NTBB04GC
here's a pic of what it looks like installed. (circled in red)
Monday, March 7, 2016
CICS Expansion module
The little card you add to your CICS to move it from 4x8 to 8x16. Also known as a
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Setup Call Centric Trunk for E-MetroTel UCx
Here's the text for "PEER Details". Just copy and paste into your UCX, but change the user account info and secret (the sip password).
username=[insert CallCentric Acct # & SIP extension]
type=peer
secret=[insert sip user password]
qualify=yes
nat=no
insecure=very
host=callcentric.com
fromuser=[insert CallCentric Acct# & SIP extension]
fromdomain=callcentric.com
dtmfmode=rfc2833
disallow=all
context=custom-get-did-from-sip
canreinvite=yes
allow=ulaw
Then, there is the USER details section:
context=to-callcentric
type=friend
defaultuser=[3 digit user extension]
secret=[insert sip user password]
host=dynamic
Lastly, the Register string
[Call Centric account # and SIP extension]:[SIP password]@callcentric.com/[CallCentric Acct no.]
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
CallPilot on Local Area Network
Did you know the Nortel Networks CallPilot voicemail is designed to be integrated with your Local Area Network?
While it's not a requirement for proper operation, there are two benefits to having the CallPilot on your network.
1. Management: You can perform almost all the necessary administrative tasks for the CallPilot via the Norstar Telephone set (feature 983, 985, 982, etc). But, having a graphical user interface can make some tasks feel more intuitive. Also, there is reporting available inside the CallPilot which is only available via the computer connection.
2. The Norstar Call Pilot has a few applications for users' desktop which are designed to work with the users' voicemail box (but only if the CallPilot is on the network).
If you're interested in getting your CallPilot on your local network, check out my how-to video:
While it's not a requirement for proper operation, there are two benefits to having the CallPilot on your network.
1. Management: You can perform almost all the necessary administrative tasks for the CallPilot via the Norstar Telephone set (feature 983, 985, 982, etc). But, having a graphical user interface can make some tasks feel more intuitive. Also, there is reporting available inside the CallPilot which is only available via the computer connection.
2. The Norstar Call Pilot has a few applications for users' desktop which are designed to work with the users' voicemail box (but only if the CallPilot is on the network).
If you're interested in getting your CallPilot on your local network, check out my how-to video:
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Exclusive Hold
"Exclusive Hold".... sounds esoteric doesn't it? OK, so what is it?
Exclusive Hold is just a way to put a call on hold so that it can only be retrieved from the phone where you used the Exclusive Hold feature.
How do you use it?
Press Feature then Hold
If you want to put a call on Exclusive Hold, press the feature key and then the Hold key. The screen will then display "Exclusive Hold".
Why would I want to use this feature?
In very busy environments, people can get mixed up about which call is holding on which line. Using Exclusive Hold ensures that no one else can accidentally pickup your holding caller.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Upgrade Options for Nortel owners
As the unbelievably reliable and rugged Nortel systems out there get up in age, owners of these systems begin thinking "what is the migration path for my phone system?"
In case you didn't know, Nortel was dissolved in 2009 and sold off in three parts at auction. The part of the company that deals with business phone systems was acquired by AVAYA.
Avaya wasted no time in informing all the Nortel Norstar owners that their systems would be "out of support" in short order. Avaya's solution was that you upgrade to an "Avaya IP Office". Unfortunately, many did. From my experience in the field many of those who upgraded were not as happy with the new Avaya IP Office as they had been with their previous Nortel Norstar systems.
As far as upgrading is concerned, I will propose three possible paths (although there are more, to be sure).
1. Upgrade to an Avaya IP Office (and go through the learning-curve)
2. Upgrade to an entirely different provider such as Cisco, Samsung, or other. (learning-curve)
3. Upgrade to a E-Metrotel UCx (and keep the good old Nortel experience you're used to).
First the IP Office:
If you get warm fuzzies from sticking with brand loyalty that has treated you well in the past, then Avaya is your solution. Nortel no longer exists, but Avaya is the company that bought their phone system business. But, to be clear, the Avaya culture is NOT the same as the Nortel culture.
While the Avaya product does not resemble the Nortel product, it is possible to leverage existing Norstar telephone sets with and Avaya backend phone system. From what I have heard in the field, it's been a luke-warm reception. The Norstar phones do work as they did before, for the most part, but technicians have told me it's pain to work with.
The other Avaya option is to go 100% fork-lift upgrade (meaning throw out everything and get all new). This puts an Avaya IP Office handset on every user's desk. There will be a learning curve. And, there is the potential to get all kinds of new, killer applications for Unified Communication.
Personally, I do think the Avaya IP Office is a very cool looking system. The aesthetics of the upper-end phones (96XX series) are very inviting. And, the Unified Communication tool will blow your mind (tablet integration, video).
I have two major complaints with Avaya IP Office systems:
1. Every time you turn around, there's a fee for licensing, maintenance, or upgrades. Avaya insist that if you want to maintain support from them, the system must stay upgraded within at least 2 major releases. For example if you're on version 7.1 and the current version is 9.1. You'll need to upgrade to at least 8.0 in order to receive support.
2. Flakey behavior. I've been working on these systems a few times a month. There are some behaviors that I find confidence-shaking. For example. Sometimes the system will develop behavior quirks that are only remedies by rebooting. No cause was found - just reboot and the problem goes away.
Another is that the database (the place where program settings are stored) can become corrupted. Some of this may be due to the fact that information is stored on a little SD card in the unit. SD memory is not perfect.
On balance, you won't go wrong if you upgrade to Avaya's option. But, there may still be better choices for you.
Upgrading to something entirely different:
If you're thinking of upgrading the Nortel system, now would be the time to consider something entirely different. I know, we love the Nortel and we hate to see it go. But, that era is over now (well, except for the UCx which I'll talk about next).
One system that I see a everywhere these days is the Cisco phones. One of the things that is very attractive about Cisco phones is they integrate well if you already have a Cisco network infrastructure. Cisco phone are 100% Voice-over-IP (aka: "VoIP"). That means, they run just like network devices. They do not require a separate phone wire infrastructure. (in fairness Avaya IP Office make both VoIP and non-VoIP phones).
I find the network administrators, especially those who are well verse in Cisco technology, love the Cisco phones because they are managed very much like the rest of the Cisco network infrastructure.
Polycom is another good choice. Polycom is also 100% VoIP solution. And, it is an especially good choice if you are thinking of going with a non-local, cloud-based phone system. This means that instead of having the phone system server (pbx or key system) locally on your premises, the phone system is something that lives in the cloud. Usually, there is a monthly service fee you pay for this. However, there can be some really cool advantage to having a cloud-base phone system. Portability and disaster resilience are two of the big ones!
Poycom makes a good choice for small and mid-sized office environments that don't require sophisticated call handling. Thee telephone sets are very affordable. Also, I mentioned portability. For instance, taking your office phone home with you and plugging it in a home is something the Polycoms can facilitate pretty easily (Cisco and Avaya can too, it' just not as easy to setup).
One complaint I have had with Polycom is that many people are used to "line appearances". That refers to a "line 1, line 2, line 3, etc." universal appearance on every phone. The reason we, as users, like this is it gives us a simple method for transfering calls. We put the call on hold and then just inform the desired party to retrieve the all from the appropriate line.
In the Polycom world (and with many other VoIP phones) the line appearance concept goes away and is replaced by "call appearances". Call appearances are a little less linear in that they do not universally appear the same on every phone. It can take a while to get used to.
There a whole myriad of other brand choices. I can't speak to them as well, because I don't encounter them much in my work travels. Right now (2015), what I see the most of out there is Avaya, Cisco, Polycom and the old Nortels.
E-metrotel's UCx platform
If you currently have a large installation of Nortel phones. Upgrading to something completely new can be very expensive. Mainly, because the cost of the desk telephone are what drives a large portion the total solution. Here's some quick math to give an example:
Avaya PBX (small) is about $2500
each Avaya desk phone (basic) is about $200
replacing a small office of 8 phones is about $5000 (including the install/training costs).
But, a larger installation where there are 100 desk phones looks like this:
Avaya PBX (medium) $8000
each Avaya desk phone @ $200 = $20,000
So, roughly $30,000 for that scenario.
Now, imagine if you could replace only the PBX (the phone system brain). That same installation would be about $10,000 (including install costs).
That's where E-metrotel's UCx comes in. They make a system that seamlessly replaces the Nortel back-end PBX. You literally could upgrade the system on a Friday night and your phone users would even know the difference on Monday morning.
Why? because the phones are the same and they work the same way they used to.
But the real kicker is that you get all these new, cool Unified Communications tools that you would expect from a modern system.
And, you're not locked in to only using Nortel phones. As your phones wear out you can choose to replace them with the abundance of surplus that is out there. Or, you can elect to go with another brand of phone such as a Polycom.
Wrapping it up
There is no BEST OPTION here. The solution that is best for you depends on your situation and you're tolerance for change. I have a personal bias because I am such a fan of the Nortel system that of course I would be gunning for the UCx solution. However, if I were making a recommendation for you as one of my clients, I would weigh all the different factor in your environment.
In case you didn't know, Nortel was dissolved in 2009 and sold off in three parts at auction. The part of the company that deals with business phone systems was acquired by AVAYA.
Avaya wasted no time in informing all the Nortel Norstar owners that their systems would be "out of support" in short order. Avaya's solution was that you upgrade to an "Avaya IP Office". Unfortunately, many did. From my experience in the field many of those who upgraded were not as happy with the new Avaya IP Office as they had been with their previous Nortel Norstar systems.
As far as upgrading is concerned, I will propose three possible paths (although there are more, to be sure).
1. Upgrade to an Avaya IP Office (and go through the learning-curve)
2. Upgrade to an entirely different provider such as Cisco, Samsung, or other. (learning-curve)
3. Upgrade to a E-Metrotel UCx (and keep the good old Nortel experience you're used to).
First the IP Office:
If you get warm fuzzies from sticking with brand loyalty that has treated you well in the past, then Avaya is your solution. Nortel no longer exists, but Avaya is the company that bought their phone system business. But, to be clear, the Avaya culture is NOT the same as the Nortel culture.
While the Avaya product does not resemble the Nortel product, it is possible to leverage existing Norstar telephone sets with and Avaya backend phone system. From what I have heard in the field, it's been a luke-warm reception. The Norstar phones do work as they did before, for the most part, but technicians have told me it's pain to work with.
The other Avaya option is to go 100% fork-lift upgrade (meaning throw out everything and get all new). This puts an Avaya IP Office handset on every user's desk. There will be a learning curve. And, there is the potential to get all kinds of new, killer applications for Unified Communication.
Personally, I do think the Avaya IP Office is a very cool looking system. The aesthetics of the upper-end phones (96XX series) are very inviting. And, the Unified Communication tool will blow your mind (tablet integration, video).
I have two major complaints with Avaya IP Office systems:
1. Every time you turn around, there's a fee for licensing, maintenance, or upgrades. Avaya insist that if you want to maintain support from them, the system must stay upgraded within at least 2 major releases. For example if you're on version 7.1 and the current version is 9.1. You'll need to upgrade to at least 8.0 in order to receive support.
2. Flakey behavior. I've been working on these systems a few times a month. There are some behaviors that I find confidence-shaking. For example. Sometimes the system will develop behavior quirks that are only remedies by rebooting. No cause was found - just reboot and the problem goes away.
Another is that the database (the place where program settings are stored) can become corrupted. Some of this may be due to the fact that information is stored on a little SD card in the unit. SD memory is not perfect.
On balance, you won't go wrong if you upgrade to Avaya's option. But, there may still be better choices for you.
Upgrading to something entirely different:
If you're thinking of upgrading the Nortel system, now would be the time to consider something entirely different. I know, we love the Nortel and we hate to see it go. But, that era is over now (well, except for the UCx which I'll talk about next).
One system that I see a everywhere these days is the Cisco phones. One of the things that is very attractive about Cisco phones is they integrate well if you already have a Cisco network infrastructure. Cisco phone are 100% Voice-over-IP (aka: "VoIP"). That means, they run just like network devices. They do not require a separate phone wire infrastructure. (in fairness Avaya IP Office make both VoIP and non-VoIP phones).
I find the network administrators, especially those who are well verse in Cisco technology, love the Cisco phones because they are managed very much like the rest of the Cisco network infrastructure.
Polycom is another good choice. Polycom is also 100% VoIP solution. And, it is an especially good choice if you are thinking of going with a non-local, cloud-based phone system. This means that instead of having the phone system server (pbx or key system) locally on your premises, the phone system is something that lives in the cloud. Usually, there is a monthly service fee you pay for this. However, there can be some really cool advantage to having a cloud-base phone system. Portability and disaster resilience are two of the big ones!
Poycom makes a good choice for small and mid-sized office environments that don't require sophisticated call handling. Thee telephone sets are very affordable. Also, I mentioned portability. For instance, taking your office phone home with you and plugging it in a home is something the Polycoms can facilitate pretty easily (Cisco and Avaya can too, it' just not as easy to setup).
One complaint I have had with Polycom is that many people are used to "line appearances". That refers to a "line 1, line 2, line 3, etc." universal appearance on every phone. The reason we, as users, like this is it gives us a simple method for transfering calls. We put the call on hold and then just inform the desired party to retrieve the all from the appropriate line.
In the Polycom world (and with many other VoIP phones) the line appearance concept goes away and is replaced by "call appearances". Call appearances are a little less linear in that they do not universally appear the same on every phone. It can take a while to get used to.
There a whole myriad of other brand choices. I can't speak to them as well, because I don't encounter them much in my work travels. Right now (2015), what I see the most of out there is Avaya, Cisco, Polycom and the old Nortels.
E-metrotel's UCx platform
If you currently have a large installation of Nortel phones. Upgrading to something completely new can be very expensive. Mainly, because the cost of the desk telephone are what drives a large portion the total solution. Here's some quick math to give an example:
Avaya PBX (small) is about $2500
each Avaya desk phone (basic) is about $200
replacing a small office of 8 phones is about $5000 (including the install/training costs).
But, a larger installation where there are 100 desk phones looks like this:
Avaya PBX (medium) $8000
each Avaya desk phone @ $200 = $20,000
So, roughly $30,000 for that scenario.
Now, imagine if you could replace only the PBX (the phone system brain). That same installation would be about $10,000 (including install costs).
That's where E-metrotel's UCx comes in. They make a system that seamlessly replaces the Nortel back-end PBX. You literally could upgrade the system on a Friday night and your phone users would even know the difference on Monday morning.
Why? because the phones are the same and they work the same way they used to.
But the real kicker is that you get all these new, cool Unified Communications tools that you would expect from a modern system.
And, you're not locked in to only using Nortel phones. As your phones wear out you can choose to replace them with the abundance of surplus that is out there. Or, you can elect to go with another brand of phone such as a Polycom.
Wrapping it up
There is no BEST OPTION here. The solution that is best for you depends on your situation and you're tolerance for change. I have a personal bias because I am such a fan of the Nortel system that of course I would be gunning for the UCx solution. However, if I were making a recommendation for you as one of my clients, I would weigh all the different factor in your environment.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Avaya IPO Nightmare
I saw this the other day and it was so shocking I had to take a picture. Actually, it's not the first time I've seen something like this with the Avaya IP Office. It's Avaya's poor choice on using the modular connectors (RJ-11) directly on the PBX that fosters this kind of mess. The prefered method is to use distribution blocks such as 66 or 110 to move the cross-connecting off the PBX.
I suspect this method is a hold-over from the consumer-friendly AT&T Merlin systems that were so popular in the 1990's.
I suspect this method is a hold-over from the consumer-friendly AT&T Merlin systems that were so popular in the 1990's.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
What is a POTS line?
A POTS line gets its name from the acronym for “Plain Old Telephone Service”. Prior to the 1970′s, POTS was the ONLY type of service you could get for voice communication. But, when the emergence of T-1, TDM (Time Division Multiplexing), Satellite, ISDN, Fibre, WATS, VOIP, and others, offered us other voice alternatives, this acronym was used by the industry to specify standard loop-start telephone service delivered via copper wire.
While the proliferation of POTS service is beginning to shrink in the past decade, it is still widely in use. It is a very versatile and generally accepted standard that makes it compatible with modems, alarms, faxes, cordless phones, and other devices which require dial-out or dial-in service.
But, the POTS pricing model is no longer competitive. The major phone companies (i.e ATT, Verizon, Quest) can’t afford to charge any less than they do now because the aging copper wire system is maintenance intensive and not very profitable. In fact, if you keep up with telecom news you'll notice the trend of the major providers (AT&T, Verizon) getting out of the land line business. Why just recently, AT&T announced that it was selling it's Connecticut wireline business to Frontier Communications.
ALternatively, VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is replacing many POTS lines now. It offers all the same features of POTS, plus many other features such as conferencing, forwarding, Caller ID and Long Distance which are all included in one flat price. VOIP is often 30-50% cheaper than POTS service when you consider the Long Distance charges. And furthermore, VOIP has matured to the point where it is just as reliable as POTS and delivers better sound quality (wider frequency spectrum which carries the lower and higher voice tones).
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