Wednesday, March 25. 2009Skype Moves To "Enter Business Market"John Linton I read this with some interest earlier this morning: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23997/53/ not because I have any particular regard for Skype but because it's another indication of how business users will have to make more effort to understand the advantages (operational as well as cost) of ditching their ancient PSTN/ISDN technology telephone services for the really much more useful, and so, so much lower cost VoIP services. Skype (and I have to say it's a service I've never used) has become very successful with its no cost telephone call offerings and like the recent announcement by Microsoft and Google (I referenced in a previous musing) has a well known 'brand' and quite considerable credibility when it comes to offering business services. I was particularly interested in the article because of our upcoming office move and the nightmares associated with moving a 16 hour a day/7 days a week telephone service used by Exetel's many tens of thousands of users. We have used a Mitel VoIP system for around three years now and have been exceptionally happy with it - apart from saving us tens of thousands of dollars in call charges each year it integrates with our data base via an Asterisk interface to provide a lot of our automated customer contacts (order confirmation and progress, fault fixing confirmation and progress etc). It also provides us with an Australia wide and international single point 'office extension PBX' which has simplified the integration of our Sri Lankan office at virtualy no cost. But now we have to move it 150 meters 'up the road'. So, we have been working on dispensing with our Mitel (or indeed any other proprietory telco manufactured 'box') and moving all of our PABX functions to a full Asterisk based solution which, despite the Mitel's many excellent features simply doesn't have the ease of integration with our data base that we believe we will need in the future and also costs money to maintain and more money to buy the proprietory handsets. My preferred solution is to finish the testing of the Asterisk development over the next few weeks and install the in house developed Asterisx box at the new premises with only a 1300 interface that we terminate on our Quintum switches and link to the Asterisk PBX via ethernet/VoIP. This would allow us to have two telephone solutions in place during the move and we only need de-commission the Mitel box once the move is complete. (Of course, if it's all a complete or partial disaster we will then have to admit defeat and quickly re-locate the Mitel to the new premises). This has the appeal of redundancy and also the fact that we could eliminate 50 ISDN lines we currently pay for as the 1300 numbers already carry much of our customer traffic and it would be, relatively, simple to discontinue the 02 number ranges - and also save a lot of money. Slam dunk decision. Well it would be except for our conservatism and 'mistrust' of the reliability of a server based telephone system versus 'purpose built hardware'. However that is a really infantile 'fear of the unknown' because our total business is run using a server driven data base and it would be pointless taking a customer call if the data base was 'down' because we couldn't do anything about the customer's call without reference to the data base. But, there you have it - a decision maker of a 'bleeding edge' technology company having reservations about the development skills of the people who have built every process used by the company over five years and the reliability of the hardware that has worked faultlessly for the same period. Pathetic - but an indication of why so many businesses still use PSTN/ISDN telephone systems when VoIP has been a proven business 'performer' for over three years by my observation and quite probably longer than that. Also why Skype, like Microsoft and Google, may find the task of 'selling' server based telephony more difficult than it should be. On the other hand it probaly explains Nortel's collapse into bankruptcy and the sad state of all of the other 'conventional' PBX manufacturer who have tried to ignore VoIP and the enormous cost savings over 'conventional' telephony charges.. I think we will, after a lot more agonising and "we'll all be rooned" conversations and cautions, go with the Asterisk solution; if not fully during the move scenario then not long afterwards. The cost advantage is overwhelmingly compelling and the operational advantages (although the programmers have done an excellent job to date) are equally attractive. It does demonstrate that even people familiar with the technology have irrational fears about moving away from tradition or, perhaps more likely, I am just getting too old and its my ever growing conservative attitudes that are holding Exetel back. There is no doubt that VoIP is more than reliable enough for us to have used it for over three years in our core business proceses and saved ourselves (and therefore our customers) a lot of money over that period. There is equally no doubt that Asterisk has continued to develop a UNIX based PBX capability to the point where it is as reliable and far lower cost than ANY other telephone service solution - even not taking into account its interoperability advantages. I guess, yet another, brave decision is called for. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
Thumbs up on using an in house developed system. Some Exetel VoIP users mightn't be happy with you ditching the 02 numbers which is cheaper for them to call. Can you somehow connect an Exetel VoIP number to the PBX which would allow Exetel VoIP users to call for free?
Comment (1)
So if an Exetel VoIP user calls your 1300 number, is it a free call? Cool if yes and in line with other voip providers.
Comments (2)
I read with interest this announcement yesterday, more details here http://www.skypeforsip.com/ it's not the first of this kind of implementation that I know of, another here http://www.yeastar.com/Products/SiSkyEE.asp Asterisk based solutions are suitable for this kind of integration and probably open business up to wider opportunities. Skype has a massive footprint and a move like this is a good thing I feel, even if only for the wider exposure this type of technology will provide.
Likewise Google's move into the voice arena has massive implications, I have a Grand Central account that was just migrated yesterday to the Google Voice service and the amount of features they have included for the end user is quite amazing, makes your average wireline telco look like they have a service based on tin cans and strings they are so antiquated in their functionality by comparison, the integration with the other Google services is also tightly interwoven and would have a certain comfort factor for any user of the Google platform At the moment the Google Voice service is all based on USA services and numbers but you can see once this behemoth decides to roll out in all the different countries they will make an impact Comments (2)
I believe it wasn't too long ago you went along to a lunch and gave a speech on just such an idea to business execs (cannot remember the date for the life of me).
Perhaps once you have it installed, tested and trusted you can find a way to market it as well? Comment (1)
Yes would love to be able to buy the software & setup, and add it to our own hardware. I know this is totally against what Exetel has done in the past, but then again it isn't your billing system that u'd be selling. You could maybe hard-code the software to run on Exetel VoIP only, thus ensuring your competitors don't use it.
Installation would be end user OR agents only - you would simply sell the software. You could even ensure it was sold to "licenced" agents or "exetel licenced" techs only (ie not all agents - the agent would have to know how to set it all up!) so that you didn't have many support calls for it. It could greatly assist in the growth of your VoIP service, especially for businesses, maybe even offer it as a bundle with SHDSL / Ethernet services. You already provide the NTU + installation (via contractor), why not include this too as an optional extra? The business would then only need to supply handsets (and if netcomm supplied the handsets you'd keep your existing supplier and grow turnover and therefore maybe qualify for even better than your already fantastic pricing). Could be worth looking seriously into as you ramp up your business offerings in 2009. An all in one SHDSL or Ethernet package, locally hosted IP PBX and VoIP service all from the one supplier. Alternatively could you convert it into a "virtual PBX" system to compete against MyNetFone's Virtual PBX service? At say $5-$10 per month per handset plus call costs, with your software running the back end but the user only supplying handsets (again using Netcomm's V90s)? Thus eliminating the requirement to buy handware (other than handsets) AND no maintenance - they'd simply plug in the handset and program its extension & VoIP number + calling group (for hunting etc) via a webpage. Again, this could be done via agents only (if you wanted to) but there really would be no need as you're hiring a large business-sales staff and this would be bundled into their job descriptions. I could've used (ie sold) one of these in the last 2 weeks actually if it existed! And VoIp is a great way to upsell an ADSL2 service into a small SHDSL plan, with the extra net cost funded by the savings from VoIP and lack of PBX whilst still resulting in huge net savings for the business ($900 per month in the one I quoted a fortnight ago). Hopefully something in all that for you to consider. Feel free to email me. Cheers Peter H www.SeeknBuy.com.au Agent N170 Comments (2)
It's going to be something that we do consider offering after we build our own data centre and get more of our own software written.
Comments (5)
Mark Spencer has spent a massive amount of (almost single-handed) time developing Asterisk from the ground up.
I have installed a couple of systems, and there have definitely been some issues, but never once with the server, or Asterisk itself. Incidently, when I started with Asterisk, it was running most of the Qantas 131313 call centre number, I beleive. Asterisk problems are: 1st, most definitely - poor call quality as a result of a poor internet connection or QoS. Something I've not experienced with Exetel, but I've experienced on other providers, even through a SHDSL "business" grade link. 2nd, also most definitely - poor phones. If the call sounds echo-y, tinny or distant, the person is probably using a cheap $90 VoIP phone. The NEC / Nortel / Panasonic entry level phones are over $300 a piece, which is comperable to a good quality Aastra, Polycom or Cisco VoIP phone. I've never had issues with those phones. Also, the power adapater on the good phones doesn't tend to blow up or melt once every 6 weeks either - be warned!!! 3. Telstra's line interface and Asterisk interface cards. The only true company hand-in-hand with Asterisk is Digium. There are plenty of cheap PCI cards that you bang into the back of a computer and plug in a phone line. 99% of these are not even A-Ticked, so technically that is a little illegal. Then we wonder where the echo is coming from, or why the server CPU is working so hard to clean up the call, because the PCI card doesn't do it for us! On the flip side, with asterisk it will deliver faxes to email, post your voicemails on the web as a MP3 or WAV file, full call costing and accounting, do you own call queues, ring grounps and everything, and most of all, you don't have to get the tech out every time you want to change a ringtone (PBX company techs aren't so happy about this). I guess I'm saying - Asterisk is a fantastic system. It has great flexibility, call quality, interfaces and so on. As for all the hardware and software that "plugs" into Asterisk, you get what you pay for. Having spent a very short afternoon with Exetel's very first Asterisk box, in their office, I'm looking forward to what will be perhaps the best programmed and most comprehensive asterisk system yet seen in Oz! Mike Comment (1)
......I'm looking forward to what will be perhaps the best programmed and most comprehensive asterisk system yet seen in Oz!
....me too! Comments (5)
a poor internet connection or QOS problems won't do any VoIP installation any favors, Asterisk or otherwise
Comments (2)
Can Exetel provide SIP accounts with multichannel call capabilities too?
I'm always dumb founded when VOIP providers limit the amount of outbound calls customers can make. Don't they want to make as much as possible from outgoing minutes? It would be interesting to present a case study of how Exetel went from 50 ISDN lines from Telstra to a single VOIP service and saved thousands of dollars a month in line rentals alone. Comment (1)
We may offer multi-channel in the future as a 'business' product.
Comments (5)
|
Calendar
QuicksearchArchivesCategoriesBlog AdministrationExternal PHP Application |