Managing a VOIP Project
Nathan Mares
Director of ICT – Roseville College
Presentation Overview
• Moving to SIP
• Request for Proposals
• Evaluation Process
• Implementation
• Lessons Learnt
About Roseville
• Independent Anglican girls school located on Sydney’s North Shore
• 150 teaching and support staff
• Mix of Mac and PC desktops and laptops
• 950 students in Years K-12
• School supplied 1-1 program in K-6 (iPads and MacBook Airs)
• BYOT in 7-12
• 3 server rooms
• 2 onsite at Roseville, 1 at Macquarie Park, 10Gbps dark fibre between the two
and 1Gbps AARNET data link
• VMWare vCenter environment with replication and failover between
sites
Previous system
3COM NBX 100
• 13 years old
• As the “the first
commercially available
IP PBX product”, it
“introduced the world
to the value of
networked telephony
in 1998”
Previous system
• No maintenance or support contract
• Telstra ISDN 10/20/30 backhaul with 100 direct-indials and around 120 extensions
• 1 extension per handset
Previous system
• Few staff had their own extensions and voicemail boxes
• No reception console, no headsets
• No integration with other systems (i.e. Active Directory for users,
extensions and authentication)
• Limit of 10 outbound/inbound concurrent calls at a time
High level requirements
• System redundancy
• No single point of hardware failure
• Transport redundancy
• SIP and ISDN
• Support contract and training for IT staff
• One extension per user, everyone have their own DID number
• Desktop client/softphone that worked equally well on macOS and
Windows
• Reception console and headsets
• Out of scope:
• PSTN lines for lifts, alarms, fire systems, faxes, etc.
Selecting a SIP provider
• Review 5 months worth of Telstra invoices
• Break down of fixed and variable costs by call type per month
• Model costs for each potential SIP plan
Historical Call Volumes and Costs
Period
Jan 16
Feb 16
Mar 16
Apr 16
Aug 16
Call Volumes
Local
NDD
Mobiles
174
15
167
969
64
1176
831
54
1311
647
59
1077
1008
94
1570
Total Volume
356
2209
2196
1783
2672
Costs ($)
Local
NDD
Mobiles
Line rental + other fixed costs
10.44
1.85
53.68
385.89
58.14
11.4
441.67
385.89
49.86
11.71
492.84
385.89
38.82
11.96
362.9
385.89
60.48
13.27
572.21
385.89
Total Cost ($)
451.86
897.1
940.3
799.57
1031.85
Forecast Call Costs
Period
Jan 16
Feb 16
Mar 16
Apr 16
Aug 16
0
709
696
283
1172
Est. non-incl. mobile count
0
377
416
171
689
Est. non-incl. national count
0
332
286
281
292
Est. non-incl. mobile cost ($)
0
257.05
283.64
116.59
469.77
Est. non-incl. national cost ($)
0
30.18
26
25.55
26.55
386.32
673.55
695.96
528.46
882.64
65.54
223.55
244.34
271.11
149.21
MYNETFONE SIP 12 PLUS
Non-included calls
Call Volumes
Costs ($)
Monthly cost ($)
Savings
Selecting a SIP Provider
• Outcome:
• MyNetFone SIP 12 Plus
•
•
•
•
12 month contract
Up to 12 concurrent calls
1500 included untimed calls to national and mobile per month
$385.00 per month + $66.00 for lease of 2 x 100 block DIDs
• MyNetFone Voice Access ADSL link (backup Internet link)
• 256Kbps up/259Kbps down
• $39.95 per month
Number porting
• Telecommunications embargo in December and January
• Category C number port
• 100 number block
• Requires extra project management
• Takes much longer than porting single numbers
VOIP System: Request for Proposal
• Developed RFP document
• https://goo.gl/4bGpgm
• Set out
•
•
•
•
•
•
Timelines
Explained process
Guidelines for responses
Disclaimers
Clear evaluation criteria
Technical requirements
Evaluating Proposals
• Received 7 proposals from 6 respondents
• Cisco, Shoretel, Mitel and LG IPECS
• Used an evaluation matrix to objectively narrow field
• Select evaluation criteria
• Weight criteria
• Score each proposal against criteria
Final Solution
• 2 x Mitel MiVoice Business Express nodes
• 2 x Mitel Border Gateway for SIP trunks
• New fancy Mitel 6900 series handsets
• 75 x Mitel 6920
• 15 x Mitel 6930
• 9 x Mitel 6940
• MiCollab Operator console for reception areas
• Wireless headsets
• 12 concurrent inbound/outbound calls
• Conferencing bridge
Final Solution
Final Solution
Implementation
• Deploy Mitel virtual appliances into our VMWare environment
• Deploy some test handsets
• Test system with new SIP number range
• Main line programming
• Network switch configuration updates and handset deployments
• Cutover primary numbers to new service
• Post installation support and training of key staff
Project timeline
Milestone
Date
RFP document released
30 August 2016
Proposal closing time
30 September 2016
Meetings with respondents & reference site checks
Early October 2016
Selection of successful respondent
20 October 2016 (1 week late)
Submission of purchase order
25 October 2016 (4 days late)
Submit number porting request
25 November 2016
Installation
December 2016 - January 2017
100 block number port
27 January 2017
Post-installation support
Ongoing
Lessons Learnt
• Stick to your timelines
• Pre-record main line voice prompts and document in a very high level
of detail how these will work
• Ask manufacturers to recommend partners – greater buy-in to the
project
• Prohibit deal registrations
• Check switch PoE compatibility
• Network monitoring
• Handset compatibility
Wrap up
Questions?
Nathan Mares
[email protected]