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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>For several varying quotes, one could go
to <a href="http://www.buyerzone.com/">www.buyerzone.com</a> and put in exactly
what you specified. You will get several vendors proposing different
systems, prices, and most importantly, service contracts. It does cost
each vendor about $25 dollars to buy your “lead” so be aware that
you are costing them money by doing this. Whether or not that is ethical,
is your decision. I am just pointing out that “one could do it”.
Make sure to include that you need a conference bridge that can handle
unlimited callers, also unlimited voicemail ports, support SIP, and also
consider scaling. That should freak them out.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Does “whatever” company have
people on staff that know Linux and have time to learn and support
Asterisk? What is the cost of taking them from what they usually would be
doing to work on the Asterisk system?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I would suggest going with SIP phones and
a four port FXO board. You could run both systems side by side until you
are ready to cut over and then just switch your four POTs lines. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Most proprietary systems use digital sets
so you cannot use a mutiport FXS board. I have used proprietary handset
gateways such as Citel and my person experience was very very poor. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>How much ROI is going to depend on
increased worker productivity which is fairly hard to figure out and also
ongoing average costs of MACs (cost of Moves Adds Changes) as well as support
contracts. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:navy'>Thanks,<br>
Steve Totaro<br>
<a href="http://www.asteriskhelpdesk.com">http://www.asteriskhelpdesk.com</a><br>
KB3OPB<br>
</span></font><font color=navy><span style='color:navy'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces@lists.digium.com] <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Byron Pile<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, March 20, 2007 5:28
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> asterisk-biz@lists.digium.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [asterisk-biz] case study
on switching to Asterisk</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>I thought the biz list was most appropriate for this. Hope
I'm not wrong!<br>
<br>
I'm trying to write a term paper on adopting an open source solution over a
commercial solution and comparing the cost. Specifically if a legacy system is
in use already, when will the initial investment of hardware for an
asterisk based system pay off against the licensing fees of a proprietary
system. After reading a good chunk of the free Asterisk book "Asterisk:The
Future of Telephony" I think that Asterisk is an excellent topic for the
paper. <br>
<br>
I'm new to telephony stuff so bear with me if my questions are a bit dumb, I've
tried to do quite a bit of research and reading before posting to the mail
lists. So my idea was to use the fake company "whatever" and
they have 15 telephones and are currently using a Norstar ICS with 4
incoming lines and 15 internal lines 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 provided by a
large local telecom so I will be able to get some pricing information for them
fairly easily and I think it does what a 15 telephone small office might
need...I'm open to a better suggestion if the Norstar is a poor choice.<br>
<br>
My quick questions are...is it possible that the handsets being used with a
Norstar could be converted and used with the Asterisk system? (a bit of asset
recovery)<br>
<br>
A system consisting of a suitable linux server running Asterisk and a <span
class=arialgrey12px>Digium TDM2441B PCI Card 16FXS / 4FXO would be a
suitable replacement and could deliver the same performance/functions as the
Norstar system?</span><br>
<br>
I'm going to try and be as thorough as possible in assessing the costs in
switching to this system. The most obvious being some new hardware, but also,
downtime, training, support costs, contract penalties (if there are any)
etc....But this is a term paper and a highly hypothetical situation. And I know
my questions are a bit general, but the paper will probably be kept quite
general. I hope I can learn more about this cool app!<br>
<br>
Thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Tahoma'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
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