Hello Steve:<br><br>Good insight.<br>
Can you please clarify what you mean by 1:7 ratio?<br>Thanks.<br><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/5/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Stephen Wingfield</b> <<a href="mailto:steve@bicom.us">steve@bicom.us</a>> wrote:
</span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>With a ratio of 1:7 you can typically support 800+ users on the same server<br>
for under 4000 USD investment (or 5 USD per customer for the hardware).</blockquote><div><br>Good insight.<br>
Can you please clarify what you mean by 1:7 ratio?<br> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">----- Original Message -----
<br>From: "Curt Shaffer" <<a href="mailto:cshaffer@gmail.com">cshaffer@gmail.com</a>><br>To: "'Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion'"<br><<a href="mailto:asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com">
asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com</a>><br>Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:50 PM<br>Subject: RE: [asterisk-biz] RE: Bottom end of the market for an Asterisk PBX<br>?<br><br><br>>I would have to agree here as well. Just because you can install * on a
<br>>good<br>> cheap system does not mean that you want to. I really think if Asterisk is<br>> going to be a competitor in the VoIP market we really need to make sure it<br>> shines. We can not just be "throwing" together a system that will get the
<br>> job done. We need to plan these installs, give good quality phones and<br>> provide redundancy if possible. When was the last time the company's<br>> POTS/PRI lines went down? When they pick up the phone they expect, and
<br>> rightfully so, for it to work. I all too often hear people getting by with<br>> just the essentials and I would bet that there are a lot of unhappy<br>> customers out there with it. I know of a few personally where the company
<br>> now has a bad taste in their mouth about VoIP because some "Asterisk Guru"<br>> came in and saved them thousands on their phone system. What they were<br>> left<br>> with was choppy quality because of lack of QoS and horrible echo. And IP
<br>> termination, which was supposed to save them money, was sub par and down a<br>> lot. Lack of needed configuration and bad choice of providers? Probaby,<br>> but<br>> they ditched the system and dubbed VoIP as a technology that is not ready
<br>> for prime time. This really gets me going....arg!<br>><br>>>From what I have seen and been selling is features. Even to small<br>> businesses. Yes you will get a system that is a little cheaper than Avaya,
<br>> Cisco or 3Com, although this is getting not to be the case with items such<br>> as Avaya's new phone that acts like a small PBX. Yes you MAY be able to<br>> save<br>> some money on long distance with LCR. But, this IVR will allow you to
<br>> field<br>> phone calls via the phone system and provide customers with valuable<br>> information without a person spending time on the phone with them. This<br>> find<br>> me follow me will make sure someone can always reach you. This
<br>> conferencing<br>> will save you on expensive bridges and hosted solutions. This XML app on<br>> your phone will allow your employees to log into your time card app. This<br>> system will integrate your voicemail and email into the same inbox. This
<br>> is<br>> all about convergence! Anyone can beat the cost of a traditional PBX these<br>> days, yes even Cisco with their new Call Manager Express! You need to make<br>> the customer feel, and you won't be lying, that they need a full system
<br>> and<br>> to invest in this. Show them the real money savings! Even a high end<br>> Asterisk system is cheaper then most of the others. I'll get off my soap<br>> box for now. I just hate when people make probably the least important
<br>> things about Asterisk the most important and vis a vis.<br>><br>> Someone mentioned a model like hosting. I think if your customers are<br>> really<br>> concerned about pricing of the system, despite your good sales tactics,
<br>> then<br>> this may be the best idea. At that point you can provide the redundancy<br>> they<br>> need and maintain everything on your end. The only problem I see here is<br>> you<br>> want to make absolutely sure that you are not the cause of failure. This
<br>> would mean clustering, this would mean battery backup with generator back<br>> up<br>> on that. This would be a reliable high speed connection for both you and<br>> them, think about what the phone company does to make sure you have dial
<br>> tone even when the power is out! What about E911! You don't want to be<br>> responsible for a person dying(like happened near here in Maryland,USA).<br>> But<br>> it could be done. I do believe with the architecture that should be built
<br>> on<br>> this model, it would take some time to get your return on investment but<br>> if<br>> this is where most of your clients would like to be then it may be worth<br>> it.<br>><br>><br>> Just my 2 cents.
<br>><br>> -----Original Message-----<br>> From: <a href="mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com">asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com</a><br>> [mailto:<a href="mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com">
asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com</a>] On Behalf Of C F<br>> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 11:34 PM<br>> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion<br>> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] RE: Bottom end of the market for an Asterisk
<br>> PBX<br>> ?<br>><br>> Yeah sure think again. There is no way that you can sell a system with<br>> 5 phones for $1500.00 just the phones (at around $160 per phone for a<br>> decent business phone) will cost you $800.00.
<br>> You think ppl buy these things like they buy bread? think again.<br>><br>> On 7/3/06, Nikolai Manek <<a href="mailto:manek@nikotel.com">manek@nikotel.com</a>> wrote:<br>>> Hi,<br>>><br>>> You want to charge $5000 for a small biz Asterisk server? Yes, you
<br>>> definitely need to rethink your strategy. I would rather think that $1500<br>> is<br>>> the absolute maximum. For very small companies (5-15) you can put a<br>> Asterisk<br>>> on a Linksys router with Linux. I think there are some projects you can
<br>>> Google up who are doing it. And then your customers will figure out very<br>>> quick that they can get your PBX for a couple hundred bucks including<br>>> service from someone. Why don't you set up some Astersik servers yourself
<br>>> and offer hosted Asterisk? This way you can charge a monthly fee, your<br>>> customers don't have the headache of running their own server and you<br>>> will<br>>> make over time your $5000 without overcharging people (which is IMHO not
<br>> the<br>>> way to do business). You might want to google around and see what other<br>>> people are charging. But my educated guess would be that a small business<br>> is<br>>> very much willing to pay let's say $20 per seat per month and have their
<br>>> service hosted with you. On top you are selling the minutes at approx.<br>>> 55%<br>>> margin in the UK for international calls and probably 70% for domestic<br>>> calls. Then you can make money and your customers are very happy too. You
<br>>> can bill the service with our new Asterisk billing solution (it's free)<br>>> (<a href="http://www.remwave.com">www.remwave.com</a>) which will be released by the end of the week or any<br>> other<br>
>> billing platform. I am also thinking that a hosted solution is better for<br>>> your business bottom line since it will enable you to have a consistent<br>>> revenue stream.<br>>><br>>> Best
<br>>><br>>> Nikolai Manek<br>>> <a href="http://www.remwave.com">http://www.remwave.com</a><br>>><br>>><br>>> On 7/3/06 6:30 PM, "<a href="mailto:asterisk-biz-request@lists.digium.com">
asterisk-biz-request@lists.digium.com</a>"<br>>> <<a href="mailto:asterisk-biz-request@lists.digium.com">asterisk-biz-request@lists.digium.com</a>> wrote:<br>>><br>>> > Bottom end of the market for an Asterisk PBX ?
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