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
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.
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................
"Not due to cost but features no PBX can deliver..."
What features.? Just curious. I ask only because there are quite a few features a PBX can deliver that hosted or even on-site VoIP systems don't or can't do well; overhead paging, especially, comes to mind. I work with both, so there's no bashing intended...
Please watch this video It’s not just a sales pitch I’ve seen it in action and it does work flawlessly. Even though modern pbxs offer CRM integration, you will not be able to access database of softwares they use for practice management, it’s proprietary and encrypted to be HIPPA compliant
Pretty slick, indeed. Doesn't mean much to someone who doesn't have to be HIPPA compliant. It's pretty specialized for a particular niche. Nothing wrong with that, it's just too big a world to put all your eggs in one basket and sell end users on features they don't want or can't use.
Dental might be a small niche, but CRM and Voice integration feature is widely used and becoming a standard. I have potential client with 30 sales representatives who’s using Ringcentral hosted, paying them $1500/month, but never has more than 4-5 simultaneous calls. The only reason he stuck with them is Salesforce CRM integration and I have no on premises solution for him.
SV lines do, but I can’t sell them. Looks like it’s coming to SL2100 too. I haven’t gave up on him yet and if I decide not to get involved, will you be interested? He is in Palatine
One thing to be careful of with hosted PBX is who is collecting the FCC taxes & reporting on the phone calls/SIP trunks? If you are a reseller, let the SIP provider handle that. Then look at your state taxes as well. In my state, I'd have collect service provider tax on any installation & maintenance labor related to the VoIP system. Including any cabling and ethernet device configuration & maintenance.
You can become an agent for almost any hosted provider now days. Avaya has Agent programs that you just need to sell, and everything is provisioned for you. OR, you can host your own through AWS or your own datacenter. If you dont like that, you can go through distribution and sell hosted where someone else has the datacenter .
Not an Avaya pitch, but i have to think, that if Avaya is doing that, every other hosted provider is as well.
There are options out there, just need to do research and find which suits you best.