school telephone system

[NikChillin]

Hi all,

 

we are thinking of moving away from our current system and getting a separate broadband supplier specifically for the digital telephone system. This is due to cost and the fact we have reached our limit on the current system. We don't want it in with the current broadband supplier as we will have to get extra ports opened up which will be difficult, also eggs - one basket etc.

 

Has anyone done this and has any advice?

[GREED]

So you want it all on a seperate line? What sort of internal system do you want (traditional, VOIP, etc?)?

[NikChillin]

We are thinking of a separate line, using Virgin Cable maybe. We want it IP based so we can use a soft phone system on the pc's. I'm currently looking at 3 CX as an option. This is all new to me and I'm a novice on this!

[GREED]

I can't remember for the life of me who my previous school used as their supplier/support for the internal telephone system, but they were very good. Line was standard BT business line.

[Domino]

We are thinking of a separate line, using Virgin Cable maybe. We want it IP based so we can use a soft phone system on the pc's. I'm currently looking at 3 CX as an option. This is all new to me and I'm a novice on this!

 

Have a read up on Microsoft Lync (the new name for Office Communications Server).

 

very good, and under a schools agreement very competitively priced

[localzuk]

Do you have any experience of Linux? If so, it may be worth nosing at Asterisk (or one of the pre-built options with it on).

 

It is open source, free and very good. I set up our phone system here a few years back and its been solid as a rock.

[NikChillin]

Thanks, I'll look into both after checking the business options for the line.

[GREED]

Remembered! Azurri is the company.

[MatthewL]

We have just signed another contract with ETS Communications (aka Nexus) for another Avaya IP Office install, currently got 3 others at sites and the stuff is brilliant, also looking to intergrate into OCS as well.

[howartp]

...for another Avaya IP Office install, currently got 3 others at sites and the stuff is brilliant...

Yes, we use Avaya IP Office in school and I can't fault it. We got it from Powerdial, but NGC Networks were very competitive on price and support last year - unfortunately they were too late as we'd passed the contractual deadline for serving notice on Powerdial. Ask for Dean Harrop at NGC if you're interested. Powerdial's support is great, but getting hold of my account manager and getting follow-ups from him afterwards is proving difficult, hence considering NGC...

 

Peter

[NikChillin]

Do you have any experience of Linux? If so, it may be worth nosing at Asterisk (or one of the pre-built options with it on).

 

It is open source, free and very good. I set up our phone system here a few years back and its been solid as a rock.

 

I have only looked at Ubuntu and not too deeply at that! Maybe I will give it a shot though. I need to find out if we can get another broadband line in firstly and the cost of that. If we can't I'm wasting my time.

[NikChillin]

Are these systems internal only? How do they affect your network? I am wondering what the cost is likely to be as well, beginning to think this is going to cost too much.

[plexer]

Cost is subjective are you wanting to do it just for the crack or does your school have a business need to change from their current pbx solution?

 

Ben

[localzuk]

Are these systems internal only? How do they affect your network? I am wondering what the cost is likely to be as well, beginning to think this is going to cost too much.

 

To be honest, it isn't that expensive to do. We implemented our 40 extension system, with external connection to 4 PSTN lines, and with a secondary 'backup' server just in case the first one broke, for £6k ish. If you get rid of the external connectivity and the second server, you can get that down to £4k.

[NikChillin]

Cost is subjective are you wanting to do it just for the crack or does your school have a business need to change from their current pbx solution?

 

Ben

 

Our PABX system is stretched to the limit due to new build so I have been asked to investigate other solutions. I have contacted some of the companies mentioned but have not had a reply as yet.

Edited January 10, 2011 by NikChillin

[NikChillin]

To be honest, it isn't that expensive to do. We implemented our 40 extension system, with external connection to 4 PSTN lines, and with a secondary 'backup' server just in case the first one broke, for £6k ish. If you get rid of the external connectivity and the second server, you can get that down to £4k.

 

Is this a separate broadband connection? We can't get it through our current providers as they will not open any ports but we will stay with them for the network.

[localzuk]

Is this a separate broadband connection? We can't get it through our current providers as they will not open any ports but we will stay with them for the network.

 

We don't use external VOIP. We use normal phone lines via a digium card.

[plexer]

If you have existing isdn or pots lines coming in providing the connectivity to the telephone network with your current setup you can utilise that with an ip pbx based setup.

 

Also have a look at the draytek line of ip pbx's

 

Ben

[kaphc]

Hi, have just been reading this thread and am interested in the various solutions suggested. I provide IT Tech support for a small primary school which is moving to a new build site this year and we are currently looking at the new phone system. Our identifications so far are for 3 PSTN lines serving 12 extensions plus broadband access.

 

Telephony in schools seems to be something of a black hole - i.e. there is no support for it from our LA and we can pretty much do as we want. While this gives us a lot of freedom, it also means we have to ask the right questions. I'm keen to hear from anyone else has gone through similar experiences recently and what things you needed to take into consideration when identifying requirements for a new phone system so that we can scope it correctly.

[MatthewL]

We currently have an Avaya IP Office solution from ETS Communications (believe they were known at Nexus), it is absolutely spot on and we are just about to implement it in our office to replace the managed Cisco option we have which will let us manage it and all us to have a client on our smartphones and it all links in with that. Will feed back more once it has been installed in 2 weeks but the system is fairly cheap compared to some options, not sure on costs as I wasn't involved with the purchase.

[kaphc]

It's interesting that the majority of new schools phone systems mentioned in this thread are using ip based systems now .... am wondering if this is the way forward for us to go as well. I worked quite a bit with phones until about 8 years ago and Ip integration was just starting to come in then, so would be interested to know how widespread it is now.

 

I'll have a look at Avaya IP Office. I "grew up" with an Alcatel system so am also looking at thei OmniPCX system. As with any solution though, I think it'll be about balancing our small-scale needs with something futureproof.

[howartp]

It's interesting that the majority of new schools phone systems mentioned in this thread are using ip based systems now

Only yesterday my colleague was bemoaning the problem with our non-IP based system (IP Office). Not due to the IP Office in any way, but due to the cabling.

 

Our old cabs around school were presented onto two-pair telephony connection blocks next to the phone system cab, whereas our new cabs are now presented onto RJ45 patch panels directly under the phone system. Thus when someone moves office from an old area of school to a new one, tracking down and patching between the two-pair blocks and the RJ45 patch panel is a pain, especially as none of my team (including me) have been here beyond 5 years and don't know all of the old routes. Adding/moving phones in the new buildings is a 30 second job, unplug from this RJ45 panel, plug into this one, job done.

 

Therefore I am starting to consider the options of moving to IP based at some point in the future.

 

Peter