www.agc.org Contact Us Archives/Subscribe Advertise IT Forum IT Forum Steering Committee

IP Phone Systems for HQ and Field Offices

Q: Can I ask for some feedback on newly purchased IP phone systems. I'll be looking at a Shoretel system this week. Anyone own a Shoretel system? Can you give me your good points / bad points of the Shoretel?
Bruce L. Roberts
J.F. White Contracting Co.

A: Have had ShoreTel for around four years and love it. Easy to manage. We checked Cisco, Mitel, Intertel and Avaya.
Joe Hussin
Manson Construction Co.

A: I did my due diligence five years ago on a Shortel and they beat out Cisco and Alltel for price and administration. Excellent phone system although their stock doesn't seem to reflect that. Users love the interactive experience as well.
Jim Gaba
Sierra Nevada Construction, Inc.

A: Not sure of the size of your environment, but if it's on the medium side it may be cost-effective for you to look into a hosted platform. We went that route a couple of years ago and have had a very good experience. Our ISP manages the call manager and provides us with a simple Web-based management interface for managing users etc. All we had to purchase was handsets. We pay a small monthly fee per line for the service. Broadsoft is the backend call manager platform that they resell. I know there are many other companies nationwide that offer solutions similar. We also are able to put these phones at jobsites with a BYOI (bring your own internet) they built for us.
Ben Stromberg
Knutson Construction Services

A: We use this hosted method as well, for about 120 phones. We lease CISCO 7960 phones including the service for $20/month plus usage from our ISP. It has allowed the users to be mobile, moving jobsite to jobsite with little more than billing to manage. It has allowed our small IT department to get away from managing SIP trunks, call managers, voicemail and call trees to concentrate on other business-related needs. It also reduced the up-front cost, although we will pay more over a longer time.
Scott Auge
Clark Construction Company

A: Has anyone thought of a Hosted OCS\Lync system. We use Lync (non-hosted) system and have seen huge cost savings. Lower cost on handsets as well as portability to the job sites. There are some caveats to this depending on the type of company hierarchy you work in that can make the implementation a little tougher. But nothing you cannot overcome. If you are thinking of a hosted Lync system I would recommend talking to Prometheus Networks as they are at the top of the food chain when it comes to OCS\Lync, great people to work with and straight shooters with no consultant type BS, which is always nice.
Ron Campbell
Goodfellow Bros., Inc.

A: We are also looking at Microsoft Lync and Enterprise Voice. Being able to have a truly integrated UC is a goal for us.
Todd Eldredge
Donley's