VOIP System for Business

[db2]

*Mods feel free to move*

My company is looking into getting rid of our analog phone system and going to a VOIP system. We've received a couple of estimates from different companies and wanted to know if anyone here to help provide some insight or direction?

Does anyone have any specific recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

 

[navychop]

Oh, boy, do I have experience to share with YOU!

Nextel got bought out, and those phones will receive less and less support, which believe me, you will need.

Don't plan on using a fax machine over VOIP for business. We discovered that VOIP was meant for voice (DUH) and is NQR for some fax machines. Not just yours, perhaps more importantly, other fax machines sending faxes to you. We had to move to a software solution- in our case, FaxTalk 7.5. Ver 8 is out now. Somehow, an old modem connected to our server works better; I guess the software somehow compensates better. BTW, an expensive serial modem did not quite work well; we bought a cheap 14,400 USB modem the size of a thumb drive and it works just fine, thank you.

More as time allows.

 

[SatinKzo]

Only company I have experience with is charter business systems. I don't normally give anyone kudos for doing what they claim they would do (cause dang that's what I expect them to do), but in general, their overall system with Fonality call management on the desktop PC, etc is slick. 1 phone problem in 3-4 years among any of the customers we support (I do not work for Charter). heck, the systems our customers have even let them take their phones home and be seamlessley integrated back into the office if they have HSI at home. Helps the working mothers quite a bit with sick children and of course accomodating management.

 

[navychop]

Brain burp. I reread my post above. I meant to say NORTEL got bought out, and support is slowly fading as the new owners (Avaya) shift product over to Avaya software and lines.

I don't like Avaya phone systems.

 

[vodad]

That would depend on what you mean by VOIP, if you mean one of the services where the phone system is offsite and they route the calls to the phones at your business, then I don't have experience, although we looked into it.

We just switched ours from Verizon (Frontier now, and have we heard of issues they have had since the switch) to Time Warner Business Class, we have 5 lines with them and 10x1.5 internet. We also got a Cisco UC540 System to control everything, with 15 phones. We paid right at 11,000 for the system and the bill from TWC is about 350 a month, which is down from our 600 we were paying total for Verizon. and yes all this would allow us to have phones at employees houses if we so choose, and I can access the phone system from anywhere if there is problem. How that became my job is another story

This system also controls the routing for our computer network as well, that is why we went with it, put up a new office and have all new wiring everywhere so upgraded the computer network while we did the phone network. All phones work over CAT6 and all the phones we have have switches built in so the computer plugs into the phone and then phone plugs into the wall. there have been no issues with this setup, We also got 2 wireless n access points with the system. And the system comes with a wireless g access point built in

So far we are happy with everything, we did have some minor issues with the fax at first, but all that is worked out. Any other issues where just from minor configuration problems.

 

[mike123abc]

We use talkswitch (small system for less than 64 phones). We use hardwired phone lines for the fax. The talkswitch allows you to blend VOIP and hardwired lines. It is a solution for small offices, but it works well for us with 7 extentions.