Gathering information about what kind of phone lines the organization has at each site will help with gateway selection and inbound programming. Gather information about every line coming into the building and how it rings in. Gathering special information about who the provider is and any information needed to contact them will come in useful in the future.

The following table shows the type of information that needs to be gathered. It includes the type of line, phone numbers associated with that line if the line rings in some sort of hunt group, and special notes about the line (what vendor provides it, the vendor's support number, and circuit information).

The demarcation point (demarc) is the location in a facility at which communications facilities owned by the telecommunications provider interface with your organization's communications systems. The box that the telecommunications provider utilizes to breakout its lines to interfaces that the customer can utilize, is referred to as the Network Interface Device (NID). Determine where the demarc is and ensure that all lines are clearly identified. Note any connectivity from the demarc to where the current phone system resides.

Identify if lightning protection is on each phone line. Establishing lightning protection on each line will save both phone system and network equipment from an early demise.

Gathering information about existing users and phones will help in planning about what type and how many new phones will be required in the installation. Also make sure to gather additional information and any special notes that may be required for programming the new system, or if cabling is required.

A table, such as the following, can be used to collect all of the pertinent information for each system user. First name, last name, current extension, what type of phone they may have now, if they have voicemail or not, their email address, and any special notes about the phone or user. These special notes might be information such as which extensions the user needs to monitor, if they have a headset (and what make/model), or if they have any special call forwarding in use.

Collect information about how communications flow through the organization now. It is important to understand all aspects of what is in place at present before it can be built or redesigned in the new communications system.

At a minimum, all of the following calling patterns should be identified:

Each call flow will have one of the four types of destinations: an auto attendant, a hunt group, an ACD queue, or an individual user/mailbox. Attempt to identify what each of these call destinations is. There are tables in the following sections to help collect as much information as possible. Gathering the 'big picture' information is more important than gathering minute details. If full details are not available, specifics can be decided during planning.

Document any existing auto attendants that may be in use in the system. Auto attendants will have an announcement message that is played to callers. It describes which dial pad buttons to press to get to the destination they are trying to reach. The existing destination information should also be collected.

Auto attendant information can be captured in a spreadsheet like the following:

In the example above, the day auto attendant for our fictional XYZ Company is at the extension 580. There is no Direct Inward Dial (DID) number assigned. Users have menu options from 1 to 3, with 9 being the Dial-by-Name Directory and 0 being the Operator. If nothing is entered for 15 seconds, or the wrong entries are entered for three times, the call is transferred to the extension 500.

Identify any hunt groups that are in use on the existing system. Hunt groups usually have a phone number associated with them, which is referred to as the pilot number. The pilot number is the extension that is dialed to initiate the hunt group call.

Hunt groups in a traditional PBX are either linear or circular. Linear hunt groups start at the first extension in a list of extensions and progress one at a time through the hunt group. Linear hunt groups also need to take some sort of action (fallback) when the end of the list is reached and the call is not answered. They can return a busy, deposit voicemail for the last user, or transfer to another hunt group or extension. Circular hunt groups start back at the first extension when the last extension is reached.

The following table details the "Tech Support" hunt group, which has a pilot number of 550 and operates linearly. The initial call is to the extension 204. After 15 seconds, the extensions 207 and 208 ring for 15 seconds. If the call is still not answered, the call is sent to the extension 203 for 30 seconds after which the call is sent to the Tech Support receptionist at the extension 210.

Capture as much information as possible about any existing hunt groups. If it is not possible to fill in all of the fields, decisions can be made later in the planning section.

In the example above, the Tech Support hunt group is at the extension 550. This is a linear hunt group, so the extension 204 rings for 15 seconds, then 207 rings for 15 seconds, and then 208 rings for 15 seconds, and finally the extension 203 rings for 30 seconds. If the call is not answered, it is transferred to the extension 210.

If details such as the pilot number or type of hunt group are not known, some decisions can be made during the planning phase.

Currently, sipXecs does not support the circular hunt group functionality. As the deployment is planned, this will need to be considered and the call flow adapted.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) queues are basically fancy hunt groups. They allow the system administrator to design a method for handling larger call volumes than can be dealt with by simple hunt groups. Agents sign in and out of the queues as they become available.

If the existing communications system utilizes ACD queues, that information should be captured in a table such as the one given next. The queue name, pilot extension number, the external DID if applicable, how the calls are routed in the queue, description of the audio heard while in the queue, the list of agents in the queue, and how overflow (call has been queued for too long) is handled.

Gather as much information as is available about how the existing ACD queues work at present. Identify any problems with how calls are handled in the queues and if there is room for improvement.

The preceding table documents an ACD queue for sales with a pilot number of 560. This queue also rings when the phone number 555-555-5555 is dialed directly. Calls are routed to the longest idle agent that is signed into the queue. The agents available to be in this queue are the extensions 212, 215, 213, and 217. If a call is in the queue for more than 120 seconds, the call is transferred to another ACD queue called 'Inside Sales'.

Each organization is different. It is important to consider all of the special functionality in place that may need to be considered in planning for the new system. Facility-wide paging and cordless phones are just two examples of special considerations that may be encountered.

The network is the foundation upon which the new communications system will be built. A voice over IP application on the network will quickly point out the weak links in any network with poor call quality. Understanding what the current network design is, what equipment is in place, and what its capabilities are is critically important; but is often overlooked.

Gather some basic information about each site first such as IP addressing, Internet Service Provider (ISP), and DNS hosting information. The following table, completed for each site, will capture the required information:

Spend time creating a network diagram that shows all existing network equipment, including network switches, routers, and servers. Also, gather IP addressing information for each site and all devices. For each site, also document the existing VLANs, subnets, gateways, DHCP servers, DNS servers, and WINS servers.

The previous network diagram details the critical components and addressing information for two sites interconnected by a leased line.

Once all of the network equipment has been diagrammed, the switches and routers should be listed out with manufacturer, model, firmware revision, management IP, quality of service (QoS) capabilities, Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) capabilities, and any notes you might have about them.

Some research will need to be done around the capabilities of each of the pieces of network equipment to determine whether they support QoS if you are expecting to utilize any of it later.

The following table illustrates the type of information that will be required to make decisions about network equipment: