will VOIP work in this situation??

[cfiegert]

I have a customer who are looking at replacing a current POTS system.

The system needs to have 40 endpoints all linked together with the abiliy to broadcast calls over the whole system??

A customer rings in to a number, if the local shop cant assist it is then broadcast across the network and someone that can assist answers.

Is this possible?? Any thoughts on how??

Thanks

[trailman73]

What do the endpoints look like? What kind of gateways, routers, data connections? Give me some details, and I can help.

Geoff

[cfiegert]

cheers for that.

we are replacing outdated PAPL links so there are no endpoints. The endpoints will probably be a xDSL,ISDN link to the Internet with whatever gear we decide on.

There is nothing there, it is a complete design from scratch.

[trailman73]

Yes, you can do that. However, be carful with DSL it is touchy. I have some home office users with DSL and VPN connections that work well, but there can be quality issues. What size of offices are we talking? How many people? I am running a centralized call manager with 17 VPN locations, average 15 persons each. They are all connected via VPN with dedicated T1 internet data lines. What did you have in mind? We can do a lot!

Geoff

[cfiegert]

yep, am aware of quality issues with DSL. I'd envision it would be a half/half split between DSL and ISDN.

The office sizes are small, 5 users, only 1 will be using the IP phone system at any one time, so i'd imagine that the DSL should be OK.

Id imagine that we'd have the following:

Remote Locations - DSL/ISDN with Cisco IP Phone

Central Office - Call Manager software and some type of Broadcast software

For the Broadcast software something like InformaCast might suffice??

Does the Call Manager software run on any Windows server platform or does it need to run on the dedicated Cisco hardware platforms??

Sorry about the questions, this is new to me :)

[trailman73]

Yes, you should be okay with that number of users. Yes I am using InformaCast, and it works great! You could setup a situation that you could park the customer and blast a broadcast message out to the other locations to see if anyone could help. Then that person could just pickup the parked caller. Yes you can run Call Manager on a non-Cisco machine, but you need to know that TAC will not support it at all! If you want more details e-mail me at gbeaty@reico.com.

Geoff

[vassatrian]

Hi there.

Call Manager runs on Windows platform: Win2K and it is using dedicated server (non CISCO Hardware).

Be careful with solution design – make sure that you use server for Call Manager which vendor endorsed by CISCO.

In worse case you can buy MCS7935 server (Compaq Server).

Also you no need to have Broadcasting software because you can make your Call Manager to distribute calls around.

I am from Melbourne and it looks like you are from Australia too so if you want you can send me an e-mail message if you need any help designing system.

My e-mail address is vassatrian@aapt.com.au

Regards

Vakhtang

[cfiegert]

thanks for people comments, i think I have my head around it enough now :)

and to those that offered assistance, you may hear from me yet :)

thanks again