What’s IT all about?

Open source software is a bit of a buzzword (buzzphrase?) at the moment, and rightly so. Considering that the majority of the world’s websites run on open source software (servers running the suite of applications known collectively as LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and that the Firefox web browser continues to erode Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the browser of choice for many people, it’s not surprising that more and more companies are happy to consider non-commercial software for mission-critical tasks.

Proponents of open source software will have their favourites, in my case that consists of Firefox for browsing; Thunderbird for email with the Lightning plugin for calendars; OpenOffice for documents, spreadsheets, etc.; Joomla for my website content management; and SugarCRM for management of Customer activities. I am also looking at phpList as a possible mechanism for running an email newsletter. The total cost of implementing the above, nothing but my time and the rewarding process of gaining knowledge.

Many more people go further than I have at the moment and use a Linux-based operating system such as Ubuntu. The one real issue with open source, though, is knowing what to choose, even for evaluation purposes. Whilst you can happily download and install any open source software to try it out, it can take a while to get a good appreciation of what is actually available in any particular area.

Well, that aspect of the choosing process has just improved with the creation of a pretty good list of open source software on mashable (link). You still have to compare the software and evaluate against your needs, but that is a process that should be followed regardless of the licence under which the software is provided. At least now, though, you know what you should be looking at.

Most people nowadays have a mobile phone (cellular if you’re the wrong side of the pond), and whilst many stump up the full whack for their handset and then stick a pay-as-you-go SIM in, a sizeable percentage (in the UK at least) have the cost of their handset heavily subsidised by opting for a 12 or 18 month contract. If you’re a reasonably heavy user, then contracts make sense, particularly since they give you the option to upgrade to another handset at the end of the contract.

Zonbu have borrowed from this business model to sell their Linux-based PC’s and Laptops. You can purchase their products as you can from any other PC manufacturer. However, they also give you the option of entering into what is, in effect, a hire-purchase agreement. Pay your money up front (for their laptop, $279), pay a monthly fee for a couple of years ($14.95) and you get an entry-level laptop with unlimited maintenance and support, online backup and a free replacement should anything untoward happen.

Will it work ? I can see it being attractive in the home or small business where IT knowledge is limited. Would I buy one? Nope, not when I can carry out my own support and maintenance, and organise online backup if I so desire (in fact I have an old PC running Bacula to protect my data). Most importantly, though, when I buy a PC or laptop I want to be able to control the spec.

Still, it’s something relatively new in the marketplace, and I applaud them for giving it a good shot and wish it every success.

Yesterday I received in the post some information from a company (who shall remain unnamed) in the public sector who had put out an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for a new, VoIP-enabled telephone system. The ITT itself contained very little information indeed about their requirements, as is often the case. However, it did mention the fact that it was a public sector company, and since value for money is frequently highest on their selection criteria, Asterisk-based systems are usually a good fit. So I cheerfully applied for an information pack, which duly arrived, as I said, yesterday.

A quick read through the detailed tender document made it apparent that this was one contract not worth taking any further. When you see selection criteria such as

“The system will not be based on open source code”

then you suspect that they have had their fingers burnt. A more in depth perusal confirmed the suspicion:

“Since implementation London users and Homeworkers have experienced a variety of
issues with voice quality. The voice quality has varied from acceptable to unusable.
Outbound voice quality has been mostly acceptable but inbound voice quality has on
occasions contained dropouts or has been completely inaudible, preventing users
from hearing what callers are saying.”

They go on to say that WAN changes and the introduction of G.729 have improved matters, but obviously not enough. They also bemoan the lack of available expert Asterisk knowledge making it difficult to troubleshoot effectively.

There are a number of checks that any half-decent Asterisk consultant should have made at this site. Is the server up to the job? Is there adequate bandwidth for their requirements? Has QoS been implemented correctly across the board? Are there unnecessary codec translation going on? Is the VoIP provider up to the job? Instead company or consultant who carried out the initial implementation has left them in the lurch, and now a company that could have been very happy with an Asterisk solution are determined never to touch it again, and if anyone asks their opinion they will no doubt be very disparaging.

The solution? The best way to avoid the situation, in my opinion, is for any consultant or company selling an Asterisk-based solution/service to make sure that their customers have an alternative contact should things go belly-up. Do your homework and get in touch with someone who knows their way around Asterisk blindfolded. Your customer is more likely, not less, to stick with you if you can demonstrate that you have their best interests at heart and can provide them with a level of service that they require. That does not need you to be an Asterisk guru, but you do need to know where to turn if such a person is required.

From VentureVoIP comes news that Dell are going to supply SME’s with Fonality’s Asterisk-based VoIP system - PBXtra. Details of the arrangement are sketchy at the moment, but already there are murmerings of doubt amidst the obvious conclusion that this is a strong deal for Fonality and potentially for the SME market worldwide, 35 million of whom are expected to dip their toe in the VoIP waters over the next three years.

I must admit to wondering about the wisdom of the arrangement myself. Fonality have certainly got a pretty mature product with, in Asterisk terms at least, good market penetration. This deal will drive that through the roof, and one has to wonder just where the support for a huge increase in the installed base will come from ? If it’s Dell, then they have to train up a lot of people in a subject where they currently have little or no knowledge. Then there’s the mixed bag of customer experience with Dell support, which is bad enough if you’re dealing with an important server, but unacceptable if your phone system has just crashed and customers can’t call you.

That’s fixable, though, and I suspect that Fonality will provide 3rd-level support in a classic support scenario so that the easy stuff can be handled by Dell and the tough stuff goes where the knowledge lies.

My biggest concern is that I don’t think there’s a good fit between the way VoIP should be sold to SME’s (or any business) and the way in which Dell normally does business in this market.  Let me explain. If you have a look on my website you will see that I, in common with Fonality, offer a number of VoIP system ‘packages’. I suspect that Fonality view this in the same way I do…as a means of illustrating the ball-park cost of a VoIP system and of initiating a conversation about a particular customer’s specific and unique needs. I have no intention or experience of a customer phoning up to say “I want to buy package no. 2, can you send it tomorrow”. It just doesn’t happen that way, and so it shouldn’t as getting the phone system right is crucial to each and every business, big or small.

You can see where this is going, I’m sure. Dell’s business model, the one that has made them into the massive company they are now, is geared on the assumption that the customer knows exactly what they want, and Dell can provide it quicker and cheaper then anyone else. You start doing that with phone systems and businesses are going to suffer. The MD of a small company will not be an expert in VoIP-enabled telephony, and he probably won’t employ anyone who is an expert either. They will be focused on selling their widgets or whatever it is that makes them successfiul. And whilst they may be interested in buying a phone system that has the potential to save them money and provide more functionality, if it starts taking a lot of their time to install, maintain and support then that advantage is lost.

Putting a PBX into an SME is not just about selling them the server and a few phones. Crucial to the success of an install are factors such as how to minimise disruption, which codec to use, the efficient use of the existing network or installation of a separate VoIP network, the means of hooking up branch offices and homes to the VoIP system (another PBX, use a VPN, etc ?), and many other questions. These all need someone with knowledge and experience to assess before coming up with the best solution for that particular customer. Will Dell be doing all that…I have my doubts.

This could be a great thing, or it could set VoIP for SME’s back 5 years. I have my fingers crossed that it’s not the latter.

No sooner does one appear, than another follows close behind. Tomato 1.11 has appeared. All usual disclaimers apply.

Tomato v1.10 is out….use wisely

Work on the new, improved Four Lakes website has started in earnest now, and for the moment I’m looking at Joomla as a CMS solution. My current site, whilst reasonably professional looking, is extremely limited in functionality and, indeed, in the total number of pages I can publish. The current plan is to develop a LAMP/Joomla based site* using one of the hundreds (if not thousands) of Joomla templates out there. As a result I should end up with something professional, modern, and capable of boosting business rather than holding it back. And bringing my Joomla skills up to scratch is probably not a bad move either !

* Using VMWare to provide a LAMP/Joomla development environment on a Windows PC is a real boon here.

An interesting news item on the Teleappliant site here.

Of course, Teleappliant aren’t the only company to offer an Asterisk-based PBX

OK, it was some time ago….but I have been moving house with all the disruption that entails, so I feel excused (however valid it is to excuse yourself ?). Anyway, if you run Tomato on your Buffalo or Linksys router and you want to try the latest version, then you can find it here. The usual disclaimers apply, although I found the update process painless and all appears to be working as before.

Following my move to Kent over a month ago, I have been having some interesting times with BT. Every other aspect of the move went extremely smoothly, the removal people were very professional and careful, the solicitor sorted their part of the deal on time and without fuss, all-in-all it could not have gone better. Apart from BT !

Some background first. The house we have moved to is brand new. So new that there was not even a phone line running from the nearest pole to the house, merely a wire hanging out of the front wall waiting for BT to hook up to. This I was aware of and had even managed to phone BT in plenty of time to order the phone line. That call was fine, and an engineer was arranged to turn up at the house the day after we moved in to install a new line. However, it didn’t quite work out like that.

Rather that give all the gory details (they are in a letter to BT’s Customer Services Director !), suffice to say that it took four visits, six engineers and over two weeks to finally get a line installed and a dial-tone active. Only then could I place an order for broadband (not with BT, I hasten to add) which was due to take a week to be activated. After the week was up and still no ADSL, I called the broadband provider to find that there was a problem with the exchange and BT could not get anyone out for two more weeks to even take a look at it ! Spot the recurring theme yet ? And don’t forget I am a VoIP consultant running a business from home.

Anyway, having spent a fruitless morning on the phone trying to get someone in BT to escalate this issue, a couple of days later the ADSL was mysteriously active ! My frustration must have filtered through somehow.

To further complicate matters while waiting for a landline, I discovered that my mobile phone reception inside the new house is absolutely terrible. I can just barely get a signal if I leave the phone in a window and use my bluetooth headset. So even though BT did divert the landline number to my mobile, it was not a great solution.

Another frustration during the downtime was the lack of access to email. In fact, I drove 80 miles one day to attend a customer meeting that they had cancelled by email the previous day. OK, I should have called to check it was still on, but if I had had access to my email…..

What really gets me, though, is the lack of choice over who installs your phone line. If I could have gone elsewhere I would, but that just wasn’t an option. At no stage did I get the impression that my case had been escalated, indeed during one discussion with BT I was informed that as I had purchased a residential line I would be dealt with in due course. You get the feeling that BT don’t really get the new reality of internet telephony. The only calls I might make on the new line will be residential calls, any business-related telephony will be VoIP-based. Therefore, the line is only needed to enable internet access…and I fail to see the point in paying £40+ a month for a business line when I can enable ADSL just as easily on a £10 a month residential line.

Wake up BT.