returns.

 

And https://askozia.com for a very low cost on-prem solution.

 

We have 9 boarding houses which are separated across approx a four square mile senior site. We have almost zero mobile coverage. I have been asked to put analog lines in all houses,main office building plus one in main building and one in boarding house in our Eastbourne site. Our sites are widespread and sprawling.

[psydii]

What is your internet connectivity at each of the sites? Could you put in UPS's to keep phones and routers up? (but then you've got to replace the batteries every few years...)

 

TBH I think you need a telecoms company to build this solution, the geographically dispersed nature of the problem and the power challenges may put this back into the realm of solvable by national infrastructure rather than commodity hardware/software.

 

MyComms may be able to help. These guys might also put in a good showing: Network Communications Group -Specialists in Telecomms & Data Services. You might also want to look at local companies too, as physical problems as easier to sort if head office and engineers are less than a hour away from the fault.

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi @1066girl

 

we've well over a thousand hosted VoIP licences in schools. you'd be surprised at how cheap it really is as we see it more as a value add solution than something we sell on the whole.

 

I've a huge stock of refurb Mitel phones at the moment so quite happy to do a deal too

 

PM me if of interest.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

Hi all,

 

I am interested in hearing experiences from any schools that may have switched to a hosted PBX model for their phone system.

 

I have inherited an ageing Nortel system and a part-implemented Mitel based system which I seriously doubt the school can afford to complete and am keen to look at alternatives.

 

On paper, the hosted PBX solution looks like a win win for us.

 

It removes the need for us to have internal telecoms technical skills (which we barely have at the moment), it provides a portal for us to administer the phone extensions, we only pay for concurrent licences (so effectively can have an extension for all staff, but only pay for physical phone connections), it allows the porting of existing ddi's at a one off cost and there are no ongoing ddi leasing costs, it integrates with AD and voicemails can be sent to your email, you can have a selection of Polycom handsets, you can have soft phones, etc.

 

We would need to maintain 12-15 BT analogue phone lines for critical incident/emergency phones (as we have regular power cuts onsite here) but otherwise it seems an easy process to transfer and manage such a system.

 

I have yet to investigate costs, so it would be interesting to hear from any schools that have fairly up to date cost models that they are happy to share.

 

Thanks in advance

[1066girl]

We went with 3cx in the end and love it. We extended our service, got rid of the BT ISDN and phone lines, replaced our ageing Avaya and Nortel phones and it looks like to reaping rewards and paying for itself very quickly. Thanks everyone for your recommendations.