Author: DrVoIP

Peter S. Buswell (aka DrVoIP) is a rare blend of C-level executive leadership and deep technical expertise in telecommunications and cloud infrastructure. With a career that began at AT&T in 1970, he has founded and led multiple industry-defining companies, including Dextr.Cloud—acquired by AWS Global Partner CloudHesive. Peter has held senior roles at firms like Exxon Enterprises, Intervoice/Brite, and Franklin Telecommunications, and has consistently driven innovation from traditional PBX to Amazon Connect cloud deployments. A hands-on architect with certifications from Cisco (CCNP/CCDP, UCCX/UCCE) and AWS (Solutions Architect, Developer, SysOps), he combines strategic vision with engineering precision. Known as DrVoIP, he continues to bridge the gap between enterprise goals and technical execution in today’s evolving cloud communications landscape.

Voip Network Monitoring

Posted on by DrVoIP

We have been actively working with VoIP since 1999!   Since 2001 we have installed well over 10,000 ShoreTel desktops and one characteristic of these VoIP environments has surfaced into high relief on the radar screen here in technical support:  A VoIP solution is only as good as the computer Network it runs on! Network Monitoring – a Necessary Evil?  When someone mentions network monitoring, most network administrators immediately start thinking: overpriced, large server requirements, difficult to install, time-consuming to configure.  If those hurdles are overcome, then there’s a potential rainbow at the end of the road: Immediate notification of problems, faster problem resolution, less downtime of services.  That equates to happier & more productive users, and a more profitable organization. What’s interesting to realize is that the vast majority of companies all want to know the same things with their network:

  • When do problems happen?
  • Where are the problems?
  • Why do these problems exist?

We have decided to create a product that eliminates all of the hurdles and answer these same questions no matter how large or complex a network was deployed.

We can now:

  • Deploy and auto-discovers your entire network in just a few minutes
  • Continuously monitors the health of every device and interface on your network

This allows for some proactive analysis that includes:

  • Quickly learn which interfaces in your entire network are discarding packets
  • Perform a call path mapping of the health of every interface used in a VoIP call
  • Run a call simulation from any computer to any IP endpoint (including router interfaces)
  • Know what your current Internet utilization is – live (updated every 2.5 seconds)
  • Learn the switch and port where your VoIP phones are connected

Contact us today and we will send you a FREE completely operating network monitoring system for your evaluation.  Send a return email that lists:

  • Company Name
  • User Name
  • User email address
  • User phone number

And we will email you the download link and evaluation license code! Our only requirement is that you be a ShoreTel  system user.!

networkmonitor

SIP Softphone on Asterisk, CISCO and ShoreTel

Posted on by DrVoIP

Configuring SIP extensions has become one of the most requested support questions we receive. Asterisk, CISCO and ShoreTel all support SIP extensions. Candidly, SIP is an excellent protocol and one that most IT professionals are already familiar with. This is an application level protocol and looks an awful lot like HTTP etc. Ever go to a webpage and get a 404 error, “page not available”? Well SIP error messages are very similar. If you get a 404 SIP error message, it means phone not available. Though H323 and MGCP are certainly more mature protocols, they are most useful for “call processing”. SIP has the added dimension of being useful for presence information. Setting up SIP extensions on ShoreTel is a breeze and we have setup up everything from CISCO through Polycom desk phones and a handful of wireless handsets as well. ( I am working on getting my iphone connected to ShoreTel using a wireless SIP phone and I am breathlessly awaiting the release of 3.0). X-Lite makes a great SIP softphone on ShoreTel and I have included a soundless SIP configuration video for those of you familiar with ShoreTel administration. This configuration is built using cally the same in 8.1 so enjoy!Version 9 of ShoreTel, but it is basically the same in 8.1 so enjoy!

ShoreTel Sip and Free X-Lite Softphone from CouterPath.com

Fax on VoIP IPBX systems!

Posted on by DrVoIP

When VoIP gateways first started hitting the market back in 98′, the vendors tried to packetize DTMF and quickly learned it did not work well.   For this reason they quickly learned to “regenerate” DTMF at the outbound gateway rather than packetize and truck it across the network.   Moving modem tones is even more challenging and most VoIP solutions discourage attempting to send modem tones over an IP connection.  If you can get it to work at all, the modems will negotiate down to about teletype speed or about 300 baud. (Now there is a device and an term you don’t hear much about anymore).   Given that a fax machine generates modem tones, faxing over an IP connection is equally challenging.  ShoreTel makes it possible, for example, to attach a low end fax server as a couple of analog IPBX ports.   Incoming fax calls to the IPBX system, can reroute these faxes and even regenerate the DID number as DTMF to the fax server enabling fax to email applications.  What we are beginning to see as the SIP market matures, is that the phone companies are bringing PRI circuits to the customer premise disguised as traditional TDM circuits.   Your Telco interface may in fact be a ShoreGear T1, but you are interfacing to an Integrated Access Device that is converting SIP signaling  to SIP and then on to the Telephone companies softswitch.   Currently, this is a big problem for fax machines connected as analog lines to the host IPBX.  True Fax over IP is going to require a T38 interface and fax machines and servers that can support this protocol.  The message here is, make sure you know what you are connecting to!  True TDM or a SIP trunk!  Knowing the difference will enable you to properly handle fax traffic.

 

VoIP and Microsoft Outlook Integration?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Does your Microsoft Outlook Integrate with your phone system?   This functionality is getting to be the “minimum daily adult requirement” feature in the VoIP vendor space.   We all just expect that our phone system “knows” about our “contacts”.   We don’t dial phone numbers anymore!  We enter Names and the phones system gets the number out of our contact list and places the call.  Often, an incoming phone call to our desktop, will cause our contact information to be displayed.    Some integrations enable your phone system to change user profiles and call handling modes based on your Outlook contact.   Of late I have been wondering how far this integration can go?  I mean, if I have a conference call scheduled in my Microsoft Outlook, shouldn’t the phone system know about that?  My thinking is the phone system should just call me and remind me of the conference and then ask me to approve joining the meeting! 

 

ShoreTel compatible audio conference server?

Posted on by DrVoIP

SIP trunks can be used for a wide variety of call processing  solutions, some of which are very cost effective as in Free!   We have used  SIP tunks to interconnect ShoreTel systems over the Internet, complete with four digit dialing between systems!    Most recently,  we have been able to create a ShoreTel compatible audio conference server at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these servers.   The most costly part of  this conference solution  was the ShoreTel SIP Trunk Licenses at $50 per port and the Server Hardware.    SIP is a wonderful solution and enables you to interconnect a variety of exciting options to your VoIP solution that are vendor specific yet provide the highest level of interoperability.  We now provide an audio conference server, (you provide the server) free to all of our ShoreTel annual support subscribers.  We will send you a link to download the server, just for letting us quote your support contract renewal!

ShoreTel Contact Center – Integrated Agent Tool Bar

Posted on by DrVoIP

ShoreTel Contact Center Agent Tool Bar
The ShoreTel Contact Center provides two strategies for call management at the desktop.   We have found that the basic ‘agent tool bar’ is an excellent solution for call center desktops in which different shifts sit at the same desk, use the same computer and phone.  It is easy enough to program the tool bar to prompt the agent for there log-in information.   In this way, you can set up your phones with extension numbers that multiple agents can use.  When an agent reports to work, they go to their assigned desk and log-in, using an extension that might have been used by a different Agent on the previous shift.  The ShoreTel Contact Center keeps track of what agent used what extension during what time slot.   On desks that are dedicated to an individual agent, the agent tool bar can be integrated into the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager.   The Personal Call Manager looks like a Workgroup Agent call manager, but the tool bar indicates “contact center” and the drop down list contains information that is appropriate to the ShoreTel Contact Center or Enterprise Contact Center.    There is one additional advantage of the stand alone Agent Tool bar.   You can push custom parameters, named “call profiles” in ShoreTel documentation, to the Agent Tool bar.  We find that you do not have the same flexibility with the Integrated Tool Bar inside the ShoreTel Personal Call Manager.

ShoreTel Personal Call Manager with Integrated Contact Center

Call Center Design

Posted on by DrVoIP

It is very normal to start planning a call center around the concept of DNIS, Groups, Agents and Skills.  Experience has taught us, however, that call center design needs to start with a more important concept.  Call Centers are performance oriented.  We measure the number of calls presented, the number calls answered, the number of calls abandoned, average talk time, the average time a caller is waiting in queue for service and any number of other key parameters.  We want to know call disposition, agent availability and how much time was used for lunch and breaks.   Is the staff sized appropriately for the volume of calls that are arriving?  Do we over flow excess call volume from one group to another group? How often do we do this and how long did callers waiting in the original queue before this happened?  Do we Interflow from one call center to another?  These parameters are all key characteristics of a call center and the very parameters we want to measure.   For this reason, call center design should begin with the actual report that we want call center to produce in order to verify our performance!  Lets construct the report we want to use to manage our business and from this document, we can best work backwards to creating the groups, agents, skills  and Queue messages.

ShoreTel Location Based Services

Posted on by DrVoIP

At first I had to think about why I would want LBS on my ShoreTel Mobile Call Manager?   After all, it already alows me to change my call handling modes, access my voice mail and see my call history.   I can assign my cell phone as my “external assignment” and go seat on the beach while managing all of my office phone calls as if I was sitting at my desk.  So what do I need Location Based Services for?   With ShoreTel Version 9 the GPS in my phone can use my current location to set my call handling mode and effectively change my external assignment.  So when I am in the office, all the calls to my extension ring in at my desk.  If I go out for lunch the GPS notes my location as “not in the office” changes my external assignement and my calls start rining in on my cell.  When I finally get home from a long day at the beach, the GPS notes that I am home and assigns my extension to my home phone.   Now that may not be the definition of fixed mobile convergence, but it works for me!

ShoreTel CRM Integration

Posted on by DrVoIP

Every business desktop seems to have some type of customer or ticket management software solution.  Outlook and Notes are very common personal contact managers, but other popular solutions include Salesforce, Goldmine, ACT, Microsoft CRM, Time Slips and the list goes on and on.    Having a “record” pop up on your desktop based on Caller ID is the most common integration request we see.    How about doing a reverse look up on an incoming phone call, to learn the identify of the caller.   Google can do this, but how do you feed the Caller Id to the web application?   Basically, there are three strategies for doing an integration of this type: DDE, Triggers and XML.  Two of these methods (DDE and Triggers) are relatively straigh forward and within the ability of a competent system administrator.  XML generally requires a product development commitment and software development resources.  Fortunately we have been able to get ShoreTel to pass a wide range of system parameters to an external application using both DDE and Triggers.  This makes everything an “Easy Pop”!

Priority Call Management?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Are all your customers equal?  Every business owner, large or small knows the answer to that question and the answer is no!    We have Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze customers,  each of which represents a different value to the business.  For this reason, we often want to structure our call flow to prioritize these customers.     You do not have to work in a “call center” to manage this priority scheme.   The ShoreTel Personal Call Manager, for example, provides a visual call management tool that enables you to apply the concept of “priority call management”.  I know the value of my current telephone conversation.  It is the value of the next phone call that I want to be alert for.   We have all had the experience of being on the phone talking and suddenly seeing the messaging waiting light illuminate on our phone!  You immediately know that the very phone call you had been waiting for, slipped right past your ear and into the voice mail.   With a personal call manager, I can see the next phone call as it arrives and take appropriate action.  I can ask the current caller to hold.  I have my ShoreTel Call Manager set so that a second important call to my desk  can be sent to a greeting that says “Hi, I see you ringing in and if you hold the line, I will wrap up the call I am on and be right with you”.  (Send me an email and I will share how I set that up).  Optionally, I could have put the first call on hold and taken the second, higher priority caller.  The issue is simply:  when the financial, time or relationship value of the next call is more important, you will truly value having a visual, personal priority call manager only a click away!