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Big VoIP on a Small Business Budget
A Case Study of:
The Small Business Recipe for Successful VoIP Software PBX Phone System Deployment
( Slashing Call Costs without compromising Call Traffic or Business Strategy)
by Brendon McLoughlin
If you wondered what a VoIP installation looks like from start to finish? ... Read On ...
Recently one our new customers requested a insight into what VoIP is and how can benefit their small business.
While the request is nothing new, the deployment would turn out to be a very interesting battle of 'ways and means'.
By most standards, the ways and means being employed during the final deployment turned out to be surprisingly simple when they are viewed as a complete solution, however the collection of the components and the journey towards the final deployment is where the real fun begins.
The following is a Case Study which outlines some (but no all) of the areas which are encountered during a Small Business 3CX VoIP Software PBX deployment. The Case Study gives an insight into how VoIP can be deployed on a extremely limited budget of a Small Office / Home Office and yet deliver the big business functions of a IP VoIP / SIP Software Phone System with Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) to meet most (if not all) the business requirements of even the most progressive small business’s.
Small business has for the last 10 years, had to watch while larger call centre operation with the budget and IT staff fully harnessed the cost saving and exercised the array of functions available via VoIP ( Voice Over Internet Protocol ) when deployed as the main verbal communications carrier for their day to day business calls.
It would indeed be a very short article and vision, if we focused solely on the cost saving of VoIP. As we explore this article, consider that the article is solely based on the requirements and resources of small business which often as different priorities to large scale business and large scale deployments. Big or Small, the features of the phone system often are the most interesting and also the most likely to introduce project creep if not focused in advance.
The Possible Future Requirements:
Small Business may wish to start from a basic footing and then add or enhance their VoIP requirements, they may wish to grow the phone system with their business. Some small business was the future possibility to bring mobile handheld devices (Sales or Workshop) into the VoIP network and allow laptop Software phones to be used for temporary staff as and when required. Most small business looks to grow into big business and perhaps aspirations to expanding with remote offices in further locations around the country or around the globe.
One of the unique features of the 3CX phone system is ‘Tunnelling’, this allows remote offices to fully integrate their remote VoIP requirements and a remotely joined (Bridged) set of extensions which can be anywhere in the world and yet totally transparent to the in-bound caller.
The future requirements of new remote office’s / branch’s could require a wireless internet service provider, as some of the remote locations a rural areas may only have access to basic broadband, means that remote extensions may need to be deployable over a wireless broadband connection.
Some feature are not immediately apparent to a small business looking to its future requirements, exposing some the features, functions and possible deployments is delicate balance between what are the priorities and what are the possibly. Take for example an excellent feature of the 3CX phone system, is its ability to receives Fax’s, the feature is not restricted however to one incoming FAX call or even one FAX extension, using 3CX each member of staff can (if required) be assigned their very own FAX number and then receive Fax’s direct to their email which can then be accessed using their Desktop PC, mobile device or mobile phone.
Keeping these future requirements in mind, the ‘Hardware Diagram’ demonstrates the concepts of these as possible options in this small business deployment.
Call Costs without compromising Call Traffic or Business Strategy:
Over resent years, we have seen the gap totally disappear as new and existing small business now join big business as they seek to cut costs and gain the returns of Voice Over Internet Protocol Telephony.
In the case of the example customer we have selected for this case study and within our own experience, the bottom line was the main incentive. On average, one can be rewarded with figures like 90% average call cost savings on landlines calls and 50% average call savings on mobile calls.
A little remembered fact, about calling rates over VoIP Providers is that, while your ‘Unlimited Plan’, maybe unlimited to national and some International standard phone number (country dependent), there are exceptions to the rule. These exceptions for example calls to non-standard numbers including 1800 (free phones) and 1890 (Local) numbers which will end up costing more or less the same than the normally advertised rate, depending on the VoIP Provider.
One area which can be a disadvantage or advantage, depending up on whether you have deployed to take advantage of the VoIP Providers plan is mobile numbers. A large number of VoIP providers have rates which vary depending on the mobile operators prefix. For example, Irish mobile phone providers include the prefix’s 083, 085, 086, 087 etc.. which a VoIP provider may have different rates for each prefix. Where this gets a little gray, is in relation to mobile phones who retain there original mobile phone provider prefix but have been switch to another mobile phone provider for the purpose of billing.
A summary of the customers profile:
For this small business solution, the customer is a new small construction consultancy firm which provides professional infrastructure and large projects technical services. These services are mostly provided via fax and email with much of the technical assistance being offered via telephone and email and when required on-site project support services.
The company employ's four full time members of staff. Two of the four staff members work from home in secretariat rolls. The remaining two staff members are based in the company’s main offices and provide technical services and account management type roles as the company’s two full time consultants.
A summary of the customers geographical infrastructure:
Working from a home office, the two secretariat staff normally action the day to day work and when required transfer to the main office periodically when both consultants are unavailable to answer the main office telephone.
The two consultants in our example small business, are based in the main office and then travel out when required to the sites and offices of their clients. The distance between either home office and the main office, is on average 15 miles.
As all staff members, move between the home offices, client sites and main offices which means the focus switches to mobile phones for in coming calls.
A summary of the customers Main Office IT infrastructure:
The customer IT infrastructure could be summed up as a classic small business network. The network offers a network connection to a local windows 2000 server and access to the internet via a DSL broadband connection. Telecommunications are provided via a single analogue PSTN classic Telco telephone line which is shared with a desktop fax / answering machine.
customers SOHO or Mobile Office IT infrastructure:
The two home office staff utilise a laptop pc, a home telephone and a mobile telephone. The two consultant staff members, utilise a mobile telephone or a home telephone and laptops when they are at home or otherwise out of the office.
As there was no existing PBX in place and all inbound calls are terminated at a single cordless standard PSTN analogue phone in the reception area. This single cordless telephone is then shared with all member of staff. This also means that for the other members of staff the main focus of in bound and out bound calls is firmly placed on using the mobile phones while the office phone is in use. The mobile phones are standard Nokia handsets and are not from Smartphone range of models.
Click On the image below
to Zoom In!
The customers problem statement summary:
The customers requirement specification summary:
The customer has some acute requirements which they need the solution to include:
The interesting bit:
What made this deployment standout and made it most interesting, was that besides being one of the smallest deployments outside a lab test environment, it had an added constraint. Because the customers previous supplier had a number of false starts employing USB SIP/Skype based phones, the customer wanted the solution on a 'try-before-you-buy' type approach. The customer was happy to pay for the labour and the subscription services.
However, any large investment would be out of the question and the customer wanted to air on the side of caution and grow into the final solution. This approach also meant it would be possible to measure the rewards and benefits before taking the next step. Avoiding any distraction for the consultants in such a small set of offices where no pre-existing PBX can be utilised to gain an insight into current operations combined to make for a difficult challenge.
The Basic High Level Recipe:
(Additional Components required for the Solution Deployment)
1 x VOIP Provider Account
1 x Wireless Router PSTN Gateway
5 x SIP Phone
1 x Software PBX
1 x Call Flow Strategy
1 x VoIP Deployment Strategy
1 x Lab Test Environment
VOIP Provider Account:
As this customer was an Irish based small business, the entry level choices for national VoIP providers is quite limited, these were short listed to freespeech.ie and blueface.ie
Having balanced both providers with the customer requirements, it came down to a simple choice of which provider had the best offer at that time. The preferred provider for this deployment would be freespeech.ie. The winning provider had won on the basis of its aggressive introductory offer of a free reconditioned Thompson SpeedTouch ST716v5 (WL) Wireless Residential DSL Gateway with Voice offered by freespeech.ie
With the SpeedTouch™716v5 (WL) (Wireless) Residential DSL Gateway with Voice you can build a secure home or small office network, seamlessly connecting wired and wireless devices, surf the Internet at high speed, make and receive phone calls over the Internet or over the traditional phone line - all combined in one device. However, this unit in itself, would not meet this company’s small business requirements for a PBX.
What the SpeedTouch brought to the solution was Two Voice over IP (VoIP) ports allowing high quality Internet telephony and a PSTN port allowing regular phone calls via an analogue line (1 x FXO & 2 x FXS ports).
Freespeech.ie also offer local geolocation phone numbers with each subscription account and a call divert for those unforeseen power failures. This call diversion will channel all inbound VoIP calls on to the existing Eircom landline or mobile phone as a failover strategy.
The setup/activation fee for Freespeech.ie was 20 euro’s, the monthly unlimited option for small business is 19.99 euro’s per month. There was however a delivery charge on the reconditioned SpeedTouch of 10 euro’s, this brought our sign up bill to 49.99 euro’s and 19.99 euro for every month after the first month (all figures are plus vat @ 21.5%).
The Existing Broadband:
We sought to utilise the existing broadband connection which was a standard entry level DSL Eircom 1mb/512kb connection, which includes the Netopia 2247NWG.
The Existing Server:
The existing file server, was a Windows 2000 Server, Dell Xeon dedicated server with 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive.
Other Existing Equipment:
Aside form those already mentioned, the network included a small 10/100 switch, a number of shared printers and some Windows XP PC's and Laptops. On the communications end of things, we had the desktop fax, 4 x standard mobile phones and 5 desktop analogue phones.
Confirming the Customer Requirements:
One of the key business requirement mapping tools we have developed ourselves in house, is the ‘Call Flow’ diagram. This diagram allows us to map the call routing at a high level and is not intended to outline the technology but more importantly to reflect the customers requirements. The diagram is documented with a view to customer confirmation that the requirements have been correctly identified in as simple a form as is possible. As you can imagine, as you scale up, such diagrams can become quite complicated, but they are much more intuitive to customers, managers and end users.
Click On the image below
to Zoom In!
Pre-Deployment Infrastructure Changes:
Trying to conduct a Proof of Concept, User Acceptance Testing and Performance testing in advance is pretty near impossible from a realistic and practical view point without first making some basic infrastructure and hardware changes.
In this case, the first tasks included:
1. In this case, Bring the Server up to a minimum hardware requirement, which as this customer was a relatively new business, the Server was also relatively new and easily achieved the minimum hardware requirement of Windows 2000/XP, 1.6Ghz Dual-Core Processor and 1GB Ram.
2. Also, bringing the Server and all the office machines and laptops up to latest hot fix's, services packs, version upgrades, anti-virus, anti-spam and personal firewalls. This helps to validate that the hardware is both up to date and meets the minimum requirements while offering a stable known point to begin from.
3. Add any missing hardware or software components like backup systems, virtual PC hosting software, IIS Component, Remote Access software
4. Address any infrastructure enhancements, for example, in this customers pre-deployment, before we could begin to test in a networked environment we need to address a real problem in that the building was a very old building which had little or no RJ45 network and telephone termination points. Luckily the cables had already been installed during a renovation of the building, but at both ends of each cable there was nothing but fresh air.
This meant we need to terminate both the telephone and the network cables correctly at both ends and mount the wall plates, re-test the connections and bring everything back to a new switch and patch panel which accommodated both the existing and future telephone and network requirements.
5. Relocate Server, Office PC's, Laptops, Printers or Backup System (if required)
6. Often you can find when you are in mid process of completing pre-deployment, infrastructure may change, other items may pop up, these normally include things like re-installing printers which you need to research the correct drivers for assuming the drivers are still available.
You may need to move network resources out of a dedicated peer to peer structure and into a standalone wireless or wired IP addressable standalone networked resource structure. This can happen because it is more desirable to the customer to have the cable run changed or there may be a shortage of existing network or power points.
7. Finally, you may need to add additional small switches locally at each users point in order to add Printers, PCs or SIP phone later where your network termination points offer limited connectivity.
Prototyping and Testing:
For prototyping and testing, where the solution is a software based solution, deploying the prototype for proof of concept, demonstration, user acceptance testing, and performance testing, we like to deploy (where possible) the software solution using a virtual machine. Virtual machines allow pretty much any windows or Linux PC (the ‘Host’) to play host a range of test machines (the ‘Client’). This allows us to deploy the desired version of windows in isolation and without effecting the host PC’s underlying Windows or Linux operating system. This approach also allows a simple and speedy move between different Host PC’s, Laptop’s or Server’s if required, using for example an external hard drive to transport the virtual machine between PC’s.
For more information see Microsoft Hyper V / Virtual PC or EMC's VMWare Server ( see http://gomobile.ie/isvs_and_developers.html )
Virtual Machines also give a customer a great opportunity to try out and test the solution and note further refinements which may be required to the system before committing to a full or final deployment.
Solution Capacity:
There are many items which can define a solutions scale / size as an overall capacity, for example:
1. The number of PSTN / ISDN Lines
2. The number of VoIP Lines
3. The maximum of VoIP Provider Concurrent Call Capacity
4. VoIP Lines Concurrent Call Capacity
5. Peek Capacity Outbound Call pattern
6. Peek Capacity Inbound Call pattern
7. The number of Extensions
8. The number of Extended devices (FAX, Dial Ins, Out Dials/Gateways)
9. The number of Local and Remote Users
10. The number of Local and Remote Extensions
11. The number of Remote Offices
12. The number of VPN / Tunnelled Connections
13. The minimum overall combined bandwidth available to the PBX Software phone system
However, these may not always be factual known's, for example, there maybe future requirements within a new and upcoming dynamic company, in effect, all the calculations in the world are not going to be truly realistic and factual in such deployments, because all the true facts are at this time, unknown.
Calculating Concurrent call Capacity using a simple rule of thumb:
If the Concurrent Call Capacity is just to difficult to calculate, perhaps I can offer an insight into a rule of thumb (putting ones figure in the air, judging the wild direction and speed before making a totally unscientific projection … or …what engineers like to call … a guesstimate ).
You could try the following projected maximum concurrent call capacity formula:
((Physical Number of Extensions + 20%) * 2 Node Connections)
This type of guesstimate formula is my own personal construction where I attempt to feed any known facts and where possible limit my guesstimate to the unknowns. Keep in mind it is unscientific and nothing more than a possible personal indicator I like to employ as a rule of thumb when all the facts are not available.
Based on the fact, that for each single inbound call, there are two concurrent calls, the first is from the caller from an outside domain to the PBX via the VoIP / PSTN trunk as a single connection and then a second connection is required for the internal call between the PBX node and the Extension node within the PBX domain. Combining these, we find our ‘2 Connections’ used to constitute a single call.
The ‘Number of Extensions’ refers to the factual number of total desktops, SIP Phones, PC SIP Client phones, Fax Machines etc… which at peek may hook at least one line.
The physical ‘Number of Extensions’ required for our customer is summarised as follows:
2 x SIP Desktop Handset Phones ( At each Consultants Desk )
1 x SIP Desk Phone (At Reception )
1 x Fax Machine ( At Reception )
Total physical number of extensions = 4
This physical total for extensions, denotes real world extensions and not the internal extensions to the phone system which could represent a much larger number when you consider ‘Call Queues’, ‘Digital Receptionists’, ‘Call forwarding Extensions’, ‘Dial Ins’ and ‘Dial Outs’.
The 20% is the real guesstimate here, which is your allowance for a percentage of simultaneous connections across the entire phone system that on average are on hold at peek or full capacity. Based on my personal experience, on average 2 in every ten physical extensions (hence the 20%), may have a call holding. The point about a call on hold is, that while a call is on hold, in the majority of cases I find that the operator who placed the call on hold, is perhaps calling another extension or on another call while the current or next call is still holding.
Our Customers Concurrent Call Capacity formula is projected to look as follows:
((4+1)*2) = 10 Concurrent Call Capacity
To scale this up for larger installation, here's an example of a mid-sized type deployment, based on 25 physical extensions:
((25+5)*2) = 60 Concurrent Call Capacity
Please Note:
Use the formula at your own risk, it maybe my preference, but it could also be you downfall.
Other items of consideration which may impact Capacity and / or bandwidth include:
In the case of our customer, the customer wanted incoming voice and FAX calls on the PSTN, outgoing landline voice calls using one VoIP provider and mobile voice calls using another VoIP provider. As there are two VoIP providers being utilised, these we could count as 2 possible communication gateways into the telephony world.
In summary, our customers line requirements, were as follows:
1 x PSTN (In / Out bound calling) = 1
2 x VoIP (Out bound calling only) = 1
Total virtual dual channel Lines = 2
The Telephony / VoIP Software Recipe:
The Telephony / VoIP Hardware Recipe:
Now we turn to the communications network on which we will deploy the hardware and the software of our final solution. Keeping in mind in the main offices we have 3 x SIP Phone and 2 x analogue desk phones and 1 auto answering analogue fax machine, we must first deploy as a basic PSTN PBX, maintain the Fax machine and route all outbound calls via the VOIP Providers.
We must also, construct a system whereby the ‘Call Flow’ achieves what has already been agreed with the customer. Finally, we have to keep trying to keep the system costs to the very minimum. This challenge brought us to the following hardware configuration which incorporates possible future expansion as future requirements grow with the customers success.
Click On the image below
to Zoom In!
The Sexy Bits:
For me, the three most sexy parts to the solution were in the areas of Fax, Out of Office Strategies and Call forwarding.
Firstly, by receiving fax’s on the 3CX Phone System Server means the inbound fax’s are converted to PDF and then emailed on. This allows a software FAX to join the network, but because it only receives fax’s on the PSTN inbound line, it never uses any broadband and there by has no impact on the performance of the PBX over broadband other than a call between internal extensions which will cost 2 concurrent calls with a minor impact to network performance.
Secondly, 3CX has allowed us to define two call groups, one during office hours and the other outside of office hours. This approach can then employ two different un-attended inbound call strategies. This means, during office hours any inbound calls to the consultants extensions are automatically forwarded to that consultants mobile phone or to the home office ( see the ‘Call Flow’ diagram ).
The third area, is that of the cost of forwarding calls when there is no one available in the main offices or using the mobile phones to answer in-bound calls. Instead these calls maybe answered from an alternative remote location like a home office. This remote receptionist at the home office can receive calls automatically transferred from the main office PBX phone system to the home office and in many cases these transfers are free of charge if the VoIP account plan includes unlimited national landline calls.
Performance Factors:
While we have not really touched on the subject, it is also important to note that bandwidth load balancing can have a critical role in VoIP PBX Phone System deployment as your number of extensions expands and your bandwidth becomes more and more fragmented.
Notes of Special Interest:
A Common customer question during VoIP deployments are, “What happens now during a Power Failure?”. There are a few choices here which are all dependent on your solution and its deployment strategy. In the case of this customer, we had two choices.
The first choice was to allow the system to shutdown gracefully during a power failure using uninterrupted power supplies. This approach would allow inbound and outbound calls on the PSTN analogue line, but there would be no savings on the outbound calls. This would also be the fallback position in the event the broadband itself lost connectivity.
Alternatively, backing the entire system power requirements up with uninterrupted power supplies and power over Ethernet units, would allow the VoIP system to continue to fully function for as along as the UPS could keep supplying power to a single server, 3 x SIP extension, 2 x gateway and 1 x switch which on the scale of things, is not a large voltage amp demand.
In our customers case, the problem with backing the supplying continuous power via ups units was, that when the power would fail, say during a electrical storm, it would classically take hours or even days instead of minutes, for the power to return. Because UPS batteries really don’t like being totally drained, the recovery position was to gracefully remote shutdown the entire system and then allow a manual reboot when the power had been safely returned to normal.
The VoIP Project Directly (Excludes network enhancements) related Costs:
Unlimited Freespeech.ie First Month Account Setup and Subscription - € 49.99
Delivery of the SpeedTouch - € 10
3CX Small Business Edition - € 725
In-House Pre-Installation Labour - € 600
On-Site Installation and Training Labour - € 400
Total Initial Deployment Costs = € 1,785
The VoIP Project Directly related Estimated Follow-up Costs:
Unlimited Freespeech.ie Monthly Subscription - € 20 per month
3CX Upgrade insurance - € 99 per year
3CX Support packages - € 300 per year
The Subsequent Total Estimated Costs for year one = € 619
Call Charges Note:
Not all calls maybe covered by an Unlimited plan, please check and read carefully any plan and call rates applicable by the VoIP provider of your choice.
All figures exclude vat @ 21.5%
The 3CX Benefits to the Deployment:
Late Additions / Updates / Additions:
This case study includes no real detail in relation to remote working, ( working from home or while on vacation or away from the office ). The system does include such features and functions which extend the personal extension to outside the normal communications network including mobile remote working using a Smartphone i.e. MC35 Enterprise Digital Assistant
For further details on the topic, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoIP
For further details on 3CX the VoIP Software PBX Phone System, please visit: http://3CX.GoMobile.ie
For further ‘Case Studies’, please visit: http://CS.GoMobile.ie
For further Articles by Brendon McLoughlin, please visit: http://Blog.GoMobile.ie
For further ‘Reviews’, please visit: http://Reviews.GoMobile.ie
The End