I visited a new potential client last week, along with one of my resellers to discuss their on-going telecoms needs.
It turns out that they’ve been stitched-up with a 7-year leasing deal on the hardware they currently have. What’s worse is that what they pay each quarter in leasing and maintenance costs would pay for one of my systems to be bought outright.
I was shocked.
What was worse, is that one small part of the deal they have with their current vendor is for a VoIP system to connect their 3 offices together… They are paying £797 a quarter over 7 years to lease the VoIP cards for their legacy PBX, and £125 a quarter over 5 years for the maintenance on those cards, just to make “free” calls between offices. I doubt those poor people would even make £900 in BT call costs phoning between offices. This is especially worse, as their current vendor has also taken over line rental and call charges too – so giving them a discount on ordinary charges between sites is something that’s well in their powers to do, but they don’t, preferring to blatantly rip their customer off.
This is one of the reasons I got started in telephony – there are too many companies like this being taken for a ride by unscrupulous telecom equipment vendors.
The Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (or just ITSPA) is the Trade association for Internet Telephony in the UK.
This December (2008) saw it’s 3rd anniversary and their first awards ceremony, and as I wrote earlier, I entered my DSX-10 into the ceremony under the Best VoIP Hardware category, and although it was short-listed for the award, sadly, it didn’t win. However coming in the same group as the winner, Cisco, isn’t too bad in my books!
The good thing is that we traveled up from deepest darkest Devon to London for the awards, and it was amazing to see so-many people in the room. 150 people from many different companies involved in Internet Telephony in one way or another. If anyone needed proof that there is a future in Internet telephony it was there in that room last Thursday night with representatives from many major companies (eg. Cisco and BT) as well as many of the smaller companies providing services to business and end-users.
So what now? Well, Drogon Systems has applied to join ITSPA and plans so sign up to their newly proposed “Quality Mark” (They tried to call it a kite-mark, but it seems another organisation already has that one!)
So many moons ago when I was looking into VoIP, I heard about the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association. (ITSPA). They’re the trade association which represents VoIP telephony in the UK and I’ve just applied for membership.
This December, they’re hosting an awards ceremony in the House of Commons Members dining room, and one of the categories is “Best Hardware”… So I decided to enter my DSX system and I’ve just found out they’re short-listed it for the award!
So naturally, I’m very pleased about this – more-so as I’ve never really done anything like this, so itrs all jolly exciting! I’ll be off to London on the 11th to see what happens… And if it does’nt win? Well, that’s life. If nothing else, it’ll be good to meet some of the people I’d read about, and even exchanged email with. Put faces to names, put the world to rights, that sort of thing!
November 7th, 2008
10:33 am
General
So for those who don’t know, the bulk of the servers in the Drogon Empire are hosted in a small anonymous data centre in Sheffield. This works well for me as I know the people personally who own and run it, I’ve seen their setup, know and understand how their network works and it’s generally “just fine” and things tick away without intervention.
Well – until 23:30 on the night of the 5th. (Bonfire night) when a fire across the road from them caused the emergency services to cut the power to the local area as a precaution. No worries, they have multiple UPSs and an on-site generator. A full tank of fuel will keep them going for over 24 hours, so no immediate issues. They’ve been able to secure access to keep the tank topped up every 12 hours and are expecting the mains to come on sometime later this morning (the 7th)
I know they make regular tests of their generator and UPSs, so life’s OK and although I’ve informed my major customers that were “at risk”, I’m really not expecting any drama.
But how often do you check your own UPSs? You do have UPSs, don’t you? How old are the batteries? Have you ever changed them? I have multiple UPSs at Drogon HQ. There’s a 1.5KVA double conversion unit unit feeding the main servers, PBXs and Internet connections, and 2 smaller ones in the office feeding the workstations, Wi-Fi access point and local network switch, and after 3 years I’m about to replace their batteries, or will I just buy new ones? Not sure yet. I’ve used this site in the past to buy new batteries from and while the service was good, I’m still in 2-minds about new batteries or a new UPS.
Comments always welcome!
Software Engineering is a buzz word that was talked about when I went to uni – oh, some 25+ years back. Engineering being the “job” of carrying something from a mere speck of a thought right through to design, implementation and testing to final delivery. I think it’s fallen out of favour in these modern days, alas… Or I did until today.
Charlie Collins of Ayrmer Software is someone I’ve known about for some time. A couple of years back, we met in a pub with some mutual colleagues and he introduced me to the NRG networking lunches. One important factor of these networking meetings is the One to One and you know what? Until today I’d not actually had what you might call a proper One to One with Charlie.
We met at his office in Heathfield, had coffee and set the world to rights. Charlie and his team have an amazing approach to bespoke software design and implementation. To say they’re a web design company would be a gross understatement! For his clients, the website that you see is merely the tip of the iceberg compared to the workings that go on underneath – and what’s underneath? You name it – CRMs, accounting packages, asset tracking, database management, and so on.
The back-end platform they have developed looks great, is adaptable and even emails them if it thinks something is wrong – often before the client even knows about it! Charlie and his team understands how things work at the nuts and bolts level, they know how to optimise their systems to make them snappy, fast and more importantly, usable. They use just enough of the so-called “web 2.0″ tools to enhance a sites usability, but not so much that the site is slow and clunky.
25 years ago we were taking about developing libraries and “software re-usability”. Charlie and his team have this to a fine art and that’s what proper software engineering is all about: Starting with the client, listening to them, developing the initial design, implementing the design and system, right through to delivery, and beyond.
Ayrmer Software. Engineers of the 21st century.
Aargh! This would be filed under rants if I had such a category, however whinges will have to do!
Yesterday afternoon saw me having to drive across Plymouth. A drive of about 3 miles at about 4pm. I had a meeting to attend at 5pm. Plenty of time I thought. How wrong could I be! The traffic was crawling or stationary for most of the journey. Why? I’ve no idea, but it didn’t get any better in all the time I was stuck in traffic. I’d have been better off leaving my car where it was and walking. I eventually got to the meeting at about 5:30. Half an hour late.
Why all the traffic? I’m told “sometimes it’s like that”.
And people put up with it!
If there was ever a time to look into telecommuting/working from home, now must be it. Why wait in traffic when you can have an extra 2-3 hours a day at home! We have the technology – Internet, VPN and VoIP. It’s all possible these days.
So stop whinging about the traffic and the commute, get with the 21st century and lobby your bosses to allow you to work from home. Get them to get a decent Internet connection and VPN server and also get them to get a good VoIP capable PBX. And I know a man who’ll be more than happy to sell you one too.
I attended a business lunch recently where Graham Hill made a presentation. Who’s he? He’s the Founder and Director of Verbatim The Phone answering Service. Graham is an interesting man with an interesting business – answering phones!
He presented us with some statistics – For example: On average, a business will miss 15% of incoming calls.
He later emailed me a couple of documents:
The Facts behind UK Telephone Behaviour
and
Basic Telephone Skills
So if you thought you knew how to answer the phone, think again!
This is the latest addition to the DSX-10 range, the DSX-10v. V because it’s VoIP only – there is no provision for PSTN hardware in this box – and you can see why – at 215mm square it’s tiny!
Small in size, but big in features. It’s capable of handling up-to 60 extensions with all the features you’d expect from a modern PABX. Call-groups, hunt-groups, music on hold, voicemail, etc. All controlled by simple star codes from any phone, or via a web interface.
And remember, ‘v’ is not just for voice, it’s for video too. This unit supports video phones (eg. the Grandstream GXV3000 and ATL IP400) out of the box.
Ever had a call from someone who just hung up? The chances are that it’s a marketing call system and alas, you’re going to get more …
What to do… Firstly if they didn’t withold their number, then look it up. How? Several ways and they might not even cost you anything. Firstly, find the location – if it’s a UK number (starting 01, 02, or even 08, 07, etc.) Try this site: Magenta Systems. That will tell you where (in the UK) the call originated from. Maybe it was just your long-lost Aunt Flo from Durham?
Then… Google the number. The chances are you’ll either find the companys website (if it’s legit!), or you might find the number listed it a “Who called me” website. One I’ve used in the past is: Who Calls Me.
And if there is a human on the end of the phone? Well, Speak to them. Tell them that you’re not interested (which you won’t be!) ask to be added to their do-not-dial list. They’re paying for the call, so just waste a little of their time and get on with your life.
And if by-chance you hear a robot saying something like “Please press 9 to be connected”, then don’t wory about and rumours that you might hear or read about – there’s no-way you can be charged (yet) in the UK for an incoming call, so go-ahead and press 9 – it’s just their way of making sure there really is a human at your end, and then waste a little of their time, then get on with your life.
Do not call the number back. Especially if it’s an 09 or 070 number. (Note: 070 is NOT a mobile number, it’s a premium rate service!). All that’ll do is waste your own time.
Finally, register every number and address you have with the Telephone and Mail preference services.
Took delivery of a pair of Grandstream GXV3000 video phones this morning with a view to seeing if they work, and how well they work with my DSX PBX system…
And what can I say… I plugged them in, gave them a simple configuration, assigned 2 accounts on my office DSX PBX and made a call.
And they “just worked”. Fantastic!
(OK, so I had to tell the PBX to expect a video phone, but after that it really did just work!)
I have to say they’re even better than I imagined them to be. For under £300 for a pair you seem to get a fantastic amount of technology. The phones have a built-in photo gallery feature – digital photo frame if you prefer. And how do you get data into them? via USB sockets at the back of-course. They even have video and audio out connectors and I’ll plug one into my TV later – just because I can.
They also can take RSS feeds and display them on the screen when idle, as well as act as a simple web browser, although using it is somewhat tricky!
A quick update… Just had a video conversation with someone who has an ATL IP400 Videophone (After a somewhat tricky set-up procedure!) all went as well as it ought to. Shame the ATL phone is twice the price of the Grandstream )-:
