sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems Great ESI story, no question

A few days ago a contact in Chicago calls me wanting an ESI system to support 17 phones with all the bells and whistles. I have a wall full of S-Classes but since he and I worked together on an E-Class where he did the physical install and I handled the programming I told him I would try to find him an E-Class. As luck would have it 2 days later I get an email from a different guy wanting to sell off a recently removed E-Class. The guy proudly exclaimed in his email that he wanted to move this equipment along because their business had UPGRADED their phone system.

OK, I'm thinking I'll give this guy a call and test the waters. He gave me a number with his extension number also.

The call goes like this:

Ring Ring Ring..

Recept: Acme Manufacturing, can I help you?

Me: Yes, may I speak to Jim please?

Recept: I'm sorry, Jim is out of the office can I transfer you to his VM?

Me: Yes, thank you!

Music on hold begins to play and so I know what is going to happen in one minute. After the minute is up, bingo.

Recept returns: Did Jim's VM fail to pick up?

Me: No Mam, I was just on hold, I never heard a VM greeting.

Recept: I'm sorry, I don't have access to Jim's extension right now.

Me: Jim is extension 220. Are you having trouble with your new phone system?

pause-silence-pause

Me: On your other phone system you could transfer to VM real easy couldn't you?

Recept: How did you know?

Me: What kind of phone do you have now?

Recept: It is a Plantronics ( musta had the headset box still there)

Me: Try this, enter 220 using the numeric key pad and then hang up, I'll take it from there.

Recept: Are you sure, you might get cut off?

Me; No problem, I can always call back and we can try something else.

Recept: OK, Good Luck

The call went through.

I did leave Jim a VM and if he returns my call I'll see if he will tell me what they upgraded to!

:thumb:

John, I wonder if it is a VOYP 5000? The last CG I worked with loved VOYP systems. Have a good evening.

John,

Did you find out what the "improvement" was? :rofl:

Justin

I have learned that the location I called was not the location that replaced the ESI system. The location that did replace the system went full VOIP but I didn't learn any pertinent information. If more develops I will update.

Is there any real advantage to " upgrading" to a VOIP system if you are not trying to link various offices?

Not particularly unless you have a lot of money to spend. Many of the IP systems are modeled after TDM systems in the first place, so most of the usable features are about the same. If you have a huge wiring investment to consider, IP may make more sense.

Then again, you have the significant added expense of QoS and Poe issues with the network hardware to satisfactorily support VoIP. In most cases, TDM, even with completely separate wiring, ends up being less expensive and more stable.

If you were building a completely-new medium to large sized office where everything was being purchased from scratch, I'll bet that VoIP might be a more logical choice if only viewing it from a cost perspective. VoIP has many other expenses though that are frequently overlooked or misrepresented by over-zealous salesmen, like seat licenses and annual relicensing fees. That's a question that many people don't ask about or budget for when purchasing some of these systems.