Is bridging 3CX and an NEC PBX possible?

[Lee Cramman]

I've done a bit of Googling and gone nowhere with this...

Background: We are two organisations in the process of merging. Both are pure VOIP / SIP. One (us) has cloud based 3CX and love it - I look after their comms. The other has an NEC PBX on premise solution and don't love it - management / maintenance of their comms is contracted out and I know nothing about NEC kit. There are extremely heavy penalties for exiting the contracts for the NEC system and, realistically, the only financially viable solution is to wait the contract out before going fully 3CX.

In the meantime (3 years) we have to find a way of managing comms across the two organisations / sites and the provider for the NEC system are being non too helpful (they want us to dump 3cx and put their system in across the whole organisation).

I guess the short question is whether bridging or some other solution that will allow us to manage calls across sites is in any way possible or whether I'm flogging a dead horse here.

I'm open to ideas!

 

[leejor]

This is probably a starting point...
https://www.3cx.com/docs/
However, amongst other issues, you may have problems with caller ID being passed correctly. You will have to try having the NEC register to 3CX, then start testing to find the limitations of the bridge trunk. It's not going to be ideal.

 

[AWS2P]

could it be an option to let the NEC but without the lines until contract ends and add SBC on that location linked to your existing 3CX?

 

[SMF Media]

In the final stages of dumping three SV8100's. I only have one system left to go. Here is what I can think of...

Could you configure the NEC to allow multiple calls on a SIP channel (Extension or Trunk) and then treat the NEC system as a SIP Trunk coming into 3CX? (Until you have 3CX to 3CX I don't think you are going to use a bridge)

Setup FXS/FXO gateways and bring it into the NEC analog.

Setup PRI gateways and bring it into the NEC as a T1 PRI

Within the NEC they can setup a dial plan to achieve "direct" dialing using shorter extensions if you have DIDs. The NEC can strip digits and prepend digits like 3CX. NEC is a lot more complex to program but reformatting numbers can be done.

 

[Lee Cramman]

This is probably a starting point...
https://www.3cx.com/docs/
However, amongst other issues, you may have problems with caller ID being passed correctly. You will have to try having the NEC register to 3CX, then start testing to find the limitations of the bridge trunk. It's not going to be ideal.

Cheers. Yep, I'm guessing it's going to be a real kludge ...

could it be an option to let the NEC but without the lines until contract ends and add SBC on that location linked to your existing 3CX?

I've asked that question (use the SIP contract but dump the rest) but a huge chunk of the cost is the equipment lease and 5 year maintenance contract.

 

[AWS2P]

yeah , it's common pratice in telecom business to keep customers trapped for many years, I'm not doing this, all my customers are free to go (none are gone) , very often when i prospect for new customers i'm in front of same situation as yours, customers are seduced by 3CX but their actual contract keep them stuck , too much money to give to break the contract.

 

[Lee Cramman]

In the final stages of dumping three SV8100's. I only have one system left to go. Here is what I can think of...

Could you configure the NEC to allow multiple calls on a SIP channel (Extension or Trunk) and then treat the NEC system as a SIP Trunk coming into 3CX? (Until you have 3CX to 3CX I don't think you are going to use a bridge)

Setup FXS/FXO gateways and bring it into the NEC analog.

Setup PRI gateways and bring it into the NEC as a T1 PRI

Within the NEC they can setup a dial plan to achieve "direct" dialing using shorter extensions if you have DIDs. The NEC can strip digits and prepend digits like 3CX. NEC is a lot more complex to program but reformatting numbers can be done.

Thanks for your ideas. The fact that you're dumping them makes me think they are as crap as I suspected they were...

Under the maintenance contract only the provider can configure the NEC stuff so I can't get my hands dirty and do testing, they have to cooperate... I've asked the question of whether it can be achieved via a SIP trunk and I'm awaiting an answer from their techs.

I'm not keen on adding more equipment / maintenance to the NEC system. The contracts are pretty punitive so I don't really want to sign more of them! The person responsible for (fairly recently) signing very expensive 5 year leasing, maintenance, broadband and SIP trunk contracts with them for this NEC stuff just before leaving the organisation hasn't exactly covered themself in glory.

 

[AWS2P]

The person responsible for (fairly recently) signing very expensive 5 year leasing, maintenance, broadband and SIP trunk contracts with them for this NEC stuff just before leaving the organisation hasn't exactly covered themself in glory.

Well done , well inspired