Anyone dipped their toes in the Microsoft OCS/ Norttel CSE1000 world? 1

[VOIPaintEASY]

Wondering if anyone has tried any of these OCS, VOIP integration functions yet?

 

[MagnaRGP]

Yep. Deployed in-house, but still working on it. It is NOT easy, nor is the documentation anywhere near accurate.

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

Can you revisit this thread on occasion and comment on the goings on? Ironically we were on a call with Microsoft last Friday. I noticed one guy sounded bad (like a Halloween monster). This is typical of VOIP via broadband. I asked if he was on the call from home. Answer was yes. I then asked if he was on their VOIP client. Answer was yes. He then without saying anything dropped off the call bridge and called back in. Call quality was perfect. He used his home phone to re- join the bridge…. I then told them the story about 5 years ago when we were the largest single Nortel VoIP installation in the country and having call quality issues. We would have conf. calls with 5-10 Nortel folks including engineers specific to VOIP. Some of them would cut out and break up. Ends up they were sitting at home on broadband using a VOIP client and opening attachments in email while talking on the call, etc. and breaking at up. Total irony these guys were engineers on a VOIP call quality conf call and their conversation was breaking up from self inflicted pain. It aint easy and is hard to make work perfect 100% of the time like users and CIO’s expect…

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Isn't that what QoS is for?

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

Not when your Microsoft PC can’t deal with the multithreading within itself perfectly to give the VOIP client speech path constant attention. Don’t matter what kind of network QoS you have configured if the box running the VOIP client and 11 other apps minimized cannot dish out resources to your VOIP speech patch while you are talking and you also click on a attachment in email or open a huge PowerPoint local. It takes its mind off the VOIP client to cause this. I highly recommend not running a VOIP client on a windows workstation and going with a standalone IP phone device for this reason if you have demanding users. Client systems resources are a huge issue for a VOIP client. I know there are tuning tricks to the OS. There again, it is easy to get it to work testing 99% of the time. That last 1% usually bites when someone is on the $1M client call, etc. One thing we do have helping us though is with the proliferation of cell phones over the past 15 years it has lowered the expectation of a phone call reliability call after call after call!

 

[MagnaRGP]

Absoultely on the Mark! My co-worker who is the server guru working on this with me once wanted to abolish the CS1k once we federated with MS (done, and now we are TAP compliant). Now, he has removed his i2004 from storage and doesn't even use Exchange as his VM anymore.

It is a great product that definately has it's place in an Enterprise (too expensive for SMB), but I for one would not be willing to run MY business on the product.

As to the client only, we have some of the Tanjay (Polycom) phones deployed too. They are (IMHO) not as good as a 2004p2 or an 1140. Cool? Yes. But you can't run a business on "Cool" for too long.

My $.02.

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

As an FYI, We have replaced our Phase I i2004 IP sets with 1140 sets and it has eliminated all occasional echo, cross talk, etc. issues that could arise on 5-10 calls per month across 600 users. The Phase 1 i2004 sets were not quite ready for prime time in a large campus deployment of hundreds of people all day using these sets. The sheer amount of calls made with this many stations will yield your help desk with 2-3 complains a week that cannot be replicated or trouble shot as the very next call and 50 after that can be fine. We finally started placing 1140 sets on high traffic users that had the issues more often and it was an immediate fix. Our Nortel account team was strongly urging us to do this and I was apprehensive as we were only 4 years into a 7 year asset depreciation. Once we saw the effect we realized Nortel’s urging was technically based on the 2004 phase 1 set firmware. Thus we have hundereds of i2004 sets in boxes in the closet...

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

More on MagnaRGP's comments. If you choose to run VOIP via a soft client on a end user work station be very aware that you are giving up the overall reliability of the call to the desktop OS's ability to remain strong and able to multithread well for years after its registry, spyware, application install, uninstall cycles, etc. in order to give strong attention to that VOIP soft client application and voice conversion while you are talking. (Take note: you will triple check your edge switch 45 times before this hits you. Thank me now for this tidbit) The most popular intruder we have seen is people reading their email while in a conversation and opening and attachment video or PowerPoint with 15 pages of kittens in a back yard. Very few people, especially those with a headset instead of handset, will sit idle to talk on a call anymore. I sometimes think the human factor of wearing a headset and talking does not allow someone to just sit back in their chair and talk in concern for looking foolish. Thus they tend to “doddle” with the mouse which is usually keeping up with email, re- watching videos, looking at a 800 page PDF manual of a Juniper router, etc. That does not bode well for the VOIP soft client running on that PC carrying the soft phone client weight on its shoulders to get everything the user says out the Ethernet cable perfectly from that 4 year old tired windows XP machine…. (Note: I hear Vista is supposed to have better application QoS, but then again, how many enterprises took the Vista step?) Agree 150% MagnaRGP. Cool lasts about 10 days and users want that old system back with the Panasonic phones, that actaully was a 30 year old Nothern Telecom SL1 with 900 analog station ports that ran like that Maytag Deep freeze your inlaws have in their basement they got from their parents....

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

I get it - it's the laptop that's buggering-up the voice.

The solution to this is that people using a softphone (due to being ofsite/working remotely?) should be using Citrix for desktop apps and NOT running Outlook on their laptop.

I was sooooo happy when they gave me Citrix for that very reason - no longer did I have to chew my fingernails in frustration at the slowness of Outlook.

 

[BrokenRecord2]

I have experience running 2050 phones, MCS desktop clients and LCS/OCS clients while running desktop sharing, running video and sending large files. The only time I ran into issues is when I was working from a home on a broadband connection. There is no phone system or phone set that can fix that.

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

agree 100% I am amazed when I here folks are putting call center type agents working from home via VOIP. I wont say it will not work. I just cant see it working 8 hrs a day, day after day after day with clear quality. If anyone is doing so I would like to here some deatils of what they overcame.

 

[mdpuk]

Out of interest does anyone know of a good USB phone that works with the 2050 client?

We are looking at moving to OCS next year and I'm interested how it works in other organisations, do the VOIP guys look after OCS or the email guys or a bit of both?

 

[BrokenRecord2]

VOIPaintEASY,

I've seen it work with a private DSL buisness line that can support QoS. Basicly it's a point to point DSL line. I have been working from home for a few years on my fiber connection with little issues but I have 15 up and 15 down so the bandwidth is helping me out there.

 

[BrokenRecord2]

mdpuk,

Maybe I am not understanding. Why do you need a USB phone to work with a 2050 phone? Do yo mean a USB headset? If so Jabra and Plantronic's have a couple that work well. I have a Jabra that work with my hard phone and pc at the same time that I really like. I can listen to internet radio and answer calls with a press of a button.

 

[mdpuk]

Yeah just so that people can work without having to wear a headset whilst away from the office? I heard a rumour there were some non headset type USB phones that were compatible? Anyone know of/used any?

 

[VOIPaintEASY]

Just a note about 2050 USB handsets. The Nortel versions have the "release", "hold", volume, and a message indication lamp on them in a module on the cord that sits on the desktop. Plantronics sets do work though. And of course Nortel's headset cost much more. For people that use them all day long as a user they like the Nortel one. If for some reason you have an environment with a lot of people that work around each other with the 2050 soft phone client and some do/ some don’t have the Nortel version when someone that does not have the Nortel headset sees it, they will want it with those controls on it.