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Law firm with two local BCM50's in seperate office want to network

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russellroad

Vendor
Apr 25, 2014
8
US
I have a law firm one is the main office ( very busy traffic ) and has a PRI and a BCM50 with DIDs and the other is their smaller local remote office with a BCM50 with POTS lines. They have a big investment in T7316 handsets so they want to stay with the BCM50 and they like how reliable it has been.

They want to be able to network both so they can easily transfer calls use the same pool of DID's Intercom, Page and have centralized voice mail. What would the most reliable and least cost method to accomplish this be?

I have heard suggestions to send the traffic over the internet via VOIP but I am concerned about security and up time when depending on the internet. They do a lot of advertising and can not afford to have the system go offline or they will loose business. So I would like to stick with a tried and true method that works for networking the BCM's.

I looked on line for information on networking and there are several methods but I can't seem to wrap my head around the actual concept of two separate systems physically separated but joined together. I have networked MICS systems in the past but they were inside a single building and were networked so that the whole building could take advantage of a more handsets both MICS were right next to each other. That system had a simple MCDN keycode and PR keycode activated and a simple single network cable from one DTI card in system A to another DTI in System B.

I am very experienced in working with the MICS and BCM but never networked any from building to building before.

Thank you for your help.
 
I did some more research and this company MCK they make the Fiber extenders that I have actually used on a large campus to connect several buildings on one MICS. They have proven to be very reliable devices and a simple plug and play. This site for the law firm is of course several miles away. Has anyone used this method of a PBX Extender it sounds like it might actually be easier?

 
It is not over the internet it is VOIP trunking on their data network. The 2 sites need to be on the same network to call each other.
You need trunking licenses on both systems 1 for each call so if you want to have 4 calls at one time you need 4 keycodes on each system.
MCDN would be good on each. Don't think you can page from one to another. Extensions need to be different on each system. Look in the docs of the BCM for networking.
 
Thank you . What do you think about the Citel solution it seems pretty simple and straight forward. NO licenses just using existing DN resources and seats on the BCM. The cost of the components is very reasonable.
 
Their product is usually pretty good.

You may need licenses on Site A's BCM if not enough room....digital stations and voice mails seats.

Another option is to get IP sets for site B.

We have no idea what licenses or how many sets at each site so you may need to do your own math.

Somebody may need to correct me here...

IP sets:
? X IP sets
? X IP Licenses (system comes with 2)
Network Switch
can use current vmail seats

IP Trunks:
4 IP trunk licenses (2 at each site)
2 MCDN licenses (1 at each site)

Extenders:
2 X MCK Extendars (remote and base)
? X Digital station ports on site A
? X Mailbox licenses on site A

You need a good pipe between the sites no matter which way you go.







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curlycord

small-logo-sig.png

Toronto Canada
 
You might even want to have a look at the UCx from Emetrotel. It re-uses the BCM50s, DSM modules and all Nortel digital and IP sets (as well as pretty much and SIP phone). Your remote office can be a remote Digital Gateway off the main system so you are actually all on one system......not transferring calls.

It's an awesome solution for anyone with Nortel systems.
 
Thank you for the feedback. The existing BCM has plenty of digital and voice mail seats for this expansion. The internet service is very stable and via cable not DSL.

I have found that the Citel products on the resale market are plentiful and very inexpensive. Looks like they are very popular because there are tons of the single port and multiple port PBX Gateways available some are already even preprogrammed. Since they are so inexpensive I might just set up a test and see how it works from the customers site to my office for a week or two and give it a real test of my own.
 
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