I haven't seen CISCO I phones mentioned at all here. I went to see a customer today who is building a large campus with 4 buildings and a few hundred telephones. We're talking to them about the wiring but they already have a contract with a company that is local to me that I have never heard of before to install the CISCO IP phones. Ever run into that? A sale like that had to be huge.

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Let the nightmare begin.

It's a salesmans world. The techs will have to make it do what the sales guy promised.
mark

[This message has been edited by markk (edited March 02, 2005).]

Our company is deploying CISCO for our IP telephony solution vendor. We'll support and configure internally. Could we have a forum added for cisco questions?

Or just IP phones in general.

I am surprised Devin that you would be deploying Cisco after the City of Dallas fiasco.

I am also installing Cisco systems/phones...Welcome to the new world.

I will be interested when Cisco gets away from Voip and starts doing Toip.

What is the distribution method and certification requirements for CISCO VOIP?

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... they already have a contract with a company that is local to me that I have never heard of before to install the CISCO IP phones.

Ha! In another thread someone talks about a cable company providing this "service".

-Hal

That was my post also. There are other Data VARs I have talked to that claim to be CISCO Call Manager certifed. I wonder if CISCO is going to do what 3Com did in our area a few years ago. They set up a dealer on every corner. These guys dumped loads of the stuff around here and now only one company sells and services the stuff. One other thing. Our local hospital is going around to the doctor's offices in town and setting them up with CISCO phones on a rental program. The doctor pays a monthly rent to have the hospital maintain and provide everything. That's making a lot of vendors really upset. The hospital is also trying to take over the data admin as well. This is a profit center for a county owned hospital.

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Coral - could you elaborate on the CISCO and Dallas fiasco? I have seen/heard references to this but I have not heard the details.
Thanks, Bill

Will do. I have to find the newspaper articles. You know, this is one thing that Cisco does well is cover up on the internet. It's simply amazing the way they flood the search engines when they have problems with their systems. I guese an inherrent advantage when you deal with the internet so much.

You have email BillyBob.

Thanks, Rich!

Coral could you possible email me those articles as well?

gary

can I have a copy of the scandal also, I vaguely remember it put a little refresher won't hurt me. thanks

Now I startd this. Make sure I get a copy.

Thanks

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Could I have one too. I found an article on the Cisco website that uses dallas as an example of how great their systems are. Here is how it reads.....


Reducing Costs
Government deficits are triggering a search for savings. Savings in voice services, for example, can pay for numerous
high-profile, high-return projects, including surveillance, emergency notification, business continuity, and mobility.
Governments can reduce TCO for their voice networks by consolidating disparate voice and data networks to a
single, converged network for all traffic types. IP Communications reduces costs because an agency need manage only
one network for voice, data, and video. For example, the City of Dallas, Texas, was able to converge incompatible
data networks—five in all—and one voice network into a single, converged network that will generate US$21 million
in savings over a 10-year period.

Your comment in regards to the hospital should be a warning for all of us! I service quite a few doctors and they tell me they have been approched by the local hospital for exactly the same thing. Going so far as total maintenance!! Health care administrators are looking for more revenue streams and with VoIP, they can add a Value-Added-Service. Keep in touch with your customers and get to know the person in charge of communications at the local hospital.

What they don't tell you beside the article I sent you is that it took IBM and I think SBC to come in and save their arse because Cisco couldn't get it working. Like I said it's pretty interesting how if one can control the spin and the internet search engines you can work wonders.

Google some of the old Dallas Business Journal articles. I had copies at one time where the city officials were disappointed in the total cost of ownership and ever increasing maintenance costs. That fiasco was brought up when City of Houston was looking at VOIP solutions. Probably can be found in Houston Business Journal archives also. I'll try to dig those up.