Comments on: Outsourcing a telephone service

By: David Thompson

David Thompson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:41:16 +0000

Hi,
Nice work, thanks for such information, which will help beginners in future.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:12:04 +0000

I would be careful and reconsider why you really want to do this. The main driver for most people is call costs especially where you have multiple locations. If you are just looking to say a few quid on normal calls it doesn’t usually cost in. Our experience of “cheap” implementations like SIPgate/Skype and off the shelf VoIP handets is not good in terms of call quality and reliability. If you do go down this route consider a dedicated internet connection for VoIP with a router that can separate voice from internet/e-mail traffic.

If you want flexibility look at an FMC solution from the likes of C&W, they stick a Pico Cell in your office and you just use your mobile.

If you want an all singing, all dancing solution check out Mitel. You still need a box your office but they can support SIP and ISDN trunks so you have the best of both worlds and future migration options covered. They also support mobile extention, remote working eg a Mitel Phone at home via your router. If you need it they can do unified messaging and integration with CRM/ERP applications.

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:37:40 +0000

Mmm, DTAG. If it’s not forbidden, it’s compulsory!

By: David Wright

David Wright — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:33:59 +0000

Steve, you guessed right. I live in Germany.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:13:45 +0000

Can’t consider Skype as a realistic option personally. The sudden ducking of Skype out numbers was infuriating.

Personally I use a VM of 3cx and Sipgate for external calls. It works very well and didn’t need a huge new server or (initially while we tried it) spending any money!

By: MadaboutDana

MadaboutDana — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:30:30 +0000

For a small operation it would be sensible to look at the Business options offered by Skype, which seem to me to provide an impressive level of flexibility. We’ve been experimenting with bundled numbers, and they work rather well. You can be running your office from the US and come across – very convincingly – as being based in the UK. What’s more, there’s a huge range of Skype phone options, ranging from 3’s various Skype offerings to more sophisticated systems from Philips etc. Not to mention Skype apps for most mobile platforms. We’re seriously considering Skype for our next big telecoms convergence moment!

By: Steve Cassidy

Steve Cassidy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:11:41 +0000

David David, David… to make a comment like that stick you need to tell people where you are! My guess is, it’s not the UK.

By: David W

David W — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:14:09 +0000

Ah, the wonders of a properly implemented ISDN system, not the BT bastardisation of the standards.

I have ISDN at home – you needed it to get a DSL connection when I moved over here – and at work.

When moving around the office, I can redirect internally, but when I leave the house or I am out of the office, I just call up the redirect function on the telephone base station and enter my mobile number and that’s it. When somebody calls my office or house number, it can either ring there AND my mobile, or just on my mobile.

Getting BT to fix the ISDN to offer its default features would be a good start!

By: Sean Taylor

Sean Taylor — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:49:17 +0000

The company I work for, Content Guru, has worked with Cable&Wireless on a new hosted services solution called STORM. It’s works on a SaaS model and includes IP Centrex (e.g. all the standard features on a PBX with a number of other useful add ons such as call recording, conferencing and Unified Comms (such as SMS integration)).
You’re welcome to give it a try if you’re interested.

By: Paul Ockenden

Paul Ockenden — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:19:53 +0000

Players to look at in the SME marketplace include Gradwell and VOIPfone. Haven’t used SIPgate for a while, but they used to have a bad rep for fault recovery (system goes down Friday 5pm, doesn’t get fixed until Monday 9am). But they may have improved since then. I always felt they were better suited to techie home users (people a bit too grown-up for Skype).

If I was in Simon’s position I’d be speaking to Gradwell and VOIPfone.

Oh, and one of the key factors is porting your existing BT or C&W numbers into the new system – not all providers cope well with that, but renumbering is a sure fire way to lose business.