Phone system
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@bigbear Yeah I was thinking it would probably save a lot of money for us to not use a hosted solution. The phone lady says we pay around 20k a year for our legacy cisco system. Even a cloud setup like Eddie does should be doable for us.
Thanks for the info about SwitchVox. Someone else told me that their demo doesnt usually reflect what they are selling. As in, you have to buy a lot more to get what the demo shows. So who knows. I was asked to help again as they did not make a decision last time either.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@bigbear Yeah I was thinking it would probably save a lot of money for us to not use a hosted solution. The phone lady says we pay around 20k a year for our legacy cisco system. Even a cloud setup like Eddie does should be doable for us.
Thanks for the info about SwitchVox. Someone else told me that their demo doesnt usually reflect what they are selling. As in, you have to buy a lot more to get what the demo shows. So who knows. I was asked to help again as they did not make a decision last time either.
I would expect $4,000 price tag for a small business with 10 people, plus the phones... so not sure how they would approach a school system but certainly would be a waste of money.
And I agree a paid hosted solution for a school system would likely be a waste of money mostly because of the per-extension pricing.
FreePBX is a PITA to update IMO, I would get a guy like @JaredBusch on retainer to handle it monthly whether on premise or in the cloud. Even in the cloud I bet a school would have very little traffic. You would be in control but its handy to have someone who can jump in with a quick fix where you might spend days trying to figure something out.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
Anyone familiar with the Switchvox company and their experience with them? How do they compare with Ring Central or
VoIP.ms?Well RingCentral and voip.ms are very different. One is a hosted per user phones, the other is a trunk provider. At least as their focus. Rather different companies. Switchvox is a third kind of company, they make PBXs. So three totally different animals.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dustinb3403 ok thanks, that makes sense. I asked the person doing the demo and she did not know about the software. I'll give my recommendation to host since that will be a little cheaper. My school is still going around with this /sigh. Thanks for your input Dustin
If you need a local area supplier....
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I agree with others here - Hire JB's company to set this up and manage it for you.
It can be on prem or cloud based.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone system:
@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dustinb3403 ok thanks, that makes sense. I asked the person doing the demo and she did not know about the software. I'll give my recommendation to host since that will be a little cheaper. My school is still going around with this /sigh. Thanks for your input Dustin
If you need a local area supplier....
Scott - who's doing your phone (VOIP like FreePBX) support these days?
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@jmoore you can get hosted service not paid per line also.
Really, there are a ton of options. You need to have consultant knowledgeable in telephony to help you, or you need to learn telephony yourself. Which ever is more effective for you.
You have these rough choices
Hosted service by line
Hosted service by usage
Hosted PBX - managed or self ran
Local PBX - managed or self ranThere are more details, but that is the high level view.
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@dashrender Yeah I keep making suggestions. I think we would be in a lot better shape financially and feature wise if we used one of you all. I'm not sure where the hold up is with our phone lady and her boss. Hopefully we will get somewhere soon on this.
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@jaredbusch Thanks Jared. I am in process of learning telephony myself because I never want to quit learning. However its not my position so I am just asked for suggestions by my management. I have suggested your company as well as Scott's so they would have options. I don't know if the lady in charge contacted you all or what the results were. I am certainly not an expert as I have only done a couple small jobs, that is why I keep telling her to contact one of you all.
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@dashrender said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone system:
@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dustinb3403 ok thanks, that makes sense. I asked the person doing the demo and she did not know about the software. I'll give my recommendation to host since that will be a little cheaper. My school is still going around with this /sigh. Thanks for your input Dustin
If you need a local area supplier....
Scott - who's doing your phone (VOIP like FreePBX) support these days?
What do you mean, we are. We are a phone vendor.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dashrender Yeah I keep making suggestions. I think we would be in a lot better shape financially and feature wise if we used one of you all. I'm not sure where the hold up is with our phone lady and her boss. Hopefully we will get somewhere soon on this.
Need me to drive down there? I could be there this afternoon
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@scottalanmiller Let me find out schedules. We are watching a demo now from Consolidated Communications. Wendie had several vendors lined up so not sure what else is going on today.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller Let me find out schedules. We are watching a demo now from Consolidated Communications. Wendie had several vendors lined up so not sure what else is going on today.
Okay, today is possible but I'd need warning as it is a bit of a drive. Tomorrow is pretty free and I can bring @pchiodo too.
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@scottalanmiller I think its too late today but a demo of some sort would be nice of what you all offer. She likes demos.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller I think its too late today but a demo of some sort would be nice of what you all offer. She likes demos.
I suppose, don't see why not. It's a phone, so the biggest feature is... making calls. Kind of boring to look at, but it's what is important.
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@scottalanmiller Well we are getting demos of phone and call manager software along with mobile apps. So we may be talking about different things here.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone system:
@dashrender said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone system:
@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dustinb3403 ok thanks, that makes sense. I asked the person doing the demo and she did not know about the software. I'll give my recommendation to host since that will be a little cheaper. My school is still going around with this /sigh. Thanks for your input Dustin
If you need a local area supplier....
Scott - who's doing your phone (VOIP like FreePBX) support these days?
What do you mean, we are. We are a phone vendor.
I mean who specifically? Mike was handling that for a while - and well, we've already talked about that.
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@scottalanmiller Just to be clear she is looking for the whole package. Including some sort of hosting, phones, call manager, various other features, and a mobile app for byod. That is what we are looking at.
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@jmoore
What exactly is a call manager? -
@dashrender Her term for the management side of things. Such as setting up groups, looking at logs, paying the bill, switchboard, and things like that.
