We are moving into a much larger office next year (we are building) and have been looking into phone systems.
Some of you may know from other areas of this forum that we have some experience supporting Nortel Meridian 1 systems and a few customers left running Lucent/Avaya Legend and Magix systems. There are even some stragglers on Comdial Key systems. We are also Digium affiliates, getting our feet wet with Asterisk and the Switchvox appliances.
Quite frankly, the Option series is still my favorite, but since I can't get the licensing I need to expand our Option 11C, we need to find something new.
So, I have some questions.
1) I read in some Toshiba customer documentation that the digital phones support Loop Keys. What document do I need to get more details on the implementation? I want to know how a console position on this system would function. The documentation I've found thus far for console operations shows examples of each line having a dedicated key, and that won't work.
2) By then, we will be multi-site. I'm thinking about a CIX40 now, to handle our current office, then putting a CIX100 in our new building and sending the CIX40 to the branch office. Anybody see any snags with that?
3) We currently have SIP trunks for most of our service. I see the CIX40, when properly licensed, will support up to 24 connections. So, I have, say, 4 SIP DIDs, each with three channels. Is that 4 channels as far as licensing is concerned, or 12?
4) Regarding Strata Net: Say Calls come in to Location "B" and "C" via the SIP trunks on their local internet connection, but the calls need to be answered centrally by the dedicated attendants at site "A". Many of those calls can be transferred back to someone at the remote site. Does the remote CIX40 know to accept the transfer and keep the call local, or does it use up 2 channels, one coming and one going. Nortel used to call the feature "Trunk Anti-Tromboning."
5) We would like to interface (via CTI) with our accounting and service management systems. We DON'T run Windows for those functions. We realize we'll have to "roll our own" so to speak, and that's OK as long as Toshiba will share/license the communications protocol they use. Are they known for working with third parties that way, or do they make it difficult (like Nortel did) to create complimentary products?
6) Are there any glitches or major problems you have seen in the field related to these systems? Anything I should be aware of in the decision making process would be appreciated.
There you go, CIX questions as promised. If you have any input on any of the questions above, please feel free to chime in.
Thanks,
Dylan
