CCM vs Mitel 3300

[yeahbutno]

Hi, its been mentioned to me that management are thinking of replacing a Mitel 3300 telephone system with Cisco Call Manager,can anybody who's had experience in both or Cisco Call Manager have any views on this.I dont know much about the Cisco stuff but I regulary work on the Mitel stuff.Currently the Mitel is performing well and has been for a couple of years.
Which one would be best suited for their reliability,performance,maintanence,upgrades etc.?Reliability is of upmost importance and systems rarely can be taken out of service for upgrades due to system is running in an emergency service environment!

Any feedback would be mostly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[yeahbutno]

I guess theres not much to say about the Cisco stuff then!!

 

[BuckWeet]

My response would be.. what does the callmanager offer you that the mitel doesn't.. Why does the mitel need to be replaced? What features are you using of the mitel? Although callmanager has been out for a few years, feature wise it still doesn't compare to a standard run of the mill PBX.. As for reliability.. Callmanager is reliable if maintained. Just like any datanetwork.. TDM systems usually are more reliable because they don't have to deal with anamolies that a data network has.


BuckWeet

 

[yeahbutno]

The reason for my post was to answer the questions that you have raised from the guys out there with experience in cisco and/or mitel products.
There is no need in MY opinion to replace the Mitel equipment I just want to now a bit more about CCM.
One thing that does scare me a little bit is the fact you mentioned that Callmanager is reliable IF maintained!Can you explain a bit more on that?
As for the answer to your first question of 'What does the Callmanager offer you that the mitel doesn't?', then, I dont know!We use all the features from the Mitel product that we can, as anybody would.
The whole point of this post as mentioned earlier is to see what advantages Cisco have over the Mitel 3300 Telephony operation for the network that we have.
Thank you for your reply at least it's feedback,any feedback is much appreciated.

 

[BuckWeet]

Well if you're using every feature of the Mitel (not knowing every feature) it most likley can do many things that the cisco can't.. the power of the cisco system is when you have multiple branches and remote sites.. it easily deployed. Sometimes these features can be gained by adding additional applications which usually requires more servers. Need another app, another server is required, etc..

For your site requiring Cisco phones you must have powered switches that support cisco's power requirement. This alone can be quite expensive if you dont currently have the network.

When I say its reliable if the system is maintained means that since it resides on a data network it is suseptible to virus, DoS attacks, etc.. This is true no matter what OS the systems run on.. It is now just another data application on your network. The current callmanager is a standard windows box with sql server. After time there can be processing/memory leaks which could require monthly maintenance.


Thats some insight to what you would be dealing with on callmanager.

I would be weary of the 'coolness' factor of Cisco phones, unless it provides features, substandatial cost saves and other things that the mitel cannot I personally would not change..

Also keep in mind that a big factor is the end user.. Persecption is everything to end users.. they just want a phone that work.. Also keep in mind that to most end users change is a bad thing as they get knocked out of their normal daily routine.


BuckWeet

 

[whykap]

Does the 3300 offer redundancy yet?
Not talking the resilient option MITEL offers for this product (which is by no means redundancy). I know that they try to release a redundancy feature back in 2004 and pulled it back a few days before release. Perhaps now they have it.

If not there is your major reason to switch since you are an emergency service provider.

Allow me to disagree with Buckweet that call manager lacks features that other PBX's have. Perhaps in older versions but not on the latest.

As far as maintenance goes it needs it just like ANY other system out there.

 

[T8keiteasy]

Hi,

whykap, are you talking about HD, PRI or power redudancy ?

In that case the answer is 3 times YES...

Two embedded power and HD in a box;
PRI can also be redundant with two resilients ICP...
The PRI is connected to the first ICP and from the first ICP, PRI is connected to the second ICP.
If the first ICP stops, the PRI trunk will be automaticly connected to the second ICP...








Now, it's about French users too !!!

 

[DEADbyWEDNESDAY]

just reboot your cluster once a month and follow the CCO updates and your good to go.

i worked with TDM avaya definitys. you plug em in and you go. only software changes were feature ehancements. very stable.

the cisco cluster is a little tempermental, but its "as mentioned" a data applicaiton. with LOADs of redundancy. but all that reduncancy isnt cheap

we are testing CCM 5.0 in the lab which is linux based seems more stable, and not as holy as windows so far.

unfortuneatl as i understnad it 5.0 is not in lockstep with ICM/CRA so we aint moving to it yet. 5.0 is an IPPBX where as 4.1.2 is nestled nicely with IVR/Call center apps and can do anything ten fold that a traditional PBX can do.

additional apps dont always requires more servers. it depends on the amount of users and how many calls you handle. but do require more licenses and Money.