Patching the bcm 50

[jharl]

HI
I have become responsible for our BCM50, it has level 1.0 software installed on it. It has voice mail and other features. Such as callpilot and the ability to get the VM in an email. I think that it also has the ability to dial from outlook, we are using outlook 2007 in IMO mode. I have a bunch of quesitons but I will do them one at a time. These few questions are basic and are to do with callpilot, patching and unified messaging.

The first question is who is responsible for providing the patching the software. The unit was purchased for about 18k from Verizon the boss says that the folks that sold it to us should provide free updates Should they?. I want to get the BCM 50 upgraded to take better advantage of our upgraded desktops do that there will not be problems while implementing the unified messaging feature of the BCM50.

Thanks John Harrelson.

 

[telcodog]

18K for a BCM50 Rel 1.0? Hope it was maxed out hardware and license wise.

Anyway, as far as patching goes, it really depends on who is responsible for the overall maintenance of it. If you purchased a maintenance agreement from Verizon, then they would likely do it as part of the preventative maintenance program but it all you did is buy the stuff and no maintenance, then you would be responsible.

The patches are made available to authorized subscribers to Nortel's website and can easily be downloaded. The trick is to be a subscriber. That depends on several factors and you would have to apply through the website. If you meet the criteria, no problem.

Failing that, there are many users on this board who would do it for you. Usually, all you have to do is ask.

Beware of those patches though. In their effort to correct one thing, they sometimes mess up other stuff too and you wind up needing Nortel's support which is very costly if you're not a partner or a big direct customer.

Good Luck.

 

[Dasheen]

Have your vendor do it. Patches don't cost anything, it's just be the tech's labour u should be paying for.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

I think it is important to note the difference between a patch and an upgrade.

A patch is a "dot upgrade," in other words 1.0 to 1.1 or 2.1 to 2.4 (these numbers are purely for a simplistic example and do not represent Nortel's actual patch levels). A customer that has a 1.0 and wants to upgrade to a 3.0 would need to pay their VAR (unless their VAR wants to pay for it themselves). These are considered to be "full upgrades."

Nortel now licenses full upgrades (say 1.0 or 2.o to 3.0). Again it's up to the VAR (Verison in this example) if they want to charge for that or not, but keep in mind the VAR will need to pay no matter what.

"Dot upgrades" or patches are free of charge from Nortel.

I agree that in either case the technicians time/labour should be billable, unless it is guarenteed as part of a maintenance agreement/SLA.

 

[curlycord]

Patches = fixes
Upgrades (Release) = features

Maintenance Contract would normaly incude patches if users have issues.

You will need to pay for an upgrade to get features.
Some may include this in a contract but rare.

 

[jharl]

Thanks for the great information, I understand that patches and upgrades they are no different then the computer world. I will contact the person at Verizon that can tell me the next step concerning patches and upgrades. I do have an additional question if i can put it here. What software do I need to install for the boss so that he can dial the phone from outlook, see caller id when a call comes in, and get voicemail from the BCM50 in his outlook. I have read a good deal of the Nortel documentation and just can put together what I need for software.

Thanks

John H

 

[TheMitelGuy]

All of that should be available from 1.0, but that is going back a while, so my memory could be wrong.

 

[telcodog]

Unified Messaging (or Desktop Messaging) or whatever messaging Nortel is calling it these days. You will need 1 license for each user you want to load it on to. The other thing is, dialing from Outlook will require 1 LAN/CTE client for each user as well.

There are third party softwares out there than do the outlook dialing through a single LAN/CTE client license too. I've never used them personally but I hear they work pretty well.

 

[SupportDude]

Strongly suggest an upgrade!
50r1.0 was the initial release and pretty buggy depending on what apps you want to run.

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[jharl]

Hi Again and thank you for the great help. the version for the bcm 50 is 1.00.2.04.j. I home that his helps everyone. the following are available in my bcm50, VM seats 10 Active, UM Seats 10 Active, Int Analog Sets 2 Active, int digital sets 12 active, Exp Port 1 active. that is from the bmc element manager (but you knew that). how do I format a prefix (remember never did this before but took care of a meridan system in boston (now in florida) the main phon number is (941) 925-xxxx is 925 the prefix ? there are direct disl lines as well. am I covered for keycodes for personal call manager, callpilot unifided messaging, and LAN CTE Client. That else should I know.

regaurds,

John Harreslon

 

[telcodog]

You're ok for Unified Messaging and Personal Call Manager but it looks like you're missing the LAN/CTE licenses for dialing out using Outlook (I am assuming that's what you want them for).

Not sure what you mean about formatting a prefix and I've never heard of disl lines (do you mean DID). Can you be more specific.

You should also make sure that you are up to date on the Release 1.0 patches too.

 

[jharl]

I think that I will repost that last comment as it was so poorly written (my english teacher is standing over my shoulder)

Hi Again and thank you for the great help. The version for the bcm 50 is 1.00.2.04.j. I home that his helps everyone. the following are available in my bcm50, VM seats 10 Active, UM Seats 10 Active, Int Analog Sets 2 Active, int digital sets 12 active, Exp Port 1 active. That is from the bmc element manager (but you knew that). How do I format a prefix (remember never did this before but took care of a meridian system in Boston (now in Florida) the main phone number is (941) 925-xxxx is 925 the prefix? there are direct dial lines as well. am I covered for keycodes for personal call manager, callpilot unified messaging, and LAN CTE Client. That else should I know?



Regards,

John Harreslon

Thank you , Yes outlook and dialing out. what should I look for when looking at the lancte licence. the rest of the features were idle
As you can tell I ment direct dial lines.

Thanks

john

 

[telcodog]

If you are looking at your keycodes, under LAN/CTE clients you have either a 0 or the number of licenses, just like voicemail and unified messaging. If it's 0, then you have to buy the required number of seats from a Nortel vendor and then have the keycodes uploaded from the Nortel KRS system. Once that's done, you simply download the client from the BCM's web page. There is some configuration to do but you are better off reading the Unified Messaging Guide you can get from Nortels's website. It may even be on the BCM50 itself but not sure about that one).

As for the rest of your question, I'm still not clear on what you're asking for. You have DIDs coming into the system. Are they on a PRI circuit? What's the range and what is the telco sending you? What do you want done with them? Are they for individual users or are they to be used for hunt groups? Call Centre? You need to provide a lot more detail if you want help.

I still have no clue what you want to do with that prefix? Is that the main number that's coming down your PRI and you want it answered by your auto attendant? Again, you really need to provide a lot more information.

 

[jharl]

Thank you again, say bob has ext. 3088 he also has a number that can be dialed directly from the outside like a private number. I do not know enough to what a pri or a did is. but that is what I mean.

JH