Cisco IP and Shore Tel IP phone systems

[fromill]

We are presently looking at both Cisco IP and Shore Tel IP phone systems to replace some older Nortel key systems. Thoughts?
Thank you.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

IP Office?

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

E-Metrotel UCx? You can reuse Nortel phones and use any 3rd party SIP phone. Most feature codes from Nortel remain.



****New Forum - E-Metrotel UCx****
Joseph Sus-Nortel Installer/Programmer-"JoetheUCxguy" on Youtube

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-sus/12/1a7/856

 

[phoneguy610]

Hate to knock ucx but if they are looking at Cisco and shoretel, price is probably not their concern

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[phoneguy610]

Cisco and shoretel are nice systems but have a much higher price tag then a lot of systems out there

Think of them as the apples of the telco world



ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

I wouldn't call the Cisco a telephone system, I'd call it a bodge!

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[phoneguy610]

Yes it's an it persons phone system

They are both overpriced and won't give you much more then the brand name for 2-3 times the cost


Higher marketing costs for them = higher cost for end user

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[fromill]

We weren't terribly impressed with IP Office. We now have servral BCM's and Avaya's maintenance was really bad for a while although lately it has been improving. And the BCM has been discontinued.

Anyone with experience with either the Cisco or Shore Tel? I dont have the exact costs but its looking like the Cisco is going to be more expensive and may be more complicated to maintain. We have a demo system installed at a site and the users arent impressed. We plan on doing the same with a Shore Tel in about a month.

Thanks.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Do you want to elaborate?

How many users across how many sites?
Features required?
DECT?

What was it about IPO that you didnt like?

Where are you based?(If in the UK perhaps we could do a proper IPO Demo for you?)

The IPO will cost you a lot lot less to maintain vs Cisco. 6 servers for Cisco vs one box for IPO plus a server for apps / voicemail pro etc

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[phoneguy610]

shoretel is right around the same price tag as cisco (i have even heard sometimes they are more)

i am biased to the ip office as well, and also a few other solutions.

I am an old nortel guy and loved the bcm

we were going to become a shoretel dealer but their pricing was a huge turnoff to us. Like i said they are both nice systems, but come with a much higher price tag.

The ip office will do everything they will do (plus look into one-x portal and flare)for most likely half the cost depending on what you want and what phones you are looking for.

I have never heard anyone really complain about shoretel being bad, but i have heard of how expensive they are and the fact that their stock price hasnt showed any profit in a decade worries me as well

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[GSmitherman]

I have experience with installing Shoretel and the IP Office. Shoretel is much easier to manage and much more reliable. I dont deal with cost very often, but I have always seen Cisco as the more expensive option.

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

I am not a big fan of Shortel, call parking is extremely difficult and you can only use their propreitary phones. I'd rather have a phone system such as UCx or IP Office where I can use third party SIP phones. Also, I like UCx even more than IP Office, because in addition to keeping my Norstar phones and Norstar/BCM feature codes, you can then add Unistim Nortel IP sets or Any brand of SIP phones at my leisure. You can set it up with SIP trunking, PRI or Analog lines all in one switch box now.

Unistim Nortel IP 11xx and 12xx sets are not discontinued and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Avaya still manufactures and plans on manufacturing these sets for a long time, as they can sell them new to BCM customers, E-Metrotel UCx customers, CS1000 customers, Genband CS2100 customers, and Third Party SIP systems.

CS1000 and CS2100 are not EOL!

****New Forum - E-Metrotel UCx****
Joseph Sus-Nortel Installer/Programmer-"JoetheUCxguy" on Youtube

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-sus/12/1a7/856

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

Let me ADD though, if I were to choose between Shortel and Cisco????

I would choose Cisco. You have the choice of choosing from anyone of their Skinny or SIP client sets such as the colorful 6900 sets or the old standby 7900 sets. Their phones closely mimic a Nortel Meridian 1/CS1000 platform, down to having an IC/Intercom Group. Cisco does allow 3rd party SIP phones on their switches as well. I just don't like the idea that Shortel makes you use their phones only.



****New Forum - E-Metrotel UCx****
Joseph Sus-Nortel Installer/Programmer-"JoetheUCxguy" on Youtube

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-sus/12/1a7/856

 

[GSmitherman]

How is call parking difficult? You can park a call on your extension, another person's extension or a park zone. To unpark I press the unpark button and enter the number of the extension or zone the call is parked on. If the call is parked on my extension, I left the handset.

 

[GSmitherman]

Shoretel does allow some third party SIP phones. I replaced a Cisco system with the Shoretel system. The school system had Cisco 7960 phone sets. We integrated these as SIP phones on the Shoretel system.

 

[phoneguy610]

And Gordon all of those things you said you like better about ucx are available with ip office

Plus iPo has there own lines of nice new phones including some touch screen ones if you want to get fancy

Plus one x portal is a great communication tool that many of our larger clients love

I'm not sure if any of these other platforms offer something like that as well



ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

They all have their good points and we all have our favorites, so that's why it makes it hard to make a decision like this. You like IP Office, I like UCx, Someone else likes Cisco, while another likes Shortel, heck there maybe even be a holdout out there for ROLM phones

****New Forum - E-Metrotel UCx****
Joseph Sus-Nortel Installer/Programmer-"JoetheUCxguy" on Youtube

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-sus/12/1a7/856

 

[fromill]

Thank you for all your responses. I didn't care for the IP Office as the box looked cheap and so did the phones. The programming was somewhat difficult and as I said earlier the Avaya service was bad. I have been trying to update some BCM locations with Avaya now for several months with no success. We had a BCM450 go down and they shipped the replacement to an old address that we are not longer at, thankfully the guy from Fed Ex knew where we moved to.

Users vary from maybe 10 to 50 across serveral sites. At BCM prices we had budgeted for 13 sites this year and now thats not going to happen.

No DECT.

Thanks again.