Excerpt from an email I just received concerning the new IT mentality. Enjoy.


"I have been selling phone systems for almost (30) years and the most common phrase I have heard over the years is…”Glen, our phones are the lifeblood of our business and they can’t ever be down…..” Of course hearing this hundreds or maybe thousands of times, I think I got it, but last Friday while interviewing a new prospective customer it went a little different.



I was meeting with the Business guy and the IT guy but the IT guy was running late so in the meantime the Business guy and I chatted and I noticed his Cisco Call Manager flyer in his folder so I began to explain how “data companies” like Cisco had entered the market and simply didn’t understand the critical nature of voice and the fact that it had to work (100%) of the time and in fact that the Cisco’s of the world have really made voice just another LAN application. I explained how I came from the voice world and have never known anything other than (100%) “up time” as the minimum acceptable standard for a phone system. I further explained how the “data centric” world sort of expects the phone to be down sometimes and that a “reboot” is ordinary, after all, it is just another application on the LAN.



In walks the IT guy, not even apologizing for being almost an hour late, and says to me (his first words), “Glen, we are looking for a system with the most up time possible….” I immediately burst into almost uncontrollable laughter after which I explained how in all of my years in the business no one ever told they just wanted their phones to “work as much as possible”.



It appeared to me after the meeting that maybe the world is becoming more accustomed to the quality and reliability delivered by the cell phone and that we could be approaching a time when the demand for absolute (100%) “up time” on the phone system is not required or expected and if that happens I hope I am retired. Who knows, but I for one would like to see how long the “Business guys” put up with the “IT guys” who may think this way.



We are currently removing a ShoreTel system from the Checotah Public schools and replacing it after only (2) months in service, for this very reason.



I thought you might appreciate at least one “IT guy’s” perspective. Feel free to share this story although I am not sure there is any answer."

I thought it pretty much summed up the feel of this thread. Moral- if your network is crap better get a case of toilet paper if you implement VOIP.

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