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

[Jason Becker]

Hi Alistair,

Alistair Cunningham wrote:
> 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 

In a subsequent post I expanded "basic working system" to include 
voicemail, IVR, etc.

> 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.

My comments were confined to a "basic working system". It was not my 
intention to imply that you don't offer your customers value. My point 
was that AMP allows us and others to satisfy the requirement for a basic 
working system in short order, thereby freeing up resources to be better 
spent on items of value like those that you itemized above.

> 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.

Since no two businesses are going to work the same does that mean that 
each install is custom? I'm surprised that a business would choose that 
model over _some_ form of standardization. Wouldn't you rather provide 
these businesses with a certain modicum of standardization (i.e. AMP :-) 
) and just maintain the customizations? We need to do a better job of 
providing customization points in AMP but we're moving in that 
direction. The latest version includes extensions_custom.conf which is 
included in extensions.conf for this purpose.

AMP satisfies the needs of a majority of small and medium sized 
businesses. AMP won't work out-of-the-box for everyone and there's no 
denying that a percentage will desire customization. But it's the ol' 
80/20 rule.

I think we agree in principle, perhaps not on strategy.

Sincerely,

-- 
Jason Becker
Director & CEO
Coalescent Systems Inc.
403.244.8089
www.coalescentsystems.ca