Avaya future? Which system to sell/install? 2

[Jimbo2015]

I lost a deal today because a competitor told a customer Avaya was bankrupt and having major financial issues. I explained that recently Avaya had applied for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and tried to put their mind at ease but they were not having any of it and the deal was lost.
I only know Avaya and I am wondering if I should learn how to install another system due to this.
Please could someone recommend another good telephone system where the back end configuration is not too hard to learn? I have been thinking Mitel but have no knowledge of the back end of the system and how complicated this is? Or maybe one of the LG or Samsung systems?

Any recommendations or advice will be appreciated.

TIA,

 

[gknight1]

We just became a partner with ESI for this very reason. It doesn't necessarily compete with the Avaya in the medium or large markets as far as capacity or features, but its small business seems fantastic. But as I mentioned, we literally just signed up, we have a couple of proposal's out there, nothing installed yet. They are an American company that been in business for 30 years (I think) with tech support in the USA. Their tech support is supposed to be "industry leading" 24/7 support. They also offer a hosted solution that supports their phones and all the normal business phone features, that was another key factor in our research.

 

[Jimbo2015]

Thank you for the feedback. I will look into it abit more but the aesthetics of the handsets definitely put me off.

 

[joe2938]

No worries Avaya is too big to fail, they are only under a reorganizing and still doing day to day business

 

[Telecomboy]

Avaya isn't going bankrupt. It is a re-organization as stated above.

 

[intrigrant]

As all big companies Avaya is a agglomerate of independence companies and one of them faced the chapter 11, unfortunally it has the name Avaya. It will have no effect on the other branches and in the very worst case it will be split up in succesfull and less successfull parts where IP Office will be in the successfull part.

 

[KyBoy]

Mitel has the best business phones out there. The 5340 and the 5360 phones are sexy and love the headset attachment and wireless receiver. That is the system I want to sell now.

Although the ESI is an American company the products are made in Malaysia and we had a lot of problems with the phones. The ESI demo is probably the best ive seen though

 

[crumthwacket]

Losing a single sale doesn't mean you need to find a different manufacturer. You need to prepare yourself for these types of objections (and rejections). Toughen up - to be sure, there's more flak headed your way.

IP Office is much better than some universal telephone system from a company named ESI: I've been a dealer since AT&T days and know their hardware is as robust as it can be. Hardware failures are exceedingly rare.

As stated by others, Avaya is too big to fail. If they can't continue on their own someone else will pick it up.

I'd be delighted to pick up your Avaya base if you move to ESI, by the way...

 

[amriddle01]

ESI's website isn't even working, says it all

Just Googled them on images, awful phones...

 

[Jimbo2015]

I'm not turning my back on Avaya just yet and your right I just need to be prepared to handle these objections.
I did spend sometime looking at what else was available on the market that I could sell instead of the Avaya and didn't see anything that I thought would be worth replacing it with.

 

[94astro]

We've been an ESI dealer since the late 90's. The system is good for small businesses, cost is less than Avaya and tech support is readily available during 9-5, with an emergency tech available after hours. But their hardware failure rate is ridiculous. Their compact flash card which holds all programming, voicemail prompts/storage and licenses is a joke. We literally have replaced every system's compact flash card that we installed in 2013-2014 because of a bad batch - not joking. We did Avaya from the 90's to about 2004, we dropped them because our main Avaya techs moved out of state. When I got enough say in the company we got re-certified on IP Office in 2013 because of so many ESI hardware failures.

ESI is not horrible, but I wouldn't invest in them as your sole phone system. Stick with Avaya and have ESI as a less expensive backup.

 

[gknight1]

no one said anything about moving to ESI, I said we picked up ESI to fill a gap explained by Jimbo. A decent sized company understands what Avaya is going through and doesn't necessarily see it as a big downfall, but a small company does. We picked up ESI for new small business. Having all our eggs in one basket with Avaya just wasn't/isnt a smart move. Again, not saying we don't like Avaya or the product, but like Jimbo we experienced a couple of lost sales because of the bankruptcy and this was another excuse to bring on another manufacturer besides Avaya.

 

[fieldtechonIR]

My guess is IPO will continue on, either as part of Avaya or not. At this point 12 years into the product, I don't care what happens, there a many products out there to be learned. IPO isn't the be all end all.

 

[belevedere]

Have you considered NEC? They have been around for over 100 years, they have a system size for just about any business and their support is out of TX. SL-1100's are inexpensive and feature rich. The SV series gets a bit more expensive, but you get a larger selection of phones. IP, TDM or a mix.

 

[holdmusic34]

Contact your channel or territory account manager if this event occurs again. Avaya management are prepared to meet with any potential customer and discuss their concerns from a viewpoint of transparency.
If you don't know who they are, call your local Avaya headquarters at reception.
Also sales.avaya.com has alternate methods to facilitate/ request this meeting.

Your master wishes to see you in the pit.

 

[phoneguy610]

our sister company has a private label hosted VOIP solution that you can sell, install, and support under your own brand. You set your own pricing and own the customer, its not an agent program.

syntelsolutions.com

ps dave gave me permission to post so please dont flag! lol

 

[IPGuru]

Jimbo
You may want to peak to your support company ;-)

they support more than just IP Office & can assist with design & installation as well if you need it


Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear