Call Park / Call Pickup / Hold Functionality and Other Specific Questi

[brenttrucks]

IP Office - More questions in our quest for a final decision between Mitel / IP Office / Cisco

1. Another salesman touts out of box failure rate for Avaya phones are really high. Does that mean the reliability of the phone (9640) down the road may not be that good (we would like these phones to work for 10 years).

2. ACD GROUPS
a. Can a user log into multiple acd groups at one time with a single button login on the phone or do they have to login to each acd group individually?
b. Our setup will require logging into groups and backup groups unless Avaya supports "expansion groups" (a term that one system uses for this functionality) where if a call cascades from one group to the next it will continue to look at the 1st group to see if anyone becomes available. This would eliminate the need to have multiple groups. Does IP Office support expansion groups?

3. We are unable to find a system that works as simply (as few keystrokes and buttons as possible) as our current system when it comes to Park / Pickup / Hold.
a) Currently we can put a call on hold, go hunt down who we are looking for (unknown location and possibly unknown person) and have them pick up the phone call from any other phone by pressing Pickup button, my extension button. 1 click to put on hold, 2 clicks to pickup without remembering any special parking lots.

b) Currently we can pickup a ringing phone by hitting Pickup (ext#). Preferably we would like to keep the same button as above. The pickup button picks up both ringing and on hold calls.

c) Currently we can park a call on an extension (if the person is already on a phone call with someone else). When that extension hangs up the phone, the phone rings again. If after X seconds they don't hang up it rings back the parkee extension.

d) If we transfer a call to an extension and the person does not pickup the phone, we can configure the extension to ring back the transferee (or of course go to vmail)

4. On the 9640 phone as far as the expansion module, does it need a power supply or can it run off of the POE switch. We have found some expansion modules need a power supply.

5. We currently have 10 year old handsets. With Avaya IP phones (9640 model) what is the approximate life expectancy. There is probably 2 life expectancy,
a) how long Avaya will support the phone and
b) how long they will last. We are not familiar with the ruggedness of IP phones (we have digital phones now)

The terms I am using are what we use here but may not be what Avaya uses. We are open to options but would rather not add more keystrokes to do the same items. Maybe there are workarounds you have used in the past or can think of a code that would allow us to continue using this functionality.

Again thanks again for all the help you have given in the past. I know this is a lot of questions but we don't like to be "surprised" on a sizable investment

Brent

 

[tlpeter]

1) They are good phones.
Who tells you they are not ?

2) Yes that is possible but also possible to do it on at the time, it is done from a certain menu.

3)
a) i am not sure but there must be a way to accomplice this
b) Possible with a user button (blf,pickup dial etc etc)
c) Not sure but see "a"
d) That is called transfer return so yes

4) You can use a powr brick or POE

5) Stupid question, you never know how long a phone will work.
This applies to "a" and "b"


To answer some of your questions.

Mitel can not do your group questions at all, i do nto know about Cisco but they are also not very strong on ACD.



Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum

honey, i fried the IP Office !!!

 

[brenttrucks]

I knew someone was going to say 5) was a stupid question but I didn't think there were any stupid questions. What I meant was IP xml phones are a little bit more advanced than our current digital handsets and that type of phone is going to just continue to advance. Are we going to have to buy new phones 5 years down the road to take advantage of IP Office features in a new release because Avaya doesn't want to spend the man hours to update the firmware to support the new IP Office version. Basically, I'm not sure how long Avaya supports a phone after they release it or if we just won't be able to upgrade our IP Office without upgrading our IP Phones. Thanks!

Brent

 

[tlpeter]

The 46xx serie is there for about 5 years or so.
They are now end of sale but they will be supported for at least 3 years so then you are at 8 years.
Then count a couple of years to that and then you knwo they will make 10 years.
Look at the old DT phones (Index), they are still working in the field.

I called your question stupid because it is too hard to answer

I know there are no stupid questions (at least not much)


Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum

honey, i fried the IP Office !!!

 

[amriddle01]

When Avaya release new functions generally they release new phone firmmware to match, obviosly as technology advances somethings can't be added with firmware releases and at that time a new type of handset is released....how long that is who knows

ACSS Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Communications

I've just bought a brand new car and on the way out of the dealership the engine seized, they want £2000 paid in advance to look at it which they will keep if they can find a way to blame me for it......Remind you of anything

 

[Textron68]

IP Office has an assortment of ‘call park’ arrangements. Park to your extension, Park to another extension, Park to a common slot. Our environment uses the common slot and have the park slots on each phone labeled Park 1, Park2 and Park3. Call comes in gets parked on Park1, page for ‘whoever’ to pick-up on 1. They hit Park1 and they have their call.
Our environment doesn’t use the ACD functions so I’ll leave that to the experts.
Longevity for keeping the same system for years…. Cisco is a hardware based solution with 3-5 year life cycle. Avaya is geared towards software on a hardware platform. The hardware lifecycle is typically 5, 7 even 10 years with software version updates. End of life support is typically 10-12 years after a product line is introduced for Avaya, if not longer. Look at the Partner and Legends that they still have out there and are supporting. We still have Merlin systems with BIS10 telephones out there and can still get the parts to support them.

 

[brenttrucks]

Parking lots will probably not work very well in our situation being that calls are parked continously everywhere on people's extensions. This is much simpler because you know when they hang up they will get the next call.

I've heard that it "should" work from the salesman and here on the forum but nobody seems to know how to do it so we are still unsure if it will work. We hate to go backwards on functionality like this (seems most efficient) but are having trouble finding a system that will do this just like we are now.

Again we are mainly looking for:

Park on Extension. Key Sequence: Park button + Ext# or BLF. When caller hangs up they get parked call.

Pickup Ringing and On Hold Call on Other Extension: Pickup button + Ext# or BLF


If anyone knows that this is definitely possible let me know. We thought these were basic requirements but we have heard from many salesman that their system can definitely handle it but then find out it is not quite like this and really a pain to use. Like the call gets parked on a phone but when you hang up it doesn't ring your phone. So you have to notice a call is parked on your line and if you don't the person waits on hold.

Thanks! Brent

 

[amriddle01]

Sounds like you need to buy the newer version of the equipment you already have, every manufacturer does things slightly differently and has things better suited to some customers more than others. If your biggest requirement is to have this particular function work exactly the same as it does now no other system will satisfy that other than the one you already have, if you are willing to compromise slightly on that point you will gain far more benefits and functionality than you have lost (at least from the IP office)

ACSS Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Communications

I've just bought a brand new car and on the way out of the dealership the engine seized, they want £2000 paid in advance to look at it which they will keep if they can find a way to blame me for it......Remind you of anything

 

[brenttrucks]

The way we are looking at it, it is either possible or not possible with IP Office to keep our current method. We would like to keep our current method if it is possible as to limit the changes/training etc. If we are told it is possible we would like to know how. We have just heard to many times it is possible but you know how it goes with sales...but the specifics are lacking. I thought I would post are thinking here to see if anyone here knows how to do it. Even if the salesman says it can't be done, often times things can be as they are not entirely familiar with the product. That is the reason I am asking.

I am reading through the IP Office R6 manual to see if I can discover it's capabilities in this area.

 

[amriddle01]

Well, for the first point you call "Park on extension" this can be done by simply tranferring the call to the busy user, the call will briefly alert on their second line appearence and then remain there until they hang up, this call will then alert on their extn as normal until they answer or the transfer return time of the transferer expires at which point it will return to the transferer.

The second point, yes that's exactly what happens with the pick up key and user button/extn except it will not pickup held calls only alerting calls at another extn

ACSS Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Communications

I've just bought a brand new car and on the way out of the dealership the engine seized, they want £2000 paid in advance to look at it which they will keep if they can find a way to blame me for it......Remind you of anything

 

[CarGoSki]

the abbreviation "demo" comes to mind.

It's people like you who generalize.