Need input on setup for small office

[kameleon]

I'm working with a friend to help him figure out the best course of action. Currently they have 2 Comcast voice boxes (3 lines total, 2 voice and 1 fax) being used as basically a POTS line going into their ancient PBX then out to their phones from that. They are looking at ditching comcast voice and possibly the PBX setup but need some input.

Currently the phone system is only used for putting a call on hold and picking up somewhere else. There is no auto attendant or anything fancy. They also have the physical fax machine which they would like to keep. It currently works fine on the comcast voice setup.

They were looking at possibly doing either 2 Obi202's or 1 obi504vs in place of the 2 comcast boxes and leaving the phone system alone. The other option is they could just ditch the phone system completely and go with VOIP phones on each desk, about 7 in total.

Which way would be best? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? If they went with just VOIP phones on each desk would they need a VOIP server or similar and would they be able to place calls on hold and such? Would faxing still work with their machine?

Lastly they would like to use Google Voice as a primary line but I'm reading that might not be the best thing to do. Thoughts?

[SteveInWA]

My advice (and you can read similar discussions I've had with other business users):

Rip off the bandaid.  There is no point to moving to VoIP, but then turning it back into analog to cope with the old analog stuff.  Consider that equipment obsolete, and simply buy as many IP phones as you need.  You do not need any sort of local PBX hardware at all.  All you need is Ethernet cabling to plug the phones into a switch.

Then, sign up for SIP VoIP phone service with one of the highly-regarded Internet Telephone Service Providers (ITSPs) that many of us here use, or have used.  All of the "PBX" functions are handled in the cloud, on their servers.  You will have a web-page-based dashboard/control panel that will allow you to dynamically add, change or delete extensions, change numbers, etc. 

If you are DIY-proficient and willing to become your friend's telephony tech support, you can consider using Callcentric, voip.ms or PhonePower.  If you and your friend just want things to work without understanding much about how it works, then sign up with Dialpad or Ringcentral.  The latter two services support more business-oriented features, such as CRM integration.

Do not use Google Voice.  Whatever small amount of money you may save, compared to the cost of the services I mentioned above, will be quickly lost if/when a Google Voice problem causes your clients to be unable to reach you.

Based on what I know about the Obihai-->Polycom merger, I suggest buying either Polycom (formerly OBi) 2182 IP phones, or one of Polycom's IP phone products.  The OBi 1000 series IP phones will probably be discontinued at some point, although support for existing customers will remain in place.

[kameleon]

Thanks for that in depth answer! I do have a couple more questions. So no need for an obi-box or anything really. Just the IP phones and service from a well known and respected company like Callcentric or Ringcentral, correct? Also how would you suggest I have them handle faxing? They want to continue using their physical fax machine and I feel having them move to the ip phones will be fairly easy but losing the fax will be faced with much resistance. Would it be one of the cases where I get an obi202 or similar ata and plug the fax machine into it?

I do apologize for all the questions. I have been in the voip game a while back but that was 9+ years ago and so much has changed so I want to make sure I do this right. Heck I am still blown away that you don't have to have a local asterisk box!

[SteveInWA]

Thanks for that in depth answer! I do have a couple more questions. So no need for an obi-box or anything really. Just the IP phones and service from a well known and respected company like Callcentric or Ringcentral, correct? Also how would you suggest I have them handle faxing? They want to continue using their physical fax machine and I feel having them move to the ip phones will be fairly easy but losing the fax will be faced with much resistance. Would it be one of the cases where I get an obi202 or similar ata and plug the fax machine into it?

I do apologize for all the questions. I have been in the voip game a while back but that was 9+ years ago and so much has changed so I want to make sure I do this right. Heck I am still blown away that you don't have to have a local asterisk box!

I don't mind at all, answering your well-considered questions.  I'd rather "consult" on this stuff, than diagnose bugs. 

Yes, you understood correctly about the IP phones.  Taking Callcentric as one example, you can get as many inbound phone numbers ("DIDs" in telco lingo) as you need, and then you can build "call treatments" on your control panel on their website.  The call treatment works like a set of firewall rules, in that they're processed from the top down, and you can set up either simultaneous ringing to multiple extensions, or a hunt group, or an IVR.  No asterisk needed!

RE:  fax, that's a PITA.  Yes, you could get a OBi (now Polycom) 200, and plug the fax machine into it.  Faxing over VoIP is hit-or-miss, but one way to cut the problems in half is to have inbound faxes go to a fax server, and only use the fax machine for outbound faxing.  Again, for example, CC has a fax server function included at no cost.  They'll email you a JPEG or PDF of the faxes.