Is anyone using Ipitomy voip system? And if so are they as good as they say they are?

Thank You
Rod

We have it installed in our office. So far no problems. Easy to install and easy to maintain!

Yes they are Rod! :banana:

We just took the product on and have a system in our office and just sold our first one. We are not really networking centric but the tech support guys are pretty thorough and patient. They seem to be very accommodating and I have heard great things from other dealers. We are looking to install our first one in the next week or so, guess we will see. For sure it has been a learning curve on two sides, the networking and learning the system

I have been curious about it also but what is up with the name?

I pity me?
i-pit? oh my!
I pee. I too. oh my.

Sometimes I am not very sophisticated.

It is a play on the ipitome. Here's the definition...
epitome:
something representative as a fine example of the whole group of things to which it belongs.
See also: Representation

Sheesh. I was just having fun with the name. Of course I know it is pronounced epitome.
And it does look like an interesting system!

Dave:

Let me know if you need more info or want a demo.
It's what I do!!

We installed one today - our first one. IP1000v2 with 15 phones.

I was onsite with one of my guys who is a Cisco CCIE doing the install (because the guy scheduled to do it had a baby a few days early)and he was impressed with the ease of installation, networking ability and the GUI design.

He asked me if he could do all future installs instead of banging his head against the wall with networking problems.

Client really likes it to.

My opinion is it works very well and my only negative comment is that the Desk Top Manager needs a lttle work - no screen pops when you receive an IM, you have to monitor a little box and wait for a yellow button - that does't work.

Give me a screen pop on an IM and i will give IPitomy an A+.

Anyone thinking of going IP should check them out.

Thanks, Steve..... :thumb:

No problem Jim.

Just tell Nick to fix the IM screen pop - no one is going to sit and monitor DCM for an instant message.

IMO

Also tweek DCM a little more it's a little week, maybe combine Outlook dialer and DCM together?

Ask, an you shall receive! It's on the upgrade list. The plan for the DCM is to be THE display for call monitoring, especially for ACD applications.

Everything that happens on the PBX can and is trapped by the DCM application. We'll eventually have all of the agent and supervisor call requiremnts and statistics available in DCM.

One of the things that we can do as a smaller manufacturer is adapt quickly to dealer and customer needs. Last year we had alot of calls for ACD/Call Center applications, so that's what we've done.

Steve, you know first hand about the update of the "find-me follow-me" feature on the IP1000!

Now if we could only have a "cool" demo kit like the other guys?

How about service provider / multi tenant hosted PBX capabilities..*cough cough*

does anyone know if you can access the smart personal console remotely? Does not appear that you can, just wondering if I am missing something.

Phoneguy, I don't think that the Call Manager application works for remote workers at this time. I agree that it would be cool to have dss/blf of everyone on the system, however that a lot of extra status messages going back and forth over the wan. They might need an external server at some point to do the heavy lifting of call manager across all branch offices. That being said i still like the Call manager price point and functionality for a application that is written in .net and not java.. refreshes very nice and works much better than HUD or other applications i've tried in the past...

No Remote DCM - yet rumor has it.

Yes, you can access the Smart Personal Console remotely. I just logged into our demo system from home.

On the Desktop Call Manager, it will work remotely but would require a VPN connection, which the remote phone does not require. Basically it would make it a local phone via te VPN.

Sweet thanks Jim

do they have their own branded handsets?
One of the major issues I hade with several other brands was that they used 3rd party handsets, then when they did a software upgrade he handsets would stop working.
The pbx guys would say it's the handset adn the handset guys woud say it's the PBX, The customer would be screwed and I would catch all kinds of sh8.

Ipitomy has their own phone. The IP550. They also support Aastra 5i series sets.

As mentionee above, yes we manufacture the IP550 and have an IP110 coming out soon as well as the Aastra 5 series line. but can use any best of breed SIP phone as required (most cases).

The other advantage of using our phones or the Aastra line is that they will auto provision themselves which makes installation and configuration faster than any other in the industry!

contact me for a demo! :thumb:

We just replaced a IPitomy with a AVAYA IP Office.
We did this ONLY because the end user was unhappy the IPitomy. I saw very little wrong that a proper installation of the IPitomy could not have corrected. It seemed to me the IPitomy was decent system. My question is how much training and support do dealers get, because this system was not installed/programmed properly.

That tends to be an issue hitech, there is FREE training available for them as well as free tech support but unfortunately alot of them don't take the time to properly educate the technicians!

We are looking at implementing a certification class in the near future, and I make every effort to get new dealer reps into sales and tech training.

There is plenty of opportunity to get trained, usually one technician goes thru the training then they send out some other tech to do the install! Then the technician's ego doesn't allow him to call into tech support and get help!

Honestly 95% of the calls we get in tech support are configuration issues, not bad HW.

I'd be interested in knowing what that location was so I can track down the dealer if you don't mind PM'ing me some details.

Jim you are correct. The problem was not the equipment, but the installer.
We require our techs to be trained on the systems they work on.
In a slow economy the time is there to get additional training for our techs.

I wish all companies felt the same way about training!

Question for PhoneSol:
we sell the IPitomy product and have been reasonably happy with it. One issue for us has been DSS keys on the IP550 set. There is apparently a 5 DSS key limit on these phones with the DSS key having to be on the first 5 buttons. We are big believers in button functionality and most of the TDM we sell has a minimum of 24 soft keys, for DSS or feature use. Is there some plan in the future to increase the number of DSS keys that would be available? Thanks

Phoneguy10,

Email sent.

Has anything been done about certification?

Thanks Mr. BTS!

I don't think you'll see any changes to the IP550 as far as the BLF keys go, to gain more you need to use one of the Aastra line with a console or the DCM Software.

Hitech, last I heard there was a test/certification coming soon.

What's the price range compared to Avaya or Nortel ??/

Depends on the Avaya or Nortel system?

Remember its still Asterisk so its a free software that developers "make their own" enhancements to.

Some of these systems will survive, some won't, that is the danger of reselling Asterisks based products in my opinion.

This being said the price point should be lower - but it think the margins are higher for the manufacturer and okay for the reseller.

I don't think the quality of any Asterisk based product is as good as the major players like ESI, Cisco, Avaya, Panasonic and so on.

I am not sure I disagree with respect to Asterik based products, there are always limitations. That said, the quality of the IPitomy product so far has been really good. Avaya (I am assuming you mean the Office) has had lots of problems up here. We have more than a few instances of customers ripping them out in favor of another IP solution. Avaya bought this system in England and did not have a lot of say so with respect to product development. ESI is not much of a player here and Panicsonic still is viewed as a supply house product. Most guys I know still havent forgotten Panisonics overnight bailout on the old DBS. For what it is, the Asteriks based IPitomy has a fairly good feature set, flexible to a point and lots less than say the Vertical Wave, which we got certified on, but stayed away from because of the lack of confidence in Vertical.

IPitomy is okay - I am just not a big fan of Asterisk.

If anyone is looking for an IPitomy 1000 with 2 Aastra 55I's and one IPitomy 550 phone let me know, just PM me for price.

Avaya IPO - I agree, it had a tough start but the last 2 releases are solid.

IP Office has stablized with the recent release's.
Pricing with IP Office is good.
We are still looking for another system to do IP.

Another problem is getting a demo form manufacturers for us to see and test the system so we can make a decision.

You can get a demo from Allworxs (they supplied me with one).

IPitomy refused to lend one, but they were happy to take my credit card.

Demo systems are tough to get as a loaner.

Better off asking questions here than buying a system until you are comfortable with the manufacturer and the product before investing $$$.

There is allot of junk out there when it comes to Asterisk based systems.

When we took the Ipitomy on, we did so after attending an Ipitomy meeting in Ma. at a hotel. They had a system set up there and had invited a couple of their larger dealers to the meeting. Once we saw the product up close and talked to guys who had success with it, we felt more comfortable spending money on an inhouse to play with. I agree that there is lots of Asterik junk out there. IPitomy seemed to have a more credible presence. I would imagine with the current state of the economy, all manufacterers are struggling with putting hardware on the street. I will say that the IPitomy people are very accommodating. and helpful on the sales side.

I did not mean a demo for my office, I mean the manufacturer giving me a live demo so I and my staff can see the product.
It seams to me that most of the new IP manufactures are not willing to show there product to vendors before signing up.
I am not asking for a free demo kit, I want to see a demo.

Hmm, when we were looking for a new IP product about two years ago we were given in office demos by Cisco, Shoretel, Allworx, and a few others offered. Maybe things have changed.

Steve

Both Shoretel and Allworx invited us to the office. Both were a bit far from us.
Which one did you go with?

We ended up with Allworx, it complements our product line well. It fits in the under 20 endpoint market well as it is feature rich and priced right. I am sure that the Ipitomy product is good too, but I do not have direct experience with it.

Steve

IPitomy will do a live demo with you on line, just call them.

Personally a live demo/webinar is not very productive - it is an easy way for a manufacturer to show you what they want you to see.

Its a good introduction but I want one in my hands that we can play with and see how it really performs before I make a purchase decision.

If they wont send you a system and a couple of phones, come to you or you go to them and its only an internet demo - LET THE BUYER BEWARE.

Allworx is also a nice little system backed by an owner with lots of $$$$$.

IPitomy is privately held so who knows how deep the pockets are to keep it going.

Shoretel - better have clients with lots of $$$$

I'm surprised these new manufactures of IP Systems do not do at least regional demo's for possible new vendors.

I think they have all become just telemarketers, make the fast cash and deal with the issues later.

At least make sure they will give you a 30 day return option.

I saw the Ipitomy in a live demo this past week. It's ok, I wasn't overly impressed except by the price.

IMHO Allworx kicks a$$ for a pure IP system. Their proprietory phones are better.

I agree with the phones - the IPitomy 550 is just not very appealing to me and others that have looked at it.

Does Allworx support cordless SIP/DECT phones?

Thats the problem with Web demo's, you see nothing in person.

We need to install some paging horns in the warhouse on an IP1000 that we installed a couple of months ago. I would guess we need to use a spare co port, anyone know which Viking interface to use here? We will use 24v horns. Thanks

If you have a spare analog port then you could use a Viking CPA-7B. 7 watt amp and it will open for paging immediately on ring. It also comes with 1 horn.

We are an IPitomy dealer and we have been having some problems with some of the IP550 sets. Buzzing on the handsets, if you play around with the mod connector it goes away. Changed handset and cord on one phone (my office phone) and the problem persists intermittently. Tech support is mum, anyone else having this issue?

Please read the forum rules for posting. No bashing of competitor products allowed.

We just completed the installation of an IPitomy IP 1200 with a bunch of analog extensions. We find that it takes a long time once a call is dialed from one of these extensions to connect to the other side. Tech support claims never to have heard of this. Anyone out there experience this?

Try dialing "#" at the end of the number.

Same problem here.

Tech support will almost always say " we have hundreds of systems out there working". Must something on your side.

Mod thanks for removing my post.

I am not a competitor. I am a Ipitomy dealer, Just not happy with their products and service.

Ipitomy is a pretty good product but they have alot of short comings example: they are not the phone system you would want to ever use for more then one company one one phone system. They are a solid system from what i have seen but need more enhancements.

Thanks for the info on dialing # on the call, I will try it. We just had to change out an IP550 that was in service for 2 weeks, dropped calls, disconnect from the network. I thought this phone was acting a little funky when we installed. Sure enough. I have been less than impressed with the IP550's. Every install we have with them there is an issue. The buzzing on the handsets continues to be a problem. Coming from a TDM world,(Vodavi) I am used to putting it in a walking away. I like the IPitomy product but there are little things that are somewhat annoying. Customers seem to have a little bit of more of a learning curve with it. I understand its a SIP system but we have it working with a T1 and its still a little funky. There is also an echo issue, I have it on my office system as well, comes and goes. I have pretty much decided that I will use this product for a specific application, would never lead with it. Its got some great stuff but, I need to feel more comfortable with the station equipment. Also, putting analog extensions (on the 1200) was a bit of an exercise. Its OK.

To all IPitomy guys: Having an issue with analog lines on an IP 1000 v2. Echo on the lines, usually a sign of the co's being too hot. Very limited adjustment on the IP 1000 sw. I am sure the CLEC is going to point to the pbx. How do you condition these co's before they hit the phone system? Thanks

Mike Sandman sells devices to accomplish line conditioning.

Might be pulling out an IP1200 that we installed a month ago. 10 phones, 16 call manager licenses, T1 card. Customer is not happy with it. Anyone interested in buying it?

What is the customer not happy with phoneguy10?

We have been using the Ipitomy in the office (second phone system) with SIP trunks for over a year.

Yes we have the buzzing noises from time to time on the handsets and as you mentioned, unplugging the cord fixes it.
We also have problems with the IP550 phones speaker phone, some times it works, sometimes it does not work (all 10 phones)

Slow to dial out:
Do not select a line, use the hot keypad then press dial when you are done, call goes right out.

The quality of the call is dependent on the health of the network. Did you perform a "network evaluation"

Bryan

We have had IPitomy send us new handsets which have fixed the buzzing problem. We had loads of complaints and finally the new handsets have improved that situation. Not sure what you mean by hot keypad, please explain. Finally, the network is brand new cat5e cable, phones separate from the data.
Finally the speakerphone. You are right on, sometimes its fine, sometimes the phone wont hear the DTMF tone to make an auto attendant selection. Also find that sometime the speakerphone has great quality sometimes the clipping is so bad that you cant use it. My customers and we have app. Hard to figure out a cause, especially when its supposed to be full duplex

Hot key pad: without lifting the handset, dial the number, then press dial (soft key option on the first or second softkey on the top left).

"sometimes the clipping is so bad that you cant use it."

Same problem, if I hit the mute key it stops clipping, un-mute then same gig, hang up, make another call and all works great.

Note:
Some phones that have this are a year old, others are no more than 5 months old, so IMHO, not a bad batch because the phones were bought at different times.

You do know you can use any SIP phone on the IPitomy system. There phones don't seem to be working for us, I wonder if anyone here has used other SIP phones?

The box seems solid, The IP550 phones are not so solid.

FYI
The new company they reccomend for SIP trunks seem to be very good (6 months using them). As mentioned, we have two systems side by side in our office, out going calls are made on the IPitomy via sip trunks.

We have no experience yet on incoming traffic since all incoming goes through are traditional ESI phone system.

My father is the pro with this you may want to speak with him.

Bryan

I hear you on the phones, the IP 550 sets have been a problem for us. I have one now, happens to be the receptionist phone, she cant dial out unless she pressed the dial button, on or off hook. Worked fine before, now it doesnt. Tech support had me go into the phone, look at some settings which hadnt changed, then told me to do about 4 other things. These are phones that are a month old. For all of the great features the systems have, the phones IMHO need to get better. The speakerphone is a real problem, I have a couple of customers who are really disgusted with it and I have no fix nor explanation. Correct on the SIP trunks, but honestly, I have pulled back on proposing the IPitomy unless someone specifically asks for pure IP. I find my TDM's go in without a hitch and the go backs are much less. Hard to explain, I guess SIP systems are different. I have had to upgrade firmware on brand new phones, I mean why am I spending a minute of my time doing that?

Ipitomy has some great ideas, not very good quality control which results in a rush to market to stay competative in the overc
rowded cutthroat world of Asterisk products.

I agree on the great ideas, but, in the real world, its all about putting them in, making it work, getting paid and moving on to the next one. I find that has not been our experience with this product. In the broad sense they work, there are some great features but I find we spend a lot of time on things we should not be spending time on. In specific applications, for example where SIP is a requirement to keep phone numbers or something like that, the SIP component works great. I cannot speak for any other Asterik based system, havent used or installed any others so I cant tell you that IPitomy is better, worse or the same as all others. In its place its fine, as a lead product, for me its not going to work.

We have an IP1000 coming off warranty and would like to present the customer with pricing for a maintenance contract. Anyone have any thoughts/experience with pricing for maint. on one of these IPitomy systems? Thanks

I need a couple of IP400 Gateways for an install and IPitomy wont have any for a while. Would anyone out there have a couple they want to sell? Thanks

Phoneguy,
there is an internal card you can get from IPitomy I believe until they have the IP400's back in stock.

Timbo

Timbo,
Right you are but the internal card cannot be used on the new IP1100. No matter I was able to scare up a couple of IP400's. IP 400'w will not be in country until late July.

sorry...for some reason I was thinking IP1200....glad to hear you found some!

PHoneguy10, i would be interested. I have these going in all over the place, my current install is 4 systems in the US, 2 in Mexico all linked and using T1's, E1's(mexico), Sip trunks and analogs. as long as the upfront engineering is solid, the installs go very quick. always open to helping, we have installs ranging from 10 phones to over 100 extensions and of course the international deal as well.

VP Telecom,
Thanks, all is OK with our stuff at this point. In fact we are installing a 1200 this week and so far so good. How does your install with 100 extensions work and on what type of trunks?

Has anything been done about certifications?

Not as far as I know. We have been a dealer since june 09 and we took the online course, which was ok but honestly the learning curve for us was on the networking side. Programming the systems was a little different but once you figured out the basics it wasnt bad. Took a while on the network side but we are starting to get better at it. I am not sure what other OS manufacturers are doing about certification but today, not too many are travelling to get certified.

On line training is ok, but not the best.
That worries me. You should know and be compent on the system before you do your first install. a long learning curve is not good.

We bought a system and installed it in house and that was a huge help.

Has anyone had any experience with the Fonality product? I have a client that "thinks" they like it and leaning towards it.
It looks a lot like the IPitomy somewhat.
The client currently has an ESI-1000, using 3 ACD call center groups, SIP Trunk, and Analog Lines.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

We have an IPitomy IP1200 install coming up and there is external paging involved (on the old system now). Originally we had spec'd a Valcom VIP 801 which is a SIP device and work it through an IPR20 port. Wondering if anyone has done this. Also, would using an IP120 phone and tapping into the speaker leads and connecting to the paging equipment do it (use the extension # as the page code)? Thanks

Correction, there is no IPR20 on this. Sorry for the confusuion

Interestingly, we looked at the Fonality before we took on the IPitomy based on the recommendation of a consultant friend. It is a system that sits on a Dell Server (Nortel is involved as well). I believe its open source. We chased the Fonality sales people around for weeks until we got hooked up with IPitomy and havent looked back.

Not sure if anyone goes to this board anymore. We installed an IP620 a couple of months ago. It has developed a loud buzzing in the handset, sort of like the one we had a couple of years ago when there were some bad handsets on the IP550. Anyone experience it? Thanks