Jason HardinPM I| DBM GlobalChandler, Az, United States
All,
I'm heading up a project to find, purchase and deploy new IP phones. Turns out they haven't thought at all about what they want in a provider and phone. Does anyone have an IP Phone Comparison Matrix they don't mind sharing?
Its depends on your budget. You could just use a headset on your computer and use a Skype for Business connection. Also are you going to handle your own call routing internally and who will manage your routing externally. I would first start with a proof of concept so that the Clients know what there buying into and then scale up according. Moving from a office PABX to using IP telephony is a relatively big step for a organisation and you don't what to be carrying the can if the clients expectation do not meet the solution that you deliver. Like any product you can get a basic handset and the price increases based on the manufacturer with Cisco IP phones normally holding an expensive price as there were one of the first to deliver enterprise IP solution. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I've worked on an IP phone project. First and foremost was the infrastructure. While you might be saving on the PBX or Centrex, you have to make sure your network can support the additional voice data. If possible, ensure you can use quality of service tools to manage your network bandwidth.
Next, you have to figure out what are you hoping to achieve by switching to IP phones. In our case, it was to enable and integrate audio, video, email and chat, We were working with the Microsoft offering. We had to stand up a bunch of virtual servers to integrate the features. Finally, we had to extend the Active Directory records to control access to features.
The result? You could start an online chat with someone and then simply pick up the phone and carry on talking. People working remotely could still "answer" their work phone, using a phone application. Chat would display your availability based on your Outlook calendar. We also had video-conferencing available. It was pretty slick.
Be prepared to need specialized people to handle the complex hardware and software.
