Jim Jolkl – UVA Voice Replacement Project
They’ll supply a phone device for those that ask for them – phones are cheap compared to support calls for softphones.
Need to take on moving academic areas, and hospital and clinics.
~ 20k lines remaining
People tell them that keeping their email working is more important the their telephone.
Budgets are impossibly tight
Call centers, emergency calling, are important. Some parts of universities are very phone-centric (hospitals and clinics among them).
Vendor types:
– Traditional PBX (Avaya, Cisco, Siemens) – don’t save much money, but you get modern services
– Centrex – voice from local phone company. Not low cost
– Carrier products moving to enterprise (Broadsoft, MetaSwitch) – good core services at reasonable cost.
– Open Source efforts (Asterisk, Nortel SCS, sipXecs & Ezuce)
– New entries (Microsoft OCS/Lync)
Talked to Skype, but they’re not interesting in importing current sets of numbers. They don’t want to become a regulated carrier.
Are we at an industry shift point yet?
– Are the more discruptive players “there” yet? (technology, reiliability, features)?
– are they far enough along to influence the type of contract terms we get?
Key RFP focus areas
Cost reduction – Most users do not need 5-9s reliability, but many still do. Be able to implement different levels of reliability at different costs.
Enhance user productivity – end user call control, mobile integration
Provide high-end services where needed
Be open to use of multiple products
RFP: http://www.procurement.virginia.edu/pagerfp
responses are in, presentations being scheduled
Thoughts – where does OCS/Lync server fit in? Soft client support; audio issues, etc; Focus on a shorter planning horizon; cellular coverage, wifi integration
