Questions about VoIP and VoIP-PBX

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I am working for a small company (about 15 employees). We take calls for sales and technical supports. We have an old PBX with minimal basic functions (transfer, hold, 3 person talk, etc.). Our president is considering changing our phone system into VoIP + VoIP PBX.

A. Internet Protocol (IP) PBXs As Voice-Over-IP technologies improved, several vendors introduced IP PBX products that managed all communications over a business IP network. Because IP standards were still evolving, each vendor interpreted them differently or ignored them completely, creating telephones and routers that were incompatible with those of competing vendors. This resulted in proprietary and sometimes very expensive telephones, routers and hubs. In addition, the vendors provided only very basic application sets and their proprietary architectures provided little incentive for 3rd-party developers to create add-on applications. Essentially, the IP PBX merely replicated the limited features and high cost of ownership of traditional proprietary PBXs within a data-centric environment. A good VoIP PBX (or Key System) will always cost more. It can be stable but this is highly dependent on implementation. If the seller does not have many years in both voice and data expect trouble. What's you network like? Do you have a QoS capable switch? Think about what you want it to do. Voice mail-yes Unified messaging-? Conference calls-yes IP trunks-? PSTN trunks-probably Fax routing (in and out)-? ACD (Automated Call Distribution)-probably A good system (sticking to major names) that can do all this and both VoIP and legacy is the Nortel BCM. I might be biases because we sell them, but we did look into many others when we were choosing a small/medium business VoIP system. Even got completely certified on the Cisco and had a 3Com on-site for over a month (what a piece of garbage). We've done that as well, only drawback is that you end up needing a router between the LANs if you want the advanced integration. Since IP phones need power, and using a brick is a pain (expecially if the power goes out), you end up with a in-line power unit for the ethernet or a PoE switch. PoE switches always support QoS. In the end it's just plain easier to get the PoE/QoS switch. I agree Mitel is great, we sell them too ;-). They fit into larger businesses, even a small sx200ICP would be more then a BCM200 or BCM400, but the features!!! Mitel has a feature set that goes on for pages. But do you need them?

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