Asterisk Contractors / Specialists - Recommend Please?

NullZer0

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at introducing Asterisk as a way of reducing costs with our current setup at work.

We have about 200 users using Nortel BCM legacy PBX which I find to be overpriced, unreliable and very buggy.

In addition to this we are using I believe what is called "non-preselect lines" because of the history of our building. This means that we are tied to once provider.

In order to reduce costs I am hoping to somehome integrate asterisk with the legacy PBX and this way keeping the phones that we currently have.

I'm assuming that the best solution here would be to trunk from the legacy PBX to Asterisk using a dual E1 card (I'm not so familiar with digium cards). We could then use this asterisk box to breakout to a provider like Blueface.

I assume that by setting things up this way, when the time comes (i.e. when I have showed clear reduction in costs on a 6 - 12 month basis) we can just implement SIP phones like Polycom or Grandstream and move the extensions over to asterisk.

The initial setup would be quite basic and must provide the following features:

There are 4 companies in the building, we should have the option to route to have the calls managed by reception.

Voicemail integrated with Exchange - this is simple AFAIK.

We have multiple fax machines (how many, I'm not clear on yet), these MUST still work in the cheapest most reliable way possible.

It would also be nice to allow users in other countries that are travelling to dial in using softphones from their laptops.

Not so important but definately a plus:

Skype integration for incoming calls.

Integration with OpenCRM - e.g. based on caller ID, OpenCRM will open the correct contact etc.



I'm looking for recommendations on a company/contractor with an excellent track record for the initial integration with the legacy PBX. I understand this may same trivial to many asterisk experts but I am not an asterisk expert.

Tasks required:

Configure and trunk to old system, test and verify everything is working.

Provide a couple of pointers (not full training as such) on gotcha's to watch out for although this should be pretty stable anyway.

Provide a 30 day period of general questions and/or hiccups with the system.


Any suggestions greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance,

iRock

roryq

Provident Technology look for Gary Cullen. He is who we dealt with when looing for a quote on a few bits and pieces..

http://www.providenttechnology.ie/trixbox.html

NullZer0

Thanks for that, I'll check them out now and give them a call Monday :-)

In the meantime, any other suggestions welcome.

roryq

Another List for you...

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Consultants+Ireland

Provident are the only company that I've got a lot experience with. I know they do a lot of polycom work..

In my opinion I would stay was from the grandstream I found them to be horrible to maintain. Switched to Polycoms really really nice. I've got the documents, guides for Asterisk. If you want any of them let me know.. They are all in PDF form

NullZer0

Well at the moment I'm trying to avoid replacing the Nortel handsets that we have - hence trunking from Nortel to Asterisk and then PRI & Blueface/Other Provider.

However, in the long term we would be upgrading phones and I like polycom too but cost vs functionality would be the deciding factor.

Nice one, those could come in handy for me :-)

Tomtata

Implemented a very similar setup a few months ago including a GSM gateway - very stable
The Users don’t even know there is another system handling all their outgoing calls - 11,000 so far and no complaints :-)

Drop me a PM if you want any info.

Jaden

Brian in iTalk would sort you out here:

http://www.italk.ie

They pretty much specialize in migrating Nortel to Asterisk.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Stick a post on the mailing lists at linux.ie (and possibly sysadmin.ie) as there are a good few Asterisk heads on there.