PBX for a school

[voipstarter]

I work for a school as part of the IT team. We were thinking to move to VOIP tech for sometime now.

We have about 20-30 extensions and some warless phones as well. We also have 5 fax machines and voicemail.

We are also establishing another campus. We are looking at reducing our cost and linking both campuses.

Just wondering if 3CX is what we really need to do the job. Would the free version be good enough for us?
If not how much does the commercial package cost?

Does the commercial package require a dedicated server?

Please advice

Many thanks

 

[Anonymous]

We were thinking to move to VOIP tech for sometime now

Good, few pointers (you know the most likely).
1. VoIP does not support emergency number dialing
2. Make sure you network is smooth, eg introduce QoS etc.
3. Security overlays can introduce call deformation (not much but they can).
4. WiFi although great technology it is not really a "healthy" technology (it cooks water, that is why it does not like rain and fog).

We have about 20-30 extensions and some warless phones as well. We also have 5 fax machines and voicemail.

30 Extension, you looking at the Professional Edition. I assume your Wireless phones are DECT so and are not included in the extensions. I would go for the enterprise version these are the reasons why:
1. Each teacher their own extension
2. Each teacher does not need a phone but might want to have voice mail they can retrieve voice mail from any phone by dialing their mail box or even have the voicemail forwarded to thier email box.

We are also establishing another campus. We are looking at reducing our cost and linking both campuses.

Love it when they do that, reducing the hardware cost by increasing the recurring costs .
My advice is (depending on the infrastructure) one PBX per campus. This introduces redundancy.

Just wondering if 3CX is what we really need to do the job. Would the free version be good enough for us?
If not how much does the commercial package cost?

No you you do not really need 3CX, you could install a mega bucks type PBX, but why would you. 3CX can easy do the job running on a Windows machine in the corner. For sure you have one somewhere.

Does the commercial package require a dedicated server?

Nope, the application is very sociable and can run on any windows server doing some other stuff, it can even run on a virtual machine I believe. For example if you have a Domain Server you can run 3CX on that. But again it depends how much load you want to put on 3cX and how much spare capacity you have.

Here is a link to the different versions.

http://www.3cx.com/phone-system/enterprise-features.html

Ok now the disclaimer:

I am NOT a 3CX employee, neither do I get paid by them for services. I am a 3cX user (and a happy one that is) So my comments should be taken like that. Re prices and what version, I am not in the position to quote other than what is on their webpage.

Hope this helps
Henk.

 

[N_G]

Hi,

You could do everything with the free edition, except link both campuses at this point. You would have to use a VOIP provider for that. The enterprise edition will support linking of campuses directly, i.e. without a VOIP provider in between. However, since the enterprise edition is not ready yet it would have to wait anyway. maybe since you are a school we can then work something out for you. Email info [at] 3cx.com for more info about that.

meanwhile you could your feet wet with VOIP in general and install the free edition...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

meanwhile you could your feet wet with VOIP in general and install the free edition...

Nick,

what is a good migration path?

In this instance possible two 3cx copies one in each campus, but once that is up and running and the enterprise version comes out how does that work.

Does that require new installation and for that reason reconfiguring the software (either as a whole or partly ) or is it a straight forward upgrade?

Might be hard to tell at the moment as the enterprise version is not ready as yet. But a migration/upgrade path would be nice.

Other question now we are on the topics of paths, are you in the position to publish a development path?

For example we aim for april to have the small business version and enterprise in summer 2007 (nothern hem. that is :lol: ) just to get a ball park on what and when to expect would be nice.

Thanks
Henk.