VOIP 2

[obobob]

Hi all,
We are using norstar system with ACD and T1.
We will soon have other locations and will be making a lot of calls to our own branch offices, we looked into VOIP solutions and even though we have a Norstar system , my boss is in favor of replacing it with a new system based on VOIP, because for the price of Nortel BCM we can buy the complete new system and we can always sell our existing system and phones.
Any comment or advice will be appreciated ?

 

[MarvO1]

Several things to consider here. Here are a few. Will you have a WAN connection to your branch offices, and will you have extra bandwidth to support VOIP? Your existing Norstar phones will still work on the BCM. Norstar now has a VOIP gateway, but I have not had my hands on it yet.

MarvO said it

 

[Arr]

You can also extend your Norstar system sets using an MCK gateway. You will have the choice of BRI or IP for connectivity. The quality is tremendous, you can scale your expansion, and it will be cheaper than any other solution. If you go with an all IP telephone system your costs will be higher and reliability lower. IP telephony is NOT mature yet. Despite 3Com, BCM and Mitel. You might want to look at an Option 11 with networked Norstars on a centralized voice mail.
Cheers
PhM

 

[obobob]

Thanks for the replies; we have 40 agents and more in the future.
Our calls are inbound and outbound but more outbound.
The new offices will have data and or voice connectivity to a central site.
The difference between VOIP and IP Telephony is not very clear to me, and not sure what will be good for us.
It is the cost and the reliability that will force the decision at the end.

 

[cheeses]

If your current system is reliable, why replace it? Do not respond to the hype. There are other ways to recieve the cost benefits of VoIP without forklift upgrades.
Branch offices will still (and probably always) need some sort of voice (ie.Telco) lines.The benefit to VoIP is that you can greatly reduce the number of these lines. There are also long distance savings but with rates so low LD costs are starting to become less important.
Branch offices can be connected with most of the calls over the Nortel VoIP gateway(stack them if you need more than 4). We use it on MICS, 8x24, and soon on CICS and 6x16. Reliabilty means having another way to get to the branch office. Some telco lines are required.
If you have individual agents at seperate sites buy a snmall BCM for one of the branch offices and run IP telephones from there.
Just some thoughts.

 

[VencomRob]

I agree with MarvO.
Get yourself an MICS at the new location and use the new VoIP Gateway for Norstar. It takes 4 LD/DS trunk lines on each side and converts them to data to travel over your data T1 and then converts them back. For branch to branch calls, this will eliminat the need for a another tie line or braking out channels just for voice tie. If you need more than 4 channels, use two on each end.

MCK makes some nice stuff, but you should always have a phone system local. It just makes good sense if one iste goes down, the other can keep working.