Question about phone system and IT.

viper75

Do most IT departments take over their phone systems too? We just got a new phone system installed at my job (6 different sites) and they want us (IT) to learn the system so they (my company) does not need to have X company (the ones that installed the system) keep on coming back for support on the system.

I kind of have a problem with that, the reason being is that I won't only be doing IT support (setting up servers, workstations, configuring Cisco equipment, troubleshooting PC's and network problems), but I will also be doing the phone systems now and on top of that they are not going to pay me more money for this new responsibility. I told my boss that I don't want to do it if I'm not going to get paid X-tra money for the x-tra work I have to do. I'm not too happy about this right now

Our new phone system has a computer in the PBX-Room that connects to one of my Cisco switches...being that it goes to one of my switches I was told that it's now my respinsibility. By the way our phone system is Mitel and uses regular Cat3 cabling. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to get out of this...either more money or no internal support for this phone system.

So are IT departments taking over their phone systems???

What do you guys think???

ajs1976

It is becoming more common. The idea of VOIP isn't helping keep the two seperated.

I saw an add on Monter awhile ago, that asked for IT and phone experience. The candidate was expected to support both, along with HVAC and be able to program the vending machines.

pmann

It is quite common for IT to stay on top of the phone system actually. At my place this is mostly for security since IT need to be able to take evasive action against hackers and war dialers. When employees terminate we disable their accounts and any phone access/passcodes at the same time.

The biggest security risk to a company is social engineering, a lot of which is done by phone. So the phone network is an important part of the site security plan, I disable unused phones, tap points and services, also regularly change passcodes etc. So I find having control over inbound and outbound phone access quite important.

If it really is a lot of extra work, they ought to give you something for it, so I suggest keeping a notebook and logging how much time you do spend on it. If it starts intefering with your normal assignments you can then show some evidence of what the impact really is.

imeldesign

I do phone systems in both my previous job and my current job. My previous system was a dream to program (InterTel) but the current one is NEC and extremely cumbersome to program. I don't particularly like it but it was the experience of the previous phone system that got me hired at this job. I was the only one who had done both...We will be adding VoIP in the next few months and I am glad I have total control of what attaches and how it interacts with my network.

viper75

In reality I really don't have a problem handling the phone system. The problem that I have with it is that I know it's going to get complicated and it's going to interfear with my current duties and on top of that they don't want to dish out any x-tra DOE for the x-tra work. That's what I'm really pi$$ed about.

If they say that they were going to give me more DOE then I'll take on the resposibility without a problem. I'll have to see how it goes.

I'm I wrong for asking for more $$$???

Ricka182

viper75 wrote:

I'm I wrong for asking for more $$$???

Right now, I would show them you can do the work. Stick it to them, then take their money.

halflife78

I do the phone system alone with with the network (routers, switches, T1's)at our location. I actually really enjoy doing the phone myself, we have an Avaya G3R system with atm 14 voice T1's coming in.

Now, depending on what your company does your phone duties may vary. For instance if you just have a small system in place for about 15-20 people to use it's a basic setup. My system runs 700 users and has multiple routing, split/skills setup. I setup split/skills, VDNS, vectors (phone routing), announcements, and everything else. I was self trained by my boss in the company who taught me how to do everything. I have some pictures of our phone setup here:
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=334&fileid=1002202&groupid=194783&folderid=142151&curRec=5&folderview=thumbs&ck=
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=334&fileid=1002205&groupid=194783&folderid=142151&curRec=7&folderview=thumbs&ck=

I would do the work for now and ask for money later, to me phone systems are pretty fun to work in and you can do some cool stuff with one. Also, I haven't worked with your type of phone switch but if you have any questions when you start working on it post them here, I am sure someone can help you with it.

viper75

The phone system is huge here...it's about 1,000 users.


Plus I don't know if working with a phone system is for me.

halflife78

I am guessing since you have about a 1000 users you are a callcenter environment then. Anyone above you in the company help you work on it? Have you had to work on it yet or is this something they plan on implementing soon?

viper75

They are planning on implementing it soon. As of now we have the company that installed the new system in place support it, but they want to do away with that and have us (IT) do it.

halflife78

How many different clients do you support onsite? And since I guess it's a callcenter what type of call tracking software do you use?

Drakonblayde

I have a friend who's the IT manager for a major hotel, and part of his responsibilities are keeping on top of the phones as well. He hated having to learn how to use the phone switch, and he hates even more that it's on the other side of the hotel from where his actual datacenter is, but they pay him quite well for it, so he took the time to learn it, and it's not as bad as it seems once you get the hang of it. I snagged the manual for a bit and started reading, and honestly, it didn't look that bad, so I won't mind when I have to deal with the same thing. I'll look at it as something else to put on my resume

big boi

at my old job we had 2 subdepartments within IS. there was the IT and then there was telecom. so telecom handled the phone system. at my new job there are only 30 people in a single office and i'm the only person who even knows what a switch is so anything that has wires attached to it is my responsibility

you can prolly ask for more money, but you'll have to show you can do the work and not go about getting the raise just by complaining. unfortunately the market is still bad enough where higher ups can **** crap like this on us IT workers. in the end if they don't offer more money then maybe the new skills will help you land a better job.

viper75

Yeah...I guess I have to just see what happens. If they don't give me more $$$ I'll just use the new skills I get from this and get a better job elsewhere.

halflife78

Honestly, I really enjoy doing the phone system work. It's easy to learn the basics and if you have a reliable system you never have any downtime with a reliable switch. Alot of IT jobs are doing cross training now so all it can do is help you. The phone switch side of the business is also a side that not alot of people have knowledge about also, you can make some serious money if you know your stuff. My boss, who was over 6 sites and 6 people, was making about 150k a year taking the occasional question from us while on the golf course. He trained us to be self sufficient so we could leave him alone to play golf lol.

garv221

I think knowing phone systems would be definite plus. Especially when dealing with T lines and incoming/outgoing WAN technologies.

xevious

I have to deal with the phone system at work, but it's not too bad for me. I don't really program anything, just reset pwds or move extensions and a little punch block wiring. (20 users)

Wouldn't it be cool if you can get one of those mini T-Byrd (sp?) devices that the phone company techs bring out to scan your T1 voice channels?

-Xevious

garv221

garv221 wrote:

I think knowing phone systems would be definite plus. Especially when dealing with T lines and incoming/outgoing WAN technologies.

Yup that was me before I switched jobs..Now as of Monday were in charge of the phone systems. 5 locations with a couple hundred lines per location. Were doing a change over today to SBC, and actually it isn't all that bad, I like it..More responsibilty. So were in charge of phone system and Primary Ethernet Network Interface System... with a 24 mb bone...

fryguy

I worked with a small company and i was doing everything from sweeping the floor to testing/trouble shooting electronics with a ocilliscope.
look at it this way its more that you can put on a resume when you move to another job