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Nervous about multi- site call manager solution 1

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TELECOMSANDIT

IS-IT--Management
Nov 18, 2004
1
IN
Hi,

Grappling with a sales pitch from Cisco for my requirement to network more than 6 sites.I am convinced to setup a central telephony system with individual branches in US each with independent PSTN T1 lines but all logically one telephone system with central administration. Currently having mix bag of centrex and other hybrid systems.Am thinking of central call manager at main site with SRST at rest of five sites.( 30-40use at remote and 200 main site)
My key problem is i am not sure if my WAN will be always reliable and dont have the budget for upgrading the WAN to sufficeint reliability (duplicate backups etc)right now.I dont want to take chances as users currently are pertty happy with current functionality and although I have seen call manager work across multiple site not sure if we can implement follows using call manager:
a) A uniform 5 digit dial plan for internal users where by even if the WAN fails SRST would kick in .During this if users registered with that SRST dial 5 digit nos for users at alternate site,these calls will be automatically routed over PSTN to the respective extensions without the calling user being affected by the local gatway going into SRST mode.i.e. calls which would have normally gone over WAN would automatically be routed over PSTNas a DDI/DID call if WAN is down.Isthe dial plan possible to be programmed like this?

b) Also if I go in for a central Unity system and if SRST's kick in at remote site when WAN is down, how will unaswered calls for remote users be transfered into their mail box at the central unity system .Would the SRST recognise that WAN is down and add digits sothat calls be routed over PSTN into mailboxes connected to the central call manager and \Unity system?

c) Also i am looking to implement IP soft phones for home workers where by they could log in over ADSL using the PC but speech path illbe transferredover their incoming PSTN analog line.UIs this possible in cisco softphone as ai have not got concrete answers from cisco SE for this.

d) would be also useful to know how much time it has practically taken for SRST to kick in in case central call manager or WAN failure ocurs ,hoping the failover and revert back is automatic !

Real life practical inputs would be much appreciated strictlly no sales pitch please!!
 
I have configure many multisite installations that you are speaking about. The largest being a Centralized solution with 30 sites, ~4000 phones total.

to answer you questions:

a) Yes that is possible.

b) There are some caveats to making this work correctly but it can be done. There is a URL detailing how to make this work as well. If site that has Unity is a PRI site then it work well.

c) You would need a local gateway but this would probably not be practical.

d) Depends on how the WAN fails but typically it is very quick and will revert as soon as the phones can see CallManager again.
 
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