Deployment status- major rollout on hold until Jan

Date Released: Mon, 29 November 2010 14:11 +0200

Setting up and configuring the new Avaya PBX has turned out to be an intricate and complicated undertaking, on top of a 6 week delay in delivery of equipment.  We were hoping to have the new phones rolled out on most of campus by December, and clearly this is not going to happen. Our new target is to start the phone rollout in January of 2011, and to aim at completing as much as possible by the start of the first term.

The intention is to roll out a stable and functional PBX system, and we are working hard with the suppliers to make sure this happens. Behind the scenes, things are going well - all the phones in Struben and some in Hamilton are active only on the new PBX, and using them has uncovered many small operational issues that have had to be dealt with. The problems are well understood. Those currently being dealt with are:

a) Switchboard issues - issues with SIP software, can be fixed by hardware gateway (being delivered), or new software release (imminent). See what comes first.

b) Handovers to/from CPU after hours occasionally glitch, particularly after weekend. Looks like Philips PBX problem expecting 4 digit and not recognising 9 or 29 when it comes from Avaya.

c) Telephone management system accumulating call records, Vox want full list of accounts and PIN numbers for private calls. Need to see if accounts can be generated.

d) Least cost routing line in place, but Telkom still need to activate line. Then it needs to be configured.

e) Fax server cut over from Philips to Avaya, but some problems. Have not yet tested incoming faxes diverted to mailbox.

f) Contact centre in limited/experimental use. Ring tone issue and hands free are technically possible, but issue is whether changing them is desirable in a standard call centre environment.

g) Migration decision - divert or dial 0 or mix of two. Need to work out implications.

h) Video conferencing - sorted out, but after handing service back tofacilities office there was a problem. Not clear if this is a finger problem or an Avaya problem.

i) Issues about emergency numbers - easy to "unblock" all relevant emergency numbers (10111, 112, fire brigade, ambulance, etc) on all phones irrespective of other barring. However, other emergency use needs to be covered by some sort of policy defining expectations.

j) Many SIP phone settings should - according to the configuration manual - work. But they don't, or not easily. In many cases these have to be reverse engineered from the equivalent Unistim functions, which is quite a long winded process of trial and error. Are we going to have to back track on our "open source" starting point in order to deploy phones? This would be step backward. So far doesn't seem necessary.