sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Phone system recommendation request

Agreed.

Spend as much time choosing your vendor/installer as you have researching your product and you'll be a happy guy.

The best equipment in the hands of a hack is sure to disappoint.

I'll also put in a vote for the NEC SV8100. 1 system running IP stations at all your sites. If and when you grow you can add a KSU unit to the sites that need them. Those sites can then serve as backup servers for the IP stations if the main site were to go down. Ridiculously easy to admin the product yourself and extremely reliable. Would probably price out at half the cost of the Cisco and a third of the cost of the Shoretel.

D

Thanks for all the replies.

Our vendors we are looking at are the telecom companies themselves. Telus, Bell, Rogers. We have had some iffy dealing with some local independent shops so we are going right to the source.

The whole reason for going this route is to centralize our telecom systems, I am tired of fighting with 5 different phones systems all with separate voicemail/extension setups.

So this system must be able to tie into a larger system as we move toward a single system setup.

Brian

Keep ...aah, Brian, please re-read what Doghart wrote. One system WILL support your needs at ALL your locations.

As far as "going to the source" you have NOT seen the problems until you deal with the utilities, even if you are in CANADA....and you better have a deep pocket/checkbook.

Just step back a minute and look again.

My almost half century of experience is all I have to go by.

Going with "The Big Boys" is one sure way to part with your money. I have seem companies take the "safe" route only to say "but we went with one of the yadda, yadda, yadda, etc."

A word of advice. Your attitude toward independent shops won't win you any friends here. I'm just puzzled why you would have 5 different systems and likely have different vendors for 5 different locations and then complain about it as if it was the vendors fault?

I'm guessing they were all independents that were combined into one organization.

One thing that you may want to consider....and I know that some here may hate me: A hosted Voip solution?
You're looking at 5 phones per location. hard to justify a switch at every location.

Another alternative: would be your own VOIP switch like you are entertaining. Will each site have it's own dialtone? if so then you will need some sort of equipment at each site to facilitate this. If there is a data outage at that site, is it OK to have it go off line or should it have some sort of self supportive capability? Judging by your Web page and past experience working with those facilities, being able to dial 911 at anytime from any phone is imperative will what ever solution yuou decide on be able to handle the 911 calls from a central location (Dependant upon telco and the system)

Now don't take this the wrong way but I have a personnal rant about this whole topic. In these hard times where so many non-profits and charities have their hands out...$65,000 becuse "I am tired of fighting with 5 different phones systems all with separate voicemail/extension setups." WTF!

I can't recommend a system based upon what you have stated, much more information would be needed. Almost all systems can accomplish what you want, whether it be with remote phones, or several systems tied together. Even straight TDM switches can be networked to gether (somewhat) using tie lines.

So you don't want to use local independant vendors, yet you come to a site that is full of them and ask their advice? Perhaps go with the "big Boys" Ask them to let you get an old used sytem installed temporarily until you get up and running. Have them take a look at your current needs and maybe suggest a solution which best benefits your organization? "Hey you have Brand X at most of your locations, and you want standardization, let see aabout migrating the rest of you sites to the same brand and then, at some point see about getting them upgraded and networked if needed."
Finally how spread apart are these sites? Why so many different vendors in the past? is it because of a distance thing? Will the Big Boys be able to support that over the long haul? or will they just sub contract one of the "issued vendors" you currently have?

Finally to the Mods..... Since when was it OK to post $ amounts?

Bill...

The type of pricing that has been posted here is pretty much public...quotes etc; are not proprietary in nature..It's true that dollar amounts such as dealer pricing, wholesale etc; are not permitted in the public forums. Thank you for your concern and your input to the forum.

...bob...

Coming here and complaining about independents is like going to a bee hive and complaining about all the bees!
We're all guarding our grade-A honey! :db:

I've got 30 years and counting but I'm nowhere near the top of the seniority list here. Advice given here is coming from many lifetimes of experience. Don't let a slick salesman dazzle you with some techno babble. As has been stated here, there are many options that will work for you but most consultants will BS you and say there is only one.

Wow I did not mean to touch the independent nerve. Maybe I should have rephrased that and said I will not go with the small independents as we have had bad dealings with a couple of them. Which has cost the agency lots of money and left us with 5 independent phone systems.

I guess I should clear up a couple of other things that have come up.

The $65,000 number was more then twice what I was expecting, I was expecting around $30,000 to cover all our needs. As for money being tight, money is always tight for technology as the main focus is always on the clients. I do get a yearly budget for tech, but that $65k number blew it right out of the water.

We were proposed a hosted solution by one of the vendors, but the per month costs were more around $3000 a month, and it was a new product for the vendor, I am tired of being a paying beta tester for companies.
Part of the reason we are in this process is our current phone vendor is getting out of the local land line business, pushing everyone to their digital (cable) based network. This is not an option for some of our locations, so instead of dealing with multiple accounts from multiple vendors for service. We are looking at consolidation and upgrade all at once.

Now back on topic. Here is our setup and our requirements:

Between all the sites we currently have 49 phone numbers. Each location has a Cisco hardware VPN to the central office. Smallest pipe is a T1, the central admin office is on a 10mb fiber line.

1 - main admin office with 19 phones.
2 - crisis locations with 6 and 4 phones.
2 - remote program offices with 6 and 10 phones
7 other locations with a total of 28 other phones.

What I am trying to accomplish:
- centralized extensions with 4 digit dialing between locations.
- centralized voicemail
- Voicemail to email/text
- one single phone system
- the reduction in the number of lines/phone numbers we pay for.
- Direct dial numbers to each of the locations, each number will have its own "group" with a main number. With the ability to switch where a number rings based on the time of day.

Each location will have a separate PSTN line for fax/911 no power connectivity.

Here is what was being proposed:
- single PRI and central admin office
- either a UC500, Shortel (others being considered per this post) system at main office.
- all new hard phones with the possibility of a couple softphones for call center usage.

I think I have covered most of the items, though I may have missed a couple.

So based on all that info, what would you suggest? I am not married to any vendor, as long as it will do what we need it to.

and Merry Christmas.

Brian

norstar 616.