sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Inter-Tel Telephones & Systems Inter-Tel to Cisco Dialing

Hello

I have a Access 9 phone system and we are moving to a new Cisco VoIP System. Currently I have a PRI/T1 trunk between CM and the Inter-Tel. I can call from our Cisco system to the Inter-Tel all day long without any issues. I can also dial the trunk number from the Inter-Tel. Enter the Cisco Ext, press # and it will call the Cisco Ext.

Now my questions is " How do I setup a dial plan / Call Routing in my Inter-Tel system to do all that for me?" I really need to get this working as seemless as possible.

CM 5.1
Inter-Tel 9.006


Thanks

Samath

Can I ask why you are getting rid of a perfectly good Inter-Tel system and putting in a Cisco system that will cause nothing but headaches?

Samath:

You can't. These are two different systems using completely different inter-system signaling protocols. Cisco claims to be able to perform this task, but it can't be done. Most, if not all manufacturers' systems that can be tied together use a proprietary protocol in order to tie them together. Despite their claims, their CM doesn't speak that many languages and can't due to copyright limitations.

It sounds as if someone replaced half of a functioning network of two Inter-Tel switches with the Cisco CM. No offense, but that was not a smart thing to do without asking questions ahead of time. My guess is that the vendor of the Cisco hardware swore that the Inter-Tel equipment was "outdated", that it would do everything that they needed and someone believed them. I'll take one step further and guess that this deal was negotiated on the golf course.

You'll probably have to put the original system back in or replace the second system to regain this level of functionality.

I'll also guess is that this was not something that was in the budget when dreaming of all of the money that the CM would save.

It is so terribly important for customers to ask questions before making such drastic decisions. Keeping up with the Jones is getting expensive. Your current vendor would have told you this had they been asked and saved you these headaches. Could it be that they did and nobody wanted to hear what they had to say? Sorry to be so blunt, but there's really not a simple solution to your dilemma.

I truly hope that this won't end up being your company's situation, but if so, may we use you as a reference? People need be made aware of issues such as yours.

Well, I don't want to stir the pot TOO much here, but if you can access a trunk group on the Inter-Tel and dial extensions on the Cisco, then all you do is:

Create phantom extensions that are the first two numbers of your extensions on the Cisco, i.e. 20 through 29 for extensions 2000 through 2999.

Make sure the new phantoms have access to yer Cisco T1. Make sure the phantoms do not have a station password.

Remotely forward each phantom to the Cisco T1 trunk group w/ a forwarding number of it's own extension. So for extension '20': 'Infinity', 359, 20, #, 355, (Trunk Group to Cisco), 20, #.

Now, yer probably gonna have numbering plan issues in the Inter-Tel that require changing some extension numbers here and there, but this should work. You may have to create 3 or 4 digit phantom extensions as well, but you'll have to figure that out on yer own. Just follow the above setup.

I have done this many times to CM and to other systems, even between Inter-Tel systems prior to 5.0 where networking was introduced. One step that you will need for it to be completely seamless is the Analog VM Hunt group feature. This will allow the Inter-tel to repeat in band digits to the CM when a 4 digit extension is called. Basically the 4 digit is a phantom on the Inter-Tel as superphoneguy sugggested. The phantom is manually fwd'd to an analog VM hunt group containint OPX ports on the T1 span. When the call forwards, the CM will answer the call, the Inter-tel will repeat the digits inband of the ext originally called, then assuming that your dial plan in the CM is correct when it receives the inband DTMF the call will complete to your Cisco endpoint.

Hmmmm, I've also done 'Dumb Inter-Tel Networking' many times and never needed the Analog VM Hunt Group feature or OPX circuits. The procedure I've listed above should be sufficient. An undocumented 'feature' that Inter-Tel included in version 4.3 is the 'carrying through' of digits entered after the extension number if that extension number is all-call forwarded to a trunk or trunk group.

So, if phantom '20' is forwarded to trunk group 92001 w/ a forward number of '20' and I dial '2050', the PBX forwards my call to trunk group 92001 and sends '2050'.

hmm, didnt know that. I will have to test that one out. Thanks superfoneguy.

Superfoneguy is correct the only suggestion I would make is if you go to on-line monitor you can forward all of the phantoms from DB Studio without having to use remote call forwarding which is prone to the good old fat finger.

I try to limit OLM stuff on this board, but you are right of course.

The best way to forward is via Attendant Console, but not everyone is blessed w/ that app. :-)...

So, I am guessing that the answer is that you can "trick" the systems into being somewhat seamless. I think that you can do this with most systems out there to a certain extent. Therein lies the question: Why should we be having to "trick" our systems into communicating with the CM?

Call me forever the cynic, but tricking systems into simulating what should be there in a networked environment isn't the solution. It's just a way to make it look like it is happening. Is that really doing the customer any good?

What I read is that there is an attempt to carry ten pounds of rocks in a five-pound bag. That might work, but is it really the right way to do it?