Hosted PBX
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I have the ability to help my clients setup both onsite and hosted and I can't remember the last time one of my clients wanted to implement a new premise based system versus Hosted. Hosted is by far the most popular way to go now days. I'm more than happy to make a few carrier recommendations but before I do I'll need a little more info:
- How many users?
- How many concurrent call paths will you need
- Are there any call centers within your business?
- Do you need a system that can integrate with any specific applications?
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- 50
- 4 Tops.
- No.
- No.
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@anonymous How important is Call quality and QoS? In other words are you ok with running Hosted VoIP over third party bandwidth or do you want the VoIP carrier to provide and manage the internet circuit as well?
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@anonymous FYI- Here some carriers I'd consider for Hosted PBX:
- Vonage Business
- Ring Central
- Digium
- Jive
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There are so many options out there for your SIP provider as well that are cheaper than going with a full carrier for Hosted PBX. Keep with FreePBX it is an awesome system.
Vitelity
VoicePulse
Voip.ms -
@Minion-Queen It all depends on what the need is. If their phones are antiquated and failing then switching to a full hosted provider makes sense as they'll have access to the latest and greatest phone equipment as new hands sets release. Plus the provider will manage and maintain everything for you which is always nice. From what I've heard managing a premise based phone system is a HUGE pain in the a$$ for most IT professionals.
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Out of all the IT work we do managing the PBX's are about the easiest...
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@Minion-Queen said:
Out of all the IT work we do managing the PBX's are about the easiest...
Agreed- I came in knowing very little of accessing the PBX system. But just exploring the GUI a bit I was able to trace out how call routing id done, how to add new extension, Follow Me and setting up the IVR.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Out of all the IT work we do managing the PBX's are about the easiest...
As long as the system is set up correctly, yes, management of a PBX is very simple, especially using something like Elastix, which gives you detailed information about what every single configuration option does.
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@Minion-Queen Haha I never said it was "difficult" to manage a PBX, I said it was a pain meaning it is the least favorite task on the to-do list.
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@anonymous said:
@Minion-Queen What type of systems? Do you pay all the time, or only when your offline?
I don't know anyone that offers "don't pay when not used" options for failover. If you have a VM hosted somewhere it needs to have resources reserved so generates cost.
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@Each1teach1x27 said:
@Minion-Queen Haha I never said it was "difficult" to manage a PBX, I said it was a pain meaning it is the least favorite task on the to-do list.
I think I would rather raw build a PBX than a 2012 Server in a VM.....
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@gjacobse said:
@Each1teach1x27 said:
@Minion-Queen Haha I never said it was "difficult" to manage a PBX, I said it was a pain meaning it is the least favorite task on the to-do list.
I think I would rather raw build a PBX than a 2012 Server in a VM.....
I'm doing the latter right now.
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@gjacobse I know you didn't acquire all those certs to spend your time fiddling around with a phone system
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I still haven't seen the quality of SIP/VOIP across the internet be stable/good enough for my liking. Sure you can QOS for your network but once it leaves, you can't do jack. I am still a fan of the older-school PRI.
Dropped calls, echos, garbling, cutouts, etc. Even large companies that have tons or resources and time to invest in phone systems like Barracuda have super crappy call quality.
When will it get to be at least as good as the old fashioned way?
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@wrx7m said:
I still haven't seen the quality of SIP/VOIP across the internet be stable/good enough for my liking. Sure you can QOS for your network but once it leaves, you can't do jack. I am still a fan of the older-school PRI.
We use RTP across the Internet all the time, even calling from Greece through Chicago PBX to a NYC connection point and no quality issues. I've been working with it for over a decade and there are times it doesn't work, but the are pretty rare. I've worked with a lot of PRIs that are far worse.
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@wrx7m said:
Even large companies that have tons or resources and time to invest in phone systems like Barracuda have super crappy call quality.
Except they don't make their own phone solution, they just resell a free one thrown on super cheap hardware. They don't offer lines or their own solution in any way.
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@wrx7m said:
When will it get to be at least as good as the old fashioned way?
Seriously, having used both, public Internet VoIP has been better for me than my landline experiences have been over the years. Better sound quality, more reliable calls. Neither is perfect, but VoIP has been better. And I've been on public Internet VoIP both home and office for around fifteen years now. And working in VoIP hosting on public Internet for over a decade.
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@scottalanmiller When I mentioned Barracuda, I meant that they are using some sort of VOIP and it sucks, bad.
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@wrx7m said:
@scottalanmiller When I mentioned Barracuda, I meant that they are using some sort of VOIP and it sucks, bad.
You mean for their own call centers? How do you know it is VoIP? They are a VoIP PBX vendor, they sell the Cudatel.
