Discussion
With a phone bill of around £30k a year I reckon it's time to start considering the options and VOIP seems a logical choice.
Couple of questions for anyone with VOIP knowledge though:
1) Is the call quality as good as regular phones?
2) Can a decent system be installed where calls can be transferred around the office/s etc?
3) Are the costs significantly lower?
Any pointers would be much appreciated. Thanks
Couple of questions for anyone with VOIP knowledge though:
1) Is the call quality as good as regular phones?
2) Can a decent system be installed where calls can be transferred around the office/s etc?
3) Are the costs significantly lower?
Any pointers would be much appreciated. Thanks
Hi Dave,
I use Skype with the missues - IMHO the call quality is usually better than normal/mobile phones, it really is crystal clear.
Costs are, well, free skype to skype, but have a look on www.skype.com I think they have the call rates, something like 0.1p a minute or something.
My only warning is, depending on how your processing the VoIP, if it doesnt have the processing power available the quality can drop pretty quickly.
Are you looking at getting a full system (Avaya style)? or phones that go via computers (skype style)? The former will of course be more reliable, but more expensive - but will also allow your transfer feature, as well as the other call features.
It depends on what your after, and how much your willing to invest.
I use Skype with the missues - IMHO the call quality is usually better than normal/mobile phones, it really is crystal clear.
Costs are, well, free skype to skype, but have a look on www.skype.com I think they have the call rates, something like 0.1p a minute or something.
My only warning is, depending on how your processing the VoIP, if it doesnt have the processing power available the quality can drop pretty quickly.
Are you looking at getting a full system (Avaya style)? or phones that go via computers (skype style)? The former will of course be more reliable, but more expensive - but will also allow your transfer feature, as well as the other call features.
It depends on what your after, and how much your willing to invest.
Edited by Fidgits on Friday 9th February 09:54
www.trixbox.org
Can do all your current phone system does and more.
There are many VOIP provisioners out there but you want quality not out and out cheapness.
Gradwell are generally well regarded but the beauty of a VOIP PBX is that you can use the trunk on a per call basis so call internationally use supplier x, nationally supplier y and mobiles supplier z
Can do all your current phone system does and more.
There are many VOIP provisioners out there but you want quality not out and out cheapness.
Gradwell are generally well regarded but the beauty of a VOIP PBX is that you can use the trunk on a per call basis so call internationally use supplier x, nationally supplier y and mobiles supplier z
carrera2 said:
Cheers Ian
Just to clarify - this is for business use not home. It's a telephone intensive business and therefore the technology needs to be robust and stable. There are approx 20 users over 2 offices that we need to be able to transfer between.
Cheers.
Just to clarify - this is for business use not home. It's a telephone intensive business and therefore the technology needs to be robust and stable. There are approx 20 users over 2 offices that we need to be able to transfer between.
Cheers.
okay - skype may still work, though I wouldnt reccomend it if your reliant on telephone work for buisness.
I know Avaya equipment is pretty good, but your better off talking to a few install companies to see what equipment they reccomend and associated costs.
Even at 30k a year, I think for a 'good' system it may take some time to recover the costs.
Skype is really very iffy unless you have control of the equipment spec at both ends of the comm - and the remote user is hooked up to a decent bandwidth line - especially if you want to use video skype. I use it everyday but some of the calls have unresolvable echo, voice lag and are a real pain. Others are fine, but it's a sort of unpredictability you don't get over regular telecoms services. A client of min recently installed a VOIP phone system and it works OK but it's detectably not as good as it was before. It doesn't seem to provide duplex so on 3-way calling/conferencing (a common business need) this could be problematic.
Plotloss said:
www.trixbox.org
Can do all your current phone system does and more.
There are many VOIP provisioners out there but you want quality not out and out cheapness.
Gradwell are generally well regarded but the beauty of a VOIP PBX is that you can use the trunk on a per call basis so call internationally use supplier x, nationally supplier y and mobiles supplier z
Can do all your current phone system does and more.
There are many VOIP provisioners out there but you want quality not out and out cheapness.
Gradwell are generally well regarded but the beauty of a VOIP PBX is that you can use the trunk on a per call basis so call internationally use supplier x, nationally supplier y and mobiles supplier z
Cheers plotters I'll take a look
matt173407 said:
We have just installed an Avaya IP system and i can highly reccomed this, many features esp if you have vpn access to your office, quality is fantastic.
If you want details of the company we use drop me an email i highly reccomend them
If you want details of the company we use drop me an email i highly reccomend them
Thanks Matt - email on it's way - let me know if you don't get it would you, the ph mail forwarding thing is a bit of a dark art!!
In answer to the OP, there's a lot of guff talked about VoIP for business. But then I'm hardly impartial as this is what we do for a living.
You have to decide what your objective is before investigating things.
If call costs are the main issue then in 95% of cases you can get the saving without changing your phone system. Any number of companies like ours can sell you cheap minutes, but choose wisely as not all services are equal.
If you need the features and functionality which are most easily found in an IP Telephony system (hot desking, home working, softphones etc) then you have a bunch of choices, Linux based roll your own, the usual crop of vendors who will sell you a system in the traditional manner, hosted solutions that force you to rely on your broadband connection through to business class hosted services that deliver the best of both worlds, and that would carry on working even if your internet connection went down.
We sit in the latter camp and we work with a number of other PH'ers to deliver a whole range of business class hosted and managed services, including voice. We would be only too happy to discuss things with you. PH'er rates
You have to decide what your objective is before investigating things.
If call costs are the main issue then in 95% of cases you can get the saving without changing your phone system. Any number of companies like ours can sell you cheap minutes, but choose wisely as not all services are equal.
If you need the features and functionality which are most easily found in an IP Telephony system (hot desking, home working, softphones etc) then you have a bunch of choices, Linux based roll your own, the usual crop of vendors who will sell you a system in the traditional manner, hosted solutions that force you to rely on your broadband connection through to business class hosted services that deliver the best of both worlds, and that would carry on working even if your internet connection went down.
We sit in the latter camp and we work with a number of other PH'ers to deliver a whole range of business class hosted and managed services, including voice. We would be only too happy to discuss things with you. PH'er rates
matt173407 said:
We have just installed an Avaya IP system and i can highly reccomed this, many features esp if you have vpn access to your office, quality is fantastic.
If you want details of the company we use drop me an email i highly reccomend them
If you want details of the company we use drop me an email i highly reccomend them
you've just made my day! What system?
carrera2 said:
Just to clarify - this is for business use not home. It's a telephone intensive business and therefore the technology needs to be robust and stable. There are approx 20 users over 2 offices that we need to be able to transfer between.
Cheers.
I work for a solutions provider and can confirm if installed correctly VoiP speech quality is just as good as traditional telephony..some of the new handsets even offer wideband handsets and sound fantastic..
If your 2 offices have voice and data circuits between them, then yes you potentially could save money by "converging" but that would depend upon your line rentals and call costs etc, as stated above call costs are getting lower all the time.
BUT the data network must be able to support prioritisation to ensure you dont sound like a robot !!! but if setup correctly it works a treat...we have several customers who are using it for dialling between sites globally with no impact to call quality...
As for solutions a few have been mentioned above plus Mitel is performing very well currently...
Mail me if you want and we can have a chat about it...
obi said:
carrera2 said:
Just to clarify - this is for business use not home. It's a telephone intensive business and therefore the technology needs to be robust and stable. There are approx 20 users over 2 offices that we need to be able to transfer between.
Cheers.
I work for a solutions provider and can confirm if installed correctly VoiP speech quality is just as good as traditional telephony..some of the new handsets even offer wideband handsets and sound fantastic..
If your 2 offices have voice and data circuits between them, then yes you potentially could save money by "converging" but that would depend upon your line rentals and call costs etc, as stated above call costs are getting lower all the time.
BUT the data network must be able to support prioritisation to ensure you dont sound like a robot !!! but if setup correctly it works a treat...we have several customers who are using it for dialling between sites globally with no impact to call quality...
As for solutions a few have been mentioned above plus Mitel is performing very well currently...
Mail me if you want and we can have a chat about it...
Out of interest, are these systems duplex? Maybe the VOIP systems I have used recently weren't because on multi-party conference calls it was useless if two people spoke at the same time.
Edited by hut49 on Friday 9th February 22:51
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