Looking for a phone solution for a 6 person office...

chrisdus

Hi all,

I have an office with 5 employees at the moment, all on individual Eircom lines, so no fancy stuff as teleconferencing, etc..

Now, there's a new employee about to start in a couple of weeks, hence I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have a look at the overall situation, by make it better (adding features), and perhaps find some cost savings at the same time.

I am hoping I get suggestions on which providers I should contact, as I only know of Magnet, Eircom and other independent resellers, which, to be honest are really slow in giving me information, which does not work for them at all.

What I think I would like is provider that can suggest a cheap (up to 8 lines) PBX with conferencing possibilities, which internally goes via Ethernet (so SIP on the inside so I can find my own phones), voice mail and music on hold and a plan on how to keep all the current phone numbers of course.

I am currently requesting quotes from Magnet (their Voicenet service) of which I will post some details when I get them so we know their pricing.

Oh yes, I am from a telecoms back ground myself, but as I am not Irish, I just don't know where to look yet.

Thanks!
Chris

Dardania

Maybe look at: http://www.blueface.ie/business.aspx

and also: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=542

I am always wondering if people actually use: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/business/skype-connect/

Captain Commie

If you want to go down the road of VoIP (which i really suggest you do), have a look at SnomOne, you can get the blue edition for free that would fit your needs perfectly. One thing to watch out for tho is that you have to use snom phones, but they are really good and reliable phones (use them myself)

connafly

See your background so I presume you have checked your upload, Vital for SIP, as for pabx why not try ata on line first, this means you have no tie in to 1 provider,You can then decide what pabx you need.
ps keep away from softswitch

Static M.e.

Hi Chris,

Take a look at an ADTRAN NetVanta selection, they have some neat Kit.

For a small office you could get 7100 which has a 24 Port PoE switch with a Full PBX router built in.

ADTRAN have recently setup and office in Ireland, which is why I was talking to them but they already have a large number of deployments on the way.


(I dont work for ADTRAN in any way )

connafly

You could look at siemens 33xx or 35xx with hg or 2030 or panasonic ncp
These are perhaps the more common makes for ongoing support can also use
Csm with these if you wish

Talk123

Hi Chris

I am new to this forum ,so forgive me if I break or infringe any rules.I am an independent retailer of IP phone systems and also work with various providers,some very good,some just painful to deal with.You can try voip,gsm,isdn,analog or a mixture of both.It really depends on your location,and whats available to you.In theory gsm should work ,but I am having an issue with the 02 globe surfer where I had opened ports ,it was working perfectly ,then stopped working,I tried defauting it etc ,but no luck.Anyone got any suggestions.

Regards

Bill

rmacm

Talk123 wrote: »

Hi Chris

I am new to this forum ,so forgive me if I break or infringe any rules.

First rule, it's a bad idea to post your phone number on a public forum like this. Do you go around writing your phone number on bathroom walls? Tis not the best idea in the world either way.

Second rule, boards does not allow advertising. Contact hello@boards.ie if you want to advertise on the site.

NullZer0

Go for Magnet, nobody else IMO can offer the level of service they can.

Mr. G

If you have experience in this, it will be very easy with little challenge. If you haven't a pbx, look at www.pbxes.com or any other virtual pbx which would the same.

I would recommend Blueface for business, you don't have to keep to one provider.

Hope this helps!

Edit: lads, do as the mod says, I'm not adverting, just suggesting.

NullZer0

pbxes.com can't offer any guaranteed service reliability though.
Magnet can because they provide the circuit :-)

I would encourage you to do some research about any provider you go for in terms of downtime in the past year etc.

gandalf

I used to work in a small Irish Reseller who sold the Shoretel IP VoIP system solutions and from what you say that would more than suit your needs and give you capacity to grow and to move into UC if that is in your future plans. Couple it with a GSM gateway and you should be able to make decent savings on your phone usage bills.

http://www.shoretel.com

PM me if you want the name of the company.

Talk123

[Hi Chris,you might also look at upc ,they have good packages for broadband,with free line rental as well,I know companies using them and they seem okay

Not advertising for them

NullZer0

Asterisk FTW

619C

For that amount of end users just buy a Fritz Box.
You can have DECT Cordless, Answering Machines, Internet Connection, SIP Physical phones and or Soft PC Phones connected.
You can dial and transfer to one another.
You can get a landline connected or just use cable or microwave broadband to connect to the likes of Blueface for your outside numbers.
HTH
Regards

chrisdus

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions..

In the end I went for Magnet. From upfront calculations looking at the call history, I will be up to 20% cheaper off, and the option to lease the equipment does not cause me to lose the companies cash flow...

I told you I'd put some prices up for everyone to see, so here we go..!

Magnet's Voicenet has three flavors:
- Voicenet Premium: 139,90/month (which includes: 100 mobile minutes, and 500 national minutes over a ADSL2 12MB line). Possible upgrades to the broadband: ADSL2 24MB: 65 euro, SHDSL 2MB: 220 euro, SHDSL 4MB: 470 euro)

- Voicenet Premium Plus: 268.40/month (which includes: 100 mobile minutes, and 3000 national minutes over a ADSL2 24MB line). Possible upgrades to the broadband: SHDSL MB: 220 euro, SHDSL 4MB: 470 euro)

- Voicenet Gold: 625,80/month (which includes: 400 mobile minutes, 4000 national minutes over a SHDSL 4MB line).

In both cases, you have the option to go for either the 'Hosted' or 'Onsite' solution, the latter means you get a Asterisk based BPX in your office, for an additional 100 euro, which of course get's you some additional features, such as call recording, call queues, conference rooms, time of day routing, call routing and black lists.

Overall, I was very impressed by the Magnet offering, and their professional attitude.. (for comparison, I had contacted 5 companies for information, 1 of them still hasn't provided answers to my questions (and had just given a quote of 2500 but no idea what I was to pay for!), 2 companies didn't even reply to my mails, even after ringing them, and 1 of then companies I had contacted just didn't give me a professional impression.

Cheers!
Chrisdus

NullZer0

619C wrote: »

or just use cable or microwave broadband to connect to the likes of Blueface for your outside numbers.
HTH
Regards

But that means absolutely no guarantee on quality.

Mr. G

iRock wrote: »

But that means absolutely no guarantee on quality.

Remember that no solution can be 100% guarenteed working all the time, although its always going to be fine, eircom cant guarentee you get 24/7 excellent quality.