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Day 1 Bad PBX Install Translates To 7-Year Pain

A consultant I know recently sent a potential customer my way with the recommendation that I take a look at the company's telephony install. That was a good thing, because what I found was a train wreck. What can you learn from train wrecks? When you hear the crossing bells sound, don't ignore them. Unfortunately, not all customers understand the warnings or the indications of trouble on the tracks.

Let's review this particular case, and hopefully you'll avoid the same sort of situation happening to you. It's simple, pay attention.

In doing a site survey, I relied on photographs and then interviewed the customer so I could get an inside point of view on what was wrong with the company's telephony solution. With the age of the system, the model, and the manufacturer as clues, I suspected the value-added reseller (VAR) hadn't bothered replacing hardware as necessary per recall. The symptoms were odd and uncharacteristic of software or programming issues -- although several database oddities were discovered, as well. Clearly the VAR hadn't proper installation practices , either.

Once again the old engineering rule, "If it doesn't look right, it probably isn't," prevailed.

Shoddy From the Get-Go
In this implementation, neither the voice service from the carrier nor the power unit was protected. On top of that, the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in use for the telephony system was a flat-pack battery designed for terminals, not PBXes with multiple connected devices, including LAN switches, paging systems, and other auxiliary equipment. Problems stemming from the inadequate backup and power infrastructure were obvious, with power disruptions and transients.

Replacing the flat-pack battery with a UPS capable of handling the gear's load was my first step. Next, I conducted an audit of the system software programming, then a capture of the hardware's firmware releases, and finally pulled the specific inventory of hardware and serial numbers. My gut was right: In examining the serial numbers, I could see that all the system cards had been recalled years ago. The VAR didn't bother replacing the cards upon the manufacturer's recommendation, even though replacement cards were free.

From Bad to Worse
My advice is to write specific language into contracts that protects you against VARs that are rats -- taking advantage of a client and providing a lousy install doesn't sit right with me. Manufacturers often don't have direct contact with the end customer, so depend on their dealer networks to get the word out on recalls. Clearly in this case that went awry. The cost of replacing the cards, including labor, amounted to over 35% of the original system cost and, yes, that was still cheaper than replacing the system outright.

During my engagement with this company, the VAR initially refused to give me system passwords, and then gave me invalid ones. So, snother bit of advice is to include contractual language that protects you against VARs that refuse to surrender system ADMIN passwords for any reason. Having to rely on the system manufacturer to obtain the password is a painful and costly process. In this case, the customer was lucky because the VAR was lazy and never updated the hardware firmware or system software -- despite charging the customer system maintenance fees. Because of the old release of system software, the database was unencrypted and so I was able to obtain the passwords from there.

If your solution isn't power-protected ( circuits and UPS battery, included) to sustain operations, then consider that your first clue of trouble. Use of a flat-pack battery as UPS for a telephony system is a red flag signaling problems lay ahead. And, if problems persist without resolution even as you pay annual maintenance fees, then you really need to rethink your situation and find a new vendor or solution.

In this case, these issues went ignored because, as the customer told me, the VAR "was recommended to us and we trusted them." After seven years of the same results, someone took the hint that the VAR was taking advantage of the company.

Patience can be good -- but seven years is a stretch that most would find difficult in managing a partner relationship that yielded nothing but pain. It seems that the same basic issues on installations continue to surface, and these have nothing to do with complexity or technology requiring senior-level expertise.

Here are some other interesting details from the photos and database I reviewed:

One last note: The customer never knew about the availability of system data, important for any company such as this one that a busy call center of sorts. This indicates that the VAR kept the customer in the dark about system capabilities and the availability of reporting data.

For this customer, the Aha! moment came when, upon refusing to give up system passwords, the VAR commented, "they should be able to figure it out." Too bad the realization was so late in coming.

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