Avaya vs Mitel vs Samsung vs IPECS 3

[Shedders101]

Hi,

We are moving office later this year and this will necessitate moving to a new phone system (our current one is obsolete anyway!)

We have 40+ staff but 80% of calls are outbound telesales. We need call recording, logging as part of the package.

We are being offered a number of hybrid ISDN30/IP systems. I'm just wondering if anyone has input on any of these 4 - any we should avoid etc!

Mitel 5000 vs Samsung 7200 vs IPECS vs Avaya

Quality of the call is very important to us as telesales is our primary method of generating new business. We may want to employ a dialler at some stage, probably not from the off though. We buy lists of contacts (small businesses mainly - we are BTB) in CSV format and currently the consultants manually dial them, after they research them. We need the facility to record telesales calls and for consultants to be able to pause the recording if financial details are being passed (for PCI compliance). On-screen click-to-call would be useful. The ability for telesales people to see their own (and only their own) current call stats is desirable. Some kind of dashboard facility we can use in the sales room would be good, but not essential. The ability for telesales managers to see the current status of their team (on a call, unavailable etc) would be good, as would the ability for them to ad hoc listen in to a sales conversation in-progress and even 'whisper' guidance only to the telesales person (inaudible to the person on the other end).

Other than that, just the normal features you'd expect like some kind of voicemail system, ability to direct DDIs at groups of extensions (ringing groups), auto-attendant with time of day controls etc.

 

[smokinjoe2938]

IP Office would be my vote

 

[jamie77]

Asking in an IP Office forum, that is going to be the recommendation 90% of the time.

It would get my vote.

IP Phones with ISDN lines (for quality and reliability) and an external direct onto the ISDN lines. Stick Xima on there to for reporting and live info where needed or go with the IPOCC/ACCS products if the dialler is going to be required.

Get some demos booked and see which phone you like the best and get a feel for them and the features and ease of use.

The main thing would be choose your dealer carefully. This is probably more important than the system itself!!!!

I'm also quite sure a few on here would be happy to help you choose if you give some info away about location etc!!!! ;-)

Jamie Green

[bold]A[/bold]vaya [bold]R[/bold]egistered [bold]S[/bold]pecialist [bold]E[/bold]ngineer

 

[intrigrant]

1 Avaya
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 the others
11 Samsung Mitel Siemens Panasonic

 

[Telecomboy]

It is also worth noting how many dealers are in your area for a particular solution. There are a lot of Avaya dealers out there so if you have an issue with your particular avaya dealer you can choose to work with another dealer. We are located in the states and Mitel, IPECS, and Samsung do not have nearly the presence that Avaya does. We get calls all the time asking if we can refer a Samsung or Panasonic dealer because theirs has either gone under or is unresponsive. You don't want to run into a situation where you cannot find support. The competition of Avaya dealers, at least where we are in the states, keeps us all in check for good customer service (and pricing too).

 

[Shedders101]

Thanks for the feedback. We're still waiting for an Avaya demo so it will be interesting to compare it to the others. Seems like there are a lot of companies supporting Mitel systems here. Avaya is well supported too.

 

[intrigrant]

Mitel isn't bad for the endusers but as you are here on a engineers platform I tell you that a Mitel is a engineers nightmare.
Whoever designed their maintenance tools must hate engineers.
And just because of that ( huge maintance costs which are not visible or mentioned on a demo ) are a lot higher as on a Avaya.
On a Avaya you can do daily maintenance yourself even without a training, you can forget that on a Mitel.

 

[tlpeter]

It is getting better Intrigrant.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[amriddle01]

We have touched on all these systems in the past and I'll say it boils down to Mitel 5000 or IP Office.

If you want remote extns/homeworkers then it's a no brainer > Mitel 5000 (IP Office cannot compete here really without compromise and additional costs)

If you want out the box basic manual call recording and half decent attendants with queuing messages etc > Mitel 5000 (Additional cost on IP Office)

If you want overall flexibility and greater scalability for the lowest cost > IP Office

If you want tightly integrated automatic call recording and/or in depth/complex attendants etc > IP Office

If you want easy self programming for Admin and Staff/Users > IP Office

We sell lots of both and what we quote typically depends on the answers above

 

[intrigrant]

So I hope for you as you are forced to install/maintain them.
I am glad we(I) am only working on Avaya and my agenda is flooding so we do not need a third party system.
On the other hand, there is a Mitel forum here as well, if you ask there you'll get the opposite story.
I think amriddles approach is the best, talk with resellers supporting both and let them bring you a decent offer, thay are capapble to offer you the best fitting system for you.

 

[Northeaster01]

Bear in mind, the Mitel 5000 is not a "real" Mitel. May be a great unit for small/ med customers, and seems good from what I have seen. But, it is an Intertel system that Mitel acquired, and is not related in any way to the robust systems Mitel is known form especially in hotel/ motel, like Mitel sx200 and Mitel 3300. They did backwards engineer the 5000 to ork with Mitel ip sets, and their new digital sets "look" like the ip phones, and are user friendly. The mitel 3300 is not an engineer's nightmare, imho, and is a higher end system.

 

[tlpeter]

The 3300 was a nightmare but it is getting better every release.

BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[intrigrant]

a higher end system" my *ss. A Avaya CM is a higher end system but it is a LOT easier to install.
And a 3300 IS a engineers nightmare compared with the Avaya IP Office.
That said I think there is enough said about the matter, I will never ever get involved with a Mitel, i'd rather go for Cisco.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[intrigrant]

I had this in mind