[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk feature list: spreadsheet

[John Todd]

I have added your comments after some editing.  The "S"tandard 
elements can be implemented in under an hour while the rest of the 
dialplan is put together by a clueful user.  I cannot judge what 
level of ability the user has with the system, so I wrote it with my 
own experiences at hand.   The spreadsheet is not written to be a 
statement of work, but a potential feature list.

JT


At 6:19 PM +0000 1/6/04, John Coll wrote:
>
>John
>
>I looked at your spreadsheet with interest.
>
>You grade each item with an indication of the amount of effort needed to use
>the feature.
>
>"Level 1 effort is 1-6 hours of development, plus testing.  Level 2 effort
>is 6-20 hours of development, and/or external purchase of tools. S=Standard,
>O=Optional, NA=Not Available"
>
>This implies to me that items marked as S (standard) will take less than 1
>hour of development effort.
>
>For a traditional PBX a "Standard feature" can generally be pretty easily
>configured in half an hour or so. As we know that is not the case for
>Asterisk and this therefore seems somewhat disingenuous.
>
>I see the need and value of a list like this - it is really helpful. However
>in fairness to anyone evaluating Asterisk from the perspective of someone
>who is familiar with a traditional PBX, should one not add a note explaining
>that ...
>
>"Standard features are likely to take several hours to configure and may
>well only work with certain hardware / software combinations. Concise
>documentation to enable you to rapidly provision many of the features with
>particular hardware is not available."
>
>I would prefer that potential users are given a balanced and realistic
>expectation of what asterisk offers today on a like-for-like basis and to do
>that there needs to be a clear disclaimer/explanation such as that shown
>above.
>
>
>john
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com
>[mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of John Todd
>Sent: 06 January 2004 14:17
>To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk feature list: spreadsheet
>
>
>http://www.loligo.com/asterisk/misc/Presentations/Asterisk-features-20040106
>.xls
>
>I had been asked a while ago to put together a short Excel
>spreadsheet listing many of the "common" features of Asterisk as
>compared to a typical PBX.  Many PBX vendors supply an exhaustive
>list of their features, and I figured I'd take as many of the unique
>features as others had offered, and put them together in a big list,
>and then also include some of the features that are unique to
>Asterisk.
>
>I think this list will be of some use to persons evaluating Asterisk
>against their existing PBX platform, or other vendors of new VoIP
>systems.  Note that I took some liberties with the "standard feature"
>syntax: often, things that seemed _very_ easy for me to do with
>Asterisk's scripting features I listed as "S"tandard, even though it
>would require a few minutes of work.  Other features which seemed to
>be a little more complex, or which would require some web
>programming, I listed with estimates of how much time it would take
>to build them.  I assumed use of Cisco 7960 phones, so some of the
>features which are really deskset options I listed as "S"tandard if I
>were to use 7960 devices.  Caveat emptor for other desksets.
>
>This is not truly a "comparison", since there are no other columns in
>the spreadsheet.  However, it's good fodder for you to whack your
>VoIP or PBX vendor on the nose with, since they typically will not be
>able to match the feature list.
>
>Olle: feel free to add to the Wiki, since you asked for this type of list.
>Anyone else: feel free to send me updates in cut/pasteable Excel form
>if you have things you'd like to add to the list.
>
>JT
>
>_______________________________________________
>Asterisk-Users mailing list
>Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
>http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Asterisk-Users mailing list
>Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
>http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users