How To Not Get Fired By Not Buying Cisco

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How To Not Get Fired By Not Buying Cisco
How we saved 1m on a VOIP PBX and lived to tell
the tale Anthony Rodgers Shayne Dunlop (aka Rick
Pratt)? District of North Vancouver
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A Little History

• Had an aging Nortel Meridian Option 11C
• High maintenance costs
• Reaching end-of-life
• Tried VOIP as early as 1999
• Nortel
• Televantage
• Plagued with echo and interoperability problems

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A Little History

• Abandonment of Televantage led to search for
  alternatives
• Discovered Asterisk Open-Source Software PBX on
  the Internet
• Pilot install in Spring 2005
• Production install in Fall 2005
• Now over 400 phones at 15 sites

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Infrastructure
Allstream
23BD
23BD
Telus
Ditech E/C
3BD
Asterisk 1
Asterisk 2
Asterisk Test
IAX Trunk
Polycom IP501
Sipura ATA
911
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Challenges

• Interoperability with Nortel
• Support from user community, online documentation
• Had to work around caller ID issues
• EeCcHhOo.......
• Long loop to GTD5 CO
• Tried software EC, on-board EC
• Bought a Ditech carrier-grade EC appliance
• Thanks, Vic!

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Challenges

• Handset selection
• Single largest expense
• Evaluated Snom, Aastra, Polycom, Grandstream
• Polycom emerged the winner
• Mostly IP501 sets, a couple of IP601s
• Very pleased so far
• Wifi handsets
• Use UTCStarcom, but no clear winner

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Handset Criteria

• PoE
• Maintain phone service during a power outage
• Built-in switch
• Most workstations only have one drop
• Software-defined labeling
• No whiteout-encrusted labels
• Remote administration and provisioning
• SIP standard
• User acceptance

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Challenges

• Failover
• Two identical production servers
• Second is a hot standby
• Use VSS to mirror configuration between them
• Also has advantages for migrating from test to
  production
• Voicemail stored on separate server
• Polycom phones use DNS SRV records to
  automatically switch to hot standby server
• PRIs are switched using the Armstrong method

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Challenges

• 911
• Took the view that we are the telco for our
  staff, and have responsibility to provide
  accurate 911 location
• Municipal Hall is covered by PRIs
• All other locations have at least one 1B line
• Billing address is set to street address
• Dialplan matches calling phone to location and
  places call on appropriate 1B line using ATA
• ATAs have power and Ethernet failure detection

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Challenges

• Unified Messaging with MS Exchange 2007
• Got it working via SIP Express Router (SER)?
• Jammed the pump with a small stone
• Got the fish tank dirty
• Waited to be put in plastic bags
• Rolled across the counter, out the window,
  through the grass, across the road, over the edge
  of the dock and into the bay
• Now what?

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What Is It?

• Full-featured, open-source, software PBX
• Standard PBX features
• Voicemail, auto-attendant, staff directory, music
  on hold, etc.
• ACD Queues
• No-cost conference bridging
• Telecommuting local extension at home
• Anything you can program it to

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How To Do It

• What we did
• Requires in-house skills, adoption of open-source
  mindset
• Probably the hardest way to not get fired
• Consultants
• http//www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/BritishColumbi
  a
• You can always fire the consultant ?

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How To Do It

• Tailor-made Linux distributions
• One install does it all
• Usually with Web/GUI configuration
• Free
• AsteriskNOW (Digium offering)?
• FreePBX
• Commercial
• Fonality (Trixbox)?

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How To Do It

• Asterisk Business Edition
• Commercially-licensed, fully tested and
  commercially supported version from Digium.com,
  makers of TDM cards and other hardware
• Turnkey appliance
• Digium Asterisk Appliance
• Switchvox (now owned and supported by Digium)?
• Fonality (Trixbox appliance)?

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Benefits to Munis

• Considerable cost saving
• Flexibility
• The open nature of Asterisk makes muni-specific
  business application integration feasible
• Connection/service sharing
• Munis can provide least-cost call routing to each
  other
• Regional call centres

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The Bottom Line

• Capital cost
• Servers 4,000X 2 8,000
• Digium interface cards 2 X 2000 4,000
• Echo Canceller 3,500
• FXS Gateway                            
  1,500
• ATA 12X 100                         1,000
• Phones 220 ea x 400        88,000
• Total 116,000
• Operational saving per annum
• Nortel Maintenance 20,000
• AVST Maintenance 5,000
• Cancelled Centrex and 1 B lines 10,000
• Total 35,000
• ROI lt 4 years

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A brave leader that can see the light
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And a well oiled team is required
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Easy for Finance to Swallow
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Legacy Phone Systems are still useful
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A 2008 is great !
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Parting with a loved one can be sad
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Some were happy to move on
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Moving from a entire room
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To another application in the Rack
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Good Bye XXTEL well miss you to pieces
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If this is green where is the grass ???
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In Summary

• Open source is not scary
• Many de facto standard mission critical services
  are open-source
• You save a bundle
• We have a duty to minimize the spend of taxpayer
  dollars
• A stable solution at low cost
• You don't get fired

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Questions?

• Anthony Rodgers
• 604-990-2348
• arodgers_at_dnv.org

• Shayne Dunlop
• 604-990-2420
• sdunlop_at_dnv.org