new building new phones?

BruBoy

BruBoy

BruBoy

Associate
Joined
27 Oct 2002
Posts
168
Location
Herts
Hi All

We're moving premises shortly and will be looking to replace our current phone setup. We have 9 analogue phone lines (BT featurelines - just been adding them piecemeal as I knew we'd be leaving) coming into the building for staff plus one for fax. A couple of the lines are running ADSL as we're renting in the sticks and didn't want to fork out for leased lines etc.

I'd like to be able to put in some kind of manageable phone system into our new building - I can adjust which extensions are where, monitor call usage etc. The new building is only a few hundred yards from the exchange so we can make use of leased lines, SDSL, ADSL whatever makes sense. I'd like the system to be able to support upto 20 users.

The building is fully cabled, we have gigabit switching available and a few spare application servers if necessary. We don't have any PoE kit at the moment.

What would people suggest? I was thinking of VOIP but I'm not sure what kind of internet connectivity that might entail. If the cost isn't too prohibitive then a hosted solution would be fine. Will we be able to take our main BT number / fax number with us? What providers would you reccommend?

Thanks in advance

BB
 
Half VOIP?

Use VOIP internally for phones and then trunk onto leased lines or whatever you choose for external calls.

This is what we do (albeit on a small scale) with international calls going via a VOIP provider to save money.

I can't really advise on a suitable system (although Cisco Call Manager is popular) as we only use a simple Asterisk setup because it's only for 7 users and can't really justify the expense of anything else.
 
I've never been entirely convinced that VOIP is right for very small businesses like that, if all your structured cabling ends up back in one place then there's no advantage to using IP as it doesn't much matter whether you plug the cables into a switch or a PBX and indeed it has the disadvantage you need QOS to make sure call quality holds up - which a small company is unlikely to need otherwise.

There's still a lot to be said for many reasonable priced digital systems (and they all support SIP trunks for outbound calls as well as ISDN these days). I like Mitel for digital (and it has IP options available), for IP it's less clear, Callmanager is popular because it's Cisco, it's alright now but it was a fairly terrible product feature wise in the early days. It could be an option if you want IP...
 
Many thanks for all of your replies. I'm already a bit lost with the terminology (I'm a phone noob).

VOIP isn't essential - I just want something fairly flexible - if that can be achieved with regular telephony then fine. What would I need to have the PBX connected to - a number of ISDN lines? Would I need particular handsest for the PBX? Can I port my office number?

TIA

BB
 
Have you looked at a BT versatility telephone system? It is designed for small businesses and should be fine for what you need.

As for transfering the number etc, this shouldn't be a problem, so just BT to do that for you.
 
Unless you have specific needs that SIP trunks will address, I'd take ISDN-2 any day.

Internally, nothing much to choose between traditional (TDM) and IP handsets. IP you need to factor in a POE switch or power bricks for the phones which skew the decision cost-wise.

A PBX from Siemens, NEC, Avaya, Panasonic etc will most likely do the job. Often the decision comes down to which handsets people prefer the look of!
 
I think the most important consideration is that if you go down the Cisco route, you can pretend to be on 24.
 
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