Buying new phone system. Here are my options.. Opinions? 3

[eod]

I've been handed the task of purchasing a new phone system for our office.
We are currently a 30 person office planning to open another site that'll have maybe 4 phone systems.
From poking around with local vendors, I've come down to the following packages.

One company is offering us:
Avaya IP Office 406
Expansion modules (terminal modules, phones, etc)
Voicemail Pro, etc.

Another is offering:

Toshiba CTX setup
modules, voicemail, etc.

And the last company we are considering is offering:

A Inter-Tel setup.
modules, voicemail, etc.

The prices all come out around the same, so price isn't really an issue. Our main concern is picking a good solid phone system that'll have a upgradable and long life ahead of it, while being easy to maintain. I know I didn't give a lot of details but the area of phones is a bit gray to me and I've only begun the search. I hope that you guys can help guide me in this purchase decision..

 

[TeleBOYWONDER]

So what were the major points of failure with the Avaya install? I have been putting off my VP and CFO saying the products are still too unreliable. That excuse is getting old.
Plus I am a little more interested in the Cisco solution, if only to expand my experience/knowledge beyond Avaya.

THanks!

 

[CustomPhoneGuy]

If you are going VOIP look at Mitel

http://www.mitel.com

Unlike the others they didn't reinvent the wheel they made it better.

Just my 2 cents in a tight economy.


Happy hunting and "Happy Holidays"


Zig

 

[acewarlock]

Nortel has the Norstar Key System and if you want more power and VOIP they have the Option 11c. Nortel has been around since 1975 and there systems are upgradable, you don't have to buy a new system if you outgrow the one you have. there service is available world wide.

 

[tmisiak]

Do yourself a favor and go to

http://www.esi-estech.com

and look at the IVX128+. We have 4 offices in our state and we dial a link on our intercom for another office and we are on there system's intercom and dial the extension# of the person we are looking for. We don't have to dial them through dial tones. This is called esilink. You can also have remote phones. This is by far the best system out there that I've seen in my 21 years of telecom experience!!!

 

[upstateny]

i am an avaya dealer - the IP office is not ready yet - there are still glitches that are typical in early releases of a new product - i have heard of other installs that got yanked out and replaced by the magix system - salesman's knowledge shouldnt matter too much - get the owner or service manager out to get a good handle on service and business philosophy etc. - too often the customer puts too much emphasis on the system and not the vendor - we have competitors who go in dirt cheap, get the deal and then are very difficult to deal with - make sure the systems do what you need then choose the best vendor!

 

[tbilan]

Have you looked at the Cisco CallManager VoIP solution? We have it here and love it. It works great with Exchange, is all web configurable, the phones run XML, the VM is great and we haven't had a problem yet. Cisco is also what most companies use on their data side so it integrates well with the powered ethernet switches and the routers (QoS).

Tom Tom Bilan
TJBA, Inc.
CCNP, CCDA, MCSE, CNE, CCA, ASE

 

[chinanteco]

I'm surprised nobody has even mentioned the Panasonic system in this thread, can I have an opinion, please?.

 

[DrPbx]

NEC is great & has a system to fit all businesses, unlike Avaya, its IP system is rolling out the door.

 

[europe]

Too bad people are always trying to trash equipment from other suppliers.
Although I will go as far as thinking that the NEC system would be a good solution I woould like to say that the Avaya IP solutions are well working an tested.

Any one can see the info on the following link:

http://www1.avaya.com/enterprise/solutions/convergence/eclips/

Please let me know if the information that was provided is helpfull.
Edwin Plat
A.K.A. Europe

 

[eod]

Europe: Sorry that crow won't caw.. We "had" an Avaya IP Office and it really is not ready for the American market in the form they have released it. We ended up ripped it back out and replacing it. Wasting a lot of our time, resources and money.

Looks like it may be really good in a bout a year but waiting around a year with a dinky phone is a long time for a business. We had to let it go..

 

[europe]

EOD,

I don't know about the IP office, but the ECLIPS link I put up all is about the DEFINITY product line, which is a US product. (The IP Office stuff is UK development)
So that is where I came from, and the DEFINITY is a stable working.... also the VoIP stuff.

Like I said I can not give a statement on the IP Office, but the DEFINITY product line I know well and I know peopke arround the globe are happy with that solution. TDM and VoIP architecture.
I just commented because in my opinion it goes a little bit to far to say all Avaya kits don't work well...
Please let me know if the information that was provided is helpfull.
Edwin Plat
A.K.A. Europe

 

[alex1972]

I am a NEC/Nortel vendor.I think that the new BCM 3.0 with VoIP/VPN capabilities could be a great choice

 

[Korenja]

Eod,
Did you decide on a phone company/package of late?
We use an Inter-tel Axxess system here at the Non-profit I work for, but we are still using an old version of their software; 5.0-06.
The programming database uses the Windows platform. The Accessory Talk module(voicemail) uses the same programming/database interface. All in all it has a fairly intuitive interface from a "Network Administrator" point of view, once the initial telephone system is set up.
We are using an NT 4.0 workstation to run the software database & voicemail applications. We have a total-lease agreement with Inter-tel Inc. and it is working out thus far.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try to answer you to the best of my ability.

 

[eod]

Korenja: During the mess of the refund and what not we decided to stick with the same vendor and that meant staying with Avaya. We ended up with a Merlin Magix.

During the time of the refund I was pushing for a full $$$ back refund and switching over to Inter-Tel. Now we are stuck with the Magix.. Oh well, it is just a phone system, atleast I keep our servers rocking.

 

[IPGuru]

We have been installing the IP office for ove 12 months in the uk we have over 120 IP office sites & other 250 Alchemys (the predecessor to the IP Office) with very few "problems" most of wich are resolved remotley (90%+), however it does need a degree of experience.

It has a verry simple user Interface & is fery simple to configure, somtimes deceptivly simple which can cause problems.
Invalid characters in user names are sepecialy problematic (& / - *)

A competent maintaier/installer should not suffer with these problems

 

[BMiles2000]

I would highly recommend Nortel for your phone system. I am a technician for Nortel, Fujitsu & NEC. I would suggest the BCM if you are running on a tight bugdet (as most of us are). For around 25k you get everything. It comes with Nortel's next generation voicemail (Call Pilot) which has the capability for Fax and speech recognition (if purchased). Also it has the capabilty for email integration. It is very easy to program (GUI interface) from your web browser. It has VOIP capability both trunk and line side (as in trunking between sites or out to individual IP phones, on a per port basis). It is an all-in-one solution for the small office. It will expand upto approx. 150 users. This product is well proven. If you would like to discuss this system with a technician and not a salesman, let me know.

 

[ButtonIt]

What are Ericssons offerings like in the US? I'm an Ericsson Md110 Engineer in the UK and it is a wonderfull, versatile and reliable switch.

It's feature rich, highly compatible with other exchanges and signalling systems and is easy to maintain. Ericsson have always offered the best upgrade paths, ie: cabinets designed and made in the 1970's/80's can still be used with todays latest software without losing features.

 

[MarvO1]

Wow, this thread is 1 year old today. I hope EOD has a good system in by now.

MarvO said it

 

[eod]

Marv01: I still watch this thread from time to time. We got a phone system but ended up getting a System we didn't want. We now have a Merlin Magix, which is ok, but seems like extremely dated technology. The Avaya IP Office was a complete disaster but I heard that the new firmware upgrades fixed a lot of the issues. Oh well, the upper brass here couldn't stand it.

In the end, I wish we would of got a Inter-tel setup. Whenever I have to work on the phone system I kick myself for not pushing management harder to get the Inter-tel over the Avaya solutions.

 

[MarvO1]

Eod,
I wish your experience would have been a good one. I am a very strong Nortel fan. The quality cannot be beat, but that is just another opinion. Everyone will try to sell you on their pet product.
I was just kind of amazed when I saw the 1 year birthday of this thread.
Best of luck!

MarvO said it