need advice moving a legend system

[dromero]

I have two legend v7.0 systems one at the main office, one at the branch, tied together by T1. The branch office is closing and moving into the same building as the main office. They want to keep their same phone numbers. Are there adavantages to keeping their system separate, or absorbing the new lines and extension into the main office system? all good advice appreciated.

 

[merlinman]

Depends on several things,

First, do they use seperate Voice Mails?

Also, how are they "Tied together with T1"?

Is it PRI?

If so, then I would think the advantage to keeping users in the Branch Legend would be to the favor of the Programmer in this case.

You could keep everything working the same, and just tie the 2 systems together with the same T1 Hardware (and a simulated T1 Circuit).

You don't say what size these are.

In the past, we would use the trick of tying 2 together to increase station capacity.

 

[Mongo5150]

Merlinman, when you say use a simulated T1, what are you meaning? If he uses a csu on both sides he could just use a patch cable to connect the 2?

MFurrer@charter.net

 

[TouchToneTommy]

If the two systems are side by side, you don't even need the csu/dsu's. Just make a T-1 crossover cable and plug them together.

Now if one system could absorb all the cards and lines/stations, I think that even with the reprogramming necessary, it would be better to have all the users on the same switch rather than bringing the branch office's control unit in and patching them together.

You will get better integration of the voice mail, and be able to use features like voice announce and paging that don't come accross the networked switches.

 

[killbox]

I would bring the numbers and ext numbers all into the same system. It's much easier to work with. If there's too many lines and ext.'s where it may max out the system, then of coarse I'd network the 2 systems together. I'd try and get all the stations in 1 switch to get certain features out of it to work like direct call pick up and all phone page, etc.

Remember, if you're going to do this, set up the connection as a pri though. Then one switch in the PRI settings would be set as merlin Pbx (the main system) and the other as merlin network. You'll get better results than setting the T1 to tie. An tommy's right, no need for csu's.

KILLBOX

 

[Ghostin]

I agree, combining the system into one will increase reliabity and features.

 

[jinxs]

The question here is size, how many extensions is there total? Does he exceed 200 stations? If not, combine the two. Everyone would be impressed what they will be able to do.

 

[dromero]

Thanks for all the info already, hopefully these details will answer many of questions.
The Main office is 48x15 has 3 slots open.
The Branch office is 24x7 has 0 slots open.
Sytems are tied together as tie lines, not pri.
Voice mail at the Main office is used by both systems.

So far I see no overwhelming reason to keep the systems separate. And as tt-tommy says voice announce and paging will likely be necessary features that will require merging into one system

 

[merlinman]

Well, based on what you just posted, it looks like a no brainer, put them all in the same cabinet.

It also sounds as if you have room for an expansion cabinet if they won't all go into the cabinets you have now.

If they were using the same VM, then I can assume that the "off prem" folks have unique extension numbers.

Still not a problem.