Migrating to Cisco VoIP from TDM environment

[jneiberger]

Perhaps this is overly vague but I'd really like to hear about any experiences migrating from a TDM environment, particularly Nortel, to a Cisco IP Telephony solution.

I'm mostly interested in general feelings about the migration and your thoughts about the new VoIP solution and how it compared to the old system. Are you happy with the result? Is there anything you could do before that you can't do now? Has TAC support been helpful? Have you had any issues that took an unreasonable amount of time to resolve?

Are you using Unity for voice mail? If so, are you happy with it? Does it do everything that your old voice mail system did?

Any other related thoughts, tips, hints, or rants would be greatly appreciated if you feel like sharing them.

Many thanks,
John

 

[Wavesg]

The first thing you need to look into, is your network. You VOIP will be as stable as your network. A design plan would have to be put in place to see what changes will have to be implemented to support the VOIP traffic. Topics such Voice Vlan, QOS (if needed), Layer 3 switching, bandwidth between sites and so on. At first you might want to start with a small deployment of a few phone and a gateway between your PBX system and your VOIP evironment. As you grow you will be able to address issue that may arise. Also you'd be able to add more resource as needed.

I would suggest you start with an assessment of your current ip network. Take a look at this Link

http://cisco.com/en/US/customer/pro...oducts_implementation_design_guides_list.html

The link above will give you an idea of the things required to start your deployment. Again is good to start small with an intragration to your PBX. Plan to migrate slowing.

I have to tell you that callmanager has matured and solved many issues in the last 2 years. It's not perfect, but if you take the time to plan ahead, your deployment can run smoothly.

I found out that TAC has improved their service, but they still have to work on some areas. From 1-10 I give TAC a 6.

It's good to research and read all the readme files before any updates. This site can help you plenty since most of us here have real life exposure to the system.

I migrated about 1000 user from our PBX system. Now the VOIP supports about 4 remotes sites and a turret system. It required lots of planning and staging, but the savings and fuctionallities made it worth it.

Hope this information provided some help on your decision.

Stay cool; it’s not over yet!