It is the "knowledge" arrogance of the IT world. I had an IT guy call last night during my wife's birthday dinner because he couldn't figure out how to patch a fiber connection. I'll run by Monday and hook up two fibers for him....at a charge. Give them some mumbo jumbo to prattle about and they do okay.....add sweat and they run and hide.
Now, again, an IPO would be a waste of resources for the majority of my market....a Comdial Executech that has worked for 20 years is considered "overkill". When they do buy new it is not ViOP. Their "IT" guy is their cousin Marvin's 12 year old pimple-faced AV geek.
A real horror story....IPOguy will love this one.
The contractor to install was a West Coast type, the deployment was over a month behind, said their in-house network wouldn't support the "new" system, change order for more cabling for a new "phone" infrastructure, (more $$$$) the Westy spent more time checking the typing pool than the trunk pool, got booted, and the contracted trainer was training the users for another brand/system, the receptionist was supposed to get "factory" training for three days and an on-site tech to assist her on the opening day and first week of service. Didn't happen. IT might know how to manage a network but not a system cut-over.
This local headquartered company just went VoIP .... a real step backwards.....now this location answers calls for all five branches, not just the one local HQ (look at the money saved!!!!!)....one call at a time, not the five or six at once like with the old TDM. The touch screen is always down....finally they put a "real phone" on the receptionists' desk, and it won't reset half the time. Dropping your best overseas customer five times doesn't make too many people happy. When the IT lady who I had warned got called into her boss' office, well, she still has a job....barely.
Would they do it again? Probably not. The cost of ownership went way up, not just the hardware but the networks and monthly costs. As an employee owned company the head shed has a lot of explaining to do to the stockholders.....the employees who have to use this system. It cut their bonuses and % of COL increases on their pay checks. Even the lowest paid janitor feels the cost of this mess in his paycheck every week.
This is the second time snake oil sales people sucked up the little work available other than the small (two - three person) office market around here....and the ones who get it are not local, not even to the metro area. Always some "Internet wonders".
Boy, do I feel better? No, but now maybe, just maybe, someone out there will think twice before jumping into something that could cost them their job or their company their business. Either way the welfare line begins here.
