dixiedogger

unless there are remote branches or it is a brand new building where you can save money on the cabeling there is no real advantage to voip. I would go with a nortel opt 11c or 61c depenting on how much redundancy u need. 61c is a dual processor. You may consider a cisco callmanager or a nortel succession if you just feel the need to go voip. If you go nortel put in a symposium call center server for the agents. If cisco they have a call center server(cant remember the name) which would be a must since the call manager alone has no acd functionality at all by itself.

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nike

Thanks! dixiedogger!

Thank you so much for the info. I was just wondering if i can still ask a few questions. It's hard to find help online since most are just vendors just trying to sell their equipments. Your input helps alot and gives us an idea where to start. Anyway, the project is to do consulting for a brand new building, it seems like everyone is going for the voip technology and i guess it's easier to install and implement over an existing network. I've checked out the nortel opt 61c, and it seems to be a good choice, but i'm kind of confused about the symposium call center. How does that go with the nortel opt 61c pbx? Doesn't the pbx should already have this feature? Our main goal is to cut cost, and implement a stable, up to date technolgy with good feature advantage benefits. To give you an idea of the layout of the building, here's the basics:
2 floors
100 telemarketers (first floor)
150 employees divided into different departments (realtor, loan officers, escrow, etc....)

If you have the time, if you could please post your opinion or input on what's the best way to implement on this project. As of now we are working on the floor plans for the building and researching on the pbx and how to best install or implement the equipments.

Thank you so much!!!!

Nike

dixiedogger

Well I can only recommend what is in my area of expertise. I am experienced in Cisco and Nortel. You have to keep in mind this is going to be subjective and its really probably more about telling your professor what he wants to here than what would be done in the real world. That being said this is what I would recommend. A option 61c tdm switch (no voip) the 61c is a voip capable switch but with one centralized location voip does not have a lot of advantages and introduces many issues you don't have to deal with with traditional tdm. The 61c is a dual processor and is very dependable. The symposium is a server that provides advanced reporting of call center environments. It runs on windows 2000 server and is also a Nortel product. The other system I would consider is a Cisco call manager. It is a good product but is strictly a voip product which cannot do tdm at all where the 61c does both. I can tell you from experience this week voip is only as good as your network I had a call manager system down 2 days by no fault of its own but because the Worm got in the network and increased traffic to the point that the phones went down not to mention the things run on windows 2000 server which every hacker in the world seems to be writing virus and worms for. The 61c can do VOIP if thats still the direction you want to go. In your case you would use the ITG line cards to support the Nortel VOIP phones . If you go that route make sure you figure on providing all the necessary networking equipment including powered switches for the phones to plug in to so you dont have to provide power outlets to each set and make sure you take advantage of only needing one cable to the desktop to run the phone and computer. Which provides nice cost savings. BTW the symposium is not a must it is just a nice feature for call centers.

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nike

Hi, it's me again!

Thanks for the prompt reply. We've decided to go for the Option 61c with VOIP. My team and I are all new to this stuff, we're doing this project for our TCOM Voice class, and we have about 6 weeks to finish this project and do a presentation to our professor and some invited professional Telecommunication guests that's already in the industry, kind of scary!! We don't want to look stupid and ignorant. Anyway, my question is, since were doing the voip, do we have to use a separate phone equipment or just the softphones? Since this is going to be implemented over a computer network, would the company have to still get phone service from the CO or just use the internet service connected to a T1 line or somekind of broadband connection. As for disaster plan, if the network goes down, is there a way for the pbx to use a regular phone service automatically in that situation? Or maybe, just have a back up server to take over? If you could please give a detail or brief info on how this whole pbx network internetconnect each other, like is the pbx kind of like a router or gateway where all the computer networks are connected to? I'm pretty familiar with the computer network stuff, but when it comes on how to implement the pbx, it's gets kind of confusing. Your help is very much appreciated. Hope you don't mind me bothering you with these ignorant questions.

Regards,
Nike

dixiedogger

Ok this is going to be complex so you will have to do alot of research and probabley a few posts in the Nortel section would not hurt but I will give a quick overview. First of all every voip solution out there eventually gets back to good old PSTN so no you can not use a broad band connection to the internet. Just think there is no way to call your home telephone without going across the PSTN because that’s what it connects to not the internet. Second just consider the 61C a server sitting on the network. That’s basically the concept. The network is just the medium that connects the phone to the server. There would be no way to have the phones switch to anything if the network is down because there would be no alternate way for the phone to connect to the 61C which is their server per say. In theory you could run all soft phones if you want but I would not in the real world. Most people recommend that your voice be in a separate VLAN from data. I know of know way to do this using soft phones since the phone would be using the same ip as the PC it was running on. Soft phones are great for the occasional use and remote use like VPN or something like that but there is no way I would expect a person on the phone 8 hours a day like a telemarketer to use it. Anyway I don’t know how much detail you have to give on the lan side of this issue but it is critical that it be correctly done if you are using VOIP. You may consider running the executive staff and call center agents over tdm. That’s the beauty of the 61c you can put ITG line cards and run VOIP phones (I forget how many per card) and you can also run some phones off tdm cards (16 per card). You could place these phones in certain areas for emergency if the network went down. Each itg card connects to the network as a pc would and each IP phone connects to the network as a pc would and you can get a module for the phone to plug a pc into so you only need one cable to the desktop for a phone and pc. You will also need power for the VOIP phones if the proper powered switches are not provided. For network services you defiantly want ISDN PRI’s. They would defiantly give the most bang for the buck.

[Edited on 25/8/2003 by dixiedogger]

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rixride

Go Dixie Go!


That right thurr is some good PBX Info!



P.S

Nike, when you are finished with your report, would you mind submitting your paper here as a resource for others to get info from?
you can e-mail it to: info@pbxinfo.com

Thanks

[Edited on 8/25/2003 by rixride]

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nike

Hello Dixie and everyone!

I've been looking in to the info you've suggested, and there's so much to learn, questions in my head keeps popping up! Anyway, since we're suppose to cut cost in implementing the pbx network, which one is cheaper, the 11c or the 61c? I've been comparing both and it seems that the only difference is the dual processor in 61c, as you've stated in the previous post. Ok, Here's a lousy concept of my understanding of this whole pbx network, please correct if i'm wrong We are suppose to implement a pbx network in a brand new building(the only site), two floors, with about 250-300 employees with about 70-100 telemarketers consisting of other departments. Having an either Opt 11c or 61c pbx we would like to implement voip to general departments and run tdm (i guess which is a circuit-switched call, am i right?) for the executive departments and Telemarketers. An ITG card will have to be installed to run VOIP in the network and also a TDM cards for the other line. (would this mean that a phone can either access a call through voip and the other just a circuit-switched line through the CO?) Also what kind of phones would be of benefit to this? Your were also talking about the itg lines, is this the same as the card itself? Something that confuses me also, if you're using voip, would that mean that the person you're calling would have to have a switch also to convert packets to audible sound? Like, let say, that the telemarketers are using voip and soliciting calls to customers. These customers would just have a regular telephone, how does this work? As you can see, i am lost with this whole thing, if you could please provide some info about the pbx's connectivity with the phones, lines, and how all those itg, trunk, tdm, ip phone interacts. When you have the time, if you could please post some info on this matter.

Thank you so much!!!

By the way, to rixride, i'd be glad to share the resources when we finish this project, it should be done in about 6-7 weeks after our presentation. We'd like to give something in return for helping us here!

dixiedogger

yes you could use the 11c or 61c they both have the some capabilites pretty much but the 61c is more reliable. All the calls voip or tdm (time division multiplexing) will still go out the good old circut switched pstn to get to the outside world. TDM or voip is simply the method method used by the pbx to connect a phone to the pstn (which I would use multiple isdn pri for). TDM phones would be 3900 series phones. The voip phones could be soft phones or other phones that look like the 3900 series I cant remember the number for. The tdm phones connect to the tdm cards orer a deicated cable . The voip phones logicaly connect to the ITG line cards over the network infastructure therefore use the same network cable that the pc's use but once they both get to the PBX they are converted to traditional voice and sent over the PSTN.

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WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH DIAL TONE???????????????????????????????????

nike

Thanks for the info!

Ok, so every call either tdm or voip goes through the pbx to get converted to circut switched to be routed through the pstn to its destination, right? So does this mean both tdm and voip can simultaneously be transmitted to the pbx, like the general departments making a voip call while the the telemarketers are calling tdm calls at the same time? So, what's the process of the incoming call? People calling in our business, i know the call would have to go through the pstn to our pbx to be converted to packet switch circuit to our network. But how does the phone numbers get in place? Do we have to subscribe to the lec to get a phone number for the people to call us? Or do we actually lease a dedicated line like isdn pri and let the pbx do the numbering system for the phone numbers and extensions? One more thing, so basically if i'm running both voip and tdm, i would have to have one line for tdm and the other coexist with the network for voip, right? this is it for now, you're really making a difference on guiding us on this project, thanks alot!