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Good VoIP service for office phone system?

M

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
I'm going to be setting up a phone system in our office. Right now we're using some random phones with 3CX ( http://www.3cx.com/ ) for our phones.

I just got 8x Polycom SoundPoint IP670 phones ( http://www.polycom.com/products-ser...ns/soundpont-ip-series/soundpoint-ip-670.html ) and need to set them up using some sort of VoIP service.

The employees all hate 3CX, so I'd like to explore other options, but I don't know the first thing about VoIP so I could use some guidance as I work on figuring it out.

What's a good service you recommend? What's the pricing? Pros/cons?

TIA
 
From doing some preliminary research it looks like I need an IP PBX software or hardware solution, but not sure which I should go with and what a good company is, and if I should mess with something that's free or go for a paid but more reliable option.
 
Vocalocity is a decent provider, and Polycom phones work well with their system. You should first research why your existing setup isn't working well to avoid replicating the same problem with the new company. Your internet connection must be high quality, and the phones should be on a separate network, or have a higher priority on the network than other traffic. Here is a tool you can use to measure the quality of your existing connection. http://myspeed.visualware.com/index.php
 
Maverick2002 said:
By separate network, you mean separate wiring as well? As in, separate ethernet jacks?
Click to expand...

Thats one way to do it. Most people just use PoE switches with Vlan support though.

Your first mistake was buying phones before you have a phone system. There's no guarantee what you bought will be compatible with the solution you ultimately choose.

TBH, VoIP phone systems are an absolute nightmare for small businesses. If your business is small enough, I'd say go with a hosted VoIP solution. It's typically something like $15/mo/phone, but they literally give you the configured phone, you plug your cat5 into it, and you're done. Changes can be made from either a web interface or by calling the company depending on the service. For less than 20 people, frankly the cost is worth supporting the system not being your problem. Any more than that and it starts to get a little hairy.

I don't recommend rolling your own solution unless your business is large enough and you have the internal IT with the skillset to properly manage it. VoIP is not a "set it and forget it" solution. From your posts it sounds like your business isnt that size yet 🙂 Best advice is to call in an outside vendor to look at your network and spec out/install/support the system. Get a few quotes, they'll all try to sell you the same stars and stripes marketing BS. The bottom line is your phones are business critical and they need to work, when something goes wrong (and it will) you dont want the jack of all trades IT guy frantically googling to try to learn the real ins and outs of VoIP to attempt to fix it, you want a company whos actively monitoring it and knows its down before you do. It's more expensive, but it's worth doing right.

...No, scratch that, best advice is dont buy cisco 😀
 
Well, we already have the Polycom phones, so what's done is done. They system being used now is C3X, a free IP PBX software solution. Apparently it doesn't work all that well (calls getting dropped, etc) probably because it's a software solution. The last IT guy set it up, so I'm just trying to expand and make things a little better. I have the time/resources to learn how to set up and administer a PBX (it's what I'm being paid to do, after all) and I've been watching some instructional videos on core concepts of how phone systems/networks work, so I'm familiarizing myself.

I still have to do more research and play around with the currently installed C3X solution, but I may present the option of purchasing a PBX/Voicemail box so we have a hardware solution - although I'm guessing that needs to be a completely independent network? I'm kind of learning this as I go.
 
Simple test: Call Vocalocity and order a single account for testing. Then put the server info into one of your Polycom phones. Test and evaluate to see if the problems are solved. This also gives you a chance to play with the control panel and see how easy it is to setup lines, call groups, etc... Regarding the dropped calls issue, if the problems persist on the Vocalocity phone, then you probably have underlying issues with the network.
 
Hi Maverick,

Out of curiosity, where are you located? I work for a hosted VoIP company and will be happy to discuss your current set up and our solution with you. Feel free to contact me at skaneyama@axionco.com or 310.954.9527.

Thanks,
Scott
 
Maverick-

I am a team lead here at RingCentral and can definitely assist you with this! We can provision those Polycom devices to our virtual PBX and get you set up rather quickly. We also offer a 30 day risk free trial of the solution.

Feel free to email me if its something you want to try out! Jenny.lindgren@ringcentral.com

Thanks,
Jenny
 
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