Blake Farenthold <blake@pro-party.cts.com> (03/17/90)
I think someone wants to fire me. I have been chosen to evaluate our
40 lawyer law firm's telecommunications needs.
First they want me to look at our long distance service. This I can
live with, as the change, if any, SHOULD be almost transparent to our
users. All I have to deal with are the sales reps. I'd appreciate
any suggestions on what I should ask about. So far I figure I need to
get:
1) Prices per minute for
A) 1+ service
B) Dedicated WATS
i) installation charges
ii) recurring monthly charges
C) Credit Cards
i) surcharge per call
ii) access method
a) 10xxx
b) 950-xxxx
c) 1-800
d) 1-800 to our DISA
iii) instant credit?
D) Volume Discounts: Do credit card and WATS aggregate
to calculate discounts?
2) Billing format/Customer Support
3) Quasi technical stuff
A) Is there a local switch?
B) Fiber Optics
i) Fiber out of THIS city
ii) % of calls on fiber
iii) is it there own network or are they reselling
C) Call setup time
D) % of failed called (all circuits busy or other)
If you have any comments or suggestions on getting this information or
on another questions to ask, PLEASE let me know.
SECOND they want me to determine if we need a new PBX. I'm starting
off with the idea we do not. We have an ITT system 3100 and it does
everything I can think of that we need. DID, SMDR, Xfers, conference
calls, forwarding (busy, no answer, always), DISA, paging, camp on,
etc. I really can't think of anything we (a bunch of lawyers) need
that we don't have. Most attornies don't have computers and those who
do need only to tie into our Word Processing mini computer or to dial
up Westlaw.
But anyway, since I was asked to look at the firm's needs I figured
the best way to do it was to survey everyone to see what they
need/want in a phone system. I got a list of features of an AT&T
System 75, tried to translate the feature descriptions into English
(or legaleese) but am not too happy with the results. I was HOPING
that some of the telecomm pro's out there might have a list of typical
PBX features, in layman's terms I could base my survey on. If so
Pleeeeeeeese send it my way.
UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake
ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-party!blake@nosc.mil
INET: blake@pro-party.cts.com
We are the people our parents warned us about.
Jimmy Buffett0002788283@mcimail.com (Curtis Abrue) (03/18/90)
I can probably assist you in quickly getting long distance charges on MCI. Call me during business hours at 202-887-2907. Some of your questions need to be handled by a sales rep but most of them can be handled by me. Curtis Abrue MCI