sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Oh my....

Sitting here getting my wife’s oil changed at dealership watching this disaster of a VOIP system deployment. Trying not to say anything because I don’t want to be sucked into this fiasco. Looks like they are replacing a MICS with a system that is clearly not good for this application. Someone didn’t did their homework. No cabling for the new phones in critical areas. Paging is not possible with what they have so it looks like MICS. Being left running for now. Keeping everthing in my power to not laugh.

When I did my auto dealership, it was a lot more thoughtful. They moved into a new building :-) It went from a Partner ACS to a VoIP system. I had the better sense of making it look like what they had before. The system fixes 4 account buttons on the left, and 3 parking buttons on the right, with electronic desi's. Initially, I added 2 more park buttons, since removed, but it was nice to have everybody's DSS in the directory, as well as department transfer buttons for parts and service.

Three years later, it still runs the same, take a call, put it on hold (to a parking orbit) and then page for someone to pick up 70x. For service, they push transfer to service. They seldom direct sales calls to a specific person and the sales people have DID's and direct ring to their cell phone if they don't pick up in 12 seconds. The laughable part of IT weenies doing IP phones is they don't grasp the concept of square key systems. I had one company propose an IP system to my stodgy 1A2 customer. Iwe can give you 5 phones for $85 a month and a $190 pipe and you won't have any equipment on site). I didn't hear how they propose to answer and funnel calls to the owner who takes most calls. I've proposed my own solution that uses prepend letters to identify the trunk of the call since he got in on the ground floor of WATS service with an Ohio and National Wats seperate numbers that he still maintains. The solution is about $2000 with a $80 pipe and $80 phone service. Looks like a 20 month payback and he's the owner of the hardware. It's a tight sell because the owner is 70. LOL


Carl

I think your fighting a losing fight.

$2000 up front vs $0 up front.

It is getting harder to sell small systems with couple trunks and handsets, there are almost no benefits vs hosted.
On premises systems still sell well to businesses with a lot of handsets mostly for intercom use and 2-4 trunks

As an Avaya guy, we are left with no solution for small clients. IP Office is just too expensive. That plus the telcos are hiking the rates on POTS so that an office with 4 or 5 lines cannot possibly afford a private system. In California, a garden variety 1MB is almost $100 a month. Out here in South Dakota, even the PRIs are sky high, making hosted or SIP the only sensible options.

Not a losing fight. I have YET to lose to a hosted solution. I have YET to see one cheaper over 5 years. Not that I don't see or sell them but the numbers don't lie.

I’ve lost 3 dental offices to a hosted and no doubt will lose many more. Not due to cost but features no PBX can deliver.
There are two most commonly used Practice Managment Softwares for dental practices Dentrix and Eaglesoft. If Dr. wants phones to integrate with Dentrix his only option is Broadview networks. Same story with eaglesoft, but different providers.

Did you ever think of becoming a Hosted provider.

The problem with being an actual hosted provider as apposed to a reseller is that you need to have redundant and significant bandwidth. On top of fail-over power, redundant equipment, secure facility................

Being a reseller is easier and the money is very good.