Planning for IP Telephony

[rakesh.shah]

Hi

I have below specific questions for my feasibility report of migrating to IP Telephony from Avaya Definity pbx system. Am novice in telecom so any sort of help/suggestion will be very helpful.. Thanks

- Does call manager has basic call center type of features... (for eg. defining queue and agents joining and leaving the queue)

- Can i still have few Analog lines for FAX and other usage (say for dial-up)

- If i just need voice mail feature, do i still need to buy Unity UM Exchg and MCS 7815 Unity/brdige

Please also forward few links where i can refer to more details.

Thanks and regards

Rakesh

=====

[thisisshanky]

IPCC Express is the product that you will need to deploy a queue system with the capability for agents to login and leave the queue. CallManager is mostly a replacement for your PBX system. Cisco Unity could replace your old voice mail system.

You can still have analog fxo lines which terminate directly to fax machines. The fax calls or dialup lines will be never seen by the callmanager system. You could also use voice gateways like VG248 or VG224 to terminate your FAX machines and Faxing will work over IP. You could also use Cisco ATA 186 or 188 to terminate fax machines.

Unity uses Exchange as a message store. If you need only voice mail, you can install an exchange server on the same box as Unity to store the voice mails. If you plan to move to Unified messaging its advisable to move to an off box exchange message store. That time you will need to integrate your Unity system with your Exchange server Active directory domain.

You dont really need Unity bridge, unless you plan to integrate Unity with your old voice mail system.

[rakesh.shah]

Thanks for these information. Further to that...

Please tell me, for FXO lines -

If i have one voice pri ckt terminated on cisco router and if that router has fxo modules, can those fxo port use few voice channels of the PRI ckt?

- there is also a product cisco unity express...can i use it with call manager if i just want basic voice messeging and greeting system? (i hv 50 users max)

thanks in advance.

regards

Rakesh

======

[thisisshanky]

For the FXO lines to use the PRI circuit to call out, all you need is dial-peers matching a destination pattern. So people can call into the FXO line and , you can PLAR the call to a specified number which matches a dial-peer pointing to the PRI circuit. I dont understand what you are trying to achieve by doing this.

Cisco Unity express is available in two forms. A network module and a AIM module that sits inside the router in a AIM slot. CUE supports voice messaging upto 100 hours on the NM and 8 hours on the AIM. For 50 users, you will have to have a 50 user license bundle purchased. CUE co-exists with CallManager express which is a router based Call routing agent. CallManager Express supports upto 120 phones. For 50 users, you will have to use atleast a router such as 2651XM.

Read more about CME and CUE at

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps4625/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps5520/index.html

[rakesh.shah]

Thanks again

For fxo lines.. my point is..... as call manager will use the voice pri ckt into its configuration, will it be still possible for fxo ports to use channesls of same pri ckt and DID nos for analog lines...Or i hv to exclude those few pri channels from call manager config...? (hope you will get my point.. sorry to make it complicated)

I am thinkning of using combination of cisco call manager and CUE so that i can have some call center features (like queues etc) and basic voice mail system. Idea is to cut some cost by not going for unity manager.

thanks and regards

Rakesh

=====

[shaun.connor]

Not 100% sure about the fxo ports, but you can install an ata adapter and assign 1 of your did's from your PRI circuit to the adapter and plug your fax machine directly intot he ata adapter. The atat adapter has 2 rj 11 jacks on it for analogue devices

[kleo]

Fully examine what type of call center you have from Avaya and what it's doing from a reporting and agent perspective, becuse IPCC express is limited and there is nothing basic about any call center escpecially an AVAYA one. My experience to you is find another consultant that understands avaya systems to fully analyize what your doing today and where you want to go with a cisco solution. Nothing worse then screwing up a working call center for the sake of doing IP. BE Carefull do your homework and also watch out for Analog connectivity(faxing, modems,over head paging, night bell,alarm system, etc) not as easy as just throwing in a ATA or gateway and assume it's gonna work the same as it did on the avaya system...my 2 cents