voip or digital PABX for small office?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions regarding the following? I need to replace the phone system in a small office. The requirements are about 6-8 extensions plus a few cordless extensions (e.g. DECT phones). There are 4 external lines.

A. I expect to move the external lines to ISDN so we can take advantage of DDI etc. In terms of what type of phone system to use in the office, the choice seems to really be between a digital PABX or VoIP. At present there is no particular requirement for doing VoIP to other sites, so the VoIP would only be internal - all external calls would be routed via the ISDNs onto the public phone network. Cabling in the office isn't an issue as we have plenty of spare CAT5 lines which can be used for phone extensions if we choose a dedicated digital system. Does anyone have any general comments about whether using a VoIP solution would be sensible? My suspicion is that it might be overly complicated for such a small office, and that it's asking for trouble using VoIP in a situation where there isn't an in-house technical person to rescue it when things go wrong. And since we wouldn't be saving any money on call costs, I'm guessing VoIP would be more expensive in terms of equipment too. But perhaps its more reliable and easier to set up than I imagine? On the other hand, it would be nice to have some degree of computer-telephony integration. Are there digital (non-VoIP) phone systems which allow basic things like dialing of numbers from a PC? If not, then a digital system is actually a step backwards from analog, where at least you could get a modem to do DTMF onto the phone extension. Also, some people would like to be able to use wireless headsets. I'm aware of the Plantronics ones, but this seems a really clunky solution (to be able to answer calls you have to attach a handset lifter to the phone which physically lifts the handset!). Does anyone know of any digital phone systems with handsets which support headsets (wireless or otherwise) in a more sensible fashion? The use of IP phones can make sense in some organisations, but in order to deploy it you must have a network infrastructure that is designed for it - eg quality of service/prioritisation and queuing of network traffic on your switches and routers. Assuming this is in place, there's no real issue - there are many pbx vendors whose IP phones and systems do work just fine - Cisco, Avaya, Mitel etc. The reason for actually going ahead and doing it is what most small-medium sized companies find difficult to come up with. Sometimes there are physically "hard to reach" locations which LAN traffic can get to via wireless link or microwave etc. but where it's difficult to get a standard phone point, which means that IP telephony can really be of benefit. Sites that have links to other offices over dedicated WAN connections (with quality of service) can also benefit from call savings using IP trunks or IP phones down the link. On the down side though, if your network goes down because you haven't got redundant/spare switches and an IT department who can trace what's going on then you might just lose both your computers and telephones, which isn't much fun. Some vendors provide systems with just a good network switch inside them, and are designed purely for connection to IP phones. The IP phones themselves may also have LAN ports on them to allow you to connect a PC through them. Generally speaking that means that your LAN quality of service issues are taken care of. In terms of PBX systems that might suit your requirements - yes, there are systems out there that can provide screen-based call control, auto-dialling etc. We sell Avaya's IP Office range (hence I am biassed) and its predecessor, the Alchemy series. These all come with ports presented as RJ45 outlets, Voicemail, Call Logging, screen-based call control, TAPI drivers and Windows-based management. There are a couple of models you might consider in the IP Office series. The IP 403 Office DT/BRI8 has 8 digital extensions plus two POTS extensions and an 8-channel ISDN2 trunk interface as standard. This can be upgraded to ISDN30 and max 100 extensions. It contains no VoIP codec card as standard, but can have one installed later. This costs just under £2100. The other unit you might consider is the IP Office Small Office product with a BRI upgrade which would give you max 8 channels of ISDN2 plus 4 analogue trunks, 4 POTS extensions and 8 digital extensions. It also has a 3-channel VoIP codec card built in allowing you to connect several IP hardphones/softphones or use IP trunking to another office. This costs just over £2500. In terms of headsets and things - most digital phones will support wired headsets. The handset lifter devices used by various headset manufacturers to support wireless headsets are pretty naff, as you say. You could use cordless phones with headset sockets - very inexpensive if your pbx supports analogue extensions. On IP Office, analogue extensions are totally flexible - you can access all features using shortcodes, and/or using the screen-based call control software. The only features you lose are hot keypad dialling and paging support.

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