IPO Thoughts?

[anna35]

We are looking into an IPO for our 10 sites. Main functionality we are looking for include 4 digit dial between the sites and call center in our corporate site that shows us that a call came in for our B location even though we are answering the call at our headquarters. Being able to send those calls back out to our branches is important as well.

What is everyone's experience with IPO good or bad?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[madasahat]

i would recomend going for hosted telephony its the dogs whatsits when it comes to multiple sites

 

[telecomgear]

Definately go with Carousel. Look no further.

To Us and Those Like Us, Damn Few Left

 

[Shine52]

Anna35, you are on the cusp of an enterprise solution, especially if you see growth occuring. Don't want to max out a new system right out of the box and you are going to be dependent on the SCN features which max out. You can do some work arounds w/ out the SCN features, but in a call center environment, your dependent on it.

As far as Carousel, I have done work for them as a sub, and the same complaint occurs. They are to big and customers after the install(which I think they do a good job of) complain about their customer service. I think initially they are good, but then depend on sub's for service after that unless you are right in their territory.

Figure it out damn-it!

 

[anna35]

Right now I am dealing with too small. It's 2 guys and if they are out we have no service. It sucks when I call and am told there's no one around to help. That's a problem.

I am in Carousel's service area.

As for the enterprise system, it's got a price tag of over half a million. I think that's just overkill right now.

 

[anna35]

As a side note, we are looking to use modular messaging as our voicemail product. Any thoughts on that?

Also, when you say CM, what are you referring to?

Thanks!

 

[jml2665]

CM (Communications Manager) and Modular Messaging are part of the Avaya's enterprise and medium business product offerings, equal to the legacy Definity products. Both have their own forums here so you might get better answers to your concerns from those.

 

[aarenot]

anna35,
This is a large IPO project that you are considering, large because of the number of sites, not the number of phones. The IPO is easily administered by an IT person once it is set up, and they have been trained to admin the system/s. Each site should have an administrator trained to some level, as well as a company wide administrator trained as well.
Your company may grow, but the IPO is growing as well. It will probably keep pace with any growth you may achieve, and if not, like mentioned, a CM at the largest site may be something for down the road(45% GROWTH APROX. DOWN THE ROAD)
I might also get a project manager with references, as well as a lead implementor with references assigned to your project as a stipulation with your vendor. Kwing who answered your post earlier would be a good one in my opinion.
You might compare the IPO with highest level maint contract VS. the CM without any maint contract, and see what you think about price.

 

[ABCIP]

anna35
i have personally installed over 50 IPO's and a few hundred CM PBX's and of course Spirit, Partner, Magix etc....
ater selling, installing, servicing and using both of these PBX's my advise is to go with the CM solution. (and believe me i love the IPO and think it is an awesome sytem and can do so much for the money, but it has its limits). some people have mentioned possibly going with a CM solution at a later date for the core. if you do that, that might be okay but there are limits on how many IPO's can be connected to it (only limited by the Centralized voicemial feature) you mentioned modular messaging. that is where most of your costs are right now. did you consider an Intuity LX. the new 2.0 version of this can go to 24 Ports, and if your doing AA's through vectoring on the PBX, those 24 ports should be able to handle up to 2500 users in a standard office. unless you need a true unified messaging approach the MM is way overpriced. you can do push of email throuh IMAP4 now on the 2.0 LX also.
if you are doing any type of call center i also think the CM solution is far more reliable and from what weve been told, CCC is being completely thrown out and IP Office is going back to the drawing board.

i also do work for carousel in the North East area of the country and i think you are in good hands. i know all the installs we do for them work out great.
if you dont mind me asking what area of the country are you in?

 

[ronromano]

Here's my two cents because that's about what its worth. Size the vendor means nothing, it quality of service that counts. I work for a small shop and we do well because we care! If I were you I would pick a company that was a bit smaller than you to put it in that you trust. In our case, you have my cell number to call if there was a problem. Now I'm not hawking for your business, I don't know where you are. If you were our client, you would have direct access because you would mean something to us. Not every client get that but the big one do. It's just a reality!

I am not knocking any large vendor, but we pick up a good bit of business from big guys who don't care about how big you think you are, you're probably not that big to them.

The big tip off to me that you're not a big vendor customer is that you don't want to go for the CM because of cost! If you have 10 sites you should be thinking growth because as of today with IPO you can only add 6 more if you want true SCN. (Relax intrigrant, I know there are other ways to add more without SCN)

Now I don't know anything about your company or you or the vendors you spoke to. But if you don't want to spend for CM then go for IPO and just because they are big doesn't mean YOU will get great service.

The guy in the lab coat that designs the system is not the guy who puts in at that site!

Viva the small vendor!

 

[aarenot]

Sometimes it is better to be a big fish in a little pond, than a little fish in a big pond. This may be the difference between enterprise system providors, and SMBS system providors as Ronromano mentioned.