Establish Your Own Cabling & Infrastructure Standards

You probably have a standard phone type for everyone’s desk, a standard PC all employees, even a standard type of data equipment in your communication room. If you are preparing to start a new structured cabling project, there is a simple but very important item to check off before beginning: defining your company’s cabling standards.

There is a lot that goes into the preparation including: Selecting the right contractor and checking their references, selecting the correct cabling standard; Category 5e, Category 6, Category 6A, or fiber optics, determining how many total cables are needed in your building, suite, or at each location/outlet. What type and how many feed cables are necessary from the demarcation point of the Carrier Services company to your communication room.  The cost/budget and timing/lead-time are very important factors as well.

Here are some tips to create well thought out cabling/infrastructure standards for your company:

  1. Create a labeling scheme that makes it easy to identify a cable out on the floor.

(When ECS designs a system we usually use this sequence: Building/Floor/Com Room/Rack Location/Patch Panel/Port)

  1. Standardizing on a jack color for different types of devices can give you, your IT staff and employees a quick reference on where they can or should plug a device into the wall.  Example would be having white for voice, blue for analog devices and orange for data.  This is less important when creating a “universal” system that allows for every jack to go to the same patch panels and be used for “all of the above”.  But, if you need or want that separation, different colored jacks (and patch cables in the communications room) are a great way to achieve it.
  1. Using faceplates with more ports than necessary can save the cost of replacing that faceplate later.  If every station is a standardized at two cables, the cost of using a four-port faceplate instead of a two-port is negligible.
  1. Standardize on one brand, color and type of cable and jacks so you have an interchangeable system.  A lot of manufacturers use what is known as “keystone” jacks and faceplates.  These are mostly interchangeable, but not always.  ECS recommends using these.  Keep a record of what you have installed for future reference.

Other items you may want to consider for future proofing:

  1. add extra cables now to areas that may have growth to save expense in the future.  If you have an area in your space that you can fore see adding new employees in the future, why not put in some extra cable now, instead of paying for it later when there is furniture/people in the way and it costs more to install.  Not to mention the interruption in your business for the time it takes to install in new cables.
  1. Make sure to have an accurate floor plan or “as-built” of your space with the voice and data outlets clearly marked.  This makes finding the correct cables, jacks, & patch panel ports easy.
  1. Document adding any Moves, Adds, or Changes (MAC) you may perform after the install for an accurate record of your cabling/infrastructure.

(Article by Charles Bressler – ECS Account Manager)

 

More About Low-Voltage Cabling

In today’s world, technology is essential to conducting business in a retail, office or commercial environment.

A well-designed & maintained network infrastructure is vital to deploying technology in any location. ECS installs Low-Voltage Cabling in new locations as well as Moves, Adds and Changes. At ECS our network and cabling solutions provide our customers with consistent performance by following industry standards.

Some of our Low-Voltage Services Include:

  • Network Topology Engineering
  • Business Telephone Cabling
  • Voice Cabling
  • Network Data Cabling
  • Infrastructure / Network Moves Adds Changes (MAC’s)
  • Data / Server Cabinet Overhauls
  • Wireless Access Point (WiFi) Cabling
  • CCTV Cabling
  • Demark Extensions
  • T1/Circuit Extensions
  • SM/MM Fiber Back-Bones and Extensions
  • Cat 5e and Cat 6 cable installations
  • Fiber Optic Cable Installation (Multi-Mode and Single-Mode)
  • Fiber Optic Termination and Testing Services
  • Fiber Optic Splicing
  • Coax Cable Installation
  • Large Pair Copper Splicing
  • MDF and IDF Closet Installations
  • Low Voltage De-installation

Remember: a proper low-voltage installation by a trained installer enables your technology investment to work at its full potential!

Some important considerations about Low-Voltage Contractors are:

  • Do they have a Valid/Current Business License ?
  • Do they have Valid/Current General Liability Insurance ?
  • Can/Will they provide a “Certificate of Insurance” (COI) protecting you for their work ?
  • Are they able to obtain a Low-Voltage installation permit ?
  • Do they use employees or sub-contractors ?

Low-Voltage Cabling is a long‐term investment and regardless of the size of your company, poorly installed low-voltage cabling will over time negatively impact your use of technology. Unfortunately, the problem is often discovered months and sometimes even years after installation.

ECS is a Low-Voltage Cabling Company located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Cloud Storage for Video Surveillance

Cloud Based Storage Option for Video Surveillance

If you have used Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive or ADrive, then you’ve used Cloud Storage.  According to Techopedia.com, Cloud Storage is used to store data on a remote server that can be accessed via the Internet.  It is located offsite and managed by the service providers.

With the advent of IP and networked cameras, businesses now have the option to store their video footage directly to the cloud.  This is important because it allows your video footage to be kept safe, and away from intruders on your premises.  Because the storage is not located on site, they cannot physically destroy it.  Also, in the event of fire or flood, the video footage will be safe.

Another advantage of storing to the cloud is the ability to view stored video footage and real-time live viewing using only a Web browser or a mobile app.  Cloud Storage is typically very inexpensive with a monthly subscription.  You enjoy low entry costs and your footages are safe.  Plus, setting up Cloud Storage with networked cameras is fast and easy.

Disadvantage:  There is a small chance a slow Internet connection may be experienced, especially when Internet is being used to review the footage. Downloading these videos is necessary to review or stream them.  Additionally, a subscription fee maybe charged for ongoing Cloud Storage.  Lastly, consider video footage and images stored on a cloud usually does not give the user complete legal or physical control.

ECS is a Video Surveillance Reseller located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Network Video Surveillance Storage Option

Network Attached Storage (NAS) or Network Video Recorder (NVR)

Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a type of storage that is connected to the local area network using a standard Ethernet connection.

NAS storage has its own IP address and may be used to store different file types, not just the images and video footage from cameras.  Like SD cards, NAS is very reliable and reasonable primarily because they also use standard storage for LANs.

On the other hand, a Network Video Recorder or NVR is used only for security camera’s recordings, but functions similarly to how NAS functions.  The difference is that NVR uses embedded software to record videos, while NAS can use the software provided by different manufacturers.

When opting for NAS storage for security cameras, be sure to consider how strenuous video recording can be at times.  A network storage drive is different from a desktop computer’s hard drive that spins only when something is being written and read to it.  NAS often just keep spinning even when it is not reading or writing.  NAS continuously write onto the hard drive when used for recording, which could be overworking it.  Be sure when purchasing a NAS that it is specifically designed for use with video surveillance.  Moreover, ensure the hard drives are properly sized for video recordings.  Your camera’s manufacturer can assist in figuring out the required size based on your needs of the frame rate, resolution, and time duration.

One advantage that NAS has over SD cards is the ability to record feeds from different cameras and have a bigger storage capacity, allowing storage of longer footage periods.

Disadvantage:  Like SD cards, NAS are typically located inside your premises, which means that there is a possibility that thieves or a rogue employee can find it and destroy the video recordings.  There is also the risk of NAS being disconnected from the network, which means there would be no video footage.

ECS is a Video Surveillance Reseller located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

SD Card Video Surveillance Storage Option

SD Card Onboard Memory Option

SD means Secure Digital and this type of storage option has been used for many years.  This is the same kind of storage that is seen on DSLR, smartphones, and other devices.  SD cards are solid state storage, meaning it does not have moving parts that could wear out.

There are many IP camera manufacturers that are integrating SD and microSD storage for their cameras because this type of storage is inexpensive and very reliable.  Small surveillance systems with only a few cameras that use SD storage eliminate the need to have an NAS or NVR, which lessens the installation costs as well.

Even for a large system that make use of NAS or NVRs, an SD card may be used on cameras that monitor important areas. This redundant video coverage can be of use in critical places like the storefront and front door.  Even if wireless cameras suffer from interference or if there is a problem with the network, the security camera can still continue to monitor and store surveillance videos and photos that can be used later.

SD cards of up to 64 gigabytes are now available that have the option to automatically overwrite older footage when it is full.  Even so, two weeks of full-time recording on an SD card can still be stored.

Disadvantage.  A big drawback of storing video footage or surveillance images on an SD card is that it is stored inside the camera itself.  If an intruder steals or smashes the camera, the footage will probably be lost.

ECS is a Video Surveillance Reseller located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Avaya IP Office

Avaya Leadership

♦ The leader in Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) Telephony Systems at 23.1% Market Share

♦ The leader in IP Telephony at 21.6% Market Share

♦ The leader in Contact Center/ACD at 25.8% Market Share

♦ The leader in Unified Messaging at 46.8% Market Share

♦ Positioned in Leaders’ Quadrant for second straight year

(Gartner Magic Quadrant, Midsize Enterprise UC – NA – 2015/16)

IP Office Proven Track Record of Success

♦ 14 Million+ users worldwide

♦ 500,000+ systems worldwide

♦ Avaya is #1 Worldwide in Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) Business Systems

♦ 25% Lower Total Cost of Ownership (Tolly Report)

ECS is an AVAYA Edge Emerald Level Business Partner located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

More about Contact Recorder for IP Office

The IP Office Preferred Edition Messaging “Voicemail Pro” application can manually or automatically record calls.

Voicemail Pro places those recordings into a user or group’s mailbox alongside normal voicemail messages.

Users can start manual call recording in a number of ways; programmable button, short code, one-X Portal for IP Office.

Automatic call recording is configured on the IP Office system and applied to specific users, hunt groups, incoming call routes or account codes.

Contact Recorder for IP Office enhances call recording by transferring recordings to a separate archive from the normal mailboxes. Those recordings are then outside the control of voicemail housekeeping and do not impact on the space needed for voicemail messages.

Contact Recorder for IP Office maintains a database of the call details associated with each recording it stores. Using a web browser, users can search the database and from the search results playback recordings.

The Contact Recorder for IP Office is supported in the following configurations:

For IP500 V2 systems, Contact Recorder for IP Office is supported on an IP Office Application Server. That includes IP500 V2 systems running a Unified Communications Module.

Contact Recorder for IP Office is supported on the same server as Voicemail Pro if an additional hard drive is installed for Contact Recorder for IP Office use.

For Server Edition systems, Contact Recorder for IP Office is supported on the Server Edition Primary Server if an additional hard drive is installed for Contact Recorder for IP Office use. Otherwise it is supported on a separate IP Office Application Server.

Contact Recorder for IP Office is NOT PCI Compliance

It is important to note that since Avaya is not a payment processor and since Contact Recorder for IP Office is not a payment processing application; neither Avaya nor Avaya Contact Recorder for IP Office can be certified as PCI compliant or PA-DSS compliant.

Pre-Requisisites

You must meet the following conditions before attempting to install Contact Recorder for IP Office.

  • Do not configure Contact Recorder for IP Office until after normal voicemail mailbox operation of the Voicemail Pro application has been tested and validated. The Voicemail Pro performs the call recording for Contact Recorder for IP Office and so is an essential pre-requisite.
  • The license requirements depend on the operating mode of the IP Office systems:

For Server Edition, the primary server needs a VMPro Recordings Administrators license.

For IP Office Release 9.0, this is the only server in the Server Edition network that requires a license.

For non-Server Edition systems, each IP Office system requires a VMPro Recordings Administrators license.

  • The Contact Recorder for IP Office application must use a separate disk partition for file storage from that used by Voicemail Pro. This requires either the adding of an additional hard disk to the server or use of two separate servers.

ECS is an AVAYA Edge Emerald Level Business Partner located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Contact Recorder for IP Office Overview

The standard call recording facilities provided with IP Office and Voicemail Pro can be extended further by using the “optional” Contact Recorder for IP Office. (License)

Contact Recorder (paid license) for IP Office stores and catalogs recordings so that they are easily accessible for later retrieval.

Any recordings that you instruct Voicemail Pro to ‘send to the Voice Recording library’ are placed in a database.

Contact Recorder for IP Office complements the voice recording capabilities of Voicemail Pro. It stores and catalogs the recordings so that they are easily accessible.

Any recordings that you instruct Voicemail Pro to “send to the Voice Recording Library” are placed in a folder that is visible to Contact Recorder for IP Office.

Contact Recorder for IP Office checks this folder every few seconds and if it finds a new recording file there, it:

♦ Reads the information about the recording from the file.

♦ Compresses the audio to the 16kbps G.726 or G.729A format.

♦ Stores the resultant file in the configured Contact Recorder for IP Office hard disk, either on a separate server or in a specified partition.

♦ Updates its integral database with details of the recording.

♦ Deletes the original .wav file from the handover directory.

Functional Components

Contact Recorder for IP Office can run on the same server as Voicemail Pro or a separate one. The

Contact Recorder for IP Office application contains several distinct Functional components.

The major functional components of the Contact Recorder for IP Office server are:

♦ A folder into which Voicemail Pro deposits .wav files as recordings complete.

♦ A file path into which call contents and derived files are written as industry standard .wav and .xml files.

♦ A PostgreSQL database into which details of all recorded calls are inserted.

♦ A browser-based call search and replay application.

♦ A browser-based system configuration and status monitoring application.

♦ Disk space management – Oldest recordings are automatically deleted as needed.

♦ Optional archive management – Recordings can be automatically written to a DVD+RW drive.

ECS is an AVAYA Edge Emerald Level Business Partner located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Xima Chronicall Multimedia

Skills Based Routing: An advanced and more effective way to route calls to agents based on their skill group and skill level. In Chronicall Multimedia, you may create as many skill groups as you desire and place as many agents into the skill groups as you need. Calls can be routed based on; most idle agent, linear, or in a circular call distribution or more importantly, by determining your best skilled agents across all skill groups by using our algorithm: Intelligent Highest Skill First.

Xima Chronicall Skills Based Agent License is loaded with capabilities including:

Agent Desktop: Agents are empowered through Agent Desktop to log in and out of their respective skill groups, place themselves in a not ready state, or continue their after call work (ACW) time to ensure they finish up their process before moving on to the next call.

Chat Log: The Agent Desktop includes a chronological chat log so agents can easily refer back to previous conversations.

Pre-defined Canned Responses: Chronicall Administrators can create an unlimited amount of pre-defined canned responses so agents can quickly address customer’s common questions or concerns.

Customized External Chat Interface: Chronicall’s Chat Interface can be easily customized and branded to fit the look and feel of your business and your website.

Historical Reporting: Through Standard Reports and Xima’s Cradle to Grave you can accurately report on your agents chat performance, and drill down on your agent’s chats to ensure quality assurance.

Chat Administration Privileges: As an administrator you can determine how many simultaneous chats each of your agents can handle at one time. You can also suppress the chat message from your website when no agents are available.

ECS is an Authorized Xima Chronicall Reseller located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.

Xima Queue Callback

Enhance Your Customer’s IP Office Hunt Groups and Queueing with Xima Queue Callback!

Xima Announcement: External Chat and Queue Callback for IP Office Hunt Groups and Voicemail Pro Queueing.

♦ External Chat

♦ Multi-Media Channel

♦ Skills Based Routing for Chat

♦ Agent Desktop

♦ Pre-Defined Canned Responses

♦ Customized Interface

♦ Chat Log and Reporting

♦ Queue Callback (New)

♦ Works with IP Office VM Pro

♦ Works with IP Office Hunt Groups

♦ Holds Customers Place in Queue

♦ Flexible Call Back Options

♦ Detailed Queue Callback Reports

ECS is an Authorized Xima Reseller located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.

ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Voicemail, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, CAT5e/CAT6, Fiber, Circuit Extensions, Wireless Networking, Video Surveillance, Point of Sale, Overhead Paging, etc. 

ECS provides services in Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.