Avaya acquires Nortel Enterprise Phone division

Now that Avaya has acquired the Nortel enterprise division, Nortel users are still unclear about their future. While presumably Avaya will continue to support installed Nortel systems, it seems unlikely that Avaya, which has a full line of phone systems directly competitive with Nortel, will continue to invest in the parallel R&D to continue to upgrade Nortel technology.  Therefore most Nortel customers needing enhanced system scale or functionality will probably be strongly encouraged to purchase new Avaya systems. The Nortel user then has a choice—Avaya or another solution.

Choices for Nortel Users

The upgrade options for Nortel users essentially fall into two categories:

1. Proprietary vendors like Avaya, Cisco, NEC, etc
2. Open Source: Non-proprietary phone systems like Asterisk that offer unlimited flexibility

“Where to go next” will be a question that many communications managers ponder over in the coming months.  As they look at the market, most will find Avaya closely grouped with other proprietary phone system manufacturers, similar functions, prices, and all still working on a business model that “locks-in” the customer to that vendor for the life of the phone system.

Leapfrogging to Open Source

Their other choice is to leapfrog the traditional lock-in and limited world of proprietary phone vendors and go directly to Open Source Telephony.

There is an interesting technology phenomenon that occurs in developing nations around the world known as “leapfrogging.”  Leapfrogging is a theory of development that suggests that less developed communities will accelerate technological development by skipping over inferior technologies and directly implementing only the most advanced.  An often cited example of this is the city of Rizhao in China, where 99% of the households use solar energy to power water heaters, and most public lighting is also solar powered. Many developing countries had poor landline phone communications and now are leapfrogging directly to universal cell service.

Open Source Telephony is software-based communications which runs on conventional PC servers and utilizes standard SIP phones and softphones from a variety of vendors. Users choosing the Open Source alternative have found that they typically see dramatic cost savings and have the ultimate flexibility in future system expansion and growth. By 2008 open source had surpassed all the other traditional phone vendors as the telephony solution of choice.

Many phone users have continued to be locked-in by their vendors through gradual upgrade investments. However since many Nortel users have not invested in major upgrades for over ten years, they are in a unique position to leap directly to the latest technology—open source.

David Condra founded Dalcon in 1979 and is CEO today. An electrical engineer, he has specialized in the delivery of IT solutions to business since 1975.

An Asterisk Reference Model

“So what am I supposed to do” you ask?  I’ve found that the developers at Digium working so diligently on the Asterisk code base are actually very good at keeping documentation.  What I didn’t know, was that they only seem to keep that documentation in the source releases.  To make sure you’re doing things correctly for YOUR version (I’m assuming 1.6+ but this should suffice for other versions as well) do the following :

1. Download the source tarball for YOUR version
2. Uncompress it
3. Go to the “configs” directory
4. Read every single file here
5. Eat some pie (This is an important step)

This accomplishes three things:

•    You now have a sample of *nearly* every config file that Asterisk needs to run.  These can be dropped into your /etc/asterisk directory as they are, and it will help you go a LONG way in getting things setup.
•    These files are immensely commented with helpful hints and usage examples for all of the things you need.
•    You have a belly full of pie.
“But I don’t WANT to comb through all these configuration files to try and figure out what I need and what I don’t.  Can you help me cheat a little?”  Some files are definitely more important than others.  Pay special attention to the following:

•    extensions.conf – The brain of your PBX.  This determines how calls are routed.
•    sip.conf – This is where you configure your phones
•    voicemail.conf – Pretty obvious
•    meetme.conf – Virtual conference rooms
•    queues.conf – Call queues

The rest of the files really depend on a couple of variables.  First, it’s important to know the basic pieces involved in setting up a fully functional PBX.

•    The Asterisk source code
•    Zaptel or DAHDI source that matches your Asterisk version
- Asterisk 1.4.22+ will use DAHDI instead of Zaptel
•    If you’re using them, the drivers for your telephony gateway device (PRI card, analog card)
- It should be noted that Zaptel/DAHDI contain the drivers for any Digium based cards.

Zaptel and DAHDI have their own configuration files and you’ll need to understand them as well.  Typically, there are helper tools designed to create these files for you, but that often depends on the type of hardware and drivers that you’re using.

The Zaptel files are:
•    /etc/zaptel.conf
•    /etc/asterisk/zapata.conf

While the latest versions (1.4.22+) will use the DAHDI naming scheme instead:
•    /etc/dahdi/system.conf
•    /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf

That should go a long way in getting you started.  I realize I didn’t give specifics (as I said I wouldn’t be earlier) but in my opinion, just diving into a working system will still leave you feeling overwhelmed when it comes time to actually configure a dialplan.  If a straight walkthrough is what you want, those are available via Google.

Of course, if all of this seems too daunting a task for the time you have, there are companies who specialize in Asterisk based phone systems.  Using Asterisk allows them (and us) to provide a lower cost solution with a lot of the same bells and whistles as the larger vendors.

Michael McNeil has been working with Voice Over IP technologies since February 2006 with Dalcon Communication Systems. He specializes in Asterisk: The Open Source PBX, Linux, and Perl development with a short background in Network Security.

Let me start out by saying that you can install Asterisk pretty easily if you’re looking for something simple. However, with around 30 potentially large configuration files that need some form of special care, and add to it the hassle with compiling the appropriate packages and drivers to make your telephony hardware function, that walk through the park can quickly turn into a winding maze with strange growling noises from within. It’s not a pretty place to be, especially if you’re spending paid work hours to dedicate yourself to the task.

A Quick Start

First of all, let’s look at a few ways you can speed the process up:

•  AsteriskNow – (http://www.asterisknow.org/)
•  Trixbox – (http://www.trixbox.org)
•  Debian Linux – (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Running+Asterisk+on+Debian)

The above approaches are perfectly fine for average scenarios, but nearly every company/person out there has some sort of special need. Typically it’s a feature available in the latest version of Asterisk, but not currently available in your drop-in product.

I won’t detail any of the major operating system debacles you may come to face. Seriously, that would just take way too much time. I also won’t be covering specifics on compilation. Again, there are too many paths for you to take and it’s unrealistic to think I could cover them all. I just want to try and help you find the quickest answers you need without wasting your time.

Important Resources

Here are some of the avenues I’ve used to get where I am today:

•  Google – (http://google.com) – This is nearly every tech’s best friend
•  Voip-Info – (http://voip-info.org) – A site dedicated to Voice Over IP with huge influence from Asterisk.
•  IRC – (http://java.freenode.net) – You’ll have to register a nickname here and confirm it via the email they send you. Then you can /join #asterisk.

In all honesty, these are the only three tools I ever needed in order to make my way in the Asterisk telephony world at first. Over time, however, I found that voip-info.org didn’t always specify which versions of Asterisk a certain feature was available in. The information there usually provided several different ways to do something, and while some may work in your version the others would crash Asterisk!

IRC is really one of the best places to get the answers you need when troubled with a problem in your Asterisk installation. Sadly, however, there only ever seemed to be a handful of folks who are able (or willing) to give suggestions without a full listing of every configuration file you possess. I certainly understand the argument; Asterisk is an immensely configurable piece of software that can produce widely varying results if you tweak a setting in the wrong way. Still, I despise having to post every single configuration file on the web just so I can wait an hour to find that they couldn’t figure it out either. This probably should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that going into the IRC channel for help without having some semblance of a working Asterisk installation is a bad idea.

Check in with us next week, and we’ll discuss some better avenues of help for your Asterisk related endeavors.

Michael McNeil has been working with Voice Over IP technologies since February 2006 with Dalcon Communication Systems. He specializes in Asterisk: The Open Source PBX, Linux, and Perl development with a short background in Network Security.

Locked-in or Free-to-choose? How “open” is the IP telephony solution you are considering? Are you being proposed industry-standard components which protect your investment by allowing you to mix and match components and software from other vendors in the future?  If your phone system needs change in the future is your only choice to bring in a forklift and remove everything and replace it all? Below are ten questions you can ask to help understand just how “open” a given telephone systems vendor’s solution is.

1. Can your solution run on my existing data network?
2. How are you proposing to route my calls to the outside world? Can I choose my carrier?
3. Who does what on my network, your engineers or my network support specialist?
4. Does your call manager software run on a proprietary (your) server, or a standard PC server, i.e. Dell or HP?
5. Do I have to buy phones with your brand on them, or can I buy industry-standard IP phones?
6. If I find I need functionality in the future your software does not offer, can I keep the phones and server and install someone else’s software on the server that will work with the phones you are proposing?
7. Are you on-line and monitoring my system 24×7? How do you respond to an alert?
8. What is my total up-front and recurring cost to add another phone?
9. Is your software sold a-la-carte or are all functions/options included in one fee?
10. Do you accept responsibility for coordinating technical support with my carrier or am I in the middle if my phones don’t work?

David Condra founded Dalcon in 1979 and is CEO today. An electrical engineer, he has specialized in the delivery of IT solutions to business since 1975.

NASHVILLE, TN - Dalcon Communication Systems, Inc., announced today that Unified Communications magazine has named the Dalcon Communications Manager-Health Care Edition as a recipient of its 2008 Product of the Year Award.

“‘Dalcon has proven they are committed to quality and excellence while addressing real needs in the marketplace. Unified Communications is pleased to grant a 2008 Product of the Year Award to their DCM-Healthcare Edition,’ said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Editor-in-Chief of Unified Communications magazine. ‘We’re proud to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from Dalcon in the future.’” Product of the Year winners will be published in the March/April, 2009 issue of Unified Communications magazine, www.uc-mag.com.

“We’re pleased to be honored by this leading publication in the communications industry. We have recognized the need for fully-integrated communications within hospitals and our DCM-Healthcare Edition represents the state-of-the-art in this regard,” said David Condra, Dalcon’s CEO.

Following on the success of its award-winning product, DCM 2.0, Dalcon has now specially tailored the product for the needs of hospitals, and has integrated it with other communication products commonly found in healthcare. Now hospitals can take full advantage of VoIP through the use of a fully-integrated, open-standards-based, communications system.

Utilizing software running on standard PC servers, and standard IP and analog phones, the powerful DCM 2.0 system not only supports functions such as Direct Inward Dial Numbers, Interactive Voice Response, and find-me/follow me to cell phones, it also supports powerful, integrated functions including:

• Electronic Faxing-eliminate the phone lines, paper, and toner of fax machines while automatically producing electronic documents for electronic medical records systems.
• Nurse WiFi-these critically important staff members and others can now be reached as easily as if they were sitting at their personal extension phone.
• Patient Nurse Call Integration-Existing nurse call systems can now be integrated with hospital fixed and wireless phone systems to better respond to patient calls.
• Staff Physician communications-Doctors can now communicate.simply by being a part of the hospital system so that, whether they are in their offices or doing rounds, they can reach key nurses and staff, and be reached immediately if needed.

The DCM Healthcare edition was first installed in Trinity Hospital in Erin, Tennessee. “This is a whole new mindset, like changing from an old IBM mainframe to laptops,” says Trinity Hospital’s CEO, Yvette Gillespie. “You don’t realize what you haven’t had until you finally get it! Now that we’re using Dalcon, I wish we could have done this years ago.”

About Unified Communications magazine

Launched in July 2007, Unified Communications magazine is devoted to educating enterprise decision makers on why and how they need to deploy unified communications (UC) solutions.  Every issue of Unified Communications magazine features a comprehensive news section; case studies of successful deployments and lessons learned; interviews with leading hardware and software companies; and an “industry” section, featuring analysis of important mergers and acquisition, partnerships and a Wall Street perspective on the unified communications market. Unified Communications has a readership of 100,000.  For more information, please visit www.uc-mag.com.

About Dalcon Communication Systems, Inc.

Founded in 1979, Dalcon Communication Systems, Inc. has developed software and IT solutions for businesses nationwide. Dalcon, based in Nashville, Tennessee, bridges the latest in voice technology and data functionality into one flexible and integrated system. Dalcon’s premiere offering is a digital communications manager specially designed for small to medium-sized businesses to benefit from the advantages offered by open source and industry-standard VoIP products. Its DCM 2.0 has won numerous industry awards, including the prestigious Internet Telephony Product of the year award for 2007 and 2008. Dalcon simplifies business communications needs. For more information, please visit www.dalcon.com or call (615) 843-9000.

Media Inquiries
John Menees
615.577.9017
jmenees@dalcon.com

In the old days, a PBX was a specialty electronic device with one job – to manage your internal phone system and connect to the dial tone provided by the phone company. The computer data network in your hospital was completely separate from your PBX and phones. Each of the two networks required separate wiring, a separate support team (whether internal or external) and there was no ability to share data between the computer and the phone. That has all changed – creating great opportunities for savings and efficiency.

With Unified Communications, you now can have one physical network supported internally by your administrative team with help from the same team that supports your data network today. You can deliver appropriate data from your computers to your phone system. Download (password required)

Many business applications and processes, such as accounting or order processing, use software running on centralized servers to provide consistent procedures and processes to optimize the operations. However, communications in most companies is still disjointed and uncoordinated, even though most managers agree on the critical importance of effective communication among their teams and customers.

Today, with the advent of unified communications software (UCS), running on a PC server, it is possible to coordinate and consolidate……Download (password required)

In the old days, a PBX was a specialty electronic device with one job – to manage your internal phone system and connect to the dial tone provided by the phone company. The computers and data network in your office was completely separate from your PBX and phones. Each of the two networks required separate wiring, a separate support team (whether internal or external) and there was no ability to share data between the computer and the phone. That has all changed – creating great opportunities for savings and efficiency.

Now, you can have one physical network supported internally…Download (password required)

Trinity is a community hospital faithfully serving rural Tennessee. They have about 25 beds and 120 employees. Thanks to a forward-thinking CEO, they now have a state-of-the-art Dalcon system running on the first PRI lines installed in their county. Trinity Hospital may be small and rural, but now they’re just as connected as the largest hospitals in America.

Though Trinity’s choice process was well-executed, their communications change wasn’t exactly… uh, planned. A total failure of their Nortel system was the catastrophic catalyst. “I was at a friend’s house on a Sunday afternoon when I got the call that our phone system has crashed,” recounts Yvette. “I emailed Dalcon. Within an hour, a representative contacted me! I had a web demo and consultation at 8:30 the next morning.”

In the next days, Yvette spoke with her network team and collected quotes from competitors. “I checked out your references and Dalcon came highly recommended. And you significantly out-priced the competition. I placed the order and within a week we were up and running… we would have been sooner but for waiting for the new PRI lines.” Yvette’s convinced Dalcon was a smart choice: “From consultation through design, intallation and training, it went beautifully.”

The demands of smaller hospitals are unique, and in some ways greater than larger hospitals. Logistics and scale make Trinity’s staff extremely mobile. The DCM’s ability to “park” calls for physicians to pick up wherever they are has made Trinity “instant heroes” in the eyes of local physicians. And Dalcon’s wireless solution can liberate Trinity’s mobile staff from being shackled to desktop handsets.

The result? Better efficiencies and improved productivity.

With 10 fax lines, Trinity is “saving all kinds of money on paper, toner and improved communications.” And their new PRI lines have substantially reduced their monthly telecommunication costs.

The result? Trinity’s bottom line has Yvette smiling.

Further, since the Dalcon solution is so robust and scalable, Trinity is looking toward providing phone services to near-site facilities associated with the hospital. “You could have tried to sell our doctors additional systems – instead, you’re showing us how to expand on this system to provide value to physicians who associate with Trinity.”

Here’s a summary of Yvette Gillespie’s favorite Dalcon benefits:

• “Physicians love our ability to ‘park’ calls for them to pick up wherever they are.”
• “Follow-Me is ideal for people like me and my administrative staff.”
• “Our new PRI lines have significantly improved our communications.”
• “Fax-to-email is saving us all kinds of money…plus faxes in electronic form are so much easier to manage.”
• “Many of our phones are assigned to positions, rather than persons. Dalcon’s flexible management really helps facilitate that.”
• “We’re thrilled the system has unlimited ability to add phones – we can add another anywhere on our network simply for the cost of the handset itself.”
• “These speakerphones and Conference Room capabilities are simply great, and so easy to use.”

Call Dalcon today: (888) 588-6911

You just might be our next healthcare success story!

www.trinityhospitaltn.com

The Nashville Sports Council

When we sat down with Gary Alexander, their Senior VP & COO, he didn’t mince words: “I’ve been thrilled with the Dalcon Solution, but the thing that has impacted us the most is Dalcon’s outstanding service. Every step along the way, I never felt I was being ‘sold’. I was being served outstanding technical advice, and your installation team went beyond my expectations to help us in ways even outside of their contracted scope.”

Like many executives, Gary was assigned the responsibility of making a major technology asset acquisition for his organization. He is a business executive – not an IT specialist with detailed understanding of all the latest options or logistics that go into building a communications system. Gary may not have been able to tell a VoIP from a SIP. But he could tell you what his Dalcon Solution was deployed flawlessly.

“Dalcon made it easy. My sales consultant made all of the variables completely understandable. He looked out for our best interests. But best of all, Dalcon’s never really left us.” Gary raves about the ongoing support he receives from the Dalcon team: “It’s like I have a communications team that is only a phone call away. Anything I need, I can call and Dalcon’s response is simply great.”

While some companies rave about Dalcon’s robust solution, technical features and scalability, it’s clear the Nashville Sports Council is most impressed with Dalcon’s outstanding personnel and ongoing support. Dalcon’s President, Timothy Tyler, is excited: “It’s always gratifying to hear unsolicited praise from our clients. I’ve always believed our technical staff is second to none – and our customers continue to validate my belief time and again. That’s just as important as the national attention our software’s been receiving.”

Dalcon installs our award-winning DCM 2.0 on leading Intel-based servers. We provide handsets and speakerphones by the nation’s leaders in VoIP hardware. But the Dalcon Solution isn’t hardware. It’s software-based, built on open-standards. You’ll never be held hostage by proprietary hardware components that don’t work together.

But technology is one thing, and customer service and support is another. Dalcon has been serving businesses with technical support for 30 years. “Dalcon’s experience in this area really show,” says Gary. “For me, Dalcon made migrating to IP telephony and unified communications was simple. And our entire staff is knocked out with Dalcon. And we all easily modify our settings through our Internet browser. No more being tethered to technicians to change anything or move a phone.”

Call Dalcon today: (888) 588-6911

You’ll find it’s easier to focus on your business when you have a great telecommunications team too.

www.nashvillesports.com