About to purchase IP Office. Advice welcomed!

[FortKnox]

I am trying to help a friend decide whether or not buy an IP Office solution for his business. I know nothing about IP Office, but I am a Definity administrator.

Are you guys happy with your IP Office solutions?
Are there things that werent inlcuded that you wish you had tried to bargain for?
Is there one/or more single feature that it lacks that really upsets you or puts you back?
Do you feel like you can expand with IP Office?
If you could change anything about it what would it be?
What is your personal favorite phone?
What is the best suited phone for your users?
What is are your favorite features?
What features do other systems offer that you wish the IP Office featured?

This is the scope of their quote:

Main Location
IP Office 412 Version 2.1
1 Quad Analog Trunk Card (LOOP START)
1 Analog Phone Module- 8 extensions
1 Digital Phone Module- 16 stations
1 Digital Phone Module- 30 extensions
44 6408 digital sets
1 6416 w/DSS
1 Dual T1 expansion kit (2 T1s) w/CSUs built in
VCM10 (voice compression module)- 10 channels for IP Networking to Secondary Location and Main Location
Voicemail Pro- 8 ports
PhoneMgr Pro- 25 users

Second Location
IP Office 403
1 Quad Analog Trunk Card (loop start)
2 6408 sets
1 T1 exp kit
VCM5- 5 channels networking
Voicemail at HUB

Third Location
IP Office 403
1 Quad Analog Trunk Card (loop start)
7 6408 sets
1 6416 set
1 T1 exp kit
VCM5- 5 channels networking
Voicemail at HUB

Thanks for the help quys.

 

[IPGuru]

I find the IPO to be a capable & stable system for ost operations (I even spent my own money on s Small Office edition for home!)
Its bigest limitation is the need to reboot for most system changes (although this should be less of a requirement when 2.1 is released)

It is simple to administrate, sometimes too simple, most problems people experience is due to programming errors that may not be obvious to the casual user

Looking at your specs I would sugest that the IP412 may be over specified for Site A and an IP406 witgh 2 T1 boards & an atm8 module would also suffice - check costs before deciding.

 

[Morrack]

I agree, IP Office is excellent. For me the biggest gotcha is if you need an emergency service mailbox that will do a "cascading" page to the oncall tech, then the backup oncall tech, then the service manager, etc. with a defined time between each escallation. No can do on IP Office unless you put an audix on it (which you can btw).

On the cost savings, you can also replace those 64xx sets with 44xx sets and save some money there too. Although if cost is not a huge concern there is no denying the 64xx sets are higher quality.

Peter