Which Pbx? Nec Ipk Or Panasonic Kx-tda30

[adk-infotech]

We are in the process of upgrading our PBX system and have looked at the NEC IPK or the Panasonic KX-TDA30AL (both used systems) for our office. I have done some initial testing and have found that neither of the systems have callerID to analogue extensions so inband signalling will be the way to distinguish which mailbox is triggered. I have no previous experience with this software, and as our solution depends on software capability, we have not comitted to hardware until I find out a little more about the VoiceGuide product.

 

Our requirements are as follows:

 

2-4 line analog voicemail

immediate transfer to user mailbox (without caller intervention or dialling VM boxes etc, I am guessing this is where in band signalling kicks in)

overriding holiday messaging toggle without deleting normal messages (eg. not here until future date in time...)

whilst in 'normal' mode, automatically access individual 'after hours' message outside business hours instead of normal message

whilst in 'normal' mode, have an individual message play on individual employees day off, so that they can advise next weekday in office (for casual staff)

ability to share mailbox between users and toggle multiple voicemail lamps simultaneously using single voicemail box.

 

To complicate things even more, whilst I do consider myself computer savvy, I have no previous 'programming' experience, so this for me will be a steep learning curve.

 

Is there anyone who has VoiceGuide working with these PBX's? Is there additional/specific hardware necessary for this to work (already have analogue extensions in both systems)?

 

Any advice or assistance would be extremely helpful!!!

 

Thanks in advance

[SupportTeam]

How do you intend for the IVR system to know whether a particular employee is having a day off or not? Will there be a database somewhere storing all this information?

If you have a database setup to store this information then the VoiceGuide script can retrieve this information and play the relevant sound file.

 

toggle multiple voicemail lamps simultaneously using single voicemail box.

This is possible as well - but would require some modification to the voicemail scripts.

 

Is there additional/specific hardware necessary for this to work (already have analogue extensions in both systems)?

Apart from the VoiceGuide software you would need a computer and a Dialogic telephony card into which you would plug in the analog extensions.

Entry level card is the D/4PCIUF. It has 4 analog ports.

 

As for the PBX, the NEC IPK is probably the better choice. VoiceGuide ships with ready to use Inband Signaling definitions for the NEC IPK.

[adk-infotech]

Thanks for your response,

 

I have purchased a computer with a 2 port dialogic (ISA) card which currently has Windows NT and another voicemail program called netcube. I can uninstall the other software program without a problem. Is it worth staying on NT or should I step up to XP?

 

When you say database, does it actually have to be a database, or can it be a csv file for example?

 

Whilst I can see that I am making some non-standard demands and that it can get messy very quickly, I would still like to keep it as simple as possible.

 

The client actually has a preference for the KX-TDA30 over the NEC IPK as the handsets have backlit screens and they prefer the look of them. Has anyone been successful in getting a TDA30 to work with Voiceguide using PSTN lines and using in-band signalling? Also, whilst I am nowhere near pro, I do prefer programming the TDA30 to the relative user unfriendliness of the NEC IPK without a computer or MIF-M card. If nobody has had success with the TDA30, then I will go with the IPK as suggested in the previous post.

[SupportTeam]

Is it worth staying on NT or should I step up to XP?

You should change to XP. Not sure if you can install .NET 2.0 on WinNT, and v6 of VoiceGuide requires .NET 2.0

 

When you say database, does it actually have to be a database, or can it be a csv file for example?

It has to be a database. Bout I think that you can install database drivers for .CSV file and use them from within a VBScript.

 

Has anyone been successful in getting a TDA30 to work with Voiceguide using PSTN lines and using in-band signalling?

Yes. We have customers using that setup. It's fairly straightforward to set up.