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Avaya VS Skype 3
- Thread starter iggy1952
- Start date
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1
- #2
The Skype interface is tighter.
Avaya - pay for your users feature sets, they can use them inside the enterprise or outside.
MS - use it inside, or pay for enterprise voice to get thru the mediation server to the PSTN.
Get more features on Avaya hard phones vs 3rd party Skype compatible ones.
Avaya supports the SBCs, gateways, sets. MS is just a softswitch.
Either way, whether you're going all softphone on either vendor, you still have all that planning about taking voice traffic from the data vlan and treating it properly rather than the more traditional voice vlan model where everything on that is priority.
That's the short version. The trick to fighting MS is to get the real costs laid out from implementation to TCO and not drink the koolaid and think "we already have a Microsoft PBX! why are we paying for another one?
Avaya - pay for your users feature sets, they can use them inside the enterprise or outside.
MS - use it inside, or pay for enterprise voice to get thru the mediation server to the PSTN.
Get more features on Avaya hard phones vs 3rd party Skype compatible ones.
Avaya supports the SBCs, gateways, sets. MS is just a softswitch.
Either way, whether you're going all softphone on either vendor, you still have all that planning about taking voice traffic from the data vlan and treating it properly rather than the more traditional voice vlan model where everything on that is priority.
That's the short version. The trick to fighting MS is to get the real costs laid out from implementation to TCO and not drink the koolaid and think "we already have a Microsoft PBX! why are we paying for another one?
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- #3
It depends what you want to do and what you already have.
Here are some scenarios in which likely you wouldn't want Skype for Business (I'll call it "S4B" for short below) as your [main] PBX:
(1) You have a call center of any sort.
(2) You have "complicated" call flows (S4B can do time of day routing, simple menu options, ring groups of people. That's about it)
(3) Your users all "need" (*chuckle*) physical phones and you already have a lot of hardware investment in Avaya-capable phones
(4) (Similar to 3) you have a bunch of analog requirements e.g. fax, page, modem that you'd like to continue to handle through PBX
(5) You utilize a feature particular to Avaya that your users "can't live without" e.g. Service Observe. Note simultaneous ring is available in S4B, but some of the bells and whistles associate with EC500 (the ability to pull a call back to your desk, for example) are not.
(6) (Similar to 5) You have complicated needs in terms of so-and-so group needs to send this caller ID, that group a different caller ID
There might be other things that distinguish Avaya vs Skype, but start with user requirements and work from there. If the requirements end up as "make call, receive call" and basics like that Skype should be fine. Feel free to post particular feature questions and I'll try to answer. (I've administered Lync 2013 as well as Avaya)
Here are some scenarios in which likely you wouldn't want Skype for Business (I'll call it "S4B" for short below) as your [main] PBX:
(1) You have a call center of any sort.
(2) You have "complicated" call flows (S4B can do time of day routing, simple menu options, ring groups of people. That's about it)
(3) Your users all "need" (*chuckle*) physical phones and you already have a lot of hardware investment in Avaya-capable phones
(4) (Similar to 3) you have a bunch of analog requirements e.g. fax, page, modem that you'd like to continue to handle through PBX
(5) You utilize a feature particular to Avaya that your users "can't live without" e.g. Service Observe. Note simultaneous ring is available in S4B, but some of the bells and whistles associate with EC500 (the ability to pull a call back to your desk, for example) are not.
(6) (Similar to 5) You have complicated needs in terms of so-and-so group needs to send this caller ID, that group a different caller ID
There might be other things that distinguish Avaya vs Skype, but start with user requirements and work from there. If the requirements end up as "make call, receive call" and basics like that Skype should be fine. Feel free to post particular feature questions and I'll try to answer. (I've administered Lync 2013 as well as Avaya)
- Thread starter
- #4
coolwhisper
Programmer
I would like to add some questions... What about an uptime comparison? We have to reboot our third-party media gateways whenever a routing change is made. Avaya runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and doesn't need a quarterly reboot like a Windows server. The annual interchange is only a recommendation and is call preserving for stable calls. Has S4B achieved the same level of resiliency as Avaya's active/active servers? What about survivable cores? Can S4B match that? If your business isn't 24/7/365 that may not be a big deal to you.
They are trying a S4B pilot here at the site I reside at using some Polycom sets and the users don't seem to be too happy.
Any time they have to change their AD/network password the phones take several attempts to get them to log back in and it usually ends up requiring a visit from someone on my team.
With the pilot we have to ACDN 4 digit extensions to the new "off the wall" skype number(DID's are all still in the Nortel PBX), and since nobody in the enterprise recognizes the new number, no one answers.
The only way around this is to "give" Microsoft our DID's so they could port them to S4B, Microsoft themselves says that's not a good idea.
Full on S4B PSTN calling is only available in 3 countries world wide, (I may have worded that incorrectly?) But the bottom line is my customer was wanting to use it for a brand new presence in another country and that was a major blow to their ROI plans.
If your a small org, don't plan on going global, never envision needing a call center and are maybe just getting started in business, and don't mind signing up for something akin to an adjustable APR (Because what is this going to cost???), then give it a shot.
Did I mention I am an onsite AVAYA tech? Please take that into consideration, of course I'm biased but I'm trying to keep an open mind also.
Any time they have to change their AD/network password the phones take several attempts to get them to log back in and it usually ends up requiring a visit from someone on my team.
With the pilot we have to ACDN 4 digit extensions to the new "off the wall" skype number(DID's are all still in the Nortel PBX), and since nobody in the enterprise recognizes the new number, no one answers.
The only way around this is to "give" Microsoft our DID's so they could port them to S4B, Microsoft themselves says that's not a good idea.
Full on S4B PSTN calling is only available in 3 countries world wide, (I may have worded that incorrectly?) But the bottom line is my customer was wanting to use it for a brand new presence in another country and that was a major blow to their ROI plans.
If your a small org, don't plan on going global, never envision needing a call center and are maybe just getting started in business, and don't mind signing up for something akin to an adjustable APR (Because what is this going to cost???), then give it a shot.
Did I mention I am an onsite AVAYA tech? Please take that into consideration, of course I'm biased but I'm trying to keep an open mind also.
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