VOIP / PBX advice

[InfinityMVS]

I am not sure where you get the cost of R1450 per month for ten users, with www.euphoria.co.za it would cost R500 per month ex vat for 10 users with literally all the functionality and reporting a small business would require. We even offer the option of pre-paid so absolutely no long term commitments what so ever. If you don't like it, simply switch to a different provider. Remember the R500 includes support during working hours, including change requests to IVRs routes etc. Why hack with it yourself, get back to business.

Looking at the OP's brief " 10 users with at least 5 on the phone" and looking at your pricing yes it would cost R499.00 but the OP also wants call logging which is not included in you original price

10 Extensions - R499.00
Vibe cost for 10 simultaneous calls - R175.00
Call recording for 10 extensions - R400.00
Call storage- R125.00

Total R1199.00 (pretty close to my original estimate--not based on your rates)

The above is only the monthly cost, the OP still needs to buy the Vibe enabled router, pay for the ADSL install and the normal voice line rental, the IP phones and then decide if he wants to be penalized for going pre-paid, by getting charged premium blended rates and per minute.

[georgegolding]

Hi InfiinityMVS

Call logging (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_logging) is the storing of call data for analysis, it is not actual wav call recordings of calls that can be played back. Call logging is included in our standard costs of R50 per extension. If the client wishes to actually record and store all call recordings for contractual purposes that is another requirement all together.

Secondly the client would only need 5 ViBE licenses which would be R 87.50 not R175 and in my opinion is a connectivity cost, not a PBX cost. You can use the system without ViBE we simply suggest it for fail over, improved call quality and automatic fail over. So the cost as I perceive the original request is still R 500 per month, at worst R587.50 ex vat if you include the ViBE licenses.

[ChyrillStucker]

Hi all,

My office needs to upgrade its telecoms.

- There are ~10 people in the office, half of whom are on the phone most of the time.
- We currently have 4 analogue lines and would be keen to change to VOIP if the quality of service is acceptable.
- Cloud PBX or 'normal' PBX? I'm not sure which would be better here.
- We're also looking for extra features like call logging.

Does anybody have any suggestions about which specific or what sort of offering I might want to look into?

Since you do not require many extensions, I would suggest you to go for cloud PBX and you can also get additional services such as call logging, call hunt, call parking, etc. (there are too many) and the prices are quite low. Since your phone usage is quite high, I would strongly suggest you to switch to VoIP since the calling bills are reduced to quite an extent especially if you make too many long-distance calls. I am taking services from The Real PBX since last seven months. Works fine for me. You can check out their services with http://www.therealpbx.com

[ChyrillStucker]

Please bear in mind that even though cloud/hosted PBX's are great their biggest draw back is that you require connectivity to them, saying that though their biggest benefit is also that you can operate anywhere.

If you want to go with a inhouse PBX, then I recommend you take a look at Elastix, it offers everything you require. If you are going to stay with an in house PBX, then change your analogue lines to ISDN with VOIP it's a match made in heaven.

I agree that there is an issue of connectivity with the hosted PBX system but this depends on your internet connection. I have been using a Hosted PBX for my business and I do not find connectivity issues. Even the Hosted PBX can provide integration of analog lines with VoIP by converting the analog signals to digital via an ATA.

[Centronix]

Warwick I agree with you but OP does not have to go with Elastix/FreePBX as there are solutions like MyPBX available, this will eliminate the need to invest in 1. data cabling if nothing is present and 2. purchase of IP phones as he can utilize his existing voice cabling and analogue phones.

Centronix: how exactly is cloud going to be cheaper ? by my calculations if he opts for a cloud based system and wanted all the functionality a local system can offer like call logging etc, it would cost R1450.00 per month based on 10 extensions, this excludes the DSL line rental.

If he opted for a local based system it would cost him R5250.00 once off (3.6 month ROI as compared to hosted solution), he can connect his 10 analogue phones and 4 telkom lines to the system, if he wanted to move to VoiP after that he can look at ECN SME lite for R699.00 it gives him the IPC link, patton gateway, and 4 simultaneous calls no extra charges for DID's or for sending and receiving faxes.

If you cancel the telkom analogue lines and associated services it will easily cover the cost of ECN, and on top of that you will get great per second rates whether you are on pre or post paid. local-27c national-25c mtn/vdc-85c other-95c

I'm only seeing this now, a month later but anyway. Thing is with 'cloud voice' you don't have to buy and own anything. Rentals are much cheaper. I can get the numbers for you. Hopefully I don't sound like a sales guy but you can rent everything as a bundle. From dsl line to non-geographic extension (i.e 087 or 010 numbers). And you'd still have the functionality of a local system i.e directory lookup, call logs, voicemails sent to your email in wav format etc.

[leonb]

Why bother with VOIP for local/mobile calls is beyond me. You can call from a cellphone/premicell for R0.99 to all mobile numbers, and R0.50 to fixed lines in SA. VOIP is for playing around/testing in your free time. The reason why so "many" people on this forum suggest VOIP, is because it is a forum where the young tech savvy people gather - they all like new technology (and hate the telkom, vodacom, MTN, multichoice, and whatever large business corporations).

At this stage VOIP is not a solution for a serious business. They will make you think it is, but its not. How can anyone justify saving 10% on call cost, and in the meantime sacrifice business. When anyone give me a call from a business/call center, and the call quality is bad, I just put the phone down. Life is too short (hello...hello....can you hear me... your line is breaking up....helloo...helloo). No thanks

It might be a good idea to have your company/office's internal communication on a VOIP system if you e.g. have a network backbone, but not for outgoing calls.

[georgegolding]

Leonb all networks are heading towards IP, all of them, including Cell C, Vodacom etc. The entire 8BN Neotel network is built on IP voice networks, yes VoIP! So the break up your talking about is related the quality of your connection and service providers network. If you have a weak cell phone signal, the call breaks up and you will experience the hello hellloo.... can you hear me, and then cut. We all have that experience on our cell phones regularly. Its all the same, so its more important to look at quality the networks and service providers in relation to your connectivity to them.

[Superspeed]

Why bother with VOIP for local/mobile calls is beyond me. You can call from a cellphone/premicell for R0.99 to all mobile numbers, and R0.50 to fixed lines in SA. VOIP is for playing around/testing in your free time. The reason why so "many" people on this forum suggest VOIP, is because it is a forum where the young tech savvy people gather - they all like new technology (and hate the telkom, vodacom, MTN, multichoice, and whatever large business corporations).

At this stage VOIP is not a solution for a serious business. They will make you think it is, but its not. How can anyone justify saving 10% on call cost, and in the meantime sacrifice business. When anyone give me a call from a business/call center, and the call quality is bad, I just put the phone down. Life is too short (hello...hello....can you hear me... your line is breaking up....helloo...helloo). No thanks

It might be a good idea to have your company/office's internal communication on a VOIP system if you e.g. have a network backbone, but not for outgoing calls.

LMAO! You my friend have been subjected to VoIP providers that do not know what they are doing. We have some of the biggest names in the industry and our upstream provider has even bigger ones. In fact you are unknowingly phoning a ton of companies on VoIP already and you don't even know about it!

ECN routes 80 million minutes a month... Do you think that would be possible if it didn't work?

The savings to our customers are at least 40% by negating the need for multipe Telkom accounts, ridiculous PBX rental fees and per second billing amongst others.

Our PBX offers exponentially more functions and features than any legacy PBX ever can or will. Even if it can't do it I can simply code the module and it can do it.

I have one customer that often does 30 simultaneous calls from a 4Mb ADSL line. How? Well that's the secret. Ensure your physical network is perfect and you'll have smiling customers.

[Centronix]

Superspeed I agree with you. I couldn't help but lmao at leonb's post. I work for an ECN's competitor now but at my previous employer we used ECN and I always recommended them. We never had issues with them, ever. Anyway, not everyone can set up VoIP as it should be. Not everyone understands Quality of Service and not everyone understands how to implement it. That being said, we route thousands of VoIP calls and minutes a month. Leonb, move with the times and save :-)