Skeletor P Funk
Beta member
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- Virginia
First off:I'm not even sure if I'm posting in the right place here so I'm sorry if I'm not.
I'm working on a school project that essentially has me as part of a group building a network for a hypothetical doctor's office consisting of a total of 4 branch offices and a central office where all of the application and management servers are. We've got most of it figured out but we'd like to implement VOIP and I can't quite get a lock on what the best set-up is. They list VOIP as something they are interested in for future expansion, but I can already tell that IP phones is an easy way to call between the offices, so I'm thinking about just giving them a whole phone system. The problem is that I'm not sure whether I should go with a hosted service or an on-site PBX. I'm running out of time on this project and independent research is getting me nowhere, so I thought I'd just directly put the question out there.
There aren't any specifics in the outline about how much phone traffic I should expect, but there are about 10-15 people at each office (including management). I don't believe they provide emergency service, so I'd say I'd have to provide for maybe no more than 7 calls outside the network at once. There are already VPN tunnels connecting the offices so that isn't much of an issue. We were thinking about recommending that they hire a full-time IT technician to maintain the network anyway so there would someone to maintain on site equipment.
The cost isn't as important as having a good reason for implementing the system, so if one way or another will save money, that's all I need. That said, I still need to know the cost of the equipment and providers since the final deliverables are basically a business proposal. And if anyone could recommend a good provider that would be appreciated too.
I promise that I'm not just handing off my work to someone else: everywhere I look I'm either finding way too much information or the same things I already know, and I'm having trouble sorting it all. I'd appreciate any guidance I can get here and thank you for reading my absurd wall of text.
I'm working on a school project that essentially has me as part of a group building a network for a hypothetical doctor's office consisting of a total of 4 branch offices and a central office where all of the application and management servers are. We've got most of it figured out but we'd like to implement VOIP and I can't quite get a lock on what the best set-up is. They list VOIP as something they are interested in for future expansion, but I can already tell that IP phones is an easy way to call between the offices, so I'm thinking about just giving them a whole phone system. The problem is that I'm not sure whether I should go with a hosted service or an on-site PBX. I'm running out of time on this project and independent research is getting me nowhere, so I thought I'd just directly put the question out there.
There aren't any specifics in the outline about how much phone traffic I should expect, but there are about 10-15 people at each office (including management). I don't believe they provide emergency service, so I'd say I'd have to provide for maybe no more than 7 calls outside the network at once. There are already VPN tunnels connecting the offices so that isn't much of an issue. We were thinking about recommending that they hire a full-time IT technician to maintain the network anyway so there would someone to maintain on site equipment.
The cost isn't as important as having a good reason for implementing the system, so if one way or another will save money, that's all I need. That said, I still need to know the cost of the equipment and providers since the final deliverables are basically a business proposal. And if anyone could recommend a good provider that would be appreciated too.
I promise that I'm not just handing off my work to someone else: everywhere I look I'm either finding way too much information or the same things I already know, and I'm having trouble sorting it all. I'd appreciate any guidance I can get here and thank you for reading my absurd wall of text.
