VoIP Business Solutions

[CzarJunkie]

We're about to move into new offices and we're looking for a telephone system.

Ideally I want to have everything over the SDSL connection and have a IP based PBX system in place. However, we need the solution to be as robust as possible and offer the same features as a traditional ISDN/Analog PBX system.

We'll also need to offer multiple incoming lines for telephone enquiries/orders as well as general business usage with the faciulity for cheap overseas calls.

I've had a quick look around and while I can find some VoIP solutions (such as http://www.voiptalk.org/products/VoI...Hosted+Edition) that may be suitable, I am after some real world advice from anyone who has used these services and whether the technology has matured enough for it to be a viable solution for us.

[CzarJunkie]

16 views and nothing, thought this place was supposed to be cutting edge, pah.

[Crossman]

I hold my hand up, I saw the thread before and been meaning to reply.

We've been involved (at management and operational level) with a handful of VoIP and digital phone systems over the last couple of years.

A few of our clients run IP systems by big name manufacturers and they function fine and are very reliable but the costs are horrific. We did a review a couple of months ago for a clients and frankly, they are unlikely to see the cost savings they hoped for in a VoIP system, and it seems very proprietary, having to pay thousands for upgrades which to me seem little more than bug fixes...

We use the open source Asterisk package in-house and it's stable, as in very, and we've escaped the need to be dependent upon the phone companies as mentioned previous. Also it gives us the control we need to change as new needs come along without worrying about licenses and the like.

Regardless of the vendor (or Proprietary/Open Source path you choose) it's important to get the basics of your network right with QoS, the appropriate redundancy in place etc...

Perhaps the biggest deciding factor why we went with Asterisk is that it allowed us to dip our toe in the water with an old PC, playing with the different features, allowing us to get comfortable with the config files and thinking behind it, and then interfacing with our old phone systems gradually, and then go on to replace it in a fairly transparent way.

We have some Intel modems in the Asterisk server so that we can switch to old skool PSTN should the ADSL connection die as well which is handy and good for piece of mind. Apparently it's possible (and fairly straightforward) to do this automatically but we've not had time to look at this yet, we just switch the config file for now as and when required.

The good thing with VoIP as well (as you mentioned) is the cheap calls overseas, we talk with the US (including mobiles) and Germany for about 1.5 to 1.7p per minute. Thats with sipgate.co.uk but there are loads about. Also changing phone provider is just a case of changing a config file.

If you have any more questions fire away, I'm no guru, but we've been through it a few times now and have a few live sites so we have a good idea as to the different routes available.

Crossman.

[CzarJunkie]

Thanks for th info m8, it's much appreciated.

I've seen the asterisk system and wasn't aware it was open source. Sounds like that's an option we could look at more closely.

As regards the incoming lines, this is a major issue for us as we take a lot of calls from the public, both customer service and enquiries. Would we still need either ISDN or Analog lines to cater for this?

[Crossman]

We did a project for a windscreen repair call centre. The decider was that the numbers were BT geographic numbers, and hence needed a BT Line for each number.

However if you have, say, 0800 or 0845 etc... then you can point these to a phone number that comes with commercial sip accounts such as:

0800 123456 points to 01234 567890 (sip account)

and hence you can have more lines than you have physical BT lines.

I'm always a bit twitchy about using SIP accounts for incoming calls as for all sipgate.co.uk (who we use) are fairly reliable, there's little that can be done to guarantee a level of service that we would find acceptable.

I was fairly indifferent about asterisk when I first used it as we were using a digital phone system (Nortel) that was OK but the costs were getting daft and it didn’t give us the flexibility we needed to try out new stuff, and interface with our other systems.

It's also possible to do funky things like pull in info from databases and the like that can be played back to people on the phone (such as stock levels), email voicemails, and use soft-phones on laptops out the office just like it's in the office to make free calls etc...

Its horses for courses but in my opinion if you’re into doing anything beyond the basics of a phone system and don't have bottomless pockets then It’s worth a look…

Crossman.

[CzarJunkie]

Thanks again m8. I will certainly look at sipgate etc. as it sounds as though it could well be an option for us.

Reliability is an issue for us, so that's a concern obviously but I'd like to go the full VoIP route if we can manage it.

Asterisk sounds great. We'd like the ability to drag info from the dB etc. That would really work well for us I reckon. I'll let you know how we get on and what we decide to do.

[honestDave]

Dunno if this doc might be of interest / use.

Gartner's Attachment 8812

[CzarJunkie]

Thanks m8, we've actually decided against the full IP solution and we've gone for multiple ISDN lines in and a hybrid PBX, so hopefully we can have a mess with IP at some point.

[baboonish]

I use gradwell's centrex based system for my office phones on an adsl connection.

You could always try running an asterix pbx - fairly simple to setup from what I've read.

[Latic]

easiest way to get into Asterisk is messing with Trixbox (ISO installs everything you need with freepbx, which is a webbased admin).

I've been running this for around 5 months now and nearly ready to put it into production