Ask Slashdot: Open Communications Set-Up For Small Office? 224
New submitter earthwormgaz writes "I've started at a small company and our phone system is crusty, old, and awful. We've got email hosted elsewhere on POP/IMAP, and we've got no groupware. The server here is Windows small business whatever-it-is and Exchange isn't set up, but I've put CentOS on it in a VM, and I'd like to do everything using open standards and open source where possible. I've been looking at SOGO, and these phones. What are my chances of getting all this stuff working together? What other suggestions have people got a for a small office and communications?"
If you're starting a business... (Score:5, Insightful)
if you're starting a business, just about the last thing you should be doing is worrying about is being sysadmin for your phone system - let alone doing so according to the "right" political principles and hoping you can get it to work together. Call your local phone company, get setup with them or some other turnkey provider and turn your attention towards your business.
Re:If you're starting a business... (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's how it works (Score:2, Insightful)
If you do it at no cost, the boss doesn't view that as a win for the company. He views it as suspicious, because where he comes from, spending is the key to getting somewhere, and everything costs something. In fact, he judges employees on how much they make (especially if he is new to the company), not how much they get done. It makes perfect sense to him, no matter what you think. To the boss, money is the bottom line to everything.
Let's put it this way. If your startup finds themselves hard on cash and needing someone to "temporarily answer phones", they will choose the person who makes the LEAST. (I speak from personal experience on this.) Why? Because his budget is tiny, and therefore "whatever it is he does" must not be as important as the person with the larger budget, or the person with the larger salary.
If a new IT guy comes along and spends twice as much as you, then the new IT guy is MORE valuable than you, not less. You will be considered the amateur, and he will be considered the professional, no matter how much actual "work" you get done.
So in conclusion, spend as much as you can, keep on spending as much as you can, and to hell with what actually happens to the company.
Re:Zimbra? (Score:5, Insightful)
Figure out what you need first. If you need Exchange, go with Exchange. Anything "exchange-like" will just cause you heartburn.
OTOH, if you *DON'T* need exchange, *DON'T* get that fpos.
Go with hosted telephony (Score:4, Insightful)
My background is telecom and I have a lot of experience in that. My recommendation is to go with a hosted solution.
DO NOT INSTALL ASTERISK YOURSELF AND THINK YOU'RE GETTING A PHONE SYSTEM FOR FREE. You'll just waste time having to configure hardware, software, and dumb things like tuning analog POTS lines or wonking around with dial plans or something that you probably have no idea how to do.
Ok, back to the hosted idea. Let's compare the big costs with a traditional PBX and a hosted PBX:
1. Phones - you're really not going to avoid this cost. Budget $200 per phone set and be happy if you come in less. Remember, cheap phones are cheap for a reason. Spend the money and get a handset with a nice weight to it and a speakerphone that works well. If you get a traditional PBX like the Avaya system you looked at, there's a good chance you're looking at purchasing proprietary phones. If it's hosted, I recommend Polycom. Whether you have hosted or a traditional PBX, this will be one of your biggest costs.
2. The PBX itself will be a big cost. Avoid this by not buying one and going with a hosted solution.
3. The maintenance/service contract is the third huge cost, regardless of whether you go with hosted or traditional PBX. You're really not avoiding it with a hosted solution, in fact it might even be slightly more expensive, but you're paying for it month to month.
Since you can probably start small and grow into most hosted solutions, switch your conference phone over first and make everyone use it. You'll find out quickly if the call quality will work or if people have complaints.
Quality of service will be an issue with a hosted solution, so make sure you have bandwidth and if you need to set up real QoS on your router, know how to do that.
Re:Google Apps (Score:2, Insightful)
Google Apps for Domains is a paid product beyond a handful of users, and the services are Gmail, Calendars, Contacts, etc. Services that aren't going away.
I've spoken with their tech support, it's fine. Their import utility against exchange mailboxes works fine.
And with a huge percentage of small businesses still sending their email from @aol.com, I'm pretty sure the "zomg not the cloud" is falling on deaf ears. Small businesses want stuff that works. Google Apps works better than most local services, it's less expensive, has support, requires no maintenance, and isn't going anywhere.
So no, it's not "the worst mistake you can make." Here in the real world, we do what makes sense.
Re:How do you even have the job? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is the attitude I took away from the post as well. He immediately sees Windows whatever it is, and installs his preferred flavor of Linux and still doesn't express any idea of what he's supposed to do other than something with the phones and maybe email something or other. If Windows is there, someone's already paid for it. Use it unless they don't want it or it's a woefully old version.
I for one do not believe he should touch the phone system, that one is best left to a specialist company or package. As soon as there are issues with them he's going to have everyone in that office up his ass to get them fixed and to make sure they work right all the time.
And for god's sake, lose the attitude. You're generally going to get responses from people here with the same attitude, but don't take it for granted because no one else outside the IT realm gives a flying fuck about your disdain for windows.
Re:Google Apps (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with the "keep your data and apps where you can see them" approach is that the TCO is horrendous.
Yeah, Google's cloud applications suck. That's due to Google ADHD issues, not the fact that it's cloud hosted. Tell me you've never been screwed over by a traditional application whose publisher lost interest in it.
It's perfectly true that some cloud applications are too immature and not ready to replace their traditional counterparts. Office applications (word processors, spreadsheets, etc.) are certainly there, at least for serious users. But the best CRM and HR solutions are cloud-based, and have been for some time. And the companies behind them are here to stay.