Microsoft Response Point SMB PBX - Install and Review

Part 1: Site Analysis

I’m glad I did a site visit before I a showed up to do the install. Although, it should not surprise me that there were wires everywhere, I have seen worse.

It became obvious rather quickly that I was going to have to do some wiring, to every desk. I made some sketches of where the drops needed to be and ensured there was power to support the phones as well. Within 10-15 minutes I had my shopping list and a decent sketch of the LAN. “It puts the Ethernet cables in the basket.” 1 hour later I had all I needed.

Part 2: Pre-config & Testing

I spend the next couple of hours on some other business which left me about 30 minutes for a quick pre-config and basic testing. It went flawlessly, apart from some Mac versus XP issues I will share with you later.

Part 3: Site Installation

I showed up on site on schedule at 4pm to start the job. By 5 pm I was basically finished the wiring and had the base unit, gateway and Ethernet drops all ready. I plugged the telephone lines into the gateway and we were ready for full-on geekness. Let’s add some phones and assign some users.

Microsoft did a phenomenal job with the phone and user provisioning methodology. Brainless provisioning is something that I have been ranting about for some time, glad to see someone got it right for a premise-based SMB phone system.

Within the next 20 minutes I had 5 phones configured and ready for use. The Response Point interface is very well done, very little margin for error for PBX newbies.

I spent approximately 20 more minutes configuring the router to assign a persistent DHCP address for the base unit and gateway. 10 more minutes for configuring the voicemail to email SMTP settings.

At 6:10, we made our first internal call, to the voicemail system. “I suppose I have to enter my first born’s date of birth via the key pad to get into the voicemail system?”, said an eager employee. “No, not at all, simply press that blue button and say VOICE MAIL. And if you want to call anyone else in the office just press that button and say their name.” That look on her face was absolutely priceless. It was like I just gave her a winning lottery ticket.

Part 3: Basic Training

Again, more fun than anything else. “This is how you use voice recognition to call people. This is how you geek out on telephony.” Needless to say, they love their new phone system.
Summary: It’s hard not to like this PBX. For SMBs it’s like a gift from above. Sexy, and it works. I was out of there by 7 pm and aside from replacing a faulty Ethernet cable I will likely not have to go back anytime soon.

Hats off to Microsoft, it’s been a while since I have been this impressed about anything that has come out of Redmond but they have certainly won my vote. SMB PBX of the year? Could very well be just that but let’s see how Service Pack 1 goes over before I get ahead of myself.

Microsoft Response Point SMB PBX - Install and Review

Introduction

Recently one of our customers approached us and requested that we sell them and subsequently install a Microsoft Response Point small business telephone system. We had zero experience with Response Point but since we are not ones to shy away from a customer request, we ordered a system. In the next few posts I will take you through the entire process from unpacking the telephone equipment to making our first calls. If it’s as easy as they say it is, we should have the system up and running in a few short hours, or less. Keep in mind that some of the steps mentioned below are sometimes accomplished prior to proposing a PBX solution, but this is a unique case. With that said, here is my plan.

Part 1 - Site Analysis
Since this is an IP-based system I am going to need to understand the current network layout and basic impact of this system on the existing LAN before I attempt to install it. I also need to understand how the customer wants to have their Auto-attendant configured. This will require a site visit.

Part 2 - Pre-configuration and Testing
In order to reduce the impact and disruption of me being on-site I am going to pre-configure the system and all of the phones before I arrive for the real site installation. I am going to do my best to emulate the customer’s network as closely as possible.

Part 3 - Site Installation
The moment of truth. After hours, I will plug everything in and we will make some calls.

Part 4 - Basic Training
I explain how-to use the system and run through some of the basic features with the designated system administrator.

Stay tuned for Part 1, unpacking tech stuff is always like Christmas for me.