[Asterisk-biz] Re: [Asterisk-Users] Newbie Question

[Alistair Cunningham]

Jason,

I'm a bit confused by your response. I stated that you could have a 
basic working system in under a day. You then say that with AMP you can 
have a basic working system in a few hours. These two statements don't 
seem all that different to me, especially when I include time to get an 
E1 working, which always requires some fiddling with parameters, even if 
you have GUI to do it.

The 'couple more days' are for things which a GUI won't help a great 
deal with, such as:

- Connecting to some existing quirky equipment.
- Doing a custom dialplan with macros etc to make phones behave like the 
old PBX that management is used to and can't stand to lose the custom 
features of.
- Ditto for voicemail.
- Testing testing testing.
- Writing documentation.
- Planning the next steps.

There's no way you can do all this in a few hours. The testing step 
alone should take at least that long, usually more. Custom development 
can take anywhere from hours to weeks, depending on what the customer wants.

For residential use, tools like AMP are ideal, but businesses tend to be 
more demanding. They like products that fit in with the way they work, 
not products that make them change the way they work. Don't 
underestimate the desire of businesses to keep user interfaces the same 
when installing a new product. I've installed some systems where we've 
added features that mimic a system that was bought in the 1980s that 
management loves but can't get support for any more. This is the market 
I cater to; I still do small straightforward installations of a few 
hours if customers ask, but most customers want more than that.

Alistair Cunningham,
Integrics Ltd,
Telephony, Database, Unix consulting worldwide
+44 (0)7870 699 479
http://integrics.com/


Jason Becker wrote:
> Alistair Cunningham wrote:
> 
>> I run a consultancy doing VoIP work. We install quite a Asterisk 
>> systems. If you have people experienced in Linux and PBXs, and an E1 
>> that you know works, you'll probably have a basic working system in 
>> under a day. Configuring Voicemail, basic IVRs, dial plans, etc should 
>> take a couple more days.
> 
> 
> I don't normally comment on the products and services of others 
> publically but -
> 
> "a couple more days"!!
> 
> With AMP you can have a basic working system in a few _hours_. And if 
> you have people experieced with Linux and PBXs you can do it yourself 
> and it costs you nothing to get the basic working system. More info:
> 
> http://amp.coalescentsystems.ca
> 
> Regards,
>