Please recommend a good P(A)BX for us. - PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource

09-28-2004, 07:49 PM

Hi, everybody. Our company is small and has around 30 people. Currently we have 3 voice lines and 2 dedicated lines for voice conference. We plan to add another 2 voice lines and one isdn line for voice and data conferece.

Currently we use DataLabsUSA PABX 416-864 and the quality is not that great. When transfer call, the operator has to do many steps and could not transfer call directly like the CEO expected. The system seemed to lose setting values very often and I had to spend so many hours to reset many features. Some features worked yesterday, the next day they don't work. Power outage caused bugs and I had to call to customer service and he was nice enough to call in our system and reset our system. Still, it is too much trouble and we often lost important phone calls. It is up to a point that we decided that we have enough (actually the CEO has enough) so we are ready to replace this system with a good one.

Currently we have about 7 voice mails and plan to expand to at least 10 voice mails for around 5 voice lines. The system should be simple to handle direct transfer call, hold call, put callers on hold on different lines. Great default music on hold. Great voice quality. Strutured and clear documents to firgure out problems. Great customer support (specifically Western time (CA)). Decent number of features. Decent price but if we have to pay for the quality, we are willing to pay extra. Even better if on-site training is available as included in the package or as additional fee.

Since we already have phone sets, it is great if we don't have to throw away all of them. If not, it is ok too.

Please recommend me which company and system that I should go with. We only care about voice lines and you don't need to recommend us on voice and data conferecing services since we already have them in place.

Thank you for your recommendation.

**Chas2002** · 09-29-2004, 05:44 AM

There are a lot of systems out there (some popular and some not). Your curent setup/system could be made more reliable with an Uninterruptible power supply. A UPS would prevent volitale memory drops and protect your programming.

I'm a nortel tech - so I'm biased, but check out this link for systems that match your requirements.

http://nortel.pbxinfo.com/index.php?...play&ceid= 27

You'll need to do a little research to determine which system matches the functionality that you desire. Most systems are proprietary, so you'll need to purchase new digital sets, but you can most likely reuse your analog sets.

Chas2002

paul144 · 09-29-2004, 07:58 AM

There are probably 10 different systems that can handle your needs and handle them well.
What is much more important is to find a vendor (dealer) that will offer you good support ansd training. Ask for references, check out references. If you are part of a trade organization of any kind, like the local Chamber of Commerce, ask other people who they use.
As far as systems with a good track record, Norstar, Avaya, Toshiba, ESI, Intertel..... All have products that will fill your needs well.
FIND A GOOD VENDOR WHO WILL SUPPORT YOU WELL!!!

Switchtek · 09-29-2004, 08:48 AM

The Partner ACS from Avaya is a very reliable system, and very robust! And best of all...I monkey could program it! :wink: Here is a link for more details... Good luck!

http://www.avaya.com/ac/common/index...2012P3037N4261

Anonymous · 09-29-2004, 11:57 AM

Thank gentlemen. I really appreciate your advice. Yes, we are really looking for good customer support and that would weight on our decision of which partner/vendor we would go with.

Thank you once again for your time.

**Chas2002** · 09-29-2004, 07:20 PM

If customer support is going to be a deciding factor - then I would suggest you go with a popular KSU/PBX manufactuer as switch and Paul suggested.

Competition for your business is more pronounced for popular systems - they (Vendors) want your business and will work hard to keep you a happy/paying customer..

Chas2002

shido6@msn.com · 09-30-2004, 09:57 PM

You can run Asterisk on a Linux box and have a fullblown PBX.

You can use regular analog lines you already own and plug in a TDM card from Digium to get started. Or if you need 23 or more lines you can plug in 1,4, or even 8 T1's or E1's in a single system. We use cisco 7960s and each extension has its own IP Phone or group of phones complete with voicemail and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menus. Or you can go old school and connect a channel bank to a T1 card and have 16 FXS ( stations or regular phones) and 8 FXO or lines from the telco. You can configure Asterisk to do whatever you want as it is Open Source.

Take a look at a very brief presentation at http://www.nufone.net/Presentation/img0.html to get an idea of what you can do with Asterisk.

If you need a custom system or need assistance with enabling your current system for IP, training, or configuration drop me a line at shido6@msn.com.

Asterisk has a lot of the features the more expensive systems have like:

Telephony Services:
Voicemail System
Password Protected
Separate Away and Unavailable Messages
Default or Custom Messages
Multiple Mail Folders
Web Interface for Voicemail Checking
E-mail notification of Voicemail
Voicemail Forwarding
Visual Message Waiting Indicator
Message Waiting Stutter Dialtone
Auto Attendant
Interactive Voice Response
Overhead Paging
Flexible Extension Logic
Multiple Line Extensions
Multi-Layered Access Control
Direct Inward System Access
Directory Listing
Conference Bridging
Unlimited Conference Rooms
Access Control
Call Queuing
ADSI Menu System
Support for Advanced Telephony Features
PBX Driven Visual Menu Systems
Visual Notification of Voicemail
Call Detail Records
Local Call Agents
Remote Call Agents
Protocol Bridging
Provides seamless integration of technologies
Offers a unified set of services to users regardless of connection type
Allows interoperability of VoIP systems
Call Features:
Music on Hold
Music on Transfer
Flexible mp3 based system
Volume Control
Random Play
Linear Play
Call Waiting
Caller ID
Caller ID Blocking
Caller ID on Call Waiting
Call Forward on Busy
Call Forward on No Answer
Call Forward Variable
Call Transfer
Call Parking
Call Retrieval
Remote Call Pickup
Do Not Disturb
Scalability:
TDMoE
Allows Direct Connection of Asterisk PBX
Offers Zero Latency
Uses Commodity Ethernet Hardware
Voice over IP
Allows for Integration of Physically Separate Installations
Uses commonly deployed data connections
Allows a unified dialplan across multiple offices
Voice over IP Interoperability:
Asterisk provides transparent bridging between Voice over IP protocols and traditional telephony equipment. In addition, Asterisk can transfer calls from one system to another via the Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX™) protocol.

Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX)
H.323
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP)
Traditional Telephony Interoperability
Robbed Bit Signaling Types
FXS and FXO
Loopstart
Groundstart
Kewlstart
E&M
E&M Wink
Feature Group D
PRI Protocols
4ESS
Lucent 5E
DMS100
National ISDN2
EuroISDN
BRI (ISDN4Linux)
Codec Support
GSM
G.729 (available through purchase of commercial license(s))
G.723.1 (pass through)
Linear
Mu-Law
A-Law
ADPCM
G.726
ILBC
LPC-10
MP3 (decode only)

If you cant justify thousands of dollars for a system then give Asterisk a try. Support Digium and purchase a TDM card to give it a chance. You can get setup with an 8xx number and outbound dialing via IP at NuFone (http://www.nufone.net) and you can have as many simultaneous inbound and outbound calls as your bandwidth will allow and everything is prepaid!

paul144 · 10-01-2004, 08:54 AM

Given the small size of the application.
Given that VOIP can make sense in some situations.
Given that VOIP suffers from transmission quality and a host of other problems.
Given that they will need/want support and training.....
Go with a name brand system from a reliable vendor.
VOIP can make sense in some applications, but I do not think that this is one of them.....

shido6@msn.com · 10-02-2004, 01:11 AM

If you dont need VOIP Asterisk can deal with TDM as well.

Anonymous · 10-18-2004, 07:17 PM

We have installed Fonality's asterisk PBX in our office, with its user friendly GUI, and we are tickled pink by its ease of use.

I recommend checking it out

www.fonality.com

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