I stumbled upon this article on eWeek which was written by Sangoma CEO, David Mandelstam. This short paper discusses a few things that I consistently have to re-iterate to every client when selling an Asterisk based PBX. Hopefully now this article should save me some time.

It is articles like these that truly help out the sales process because they provide the consumer with a no-bull-shit explanation about things they’ll need to consider when purchasing an OS PBX. I think those who understand the technology intricacies are always the best equipped to help consumers make an educated decision about their purchase but unfortunately most sales tools are a product of marketing departments and therefore lack some of the necessary yet less-than-glossy truths behind Open Source telephony. One example is the widely marketed myth that there’s no problem converging voice and data over the same network when all us telephony geeks know that this is typically a last resort for any mid sized organization who requires a stable and secure network.

So anyway, the key points of Davids article are:
> Understand what Open Source means.
> Be sure your VAR knows what they’re doing.
> Don’t skimp on hardware.
> Be careful about being your own OS/VoIP/Linux savvy expert.

On the topic of useful tools to help businesses understand what they’re getting themselves into when purchasing an IP PBX, take a look at this Baseline Mag article by David Strom titled “Is Your Network ready for VoIP?“. There’s lots of good points in here, including why you should re-think converging your voice and data network.