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<body><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><blockquote style="border-left: #008080 2px solid; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><hr id="EC_stopSpelling">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" dir="ltr" align="left" lang="en-us">
<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>> >
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