It is advisable to consider all aspects of your customer’s existing infrastructure and configuration as well as their desired outcome before commencing with the deployment of Horizon.
Gamma recommends that a full site survey is conducted at each site requiring the Horizon service prior to organising work packages and attempting to order component products and services.
In the interests of best practice, we advise that a technical representative from the Channel Partner organisation should deliver the site survey at the customer premises with a technical representative from the end user’s environment. However, it may be sufficient to deliver surveys remotely over the phone where suitably qualified individuals are present on-site and can accurately answer questions of a technical nature without an on-site presence from the CP.
In either case, we recommend that you use Gamma’s Site Survey Tool for your customer audit.
Considerations #
Access #
Service Provider | Who is delivering the service? We strongly recommend Gamma access services in order to fully managed hosted voice service. |
Bandwidth | Is there enough bandwidth available to cope with the concurrent voice & video call levels at that site? What are the expected concurrent voice & video call volumes? |
Hardware #
Handsets | What type of handset(s) is/are required and how many? |
Hot Desks | Any hot desk users to accommodate? |
Power | Does the site have adequate PoE or will more switches/PSUs (Power Supply Unit) be required? |
Analogue | Does the customer want to accommodate analogue services on the Horizon platform and are ATAs (Analogue Terminal Adapter) required? |
Space | Where are the PoE (Power over Ethernet) switches/routers to be located and is there adequate power and space? |
Customer Site / Environment #
Cabling | Does the site have structured CAT5/6 cabling? |
Ports | Are there dual ports (separate for voice & data) at each user station? |
Building | Does the customer have full authority over their building or is there a 3rd party involved (e.g. landlord, served premises agent, local government if listed building etc.) |
Rooms | Record the following for each ROOM requiring Horizon telephony presence: 1) Longest cable distance from PoE switch 2) VLANs? 3) What route connects this switch to the ADSL? (list the patch panels, switches, routers etc.) 4) Sufficient Cat5/6 cabling for each phone? 5) Sufficient power sockets for phones or PoE? 6) Wallport socket information 7) Handsets required |
Configuration of a hosted solution #
Extensions | Extension length/format |
Domain | Customer domain name |
Admin | Who is the company administrator? |
Sites | Are there any additional sites to be included in the deployment? |
Home workers | Are there any homeworkers to be included in the Horizon solution? |
VLANs | Are VLANs in use? If so, use either CDP or LLDP. |
Music on Hold | Does the customer have their own Music on Hold selection? If so, obtain wav file. |
Training | Who do you need to ‘train’? e.g. Administrators/users / receptionists / transient workers. Will the customer be managing user training themselves or are they expecting you to help them with this? Would they prefer their training delivered before or after ‘go live’ date? |
Numbering #
New DDIs (Direct Dial Ins) | Do customers existing numbers need to move to Horizon? |
Existing DDIs | Do customer’s existing numbers need to move to Horizon? |
Current Technology | What product hosts the numbers currently (e.g. PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) / ISDN (Integrated Services for Digital Network)/ other supplier virtual number). The lead-time will depend on the product you are porting from. |
Gamma Numbers | If the customer already has their numbers hosted by Gamma (via inbound or SIP) the migration process should be followed rather than the porting process. |
Current / Losing Communications Provider | Who is hosting the numbers currently (e.g. Gamma, BT, Virgin etc.) Is there a porting arrangement with Gamma in place? |
Range Holder | Who owns the number range (e.g. Gamma, BT, Virgin etc.) Is there a porting arrangement with Gamma in place? |
Downtime | There is likely to be a short period of downtime when the port completes – what can the customer tolerate? When are their quiet periods? |
Port Date | The porting of the numbers will drive the customer’s ‘go live’ date on Horizon – what date is the customer aiming for and have you considered the porting lead time? |
Number Presentation | How does the customer want their outbound number presented? e.g. Main number only, DDIs, or an alternative number. |
The site survey tool is available in the Horizon Forms section of the Knowledge Base