Phone system
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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.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@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.
hmm.. I can't think of a single solution for that with FreePBX, but I'm sure a completely hosted solution like RingCentral can give you that in a single pane of glass.
My FreePBX solution requires two, The console to the PBX, and VOIP.ms for the billing.
No wait - three, because the billing and management of the PBX itself is hosted with Vultr.
and wait again - if you want caller ID, then there OpenCname.com -
@dashrender Ok cool thanks. So it really just depends on the requirements and a lot of ways to go about it. I have so much to learn lol.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@dashrender Ok cool thanks. So it really just depends on the requirements and a lot of ways to go about it. I have so much to learn lol.
Exactly.
I think JB mostly allows the customer to manage the separate accounts themselves, yet he is given access so he can manage the systems of those accounts.
In other words, the client has access to the billing side directly, and there's no markup from JB for doing that, then JB does his maintenance/break fix and sends them a bill for time spent.More work on the side of the customer, but also less cash out. I'm sure if the customers didn't want anything but a single monthly bill from JB, he'd be happy to do it, for likely a 20% upcharge to cover the cost of JB's employee pulling the data together into a single bill.
Either that, or a flat rate that's even higher than 20% more than the combined rates of all of the components to ensure he's left left holding the bag. Then at that point, you have to compare his prices to that of RingCentral.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@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.
Ah, why do you need that stuff (real question?) What do you need to manage? Maybe the issue is that you are getting "manage it yourself" systems instead of a managed system where you need to do nothing at all?
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller Well we are getting demos of phone .... mobile apps.
You only need demos of those things for systems that are proprietary and don't let you choose what you want. Nothing wrong with a demo or features, but "use anything you want" is the best demo. Basically, the demos you are seeing are demonstrations of limitations, not of features. For open systems, there isn't really anything like that to demo in the first place.
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@dashrender said in Phone system:
@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.
Well, me for one.
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@jmoore said in Phone system:
@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.
I think she needs to talk to someone who is advising on phones, not just selling bundles. That approach is a guarantee that you can't get a good deal. Only high cost, big sales guy products come that way. Good products, industry standard ones, don't work like that. Imagine buying a server and wanting "all applications, desktops, and phones" to be bundled with your server purchased. Sounds crazy, right? That's identical here. The PBX is the server, the apps, phones, etc. are things that should never be "bundled", you just get the ones that are right for you and are free to use others when you want.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone system:
@jmoore said in Phone system:
@scottalanmiller Well we are getting demos of phone .... mobile apps.
You only need demos of those things for systems that are proprietary and don't let you choose what you want. Nothing wrong with a demo or features, but "use anything you want" is the best demo. Basically, the demos you are seeing are demonstrations of limitations, not of features. For open systems, there isn't really anything like that to demo in the first place.
99% of SMB don't want this. They want a solution. great it's open - now - what should I use to get mobile access? They expect an answer - not, anything you want. they don't/won't want to research the options - tell them two or three if you like, demo them for them, and let them choose, then never speak of it again, until they complain about something.
This is the world I have lived in.
