> -----Original Message----- > From: Jason Kawakami [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: September 10, 2004 5:13 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Re: Organization wide > > ----- Original Message ----- > > After our department went to using *, I've had several inquiries about > > doing VoIP for my entire organization (Small county). We have ~10 > > locations with various links in between (Mostly p2p T1s, some Frame > > (1.544mbps commit), some ISDN, some VPN over 768kbit internet) Right now > > we're using several NEC Electra Elite systems, and 2 Nortel Meridian > > systems. In one of the main locations we have 29 POTS lines going into > > the NEC system. At another location we have a single PRI, and at a lot > > of the other locations we have just analog phones. Cisco has approached > > us about using all Cisco equipment, but their idea is going to be > > costly. Is it wise to use Asterisk on something this big? I am not a > > PBX/Voice guy, I just do IP up here right now. Any tips, pointers, > > design guides, or advice to give? > > as with any wholescale deployment there is going to be a cost > and risks associated with doing this. you will be required to scrap all of the > handsets you currently have in place and put some kind of ip > telephone on everyone's desk. {clip}
I would (politely) suggest simply ditching your existing hardware is not necessarily needed. VoIP is many things, but principally a transport. Ask yourself why you're considering it company wide: - Do you want to consolidate data and voice transport infrastructure? Would reduce captial costs... - Do you want to consolidate your dialplan across the sites? Would simplify use, add to customer service... - Do you want to have most inbound calls routed through a single location? Would facilitate IVR/Autoattendant deployment... With the Electras you are running somewhere between 8 to 120 stations. The Meridians? A few hundred station capable hardware. Look at your calling patterns - as a local Gov't your users are probably on the phone with each other, particularly within each site, as much or more so then they are with the outside world: - What would local users get out of your capital investment in a VoIP transport instead of existing regular two-wire digital sets for an existing facility? We've taken the alternative approach and deployed Asterisk as a compliment to, not a wholesale replacement for, Norstar MICS hardware. * handles intersite trunking, IVR, AA and Voicemail. The Norstars drive the stations and provide paging, background music at your desk, speed dialing and such. We have two sites, 96 stations up at the moment and should be bringing up a third MICS by the end of the month. Obviously there are issues that still have to be worked out with both the users and Asterisk itself but we now have phone infrastructure that is an analog of the features of regular computer infrastructure: - Want a new site, perhaps other one burned down? Got boxes on the shelf ready to go - either MICS digital or pure VoIP. - Need to move to a different site for a week? here, take your extension number with you. - Moving a business process to a different location permanently? Don't worry about your long standing PSTN numbers changing... - Got multiple service providers and want automatic least-cost provider selection? Give us the patterns and we'll on the feature. In addition you now have a core to your systems that can be expanded any way you can dream up: - Got radio/phone patches that you want to integrate? Plug it in. - Want to add voicemail based ticket submission to your job ticketing system? Plug it in. - Want to add festival-based spoken system status reporting for users? Write an AGI interface. - Want one single call parking facility across the entire company? Add it to the dialplan. So, in a nutshell: Go into VoIP for the transport improvements/cost reductions and Asterisk to gain specific process improvements. Do not just go into 'VoIP' as a label (CallManager, Norstar BCM etc.) - you will pay to reimplement a fair portion of the wheel if you're not starting from scratch. Make contact with to your distant end users and try to interpret and meet their facilities requests, you'll get much more bang for your buck. Kris Boutilier Information Systems Coordinator Sunshine Coast Regional District _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
