Zultys vs. Asterisk vs. Microsoft
I wanted to share with your our experience with Asterisk, Zultys, and Microsoft Lync. Asterisk is a great open source platform and it continues to get better and better over time. It is interesting to me how many people seem to choose a side whether it is Microsoft, Open Source, or Manufactures solutions. I certainly understand their views I just choose to be open to all of the solutions available in the market. I believe this is what has made Intellisys a leader in the VoIP market. We are open and evaluate all of the solutions that are available on the market and deliver the best solution for an individual customers needs. Frankly we are pretty rare in that we tend to find this as a polarizing topic.
At Intellisys we have installed and supported our customers in Open Source solutions that are Asterisk based, Microsoft Lync Solutions, and Zultys and we believe there are great applications for all 3.
Zultys vs. Asterisk vs. Microsoft: Asterisk
The good that we have seen with the Asterisk is the fact that it is very low cost and very flexible. With the right amount of time and effort you truly can make the solution be what you need it to be. It is a powerful phone system. However we have found that it is best suited for companies with a Linux/asterisk guru because they take much more time to support and maintain. Since you now become the support team it essentially requires someone with a significant skill set. It is great for the IT staff that support it because they essentially become critical to the organization but this can sometimes become scary for the management team as they are so locked in to these individuals. What we have seen is that you might not pay as much in the beginning but over time you will pay it out in support and maintenance. We also found that as the system scales it has a hard time with call recording and other capacities. We have used Asterisk mostly in outbound dialer solutions as we can configure and deploy them for around 10-15K vs. 100k plus solutions that are in the market.
Zultys vs. Asterisk vs. Microsoft: Zultys
Zultys is a perfect alternative to the Asterisk solution as it is a SIP standard solution and we can reuse the phones that you were using on your Asterisk. Whether you were using Polycom, Aastra, Snom, or other SIP phones they will work with the Zultys. The benefits we have seen from the Zultys are certainly reliability and redundancy. The Zultys MX 250 is a 2U Linux appliance that is truly and all in 1 box. It offers high-end call center, reporting, Fax, UM, Mobile apps, and amazing site to site connectivity and redundancy. The MX250 can also cluster and has an option to add and N+1 for 100% redundancy. It is pretty amazing and we have really grown to love the product. The Zultys is a rock solid solution that can scale to 10,000 users and over 128 sites. The Zultys is really the best of both worlds as it has the rock solid nature of a manufacturer’s solution but in many ways it has the power and flexibility of the Asterisk solutions.
Zultys vs. Asterisk vs. Microsoft: Microsoft Lync
As I mentioned above you are either a Microsoft company or not in most cases. If you are a Microsoft company and you use Exchange, Office products, and SharePoint, then you NEED to look at Lync. Microsoft Lync is most often deployed by larger organizations and as I mentioned you need to be on exchange. Microsoft Lync essentially connects all of your Microsoft products and allows you to communicate efficiently between other users and office locations no matter where you may be. Since Microsoft owns the desktop frankly no one will be able to do what they can do with integrating Outlook, SharePoint, and other Microsoft applications. The Lync is crazy powerful with integrated IM, audio, video and web conferencing and much more. You can even search your staff for designated skill sets and crazy stuff like that. The Lync solution is not nearly as strong in traditional phone system features but it is amazing in collaboration and connectivity.
So who is the winner in our opinion? That depends on what your needs are. The great benefit of Intellisys is that we know the advantages and disadvantages of all of these solutions and can give you an unbiased recommendation as to what would be the best solution for your companies needs.
Contact us today and we will help design the right solution for your company.
