atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones VoIP vs TDM

If its P2P, they how do you intergrate trunks? or can you only use SIP trunking?

Just like a SOHO would. Lines plug into the phones but yes they also support SIP Trunks just have not tried it yet. Go to the "Other Systems" forum and look at the Konnect subject and lets talk more there. It is a new product...

I'm not touching this topic with a 10 foot pole!

For thirty years I have watched this industry evolve, IMHO, the transition to IP, has been most challenging.
With that said, there is no doubt in my mind that all aspects of IP (VOIP, Local IP, IP trunks, etc)are the wave of the future and year after year they are eating away the TDM arena.

Installation:
I have seen IP phone systems installed in half the time it takes to deploy a TDM. Furthermore, I can do it anywhere in the country and all I need to get it installed is someone that can plug phones in and mount the server to a rack or wall.

We installed a IP phone system "Ipitomy" with 15 phones, and was only on site for an hour (two men) Training was easy because they changed from one IP system to another.

Log Me In 123 is a great tool to gather IP information prior to the install. It is also a great tool to check the health of a network before an install.

If you do a network evaluation prior to the install you can save yourself a ton of grief, this also give you an opportunity to upgrade their network and possible take over their network.
If you are not maintaining their network and their is a network problem that is causing the phone system to fail, that is a billable call.

If it is a new install and new cabling is required, we run dual runs and setup a separate network for the phone system.

Training:
Sure there is a learning curve for the end user, just like there is a learning curve when a customer goes from a "squared" TDM setup to a "pooled" button setup. If you develop the proper training materials, I find training to be no more difficult than TDM.

If I sell a IP phone system out of my region and it is a large system (hundreds of phones) I would fly a tech in to train. If it is a smaller system, training can be effectively done via a webinar.

Feature or Benefits of IP:
I find it hard to believe you guy are not jumping up and down about what an astrix IP phone system can do that a TDM system cannot.
If you chose the right system and it is not IPitomy, the benifits are huge IMHO, and it is an easy to sell less expensive solution to the end user, some cases it is the same cost as TDM.

1- Having the choice of hundreds of phones, rather than the three or four choices TDM offers is better for the vendor and the end user. Also, as cool phones with cool new gadgets hit the market (seems like every month) you are always guaranteed to have the latest and greatest.
2- Apps for smart phones, It is pretty cool to download Fring (Free App) on your Droid, IPhone or smart phone and your phone becomes an extension off your phone system. Lets say you at place where you have no cell service but you have Wifi, no problem, switch to Wifi.
3- ACD that announces to the caller there postion in the cue and the average wait time (standard feature)
4- Voice Mail to Email (Standard feature)
5- Automatic call recording of all calls (standard feature)
6- CDR Call detail reporting (standard feature) no additional server or software required.
7- No special phone required if you want to use your phone at home, just reprogram the phone to be remote and take it home, reprogramming can be done by the user right at his console on his work station.
8- Soft phones are FREE
9- NEVER a charge for License Fees.
10- Add 1 phone or 1000 phones, all you need is the phone, no cards to buy like TDM phone systems.

There are many more benefits. When you have an open source software like this that tens of thousands of Geeks are improving on a daily basis, and a manufacture that has a good gooey, I find it impossible that a TDM manufacture could compete and this is why the TDM market share is declining so rapidly.

I am happy to read that so many phone vendors are so negative about this technology and that the are in denial. This make my job and my success getting a sale much easier. I just wish you all were in my neck of the woods :toothy:

Just my experience and 2C

Walter

I'm still not touching this topic with a 10-foot pole

Only one comment, about ASTERISK specifically. No BLF/DSS capability. Oh sure there's an add-on that creates a BLF on a computer at the users desk, but that means he/she needs MORE computer, or ANOTHER computer/screen/keyboard/mouse. I don't know about the capabilities of the ASTERISK private label systems
Also applies to the pure IP systems that have no "controller" so to speak.

Not true by any stretch of the imagination, tons of DSS/BLF options, meaning, side cars like TDM phone systems.

As far as the free software for a computer screen, you don't need another computer, if you want to view it all the time you upgrade your video card (cheap) and add a monitor, also cheap.
By the way, doing that opens another whole world for other applications, which equal more money to be made!!!

You guys are really in the dark ages, hope my posts get you out of there.

Walter

I like the hybrid systems like IPO, BCM, MBX etc... You can get the cost savings of TDM and also the added applications when needed. These seem to be a better solution than the straight up VOIP applications like Asterisk or Cisco for example. But we can all agree that the lines of distinction are becoming very blurred. Even using digital sets, most of new the KSU/PBX units are server based now.

walterv, there is nothing here that is really dark ages. There is no advantage to having 25 types of different sip phones running on a system..I call that a nightmare..esp if you do have dss/blf. Asterisk is also open source, which means that you have no manufacturer to back you up if something fails or does not work properly. In fact, Asterisk is so customizable, that it reminds me of the 70's and 80's where every business was held hostage by their programmers custom coding...good luck jumping in to a system you DIDN'T program. Also, not everyone wants to run 2 computer screens just to have phone functionality. Space = money in an office environment. BTW one of the biggest beefs I have with Shoretel is that the manager is DAMN cool..unfortunately you HAVE to have a PC to really get good use out of that phone. There is nothing dark ages about 5-9's, support and the ability to find another vendor that can pick up wherever you left off in short time.

Coral,
I don't have 25 different phones running on one phone system, maybe two or three. But on the sale, if need be, the customer has many more choices than TDM. That's all I was saying. Hey, if the customer wanted 100 different phones running on one system I can do that, TDM cannot, and if this scenario existed, I would win the sale where TDM would not and would get paid to make this happen, nightmare, nope, more money to be made, yup, winning a sale and getting a customer, yup.

TDM has it's space, but that space is shrinking, TDM in the future will be the jobs I won't even want to be involved in.

As an old timer and soon to have my son take the wheel, all I can tell you is I have been there and done that. What I mean by that is early in my day it went like this:

1A2, solid as a rock, you can actually fix a phone, who needs those stupid features, 1A2 can do all the features you need, the rest is all BS.

Voice Mail, that will never fly, very expensive and companies will lose business, nothing is better than speaking to a live person.

Hope you get where I am coming from, those that don't, will be left out to dry while companies like mine will be eating at your table.

Again, Just My 2C

Walter