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7941 phones, 2800, CISCO2821 V02 donated to church, worth installing?

Someone donated to my church a few Cisco IP 7941 phones, a Cisco 2800, and a Cisco 2821.  We were looking to setup a VOIP system for our new (currently under-construction) church building anyway.  Is this equipment worth implementing or is it too old?  My background is systems administration and software development--I'm familiar with Lync/Skype but I have no knowledge of what it takes to implement a Cisco phone system... where is the first place I should look to get documentation?

Requirements are pretty simple:

   1. allow us to set up a phone tree. (Press 1 to speak with the Secretary, Press 2 to leave a message for a pastor. Press 3 to hear service times and locations, etc.)
    2. Allow us to set up voice mailboxes for each phone/station.
    3. We are hoping to have at least 6 separate stations in the office area. 
    4. provide an "in house network intercom system" for call transfer etc. 

Thanks.

 

8 Replies 8

Vivek Batra
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni
1. allow us to set up a phone tree. (Press 1 to speak with the Secretary, Press 2 to leave a message for a pastor. Press 3 to hear service times and locations, etc.)

You can use it with B-ACD (basic automatic call distribution).

 2. Allow us to set up voice mailboxes for each phone/station.

Your router should have CUE (Cisco Unity Express) module in it to use voicemail.

3. We are hoping to have at least 6 separate stations in the office area.

This should not be an isssue.

 4. provide an "in house network intercom system" for call transfer etc.

I'm not sure what do you mean by "in house network intercom system" however you can use many supplementary features like call transfer etc.

- Vivek

In addition to great answers from Vivek (+5), yes the equipment would provide you with some good basic telephony features. For more info you can review the CME admin guide:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/admin/configuration/guide/cmeadm.html

As to the intercom, that is a feature available on CME and easily configurable.

Chris

Thank you for the admin guide... looks like I've got a fair amount of reading to do.

Thanks for confirming the requirements.  I'll check for the existence of a CUE module.

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

I'm not sure how much budget does the church have but the question can be answered two ways:  Yes, it can be done with Cisco and yes, it can be done with 3rd party call manager server.  3rd party call manager, like Asterisk, can come in CLI or GUI mode, is normally free for charity or non-profit organization.

The budget is cheap as possible--the building is still under-construction and being built debt-free so currently there are still things that are a higher priority than the phone system and probably isn't something that we'd be looking at yet except this equipment was donated.  That said if there are other better options I want to consider them for the long-term.

I have heard of Asterisk before (FreePBX is another solution I was looking at as an alternative to Cisco).  I'm not familiar with the term "3rd party call manager".  I looked it up on Wikipedia and it looks like it's some system to either connect the phones to each other, or connect the phone system to another system that will route the calls?

I'm not familiar with the term "3rd party call manager".  

Asterisk and 3CX are, somewhat, popular 3rd party call manager.  

 

The only question you need to answer is TIME.  Asterisk, in raw CLI or GUI versions like FreePBX, Elastix, etc is a software-based call server based on a Linux OS.  

 

Take me, for example, I have a working FreePBX running on a cheap Raspberry Pi.  Asterisk is also supported in Beagle Bone.   (Do you have an idea how much a complete set of Raspberry Pi or Beagle Bone cost?)

 

Asterisk system is very popular among people who are not flushed with cash (like me) because it's just versatile.  Out of the box, Asterisk won't be able to duplicate what a full-blown Cisco CUCM can do but you can get the basics out:  Incoming/Outgoing calls, extension calling (is this the right term?), call transfer, do not disturb, call forward, redial, voice mail, black-listing of unwanted calls (I love this feature!).

 

In your thread, you mentioned IVR.  Out of the box, Asterisk doesn't support this BUT there is a popular Asterisk IVR module which can be downloaded. 

 

The main hurdle of Asterisk is to get the link between the Asterisk server and the voice service provider working.  Once this gets working, then you are set.  Getting the phones to associate to the Asterisk server is a breeze.  The Cisco phones I have been able to get working on Asterisk/FreePBX are:  7940/7960, 7962, 7970, 9950.   We can help you with this bit.   So yeah, it can be done.  It all depends on budget and time. 

 

Before you go down Asterisk, please talk to Cisco first.  Cisco have a special heart when it comes to schools & non-profit and charitable organization and they might point you to special "promos" designed for non-profit and charitable organization.    I remembered a few years ago of someone who posted a thread here and he said he got all his gear for his church for free (if memory serves me correct).  The gear he got were all refurbished (makes sense).  

Ayodeji Okanlawon
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Ben,

Every one here has given you solid advice. However being a Christ follower myself I am available to help you with your setup free of charge. You could also come back here with any configuration issues you have. I just wanted you to know that we can all help you get the ball rolling..

Those Kits are fine and will work well. The only missing kit is the module for voicemail.

One area that hasn't being touched on is your network infrastructure. Is this in place already?

Also what do you plan to sue for PSTN connectivity? Do you have a provider already? You might also need a FXO card for PSTN connectivity..

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