atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information The Shift to Data has already occurred.....

Look at the upside of being the CG in addition to the phone guy - you don't have another voice in their ear during the frequent computer repair trips, you don't have someone munging up the cable you installed, and you can install things that make sense for the customer.

This is why we voice, data, and Internet - I wasn't happy with what my customers were getting so we expanded to do it correctly.

Ditto. Exactly what I was thinking.

Hal,
If you talk to your customers about VoIP the way you talk about it in this forum, which btw they can see... then why would they consider using you to provide that type of service?

Richard

Well my guess is that many of us are much older and wiser than others here due to our experience in the industry. We've seen many reinventions of the wheel come and go, in fact I believe that VOIP is in it's third roll out in twenty years, yet still full of bugs. Correct me if I'm wrong. I strongly encourage you to do so.

I'm not selling my customers anything that I know doesn't work 100%. I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that Hal feels the same way.

Does VOIP have a place in this industry? Of course it does. Is it necessary to have an IP phone on every classroom wall or at every cash register position? Of course not. Even those who are touting 100% IP would agree on those points.

The fact is, only people who truly know the industry can assist customers in making such decisions. The "Johnny come Lately's" who have jumped into the field don't have a clue except how to make their phone work with their box. They can't resolve issues like "ring trip" or lack of loop supervision. If their box says it's working, then it is. Yeah OK, go tell that to Verizon.

Sorry if I have lost any friends here in making these statements, but I haven't been working in this industry for nearly thirty years for nothing.

I've got tough skin and enjoy a discussion. Nothing works 100%, if it none of us would be as busy as we are. There are some benefits that people want enough to trade off 100% reliability for 100% increase in convenience or usefulness. I use software that lets me get things done quicker than other packages or doing things by hand, but it does have some reliability problems. I get so much more done using it that it's worth the tradeoff of having problems with it at times.
Most of our clients want something solid that doesn't have any advanced features, we sell them a Partner. If they have multiple sites and want to have shared voice mail, 4 digit dialing between sites, and cell phone integration, we'll put in an IP Office. Because of the nature of multiple site integration, some of the features won't work right if they lose a link. There's enough benefit from having the feature when it works that it's okay when the T1 is taken out by a backhoe.

Hal,
If you talk to your customers about VoIP the way you talk about it in this forum, which btw they can see... then why would they consider using you to provide that type of service?

Sorry, I ain't buying it. But even if all you say is true, why did they run straight to a CG and not some other telecom company?

I'm sure next you will be saying that because of me nobody will buy a VoIP solution from any telecom company...

-Hal

For the record... Our maintenance agreement with Avaya just ran out (Thank God, I really despise that company). It was a good time to blow up the old Avaya G3 and start over. I looked at some VoIP solutions and decided to stay with what we have. It's paid for AND it works. So, I'm not on the VoIP bandwagon, but I see the train a comin and think we (phone guys) should be careful to not appear as though we have our heals dug in too deep.

Why? Too many factors I don't know about. Maybe they had already made up their minds to buy another solution (product and vendor) before you came out and thought they were doing you the "courtesy" of a look at it.

I guess you'll just have to be wrong on your second point. I don't blame you for all that is wrong.

Could you please list some of these systems. Im curious to know which in-house voip systems require annual renewals. Please dont list hosted solutions.

~r

I think everyone will lose some business until we embrace the offering of data related services. IT companies don't do as good of a job serving voice customers yet, but our company has hired IT guys to be that one stop shop. There is nothing stopping you from doing so. None of us can be master of all trades, but the shift is here. If you are feeling it where you are at now, imagine how the big cities are feeling it. I see hosted VOIP on almost all bids now, and I wouldn't recommend that to ANYONE unless they were on fiber at all locations.

The only reason your clients did not come to you first is they must not have known you offered it, or felt it was out of your "scope."

All of that is correctable, but I agree we must take on some IT skills to continue flourishing.