sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Inter-Tel Telephones & Systems Fax port usage

We are looking at upgrading from the Axxess to the 5000. Our Axxess has 12 fax ports. The 5000 has none. So we're also looking at fax server solutions. The big question is how many simultaneous lines we need. Is there a way to see how many of our current fax ports are used simultaneously?

Are you talking about single line ports? The faxing is done through Enterprise Messaging so you can still use it on the 5000. Do you have Contact or Call Center Suite?

We don't have Enterprise Messaging. We're still on the Unified Messenger platform. DID calls are routed to Applications, which convert the inbound fax into a TIF file, and email the file to our users. Each instance of this function utilizes a fax port (much the same way playing a recorded message uses a voice port). I need to know how many of the fax ports are in simultaneous use so I can determine how many channels I need for a fax server. This would have been so much easier if Inter-Tel had left this functionality in the 5000.

I guess im not following. :shrug: The 5000 has Fax detection when used with a VPU or EM. What are you using for voice mail now? A VPU?

Our Axxess system has a VPU. If we upgrade to the 5000, we can just use the BVM. VPU goes bye bye. However, that means we'll lose the 12 fax ports built into the VPU. Between the 12 fax ports and 4 fax machines connected to the SLC, we can handle 16 inbound faxes simultaneously. To match that in the 5000, I would need two eight port SLC modules and a fax server capable of handling 12 to 16 simultaneous faxes. That gets pricey. I can run application and trunk reports to see how many faxes came in. But it doesn't tell me the maximum number of simultaneous faxes we receive. If peak inbound faxes are only using 4 fax ports/fax machines at the same time, that's quite a bit different than 16.

What im saying is that you already have the hardware to support your faxing needs in the VPU. Why would you dump it and go to the BVM? You can use the VPU with the 5000 and not have to worry about getting a third party product to support your faxing.

Another question, what are you gaining by switching to the 5000?

Why get rid of VPU? It's old. It's running W2K. It's having problems, that Mitel can't explain, that shut down the phone system for up to half an hour each time it happens. Which makes the CEO and Call Center Manager very unhappy. The BVM can handle everything we need but the inbound faxing. Enterprise Messaging is about $30K. Fax servers are considerably less.

What are we gaining? Expandability under current (meaning up to date) architecture. We have a 512 system with 3 full cabinets. Any further expansion requires an additional cabinet and cards. The pricing of these items has been substantially increased. Rumor has it to discourage any more purchasing of these systems. It also allows us to get rid of two servers containing power supplies, hard drives and other aging items which fail. The 5000 will support our current load of digital keysets. Any further expansion will be IP.

Are you working with an Intertel dealer or a branch office? I havent seen much of a price increase on Axxess parts. 30K for EM is a bit on the high side even when equipped with 16 VM ports and 8 faxing ports. Anyways, thats another topic alltogether. If you have contact or call center suite you can run trunk or station reports to get an idea of fax usage. You can also enable SMDR and use a call accounting program to get some call usage stats.
Heres a free program that may help you get started.

https://www.bicsoft.net/

I'm working with a Branch office. I'm working on a trunk report to see the "Max Lines Busy". But I'm not sure I trust it. I've run the same report against trunk usage reports. The "Max Lines Busy" always seems to show less than the trunk report.