On Fri, Jul 15, 2005 at 12:29:00PM -0400, Tom Rymes wrote: > Ed, > > There are two main drawbacks to the softphone, as I see it: > > 1.) User interface - The interface to the softphones is really less > than ideal. This includes the problem mentioned earlier about not > hearing ringing unless you have your headset on, dialing with the > mouse,
dialing with the keypad, actually. Put in a number of shortcuts for common operations, a decent menu for the more complicated operations, etc. > not having telephone service if your PC isn't on, etc. The > traditional telephone "interface" of handset, dialpad, etc. is > utterly pervasive and very simple and user-friendly. You lose that > with a softphone. Actually, it is much easiler to play with the user interface of a soft phone than with the one of a hardware phone. e.g: any hardware gadget managed to imeplement themes? Decent support for history. Decent support for dial history. And the ability for the user to customize it. > > 2.) Quality/Cost - For good softphone quality, you HAVE to use a > headset or external USB handset, etc. This is a pain, because users > don't always want to use a headset, they want the choice. The other > problem is that one of the main advantages of the softphone is that > it is cheap, and paying for a good headset reduces that advantage > (and you DON'T want to skimp on headsets). The other factor is that > softphone quality depends on soundcard quality, etc. As a Mac shop, > this ought to be a smaller problem. A simple headset costs 5$? A lousy (ergonomically-wise) hardware SIP phone costs soewhere between 50$ and 100$. Good phones cost much more. > > The other thing to keep in mind is that your users, especially your > boss, are going to be judging the Asterisk system, and you > performance, based mostly on their interaction with the system. If > their main interface to the system is a Cisco 7940G or Polycom 501, > they are likely to be impressed because the new system gives them > such major benefits, but doesn't require them to use funny computer > phones, start up their PC to receive or make a call, etc. My desktop computer runs 24h a day. -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | best ICQ# 16849755 | | friend _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
