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NEC vs. Open Source?

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davidshq

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Jan 3, 2011
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I'm just wondering...for those who have NEC systems...if you had a choice to move to an open source solution like Asterisk would you? Why or why not?
I'm just noting that the pricing on NEC PBX's is fairly hefty...
Dave.
 
I have both and administering both. I use NEC 8500 generally for all business phones and employees (over 1000 of them), and I have asterisk for a 150 seat call center. Both appears to be rock solid, but I would not put all my business on Asterisk. I have more faith - in terms of reliability - in NEC. Asterisk is much more flexible and customisable and worked out well in my call-center.
 
Thanks phadobas, this is extremely helpful. Can I ask, did you guys do a build directly from source or use a package like Switchvox or Trixbox?
Dave.
 
We did our own build. We also figured out how to connect our NEC to the asterisk via PRI and also have a T1 connection between the two. We got caller ID working but no name-display.
We did a little 'lcr' on the asterisk, and most of our calls are going out on SIP trunk, but many destinations are called via the NEC and its tdm trunks.
 
Awesome. No chance the documentation on performing this has been posted anywhere online? ;) I've thought about phase in Asterisk for at least some stuff...
 
Trixbox is a good solid build of Asterisk and easy to administer.

Fonality can offer support on the platform if you get stuck or have issues.

The world of enterprise PBX's will, at least at the core, ALL be SIP centered very soon. The mass of the market is already there. My experience with NEC is that they are very late to the game, don't offer a cost advantage over Avaya or Cisco, and are 10x more difficult to work on.

Depending on what your needs really are I would recommend a full re-evaul of the system and look at all comers. Shortel actually has some really good product offerings for a great price. Avaya is actually very price competative for base systems but you will find more premium charges for advanced features and licenses...but at the right scale, you definitely get what you pay for.

Cisco's network synergies are very attractive if you want to have a simplified network/telco architecture.

it's all based on your company's needs and ability to mitigate risk on any given platform.

I have worked with freeswitch and asterisk on custom builds and had them up and workin in a short amount of time.

there is no such thing as a free lunch. you pay for asterisk in terms of man-hours, development cycle, and potential downtime.
 
Just an update...I'm still looking at open source solutions, mainly sipXecs at this juncture. Our VAR also introduced us to the SpheriCall soft switch, which looks interesting...
Dave.
 
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