We are just about to renew/ upgrade our telephone system. I have been offered a very good value PBX system and an even better value hosted system using VOIP.
My fear is that all my calls will turn into Skype calls (not great in my experience) but of course the salesman assures me that their system is not at all like that.
So simple question - does anyone have any experience, good or bad of this type of system.
Which system?
Our VOIP was bad to begin with, far too many Norman Colliers on the line. Three router iterations until we got something that was compatible with the exchange box/widget. Seems okay now. Expect some pain initially.
It is brilliant whe one of those calls gets through offering better priced phone calls than BT, the magic word VOIP end the calls right away!
We had a VOIP system where the routing was done by VOIP but all calls were delivered via trunk lines in thus retaining a degree of PSTN level resilience.
Hosted VOIP comes in many flavours but there's an awful lot of technical assurance that is required.
What have you been offered?
Who's telling you their solution is value for money, ie are you shopping around?
What size are you?
VOIP may be right for you but don't necessarily believe what a salesman tells you!
Are you looking for site to site voip?
There are many many cost-effective solutions out there nowadays, not just voip. And has your salesman explained voip in depth, have you agreed on what quality of service you expect, have they asked about your data links? etc etc?
To be honest it doesnt sound as if you've asked them all the right questions but if you can elaborate a bit that woyld help steer you where you need to be heading. Alternatively if you want other people to listen to your requirements and give some impartial advise then I can arrange a call back for you (no strings)
We changed to an Avaya VOIP system a few (4?) years ago. No problems basically - we had to upgrade the network to POE and computers now connect to the phone rather than directly to network ports (though this is obviously optional).
As to call quality, it's not skype. It's no different to any other 'normal' phone. The calls gets priority over data so there's never any noticeable call quality reduction.
EDIT - our system relies on hard lines to the site (eg standard BT lines) with VOIP only actually taking place on site (eg we host the VOIP server ourselves) so our solution maybe isn't that good an example for you.
VoIP if preplanned and executed correctly can offer a very good value alternative to ISDN lines in the traditional SME market. Even moreso if you have multiple sites with plenty of "internal" calls, as often calls are free between then. However it really depends on how many seats (users) you require and the resultant bandwidth required to support x simultaneous calls.
Drop me a mail if you like and I'll happily tak a look at what you've been offered.
( MODS Yes im in the trade, if this isnt appropriate, please delete)
I'm not in the trade, but the company I work for is (hence my question). I think we're the biggest seller of Avaya in the UK, and also do Mitel, Samsung, and maybe others. I could perhaps hook you up with engineers or salesmen if required (though I stand to gain nothing from this, so you might prefer to help out someone who does).