[Asterisk-Users] Re: Sipura 3000 FXO

[Walt Reed]

On Mon, Oct 04, 2004 at 03:49:11PM +0900, Benjamin on Asterisk Mailing Lists said:
> On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 22:26:40 -0500 (CDT), Joe Greco <jgreco at ns.sol.net> wrote:
> 
> > A company that has 100 desks and 8 phones does indeed have 8 desks
> > with 8 phones, plus another 92 desks without phones.
> 
> Actually, I was talking about small companies with 1-8 employees, 1-8
> desks, 1 networked PC on a direct to DSL modem basis and 1-8
> non-networked PCs or laptops.
> 
> Those companies have to be introduced to more technology (including
> better integration) slowly and cautiously. You can't go in there and
> turn everything upside down. You need to do one little tiny thing at a
> time, gain their trust that this stuff works, and then do another step
> later.

OK, I have a question. If you are really going into a situation where
you are doing consulting for a company that doesn't even have a LAN,
that you need to "gain trust" in order to install one, it seems like
that company should be just allowed to die. How do they expect to
compete when they are weary of 20-year-old technology? Trying to sell
them an Asterisk open source VOIP phone system running on Linux really
seems to be the wrong thing to do. If they can't handle a local lan,
have no local expoertise, and virtually no budget, a system like *
which doesn't have the polish of something like a Norstar modular ICS
(for example) seems like it would be a costly and inappropriate
solution.
 
> Sometimes, this means that you deploy a few additional IP phones onto
> desks that already have non-IP (but nevertheless digital) phones
> connected to their small office PBX.

Rather than introducing incompatible technology like this, why not just
route the existing pbx through * rather than trying to deploy side by
side?  If they are just using VoIP for long distance savings, wouldn't
deployment, support and additional hardware costs for * eat up all those
savings?  Wouldn't they be better off just getting a vonage-like service
and skip * all together?

IT solutions in general are always custom when dealing with small
companies like this. A solution for a company with 8 people, 8 desks, 8
phones, and 8 computers may be VERY different than a solution for a
company with 8 people, 8 desks, 2 computers, and 5 phones. It also
depends on how they use them, what they do as a business, what each
individual person does, etc. Giving a range like 1-8 for all variables
does not allow anyone to design a cost effective solution that fits all
needs and situations.

You need to look at each company independantly, gather all the specific
information about it, calling patterns and usage, budget, local
expertise, and come up with one or more possible solutions. There is no
magic bullet here.