[Asterisk-Users] Minimum budget question ...

[tim.mcqueen at qualisys.biz]

If this is for commercial use, especially if you are going to be selling
this solution, I would suggest that you don't even offer the choice of
analog lines except in the smallest of offices.  Unless you like to
spend a lot of unbillable time supporting them :)
 
Most businesses of more than 8 to 10 people should be able to afford T1
service.  Depending on your area, business analog lines can cost more
than $70 a month per line.  This can quickly add up.  A channelized T1
with local phone service runs about $400-$500 in my area, with the added
benefit of getting DIDs and less of a headache.
 
I agree with the person who responded below: low budget minimum
configuration will screw you and your customer.  They are probably going
to take out a line of credit to pay for your labor (billable and
included in the total price that you quote; you do have a contract,
don't you?) and the cost of hardware.  You might as well quote them good
hardware that is reliable and dependable, and will suit their needs for
a few years to come.  Buy commercial with a support contract, or be
prepared to keep spares of everything.
 
It seems to me that a lot of people using Open Source software (I
disdain the term Free, because nothing is) are in the "Cheap Cheap
Cheap!" mindset.  This is great if you are doing it for yourself, but
it's not a good idea at all if youare trying to sell the solution to
customers.
 
Now that I have that off my chest, here's what I reccomend for a
business package:
 
Server: Dell 600SC with 2.4 Ghz proc, 512 MB RAM, 2x Hard Drives in RAID
1, 3 years 24x7 4 hour response on-site support for hardware - $1550
 
Two T100P T1 Cards: One for the local T1, one for a channel bank.  -
$990 or you can get a quad span T400P for $1495
 
From the archives it seems like the zhone channel banks are kind of
crappy, so I would go with a Adtran Total Access 750 which will run you
about $2500
 
The phones - Don't forget the phones! - Pick one you like and stick to
it.  Don't go to WalMart of CostCo and buy phones.  I like the Aastra
PowerTouch 390, which I think are about $99 each.  It sounds like a lot,
but I've had good luck with these phones.
 
So the total hardware will be somewhere around $5000 for a phone system
that can handle up to 24 users.  When you compare it to other commercial
products that go for about $1000-$1500 per user, that's a considerable
savings, plus you get a better product.
 
Don't forget to add in your cost for building the system
 
Reocurring charges will be:
 
$400-$500 per month for local phone service, maybe more or less
depending on who the LEC is and if they have a package allows you buy
less than a T1 of service (just a few channels).
 
Long Distance - who knows?  I've seen businesses pay as little as 1.7
cents and as much as 12.  Shop around for your customer and make a good
recomendation.
 
Maintainence which should be a percentage of the total sale, billed
annually, unless you (or they) want to charge for support on an hourly
basis.
 
And don't forget to contribute a bit to keep the project going ;)
 
-Tim
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Stefano Corsi 
	Sent: Mon 6/30/2003 11:35 AM 
	To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com 
	Cc: Steven Critchfield 
	Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Minimum budget question ...
	
	


	> Minimum budget usually screws you for future expandability. If
you buy a
	> 3 cylinder car for less than a full size car you can't go
towing a
	> moving trailer.
	
	It's not for my personal use: I'm trying to tailor some
commercial offer for
	differents kind of customers. So I need to find the competitive
advantage (if
	there is one... but I'm pretty sure of this...) not only in
terms of
	functionalities and versatility, but also in terms of costs, in
respect to
	traditional PBX solutions.
	
	> Of course if you have 11 phones, you probably have nearing 6-8
lines and
	> need to start thinking of when you will need to switch to T1
from the
	> Telco to cut the cost of all those analog circuits and to get
the added
	> benefit of the DIDs and other T1 call features. So you would
then be
	> looking at either adding another $500 T100P card, or you could
have went
	> ahead and bought the $1500 card in the beginning and have
enough ports
	> and channels in your machine to take you past where your
company will
	> expand in the next couple of years.
	
	Thank you! Your answer was very useful for me!
	
	Stefano
	
	_______________________________________________
	Asterisk-Users mailing list
	Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
	http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
	

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 8042 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20030630/40b81359/attachment.bin