Deploying VOIP in an office with multiple lines

I don't know the exact kind of PBX I'm using, but I do know that it is old enough to not support any type of VOIP.  We want to completely do away with our existing phone system and go completely VOIP.

I'll look at the resources you provided and post any questions I have about them.

Thanks...

The main issue in regards to knowing what the current PBX is to try to match the feature functionality when going to a new system, regardsless of it being VoIP based or not.

I have found out thru the years installing PBX's that people are very complacent about there phones and how they work, where as people tollerate and almost expect thier computer to go go down time to time.

So by understanding what you have now and choosing a new system based upon  that knowledge will help people adopting not only a new technology but just a different looking phone in the end.

My mentor in the telecom business, JD, sales phones based upon look and color verses functionality, always thought that was crazy, but one of the posts in a recent thread here at EE confirmed that the IT managers boss choose a phone based upon its looks.

Joel_Sisko

The number of players offering a true VoIP PBX system, with ongoing feature development, technial support and international distribtuion is really a short list.  Clearly all of the big traditional players are in the market, but they have legacy installed base solutions to protect.   CISCO, Shortel and 3COM come up high on the list of solutions designed from day one to be distribtued call Handling solutions.  ECI is another solution that you might look at.

In a true business communications enviornment, people are not impelmenting VoIP soluitons to cut long distance costs.  With the plunging rate of LD by the wireline carriers and the rapid growth of flat rate calling programs, that ship has sailed in the domestic market.   Companies are looking a VOIP PBX solutions to enable seamless call handling between geographically dispersed workgroups, home and mobile workers.    Why invest in a bigger office, more heat, light and real estate, when you can tap the talents of people who can work where they are?

The average cost of a small business key telephone system (NEC, Toshiba, Nortel, etc.) in the 8X16 line size, with VM and AA is about $350 a handset installed.  A VoIP solution is going to price out at $500-$750 a handset.  So the benefits of the solution are in the seamless call handling functionality for sure.

At the end of the day, you can add VoIP gateways to any phone system, even your old Toshiba.   Getting an end to end VoIP PBX, is an entirely different subject.  I can tell you that COVAD, a hosted PBX supplier, will enable you to use yourToshiba DTK telephones on there softswitch.  So that might be a solution that cuts down your capex on new phone equipment.  
Regards, Peter

DR. VoIP,

Glad to have you on board in the VoIP area :) Saw your last post for the home user about COVAD also, actually a great soluton for the residential market in many ways. In regards to the commerical market, the "Hosted" PBX market is really just another term for Centrex based services that are offered by the traditional telco's. The market for hosted is viable, but very finite.

The capex upfront only seems high mostly because 95% of business do not budget for telephone equipment each year. So when its time to replace the equipment its hard pill to swallow sometimes no matter what the cost.

Also the hosted solution may provide relief upfront, but can be a drain on monthly cashflow on the years to come, which if I were a small business owner, I would be more concerned about.


Kindest reagrds,

Joel_Sisko

I think what you need is IP PBX.