Is Nortel BCM the right choice?

[clubber]

I work for a 20-person company. We have 10 customer support representatives, 4 of whom work from their homes in other states, so we need remote user options plus ACD, plus call statistics reports. (I looked at -- and liked -- ESI systems, but they have no reports. Zilch.)

I am on the verge of buying Nortel BCM for my 20-person company. I note that a few people in this forum have been positive about Nortel BCM in the past -- but most of the roughly comparable businesses I've spoken to are either running Toshiba or Avaya.

Is there anything else out there at around the same pricepoint at the BCM that would have the same features? We've been quoted about $25K for the equipment alone, including the base system, the call center proffessional software, and 8 internet telephones + IP telephony software.

Also, we hope to be able to reuse our existing Norstar M7310 phone sets with the Nortel BCM set-up.

Thanks -- and happy holidays!

Ann

 

[PERRYPJ]

TRY POSTING THIS ON THE NORSTAR FORUM YOU MAY GET MORE RESPONSE, AND YES YOU CAN USE THE 7310 ON THE BCM.

OLD ROLMEN WORKING ON NORTELS

 

[Arr]

Clubber,
Look at the MCK line up of remote extenders for the Norstar. They work with ANY Norstar release and are top quality. MCK tech support is EXCELLENT and their product is rock stable.

http://www.MCK.com

Cheers
PhM

 

[bythespy]

I have mixed opinons on the MCK units. They are expensive and our vendor BellSouth had a hell of a time getting them to work. We also lost one unit on average every 4 to 6 months and at $1k each that gets expensive. We have finally migrated 100% of our Nortel out in Novemeber of last year. We actually discontinued using the MCK in early 2003. So my comments are somewhat dated.

I looked the BCM and I did not like the setup, but we are a much larger company. We were moving to Cisco and Bell was trying to sell it as a IP telephony soluton. In our situation we would have had to buy 20 of them for our branch offices, and it jsut did not make sense.


Does the BCM still run on Microsoft OS? What version of OS?
How do you re-install the OS if it crashes?

The BCM might work for you, personally I would look at Cisco but the cost will be more.


Mspivey
CCNP

 

[upstateny]

Why not add call accounting to the ESI solution to get your reports?? - i have been installing ESI for over a year now and am very happy with it.

 

[bythespy]

In the ESI model and the BCM model and several others you musthave a voice box (IP PBX) and a data box (router) at every location.

In the Cisco world you you have one piece of hardware, a router. I like simplicity.

I am a Cisco fan and my comments will always be pro Cisco. It is who I am.



Mspivey
CCNP

 

[upstateny]

The cisco solution requires the call manager and voice mail doesn't it? - i know the cisco solution would probably cost at least double and lacks basic telephony functions (the first release didn't even have a Do Not Disturb Feature!!) - leave the bleeding edge equipment to others - buy a traditional system now and let the IP PBX's continue to evolve at the expense of someone else.

 

[bythespy]

CCM Express and Untiy Express now run on modules in the router.

The first release..... the first release was over 4 years ago. The first release of BCM ran on NT 4, and we know that was a real stable operating system!

It is all perspective....... the bottom line is he needs to do a lot of research and select the system that is best for the organization. The Cisco solution may not suit his needs, it does not really scale that small yet, but it is a viable option and should be considered in my opinion.




Mspivey
CCNP