Westwind Digital Communications

In conversating (I once had a manager with an MBA use that word three times in a short conversation) with a customer recently, I thought it might be necessary to revisit telephone interconnect basics.

There is a line between having the features found on a home phone and ones found in a business setting and it is not fine. If you want nothing more than to pick up a phone when it rings, then an off the rack telephone from Office Depot is all you need. If there are certain features you desire, then it unfortunately goes beyond just plugging it into the wall. These are a few of the features you can get with a business phone system:

• Automated Attendant
• Caller ID
• Call Logging
• Direct Inward Line
• Door Box
• Door Striker
• Group Rings
• Music on Hold
• Names for Extensions and Trunks
• Night Service
• Off Premise Extension
• T1 Interface
• Voice Mail Capability

Just as there’s a Chiltons Guide for working on my Acura, there are guides out there to installing a phone system to your PBX. It goes something like this:

Cable One Color Code
White-Blue
Blue-White
White-Orange
Orange-White
White-Green
Green-White
White-Brown
Brown-White

Cable Two Color Code
White-Slate
Slate-White
Red-Blue
Blue-Red
Red-Orange
Orange-Red
Red-Green
Green-Red

Repeat four more times! And that is just steps four and five. It does not even get into the programming of the system.

No thanks. In the end it’ll cost more to un-mess up my boo boo (I am using nice words) than it would to hire a technician that knows what they are doing to install it. I know, I know there are people out there that eat this kind of thing up, but for one thing, they are not reading this blog. Another, is business people know their strengths and weaknesses and how much their time is worth. That’s why there is AutoZone and a Firestone; a website and Westwind Digital Communications.

It has been particularly wet this month in Oklahoma. It seems a little early for all the rain, but I’ll never complain about an early fall. Weather like this reminds me of the fall days as an undergrad on the best campus in the nation, but I digress. I know this will sound a little weird for a company to give advice as to how to keep our company from prematurely visiting your phone closet, but think of us as your telephone doctors. Medical doctors are paid for fixing your ailments, but would rather see you healthy. Right?

The past few weeks have been busy here at Westwind Digital Communications. The thunderstorms have been strong this fall and I’ve been told when you hear thunder there is lighting. Or is it when you see lighting there is thunder. Can you have one without the other? Hmmmm. Where was I?

Ah yes, busy weeks. The lightning monster has been feasting on unsuspecting and, worse yet, unprotected telephone systems. The key word in that sentence is “unprotected.” A simple $100 UPS battery backup and surge protector will save hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Hundreds if we can replace a few parts. Thousands if the whole telephone system gets fried.

It’s as easy as this. A good salesperson should do a good needs analysis. Based on what they find they should come up with a full package to fulfill all your needs. When looking at the proposal, if there are items that do not make sense to you, simply ask. A good salesperson can justify their proposal and not add fluff. Loooooong story short is do not skimp. There may be ways to cut costs, but just like my dad says, “You get what you pay for son.” In the end, ask yourself, “What will it cost us to go without phones for a few days?”

Most of the time we get your run-of-the-mill telephone system request. That does not mean we take short cuts when it comes to finding out about a customer’s operations. For one thing, as a trust I.T. provider we do not want to over look any aspect as it may come back to haunt us down the road. Secondly, asking the right questions allows us to sometimes find a way we can make a customer more efficient and save money at the same time. That‘s when we become a trusted partner in their business.

I have stated this before, we are lucky to have some of the best technicians in the entire state of Oklahoma. Combined they account for over 100 years of technical expertise. That does not mean they are miracle workers and when its time for a phone system to be put to rest, it’s time. We had a customer who was seeing more and more of our techs at a regular interval.

Chad and I went to see them and after doing some digging, we discovered a way to save them over $6,600 a year on their phone bill. The main office was in Oklahoma City and had two satellite offices in Edmond and Wilson Oklahoma. They also had an employee that worked out of her home in Albuquerque, NM. The office in South OKC had been connected point-to-point to Edmond with a dedicated T1 line and all four locations were incurring considerable long distance charges as they all interacted with one another on a daily basis.

What did we come up with for a solution? Well, we installed a new Toshiba CIX 670 phone system, ordered a PRI from AT&T, and killed the dedicated T1 line between the two offices. On the phone system was a new MAS (Media Application Server) with unified messaging and fax to desktop. This centralized the voicemail for all four locations. We then set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and tied all four offices together using Cisco routers. This way we were able to utilize VoIP and eliminate the long distance charges from the telephone carrier. Another great benefit is we did NOT need to travel to New Mexico to set up the home office. Our technician simply programmed the phone and mailed it to the young lady’s home in Albuquerque. All she had to do was plug her phone in and she was off and calling! Now any call comes to the receptionist in OKC and she is able to rout it to the proper office with the caller not knowing where they called in the first place.

In the end, the customer really did not care what we had done. They got a new phone system, it works, and he saves money every month. Simple as that.