BT Hosted Turret Services or other low TCO alternatives

[catatau]

Does anyone have any experience to share about BT's Hosted Turret Services?

We're a relatively small trading firm with currently 2 floors(located in two different scandinavian countries) and about 25 traders in total.

We don't currently have a IP-PBX solution on our offices and we're looking for a cheap yet robust/highly available Turret solution for replacing our "expired" turret solution, but we were wondering if there is any reliable and low TCO alternatives for the "heavy" IP-PBX+turret infra implementations.

Any tips appreciated!

 

[VTE1]

Your "low TCO" options are limited as you probably know as a current consumer of turrets. Let's exclude the incumbents for a moment: IPC, BT, Orange who all price at the premium end of the range and require a PABX for PSTN/PTT access.

Next are IPTrade (Belgium), Speakerbus (UK) and Wesley Clover/Mitel. Both IPTrade and Speakerbus are newer turret platforms than the incumbents and are designed to be optimized with Avaya and Cisco PABX. There price tag is generally at the lower end of the incumbents after their (often steep) discounts. These providers market via the Avaya/Cisco channel and Speakerbus also has its direct sales and service entity that supports their substantial base of hoot/speaker/intercom stations around the world. My sense is that they partner for local support in Scandinavia, though being based in Europe they are a short hop away.

Mitel has a hybrid PABX/Turret platform. All-in-one. UC, collaboration, mobility, et al. with NATIVE IP Turret devices. This platform has been in production since 2001 as an enterprise telephony solution and so is mature and reliable with all of the bells and whistles you would get with any other PABX. The turret functionality has less capacity than the regular turrets but is more than enough for most traders (196 lines per turret). It does all of the things one would expect from a turret including termination of ring downs, barge-in on lines, pagination, floating answer keys, two handsets, etc.

The beauty of this system is you get PABX and turrets in a single IP platform. It is plug and play with normal IT infrastructure, can be centrally managed and networked across locations quite easily and Mitel has a mature, global I&M capability (though they are not known for their focus on dealing rooms so calling the local Mitel partner may get you a quizzical look when you mention turrets).

Mitel has a US-based turret partner called Wesley Clover Solutions. They have designed an application layer for the hoot n holler/speakers if that is required along with a mini-turret endpoint (48 line capacity). WCS has a substantial installed base in the USA but is not present directly in Europe unless I am mistaken.

The TCO for this system when compared to purchasing PABX and traditional turret system is night and day. Also, there is no integration risk/issues associated with turret-PABX.

Siemens are still out there with there hybrid platform as well but seem to have a focus on Germanic region and away from dealing rooms toward command and control. Siemens seems to price as if they are always selling inside their home country as well.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[biglebowski]

Not entirely correct, BT, IPC and Orange dealerboards are all able to access the PSTN directly, in fact most of the turret vendors can access pstn without a pbx.

Again BT, IPC and orange all have very new products and are able to invest heavily in R&D. Oranges new turrets are probably the best of the new IP based turrets at the moment.

The mitel solution is based on the 3300 IP pbx and is not a dedicated non blocking turret design. I've also had issues in the past recording the mitel turrets as they don't send SIP invites.

Biglebowskis Razor - with all things being equal if you still can't find the answer have a shave and go down the pub.

 

[catatau]

Many thanks VTE1 and biglebowski for your valuable views.

Do you have any idea on price ranges per device for each of these deployments/vendors (assuming ~20 turrets, 2 branches)?

Have you heard of any reviews on BT's hosted turret services?
I could not find anything on the net, apart from their website and press releases.

Regarding Orange's turrets, I've read they are compatible with traditional TDM PABX and we do have one on each of branches (maybe from Ericsson?). Should we consider integrating them or would it end up much more expensive (to integrate and to maintain in the long run)?

biglebowski, could you kindly open a bit up how in practice the dealerboards would access the PSTN directly?

 

[biglebowski]

I don't know anything about hosted turrets. Not sure if I would trust a hosting solution without multiple trunks in though. That whould probably cost you more in the long run than putting in a system locally.

IPC, BT and OBS still have the backend or core components running on a dual TDM ring bus and this has cards to interface to Q931, QSIG, CAS and DPNSS etc.

Failing that pure IP systems can use media gateways to convert TDM to SIP for the turret system or PBX.

I've done a lot of systems in the past where we have only put in qsig trunks to their internal pbx and used this for PSTN calls. We would then connect the privtae wires or DPNSS (stock exchange) directly to the turret system.

Most vendors will sell a small system that is cheaper than buying a full one, I know OBS definately do.

Biglebowskis Razor - with all things being equal if you still can't find the answer have a shave and go down the pub.

 

[biglebowski]

also bear in mind with hosted solutions you will be charged a fortune to add lines, turrets or make config changes.

Biglebowskis Razor - with all things being equal if you still can't find the answer have a shave and go down the pub.

 

[catatau]

Do any of you have any experience with the Aastra MX-ONE platform running integrated to a third party Turret solution?

 

[VTE1]

It is difficult to know how the systems would be priced as the configuration (# of ring downs, interop w/PBX, speakers, location, et al.) will determine that; at list price for two x 10 position systems I would estimate that they would be US$75-100K per location installed (after discount).

The word on BT's hosted offer (in the USA) is that they do not really feature it and, I believe, is only available in certain markets. Plus, at $300/station/month the costs are going to add up quickly with a life-cycle of, say seven years, you are looking at $6K per month x 84 months...

On Mitel being a blocking or non-blocking "turret" architecture: each Mitel media gateway contains 192 paths in/out of the system, so can accommodate up to 192 circuits; additional media gateways can be added if necessary. This is not going to be an issue anyway with 10 users per location. By the way, a Mitel media gateway loaded up with 8 x T1/E1 link licenses will cost about the same as a single IPC E1/T1 card at list price.

In that the Mitel is a PBX, it can be connected to any other PBX via Q.Sig or DPNSS, and now via SIP though this is still not being widely deployed in the markets I am involved with and note that these interops are never the most straightforward undertakings as various settings in either switch must be programmed correctly.

 

[ITCfox]

Hi Catatau,
The cost of a solution is not only the purchase price : its life duration, stability, etc.
Check out the latest Orange product : Open Trade : full IP, no back room, robust, full IP but still TDM environment compatible, etc. (Yes I'm form Orange and in charge of your area : guido.reynaerts@orange-ftgroup.com)
Hope to hear from you soon,

 

[hurfipc]

Your best option would be to take a look at

http://www.unigyfromipc.com

and take a look at the latest IP trading platform from IPC. A single, integrated platform for trading communications that delivers unrivaled connectivity for any sized floor, with a significantly reduced TCO over older TDM based solutions and technologies, with inherent BCP and mobility capabilities.
Should you have any questions or like to chat on this further, contact me at dave.hurford@ipc.com

 

[turrets4you]

The guys gave some great advice all around. If you are concerned about TCO, I am not sure that a hosted solutions will pay off. If you do select a traditional turret vendor you can go with some pre-owned gear to offset the cost of a new system, check out this site:

http://www.Capital-Voice.com

You may also want to check these vendors as well:

http://www.speakerbus.com

http://www.iptrade-networks.com

http://www.ipc.com

http://www.etrali.com

http://www.bt.com

Best of luck...

 

[TURRETDUDE]

Gents i worked at IPC Collegues worked at wesley clover, BT orange. the only system that can do this is siemens, they have the true callaboration on the Xscape platform.
dead serious, take a look at you tube the pbx is better than cisco, the turret itself is like an ipad touch screen..
trust me this is the now and future.

i have seen it working in 200 position floor connecting turrets and pbx p[hones, taking sip trucks from the carrier, or any line, siemens doesnt discriminate.