Category: Business Voip

Repurpose your CISCO 7900 phones as ShoreTel sip Extensions!

Posted on by DrVoIP
The CISCO 7900 series of phones have been a very popular handset in the “hosted” PBX space.  CISCO discourages the use of these phones on other than CISCO systems, but there are so many of them out there, that they end up being used on a range of other systems from 3CX, ShoreTel to Asterisk and FreePBX.     A company moving from a “hosted” solution or converting from a CISCO Call Manager to a ShoreTel system, for example,  would normally wanted to protect their  investment in handsets and repurpose them for use on ShoreTel.   The CISCO 7900 family of phones has been shipping since at least 2002 and estimates have been that over 1 million handsets ship to market every day!   By any measure, the market is littered with these phones.   We would caution you however, before you hit Ebay, to understand that what you save in the purchase of handset hardware, you may end up spending in professional services and cumulated aggravation!   If you are still committed to burning up IT staff or professional service hours, there are a few key issues you will need to understand.
 
First, CISCO Call Manager solutions have historically used a proprietary protocol named “skinny” of SCCP.    Most hosted solutions  have used the  industry standard SIP protocol and because of its wide adoption by vendors in general, most new systems can support SIP end points.    CISCO 79X0, 79X1 and 79X2 handsets most have their firmware converted from SCCP to SIP before they can be used on any SIP based system or on ShoreTel.   The process of converting the firmware is not all that difficult but does require some basic resources like a CISCO login  account  and a TFTP server, though we have found the needed firmware all over the Internet.    Setting up a TFTP server can be implemented in a number of ways from open source solutions like PumKin or Tftpd64.    We prefer Tftpd64 for field deployments as it can also provide DHCP services that include the ability to specify required scope Options 150 and 66!
 
You can try flashing the phone without defaulting the configuration by just unlocking it and setting the Alt TFTP server to the correct IP address.   You unlock your CISCO phone by hitting the Menu key, scroll to the network settings, hit unlock (**#**)  for Alternative TFTP server,  set it to yes and then in the next field enter in the IP address of the TFTP server.   Experience has proved, however,  that you should reset the phone.  There are subtle differences between how the reset and unlock method is executed based on your exact model.  Generally, you reset the phone by holding the # key while powering the phone and when it starts flashing orange and red, enter 123456789*0# on the keyboard, then be patient.    Make sure your TFTP and DHCP servers are setup and working.    DHCP Option 150 and Option 66 must point the phone to the TFTP server and directory  containing the firmware files.   
 
Again you will find that you really need to tweak the SiP software version as one may run and another version may not!
You should be aware that v4.4 code uses the following tftp files (which areall case sensitive):
 OS79XX.TXT  (This file must be on the TFTP as it defines the software load WITHOUT .bin extension).
 SIPDefault  (This file denotes parameters for all phones)
 POS3-04-4-00.bin
 SIP<your mac address>  (eg, SIP00036BABD123 parameters for a specific phone)
 RINGLIST.DAT         (optional) 
 dialplan.xml		(optional)
 ringer1.pcm		(optional)

Early versions of the SIP code did not require all of these, however if they are in the tftp directory, it doesn't hurt the loading process.  Later you will still need the TFP server to obtain configuration file when you boot your CISCO phones. Power on your CISCO  and the phone should display "upgrading" and you should see file transfers in your TFTP server log.       Be careful as the phone will from time to time looks like it is dead, but it is still loading files.  It takes time and patience  will ultimately yield a phone now flashed for SIP!
 
That was the easy part, now you have to understand the configuration files, how to edit them and the boot process.    When the phone boots, it makes a DHCP request for usual IP configuration parameters including the necessary vendor specific options.   ShoreTel uses Option 156 to specify the FTP server where its phones can download firmware and configuration files.   CISCO uses TFTP and specifies that IP address in CISCO Option 150 and Industry Option 66.   When the phone boots it will first look for a “install trust list” or certificate file which it will not find in your TFTP directory,  so expect that file failure.  It will then look for a SIPDefault.cnf  which has information for all phones, and then a file that contains configuration  data for a specific phone which is named SIP<macaddresss>.cnf.
 
Edit the SIPDefault.CNF in Notepad file and change the first three values: The first line of the file,image_version, sets what firmware version we are going to use. This needs to match either the firmware version already loaded on the phone or the firmware version that you have available in the tftp folder for the phone to upgrade to. The second setting, messages_uri sets the extension number that the phone will dial to access the voicemail system.   The third setting, proxy1_address, sets the IP address for the phone system so the phone knows where to send it’s registration information.  In the case of ShoreTel make sure you point this at the ShoreTel SipProxy IP NOT the ShoreTel HQ server!
 
For real detail on the content of the config file click this link.  Each phone requires its own configuration file based on the MAC address of the phone.   If our MAC address is 00175989A49E, then our configuration file will be named SIP00175989A49E.cnf.   This file contains a list of XML tags.  You will need to modify several tag entries.  You can use notepad, but if you can make use of an XML editor like Komodo or Eclipse it will help you eliminate poorly formed XML tags.   Scroll through the file and edit the following tags:
<processNodeName>172.16.1.100</processNodeName>  should be set to the IP address of your ShoreTel SIP Proxy, NOTE the ShoreTel HQ server!

For Each extension line you want to register you will need to set the following parameter:

<authName>1234</authName>  to your ShoreTel SIP UserName
<authPassword>1234456</authPassword>  ShoreTel SIP Password

 

The lines also have other configuration data for displaying the Name and Extension number and you should find those XML tags easy to locate. The above tags however are the 3 minimum tags required to get your phone to register with ShoreTel. It should be understood that getting your phone to register, make and receive calls is not the same as integrating your CISCO phone with ShoreTel. Getting feature buttons to work and interfacing with the telephone book is an entirely new opportunity for head banging. Some of it can be accomplished by editing XML configuration files, but well outside the scope of this nugget ! The most likely success stories for CISCO on ShoreTel are the 7940/7960 phones. Be aware that there are subtle difference between the rest of the family like the 7941G/7960G and so forth. The 7942 and 7945 take extra tweaking and you many need to SSH into the phone to debug. It takes time, patience and perseverance to tinker with the various phone loads and XML options, but it can be done! As we get more examples, we will upload sample configurations to the Member portal.

 

Deploying VoIP in the Cloud or rolling your own “hosted PBX” – Part 1 Server Deployement

Posted on by DrVoIP
The entire subject of Virtualization and all things “cloud” has become something that even none technical people talk about.    You might say it has gone “viral” and captured the interest of geeks, business people, professional technology managers and entrepreneurs.   Personally, I never did get the whole fascination with hardware.  In my mind hardware was just something we had to put up with to get to play with the software.   When you stop and think about it, aside from the IT folks, nobody wants a Windows 2012 Server!  What they want is a Website,  a CRM package, a blog or a phone system.    Having to deal with hardware was always a chore and it always seemed to me that whatever we had was obsolete within a year or so.   The software could be upgraded, but the hardware had to be “refreshed” an expression that generally means, purchase new stuff!

Virtualization made hardware a bit more interesting.  Now we could at least run a half dozen servers on one huge hardware platform.   Back up and Restore became almost fun!  Now you start adding virtualized appliances like phone systems, gateways and firewalls to the mix and software professionals get almost giddy!     I think VMware has caused more new business creations than any other single “stimulus” package.  Now, even a guy working out of his garage could compete with the big guys!  Capital requirements were significantly reduced and new cloud based business could launch at the drop of a hat and the signing of a sales agreement!   Internet bandwidth, access, creativity and an Amazon account and you were in the revenue production business!
Unless you are in the business of refreshing hardware, why would you want to bother with any of that hardware stuff?   How long does it take your IT team to spin up a new server?   Even if you are a one man show and you can control everything without benefit of a working committee, it takes time to setup a server!   Some organizations take weeks to provision a new server!  Now if you happen to have an Amazon account, even your plain vanilla book buying Amazon account, you could spin up a new Linux or Microsoft Server in about 15 minutes!   With your “Amazon machine instance” you get a security group (read firewall) for your public IP address, a DNS name and a local network all in less time than it takes to unbox and rack a new hardware based solution.The Amazon portal lets you change the configuration of your instance on the fly.  This means you can increase disk size, RAM, change bandwidth and update your firewall without a screw driver!  Think about it, fully operational on net with pubic IP access in less than 15 minutes.

Now that 3CX, ShoreTel, Mitel  and so many others offer Gateways that are “virtual” machines, you could actually spin up a “hosted PBX” in just a few hours!   We though we would try it just for kicks!  Log into AWS spin up a new Windows Sever and deploy ShoreTel or 3CX completely virtualized, including SIP trunks, Border Controllers and Remote phones both Hard and Soft.    Should be hilarious!   (Thanks to winter storms back east, we just brought up a  169 users system, across three states and had the client fully operational in 12 hours from the emergency phone call to the DrVoIP hot line).   This first video clip just deals with provisioning the server.  In subsequent versions we will bring up an entire phone system and you can watch over our shoulders!

ShoreTel V14 Real-time Diagnostic and Monitoring Dashboard

Posted on by DrVoIP
I am found of repeating that “product development is a process not an event”!   Though the marketing folks need to package, position and promote products based on feature sets, generally products emerge over time.   Building on previous releases, customer feed back and recommendations, products continue to emerge with new functionality.    Most product development focuses on features that have market demand or differentiate one product from another.   Occasionally, a new product feature is targeted at someone other than an end user.   Engineers and Technicians are typically the last group of people to get a feature developed that makes their lives a bit more easy.   Such is the case for ShoreTel Version 14 and the introduction of  a “Diagnostic and Monitoring” tool!
The latest Version of ShoreTel has added a capability that we think is essential in iPBX technology as SIP becomes more of a standard.   If you have ever attempted to trouble shoot SIP without the ability to do packet capture, you will know how valuable this feature set is.    CISCO long ago had RMTM tools as a standard part of a Call Manager deployment.   ShoreTel has now added that functionality to its standard product offering and it is dramatic!   Now part of the ShoreWareDirector user interface, the Diagnostic Monitoring tool is a complete glass cockpit with a variety of monitoring tools.  These tools include real time status updates of system  areas including connections, trunk groups, bandwidth utilization, voice quality, switch status and service conditions.   Combining “Quick View”, with other tools that previously required loading  modules or a putty session,  the Diagnostic Monitoring center is a self navigation center for trouble shooting.
We are particularly excited about the “remote packet capture” feature of the Diagnostic tools.    This tool enables you to remotely capture packets and bring them to a local pcap file.   You are offered the opportunity to capture everything or limit your capture to specific areas of interest.  For example, if you want to capture only SIP packets related to the ShoreGear switch you are running your SIP Proxies on, the diagnostic tool set lets you select these options.  The files are WireShark compatible and if you have that application on your server, a simple click will launch the application and bring up your capture for analysis.   This is a very power capability and simplifies some of the issues associated with setting up WireShark for remote capture.   We think this feature set was long over due, but we are just mere engineers, what do we know!

ShoreTel Version 14.2 is “Virtually there”!

Posted on by DrVoIP

We have previously argued that ShoreTel should shed the hardware business and focus on software development only.  Just our opinion and personal hangup!  We believe that unless you have the Market Capitalization of an Apple, it is hard to walk both sides of the street and do both Hardware and Software!   Even Microsoft, does only Software!     Well ShoreTel may in fact be moving to Software only through the introduction of a family of “virtual” machine offerings.   Though versions prior to Version 14.1 offered some level of Server virtualization,  ShoreTel deployments would still require lots of those “Orange” ShoreGear switches.

On January 28th ShoreTel will begin to ship the first release of Version 14.2 and all components of the ShoreTel architecture will be virtualized!   This means that you don’t need those “Orange” boxes unless you are connecting to analog or digital trunk lines!   ShoreTel Switches including Conferencing servers will be available as OVA files for VMware deployments.    ShoreTel will begin to offer  a virtual phone switch, a virtual service appliance and a new family of virtual SIP Switches with complete PRI parity.  The ShoreTel compatible Ingate SIParator will also be available as a Virtual Session Border Controller.   Licensing can be significantly reduced to a phone or trunk license, now how kool is that?

The ShoreTel virtual phone switch will support between 250 and 1000 phones based on calculated VM resources.  The virtual phone switch will will support all ShoreTel features including backup automated attendant, make-me-conferences, hunt groups, bridged call appearances and extension monitoring.  Pricing is estimated at 8-15% below the cost of another “Orange” box and you can mix and match virtual and real boxes! The virtual SIP trunk switch is estimated to be some 50% below “Orange” box costs!  The virtual service appliance will offer IM and Web conferencing from 50-200 simultaneous sessions.  Instant Messaging is now without charge from ShoreTel when implemented on a virtual server,  just your usual VMware hardware costs!

We consider this the strongest move that ShoreTel has made in its product line, since it moved from analog phones to SIP handsets!  Though ShoreTel is following the examples of others like CISCO Version10, we see this a the right next step in the process for ShoreTel product development.   With the enterprise world solidly focused on virtualization and the rapid but steady migration from TDM to SIP, a Virtualized ShoreTel is an essential element of a successful business continuity and disaster recovery program.    ShoreTel is starting to look an awful lot like a pure software company and we think that is not only “brilliantly simple”, but very smart.

– DrVoIP

ShoreTel Stock Update – Should Mitel and ShoreTel Merge?

Posted on by DrVoIP
Back in the summer we did a blog on ShoreTel from a Shareholders perceptive.    There were a number of issues troubling us which did not seem to make sense and for which we, as outsiders, could not fully appreciate.   Having purchased ShoreTel (NASDAQ: SHOR)  at the IPO price of $10 a share, the stock was trading at about $3 this summer and had not yet found its bottom.    We questioned why Management was in such as shambles with key players jumping ship, many for competitor Mitel.   They were again in the process of doing yet another CEO search and had lost their VP of Marketing and several key sales executives had also migrated over to competitor Mitel (MITL) Corporation.    We were also frustrated at the acquisition of a  “hosted” PBX company that could not even make use of ShoreTel phones.    These were very mixed messages and we were as  you might suspect very bearish on the stock!
Less then six months later many of our concerns were addressed and the stock price at $8.45 seems to have rebounded, but still trades below the IPO price.    ShoreTel now has a new CEO, Donald Joos, promoted from within the ranks, and with considerable credential.  Today they announced that they had filled their long vacant  VP of Marketing role with that of Mark Roberts, a former Mitel Executive, no less!   (Mitel responded by announcing that it had hired 15 year ShoreTel Vertical Sales Executive Chuck Grogman as it’s new VP of Contact Center Sales).  Aside from the obvious revolving door relationship between the executive suits of both companies, we believe these were smart moves for ShoreTel to make.   ShoreTel has achieved new 52 week highs with a stock price of $3.25 – $8.45 and a Market Capitalization of $490M.   By Comparison, Mitel has had a stock price of $2.80 – $9.85 and a Market capitalization of $528M.   Both companies operate in the same space, use the same distribution channel and both offer hosted alternatives to their CPE product lines.
ShoreTel has introduced a new family of end points, or telephone sets that are sip enabled.  This should make it possible for their hosted subsidiary to stop offering CISCO handsets!   We expect a future ShoreTel iPBX software version to further blur the distinction between CPE and Hosted products, with ShoreTel able to offer both.  Look for the new ShoreTel Version to be 1.0 not Version 15!  We suspect that the dealer channel is a bit confused, having bitterly fought “hosted” with a CPE offering.   Now with an entire new distribution channel opening through the former hosted companies sales partners,  ShoreTel branded solutions are being offered by other than the traditional VAR channel.   We also track Ring Central (RNG) and 8X8 (EGHT), both publicly reporting  companies in the pure hosted space, to cross reference both ShoreTel and Mitel performance.
Over all, the prospects at ShoreTel from a Shareholder perspective are looking much better at the end of the year than they did at the start of the year.    The CPE market will undergo continual pressure from the growing homogenization of technology through the adoption of SIP based technology.   Even giant CISCO seems to be positioning SIP ahead of SCCP as  the protocol of choice thanks to Jabber!  The adoption of SIP will continue to drive down component hardware parts like Gateways and Handsets and is the primary reason we would like to see ShoreTel get out of the hardware business all together!   ShoreTel should focus on building a scalable software technology that integrates with as much hardware in the market as can be standardized!  At this point, we recommend ShoreTel as a hold with vigilant monitoring.   You should keep a close watch on both Mitel and ShoreTel as well as monitoring Ring Central (RNG) and 8X8 for hedges and comparison in the hosted space.   The entire sector will be undergoing an upheaval over the next year, so look for more mergers and spin offs to rule the market!
We welcome your comments and remind you that this is just our opinion!

 

WebRTC to change the Contact Center For Ever! Enter Amazon Mayday Button!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Last month we wrote that we believed that webRTC had the potential to change the business communications landscape forever especially as it related to contact centers!  Little did we know that in less than a month, Amazon would do just that with the introduction of the “Mayday” Button.    The Mayday button does just what webRTC is destined to do, embedding a real time, text  audio and visual communications channel within a web browser!   Technical support will never be the same and as we previously proposed, neither will the Contact Center be the same!   Customer Service is about to be redefined and Amazon seems to be leading the way with the absolute first mass implementation of a webRTC application.

The button, a LifeSavior Icon, appears on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire.  Push this button and a dialog box opens with a real time video image of your technical support consultant.   You can see him, but he can not see you.  He can hear you and remotely operate your device, trouble shooting your issue and “show you how” to do a troublesome operation.   If you can not “see” the impact of this game changing technology, you most likely did not see the internet or the tablet market developing either!

What is so amazing about the technology is that the core elements for implementation are readily available.   This is not and R&D project, but more of an integration of currently available technologies.   WebRTC requires a modern  browser but does not require any plug-ins, usernames, passwords or downloads.  This technology will make peer to peer video pervasive and make establishing real time video teleconferences as easy as clicking a link!   One can only hope that Microsoft will for once, just embrace the technology and skip the always painful promotion of some other “not invented” here model like CU-RTC.

Historically, Call Centers were places that you “called” from your home phone.   Now we understand the immediacy of Contact Centers which treat email, chat and sms as readily as phone calls.  Contact Centers understand that the “home phone” is now a mobile device and there is an entire generation of customers who have never had a “land line”.      It does not take a market visionary to see the “high touch” ramifications of a video interaction and the inevitable impact it will have on the “customer service” paradigm.   Adopting video on demand or “click for support” options in the call center is not an option, it is an imperative and will quickly impact the market by segmenting customer service as quickly as new technologies buried the Polaroid!

We are now integrating webRTC Call Center applications either as an appliance or as a cloud in the form of InstaVoice, FACEmeeting, TokBox and Tawk.   Clearly, some customer service applications are more visual and can benefit more immediately than others by adding a video component.  Clearly, technical support or instructional  applications are at the top of the list.   Can American Express be far behind. Are you more likely to interact with a credit card company representative you can see in addition to hear?   (We can only guess at what the HR impact will be on Contact Centers that adopt webRTC, but that is another topic and also worthy of discussion).

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the concept of webRTC within the context of a real contact center application, so call click or email!   You will be “seeing” a lot more of this from DrVoIP and others, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is going on at ShoreTel now?

Posted on by DrVoIP

I very seldom comment, in this technology blog, on company policy and just try to stay focused on VoIP.  This time I am speaking out as a ShoreTel Shareholder.You know, one of the people who bought into the $10 a share IPO (at about the time they were suddenly sued by Mitel for patent infringement)?  ShoreTel stock (SHOR) is now trading at $3.50 or so?  The company has been through at least three CEOs post start up. They are now scouting for yet another.  Every key executive in the non-Engineering side of the house has jumped ship.  What do you do when your key sales people go to work for a competitor, like Mitel?  What signal does that send to the market?

ShoreTel had a real lead on VoIP technology. They make excellent products. They have had, and still have, some really great people! Leadership, at this point, is lacking.There have been some clear mistakes!  Acquiring a “hosted PBX company” that cannot even use ShoreTel phones? Come on, I know I am a bit dense but really?   (Note: “Follow the Money”.)  The acquisition of the Mobility Router company, Agito Networks, made some strategic sense,  but there has been no real follow through.  (The secret weapon that was acquired from Agito was the SIP over TLS, which should have replaced the OEM VPN strategy ages ago, and built into ShoreTel phones and Gateways.)  Just like their OEM acquisitions of previous products like the conference server, this will end up being yet another boat anchor!

I was hopeful that someone would buy ShoreTel before it becomes another Altigen (ATGN)!  When I see Directors and the company’s own counsel filing Form 4s with the SEC, that does not sound very likely either.  ShoreTel was the iPhone/iPad but like those products, it has fallen behind. The competitors are moving in with updated solutions and it has lost its luster.  The adopted cloud strategy was a poorly placed wager on what could have been a winning strategy. They have missed the Virtualization market completely.   Actually, very sad indeed! Maybe Mitel (MITL) does have it right? Maybe these two companies will merge?  Why not, most of their executives have?

Compare ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX – Handling Language Options

Posted on by DrVoIP

Anyone who has been deploying telephone systems for any length of time has run into the “language” issue.   Though I am personally tired of having to “Press one” for English, the fact remains that we market on a global basis even if we are a small local business.  It is rare to encounter an Automated Attendant or Call Tree that does not offer us the option of selecting another language.  In the States, Spanish tends to dominate the motivation to change language and it is invariably offered to all callers.

Setting up a basic automated attendant to handle a language change is relatively straight forward.  You end up recording your prompts in at least two languages and then you navigate a different tree based on the selection.   Providing a language option in an IVR Script for a ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX, for example, is an entirely more complex process.  Yes, you end up having to record your prompts for each language offered, but do you really want to write to sets of call flow?  Contact Center Scripts can get relatively complex very quickly.  If you apply the same solution to a Contact Center Script as you do an Automated Attendant Call Tree, you will end up having to create at least two scripts: one in English and one in the other offered language.

You will really want to focus on a single call flow and a single set of prompts.   Do you want to have the complexity of writing a script that says play “WelcomePromptEnglish.WAV” and then have to write the same call flow again, but this time the script says play “WelcomePromptSpanish.wav”.  As my Grandson says, “REALLY”?    Would it not be more economical to write and to maintain a script that simply said play “WelcomePrompt.wav”?    At some point you are going to have to ask the caller to press or say something to change their language choice.   How about we run the same script and the only thing that changes is the subdirectory that the prompts are retrieved from?   In this way we only have one call flow script to maintain and scripting writing is significantly relived of the duplication of effort that language options often require.

ShoreTel and CISCO both manipulate the language option in their respective script editors differently.  Here we take a look at how the Java based Script Library in the CISCO UCCX would implement a language option using a single call flow script.

Compare ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX call back from queue scripts!

Posted on by DrVoIP

It is almost expected that a modern call or contact center be able to offer a “call back from Queue” option to your callers.  In fact some call centers are now offering a Call Back with no phone call required from your caller at all!  The caller can text a message to the call center and receive a text back with an approximate wait time until the next agent is ready!   Take the time to develop a custom “smartphone” application and the incoming text message can also contain  business appropriate CRM information like a client ID or policy number.
While you are waiting for your contact center to be updated with this advanced SMS text caller option, most modern contact centers can offer a “Call Back From Queue” option.

Generally, we want to capture the inbound call, route it to an available agent and if the agent is not available, we will play a customer care message to the caller and keep them in Queue.   Should an agent not become available in the next programmable period of time, we will play yet another customer care message, but this time we might invite them to “press 1” to arrange a call back without losing their place in queue.
Should the caller elect to activate this option,  they might then be asked to enter the number that they can be reached at when an agent becomes ready.

Optionally you can offer to call the customer back at a scheduled time in the future and also prompt them to enter a date and time for call back.   How this is accomplished is dictated to by the system that you are planing to use for your call center.   Generally, some kind of IVR functionality that can “prompt and collect digits”.   The ShoreTel ECC and the CISCO UCCX both enable this option though they do it quite differently.

ShoreTel offers a scripting tool that enables calling options through per-programmed routines encapsulated in high level Icons.  These Icons are interconnected on a pallet that graphically mirrors your call flow.   This is “brilliantly simple” and is often all that is required to establish control and options over your call center.   CISCO uses a scripting option based on Java and you will be more comfortable with this option if you have a background in software development.  CISCO is a bit more demanding then the ShoreTel scripting tools, but along with its complexity comes greater flexibility in feature definition.   In the hands of a talented programmer,  you will be able to create features that could not easily be encoded in a higher level graphical scripting tool.   The UCCX Scripts enable you to not only “prompt and collect” but also to “prompt and record”  the callers voice message for playback to the agent prior to placing the out bound return call.

Call Back from Queue is a useful customer service option in those business centers that care about customer satisfaction.  I would not expect to see this on the IRS toll free line, but rest assured that Charles Schwab will have it!   As the cost of keeping callers on the line continues to escalate with the cost of wireline facilities, you can expect other options to become more available.  The SMS option, being one, offers higher customer satisfaction potential while reducing the infrastructure costs associated with paying for more telephone lines than you have agents to handle the calls!  Keep your eye on this option as it is sure to change the nature and value of existing call center strategies!

Compare ShoreTel and CISCO – Extension Mobility Options!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Do you run a business in which the day shift and the night shift share the same telephone instrument?   This is a very common feature requirement in call centers, help desks and order lines.   In the Health Care Profession,  a very common staffing requirement is to rotate the  “front office” staff,  with  the “back office”e staff from time to time.   If your business or organizational requirements demand that you match a telephone extensions with specific named individuals for voice mail or activity tracking,  you need “Extension Mobility”.    If you want to travel between your geographically distributed office locations and you do not want to be tied down to a single telephone instrument at a specific desk location, you need “Office Anywhere”.      The ability to “log in” and make any phone in your business organizations VoIP deployment your phone is a very powerful and useful feature.

Both ShoreTel and CISCO offer this advanced functionality but they implement it in very different ways.   This is, in our humble opinion, the result of the “cultural” difference in their system architecture.   We have written on this subject before and it is one way in which the two systems distinguish themselves.   ShoreTel does not allow an extension to  exist without an associated user.   Such a phone is “anonymous” and, though registered and available as a system resource,  it can not be “called “as it does not have an extension number!   Until it is associated with a specific User, it has very limited capability.    It is the User that associates a “class of service” or set of permissions and an extension number to the phone.  CISCO separates the concept of a phone device from that of a User profile.   CISCO phones can in fact exist without being assigned to a User.   They can have an extension number, be called and make calls.   It is the Line Number or Extension number that determines the “class of service” or permissions available to that device.    Users are defined separately.   This is a subtle but very significant difference in these two systems.

“Extension Mobility”, on the other hand,  is an optional feature in a CISCO deployment and it requires configuration by a systems administrator.   Given the logical separation between a “device” and a “user” in CISCO, it is necessary that both entities must be configured for this feature to work properly.   Extension Mobility is an XML service in a CISCO deployment, that both the user and the device that a user might log into, must both subscribe.    An “Extension Mobility” profile must be created for any CISCO user who desires this licensed feature.   It might be possible to have a situation in which a User with an “Extension Mobility” profile, can not log into a different phone because that phone has not subscribed to the service.  Given that this is a licensed feature, it is not generally deployed on all phones during the installation.

“Office Anywhere” and “Extension Mobility” are excellent solutions for “hoteling” employees,  and “hot desk” environments where the staff moves between desks and do not have assigned seating.