Another system like avaya 1

[t3rm3y]

We love avayas and they seem pretty much capable of anything. Some great features are system status and the manager tool to configure and upload changes. We don't get this or anything even remotely close on other systems we do.
I'm hearing rumors though that avaya may not continue for too much longer so idls there other systems out there that you guys love installing which have the flexibility of an avaya and also the support like within tektips , the system monitoring and good quality phones.?

 

[critchey]

I can tell you Panasonic is NOT the system at least not the NS700/NS1000s. Nice to program from web interface but the lack of diagnostic tools and Panasonic's horrendous documentation is a major problem. Our Panasonic tech support could not provide a list of compatible phones we had to simply say "does this phone work" and they would say yes or no...

That being said Avaya isn't really going anywhere at least not right now. They are pushing for more hosted but they have been pushing for hosted for years. Even though they said they expect >90% of their customers to be hosted by end of next year (think it was) they also just announced they are doing SIP trunks... if everyone is going hosted why are they doing SIP trunks? It would just be rolled into hosted if it was all hosted but that does not appear to be the case at least from what I have seen...

The truth is just an excuse for lack of imagination.

 

[LoPath]

Due to business needs, we replaced our Avaya system with a Siemens HiPath 4000. We've since followed the upgrade paths to where we're on the Unify/ATOS OpenScape Voice V9 platform with several options. Like any other system, there was a learning curve, but I'm quite happy with it, going on 11 years now.

LoPath
Maintain HiPath 4000 V5 & V6, OpenScape Xpert V4 & V6, OpenScape Xpressions V7, OpenScape Contact Center V8, OpenScape Voice V9

 

[t3rm3y]

We haven't done the hipath 4k but do the osbiz and that system is pretty crap compared to avaya. There's no real diagnostic, constant issues with the system on basic features requiring upgrades or system reboots. Even the handsets are basic compared to a 9608 or J series..
Our concern was that with ring central merger or buyout or whatever it is/was what will become of avaya (UK here so not sure how it filters through to us).

 

[LoPath]

OSBiz is pretty stripped down from what I understand. The OSV system will run just about anything SIP. We have a couple hundred radios attached to ours as well as phones and dispatch consoles. Diagnostics are all over the place, to include a trace manager server if you want to get really deep. We're using the OpenScape CP600 phones and they're pretty nice. But even the older OpenStage phones are pretty solid.

LoPath
Maintain HiPath 4000 V5 & V6, OpenScape Xpert V4 & V6, OpenScape Xpressions V7, OpenScape Contact Center V8, OpenScape Voice V9

 

[t3rm3y]

We just find the Siemens / unify phones are lacking on programmable buttons - the avayas have 24 buttons, unify have 6, or 8 or 14 on a cp400 but the phone is substantially bigger. We put a 90key blf on a handset once and it took up most of the desk
Just another system with a system status, monitor, config tool and decent phones is all we need - maybe avaya is only ones able to do it right..

 

[JazzWizzard]

Mitel's MiVoice Business platform could be a decent alternative. Their 6900 Series phones are nice. Haven't installed anything Mitel so far so I can't say much about reliability or ease of deployment/administration, tho.

 

[Travis Harper]

I don't know where you got your rumours from, but Avaya is not going anywhere.

PoweredBy IP Office - The cloud hosted version of IPO is going away, as Avaya continues to leverage it's strategic partnership with Ring Central.
However...
Avaya IP Office on Premise is not going anywhere, and still under active development. It's Avaya's flagship in the Mid-Market space with millions of customers on it.

 

[JazzWizzard]

Well, there were rumors of a potential merger between Mitel and Avaya a couple of months ago.

It's clear that traditional PBX companies are now trying to get more and more people to subscribe to the cloud since this is giving them recurring revenue. The fact that Ring Central, a younger and smaller company, pumped 500 millions into Avaya, is telling.

What I think will happen is:

In a future release, Avaya replaces Zang with their new Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral service. They update IX Worplace to work with this or with Glip directly.
Customers have an upgrade path to the cloud if they want to. Their IPO become a survivable gateway and they can keep their phones. Win-win situation: they can leverage their equipment, they don't have to worry about IPO upgrades anymore and the SIP trunks are taken care off in the monthly plan.

Depending on how much success they have with this, I could see Avaya losing interest in IP Office before 2030.

 

[Travis Harper]

The Mitel rumour was entertaining back in August. Mitel was too small. Guppies can't swallow whales.

Avaya bought Zang. It's not going away. Avaya owns it... not a partnership.

Avaya Spaces (formally Zang) is being further developed to support room systems, and will likely replace Equinox Meetings Online.

Avaya already offers sip trunks today. Just ask for them.

One thing Avaya could do much better is marketing. There is much the general public is not aware of, especially with some very unique product offerings.

A customer could purchase an Avaya IP Office and Avaya SIP trunks, number porting and completely decouple from the Telco.


Avaya Cloud Office ( Coming out in a couple months ) is the result of the Ring Central partnership. Avaya ride on the RC infrastructure, and layer in it's own technologies.

Ring Central is not small by any stretch. According the Gartner Magic Quadrant, RC is the largest and fasted growing public cloud hosted UC provider on the planet.

https://www.ringcentral.com/blog/2019-gartner-ucaas-magic-quadrant-ringcentral/

https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/unified-communications-service/compare/mitel-vs-ringcentral

 

[JazzWizzard]

Ring Central is smaller than Avaya, that's what I meant.

As for Zang, well, it doesn't really do anything special that Avaya couldn't do on premise. They could have modernized One-X portal, but they abandonned One-X and bought Zang because then they can convince people to subscribe to a monthy service. So the cloud is where this whole thing is going it seems. Too much money to be made.