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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=436394913-21032007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>Much of the time businesses lease expensive phone systems with a
trade-in or dollar-buyout at the end of the lease. For a small business
the lease is nice becuase it means the price of the system is constant at $X
each month and that is helpful with cash flow. Phone systems do look like
a huge cost of doing business when you look at the bottom
line.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=436394913-21032007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>-Nate</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
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<FONT face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> Byron Pile [mailto:bpile@hotmail.com]
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 21, 2007 12:00 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Commercial
and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE:
[asterisk-biz] case study on switching to Asterisk<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">I guess I'm a bit naive... but holy crap some of
those systems are expensive. Thanks for the link, I'll be data mining the site
for more info tomorrow!<BR><BR>Byron<BR></DIV><BR><BR><BR>
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From: shadowym@hotmail.com<BR>To: asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com<BR>Subject:
RE: [asterisk-biz] case study on switching to Asterisk<BR>Date: Tue, 20 Mar
2007 19:50:32 -0700<BR><BR>
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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=EC_703464702-21032007>This site has a
comparison chart which includes Asterisk Business Edition, Fonality,
SwitchVOX as well as proprietary solutions. It's not exactly apples to
apples and I question the prices they came up with but it's the best I've
found so far. They have 2 or 3 other comparison charts and some good
whitepapers as well.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=EC_703464702-21032007><A
href="http://www.voip-news.com/whitepaper/pdf/small-business-cpe-pbx.pdf"
target=_blank>http://www.voip-news.com/whitepaper/pdf/small-business-cpe-pbx.pdf</A></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=EC_OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR>
<B>From:</B> Byron Pile [mailto:bpile@hotmail.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday,
March 20, 2007 6:22 PM<BR><B>To:</B> Commercial and Business-Oriented
Asterisk Discussion<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: [asterisk-biz] case study on
switching to Asterisk<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Once I get a better idea of what the telecom
here provides in their contract it might be easier to see what I should
include in the Asterisk based system.<BR><BR>Is switchvox a proprietary
system? Or are they based on Asterisk? They don't mention asterisk on the
site anywhere. I've also noticed Digium offers<BR>a support service plan.
Perhaps this with an estimated initial setup cost would be a good comparison
to the telecom offering.<BR><BR>I really want to highlight the flexibility
and also feature set of Asterisk.<BR><BR>Thanks again for your
comments!<BR></DIV><BR><BR><BR>
<HR id=EC_stopSpelling>
> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:34:22 -0400<BR>> From:
stotaro@totarotechnologies.com<BR>> To:
asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com<BR>> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] case study
on switching to Asterisk<BR>> <BR>> The bottom line is that you will
save money or at the very least, over <BR>> the course of a year or two,
break even. Considering some proposals I <BR>> did on NEC IPK systems
several years ago, an eight port conference <BR>> bridge card was $5,000,
another $5,000 for an eight port VoIP card MGCP, <BR>> $3,000 for a four
port voicemail card, add some other feature and you <BR>> get the point.
Also, support contracts were something to the tune of $4 <BR>> per port
per month, that includes all ports (concurrent voicemail access <BR>> +
phones + PSTN + conference bridges). So lets say that "whatever" <BR>>
company has 4 FXO, 16 FXS, and 4 voicemail, that is a total of 24 ports
<BR>> X $4 = $96/mo X 12mo = $1,152 and that only included very specific
limits.<BR>> <BR>> This is all free in Asterisk. You could purchase a
Switchvox (or some <BR>> other turnkey) system pretty cheaply, have all
of those costly add-on <BR>> features included, they offer support via
SSH and over the phone, and <BR>> with IP, MACs are a breeze. A low level
A+ tech can do it, unlike a <BR>> traditional system where a telephone
guy has to come out with a butt <BR>> set, toner, and punch down tool.
Most proprietary systems are not <BR>> exactly easy to program even in a
"Turnkey" solution.<BR>> <BR>> You have many variables to look at but
I think that your paper will be a <BR>> very interesting look into a
paradigm shift. <BR>> <BR>> Thanks,<BR>> Steve<BR>> <BR>>
Byron Pile wrote:<BR>> > I was going to assume that yes, there are
Linux people on staff and <BR>> > that they could be taken away to set
up and support asterisk. But <BR>> > because I was comparing it to a
turnkey solution that most likely is <BR>> > including service as part
of the contract, comparing it to a similar <BR>> > contract based
asterisk setup makes more sense. However, I guess when <BR>> >
starting this I was hoping to eliminate "license" fees from the open
<BR>> > source solution, but if I'm using a small company, I think its
more <BR>> > realistic to assume they don't have a support department
ready to <BR>> > devote man hours to an asterisk system when they were
using a turnkey <BR>> > solution before.<BR>> ><BR>> >
Thanks for clarifying the handsets, I was considering using SIP phones
<BR>> > in the case study, but thought it might be possible to "reuse"
some <BR>> > existing equipment. This is also a technology upgrade in
this case.<BR>> ><BR>> > I was going to assume that the workers
were just as productive as <BR>> > before, but the ROI would come
mostly from reduction in operating <BR>> > costs (hopefully). If they
don't have any "linux people" on staff, <BR>> > this makes it harder
to include some of the open source benefits like, <BR>> > fixing bugs,
adding features and the other flexibility that Asterisk <BR>> > would
provide over using the Norstar.<BR>> ><BR>> > Thanks for the
response Steve, I have more research to do obviously!<BR>> ><BR>>
><BR>> ><BR>> >
------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>>
> Subject: RE: [asterisk-biz] case study on switching to Asterisk<BR>>
> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:59:03 -0500<BR>> > From:
stotaro@asteriskhelpdesk.com<BR>> > To:
asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com<BR>> ><BR>> > For several varying
quotes, one could go to www.buyerzone.com<BR>> >
<http://www.buyerzone.com/> and put in exactly what you<BR>> >
specified. You will get several vendors proposing different<BR>> >
systems, prices, and most importantly, service contracts. It does<BR>>
> cost each vendor about $25 dollars to buy your "lead" so be
aware<BR>> > that you are costing them money by doing this. Whether or
not<BR>> > that is ethical, is your decision. I am just pointing out
that<BR>> > "one could do it". Make sure to include that you need
a<BR>> > conference bridge that can handle unlimited callers,
also<BR>> > unlimited voicemail ports, support SIP, and also
consider<BR>> > scaling. That should freak them out.<BR>>
><BR>> > <BR>> ><BR>> > Does "whatever" company have
people on staff that know Linux and<BR>> > have time to learn and
support Asterisk? What is the cost of<BR>> > taking them from what
they usually would be doing to work on the<BR>> > Asterisk
system?<BR>> ><BR>> > <BR>> ><BR>> > I would suggest
going with SIP phones and a four port FXO board. <BR>> > You could run
both systems side by side until you are ready to cut<BR>> > over and
then just switch your four POTs lines. <BR>> ><BR>> > <BR>>
><BR>> > Most proprietary systems use digital sets so you cannot
use a<BR>> > mutiport FXS board. I have used proprietary handset
gateways such<BR>> > as Citel and my person experience was very very
poor. <BR>> ><BR>> > <BR>> ><BR>> > How much ROI is
going to depend on increased worker productivity<BR>> > which is
fairly hard to figure out and also ongoing average costs<BR>> > of
MACs (cost of Moves Adds Changes) as well as support contracts. <BR>>
><BR>> > <BR>> ><BR>> > Thanks,<BR>> > Steve
Totaro<BR>> > http://www.asteriskhelpdesk.com<BR>> >
KB3OPB<BR>> > <BR>> >
------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>>
><BR>> > *From:* asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com<BR>> >
[mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com] *On Behalf Of<BR>> >
*Byron Pile<BR>> > *Sent:* Tuesday, March 20, 2007 5:28 PM<BR>>
> *To:* asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com<BR>> > *Subject:*
[asterisk-biz] case study on switching to Asterisk<BR>> ><BR>> >
<BR>> ><BR>> > I thought the biz list was most appropriate for
this. Hope I'm not<BR>> > wrong!<BR>> ><BR>> > I'm trying
to write a term paper on adopting an open source<BR>> > solution over
a commercial solution and comparing the cost.<BR>> > Specifically if a
legacy system is in use already, when will the<BR>> > initial
investment of hardware for an asterisk based system pay<BR>> > off
against the licensing fees of a proprietary system. After<BR>> >
reading a good chunk of the free Asterisk book "Asterisk:The<BR>> >
Future of Telephony" I think that Asterisk is an excellent topic<BR>>
> for the paper. <BR>> ><BR>> > I'm new to telephony stuff so
bear with me if my questions are a<BR>> > bit dumb, I've tried to do
quite a bit of research and reading<BR>> > before posting to the mail
lists. So my idea was to use the fake<BR>> > company "whatever" and
they have 15 telephones and are currently<BR>> > using a Norstar ICS
with 4 incoming lines and 15 internal lines<BR>> > and I would like to
switch this over to an asterisk based system.<BR>> ><BR>> > The
reason for choosing the Norstar as this is a turnkey solution<BR>> >
provided by a large local telecom so I will be able to get some<BR>> >
pricing information for them fairly easily and I think it does<BR>> >
what a 15 telephone small office might need...I'm open to a better<BR>>
> suggestion if the Norstar is a poor choice.<BR>> ><BR>> >
My quick questions are...is it possible that the handsets being<BR>> >
used with a Norstar could be converted and used with the Asterisk<BR>>
> system? (a bit of asset recovery)<BR>> ><BR>> > A system
consisting of a suitable linux server running Asterisk<BR>> > and a
Digium TDM2441B PCI Card 16FXS / 4FXO would be a suitable<BR>> >
replacement and could deliver the same performance/functions as<BR>> >
the Norstar system?<BR>> ><BR>> > I'm going to try and be as
thorough as possible in assessing the<BR>> > costs in switching to
this system. The most obvious being some new<BR>> > hardware, but
also, downtime, training, support costs, contract<BR>> > penalties (if
there are any) etc....But this is a term paper and a<BR>> > highly
hypothetical situation. And I know my questions are a bit<BR>> >
general, but the paper will probably be kept quite general. I hope<BR>>
> I can learn more about this cool app!<BR>> ><BR>> >
Thanks!<BR>> ><BR>> > <BR>> ><BR>> >
------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>>
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