Refresh or New??

[DemurePandora05]

Have aprox 140 BCM's ranging from 3.6 to latest 450 R6 networked to CS1K.
Looking at doing a refresh to bring all BCM's to the 450R6, upgrade CS1K to session manager (Avaya Aura platform)

Any suggestions? Upgrade BCM's and stay supported by Avaya for 6 more years then slowly change to new roadmap? Or change all sites to IP Office/5800 to keep the systems networked?

Or maybe change all together and go CISCO, Mitel, Microsoft??

 

[curlycord]

I would say Avaya and do it now since so many sites but this is a part question for there budget dept?.







=----(((((((((()----=
curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[KE407122]

We did similar to 450R6 for much the same reason---support.

I agree with Curly cord and posts in your other thread from October 2011. There is considerable budget impact with either choice.

Depending on the age, an equipment migration may be a harder sell than keeping your existing equipment for six more years.

In this industry today, more than ever, six years is a long service time and who knows if you'd really get much more than that with new.

KE407122

"The phone was working fine before it knocked over my coffee.

 

[3Sixty]

My Advice would be to make sure you have everything you need on the Avaya platform. If it meets all your needs, Then I would get a price from Mitel and Cisco they would love to take a scalp like this from Avaya so price will be competative. Then Avaya will have to use the old customer protection and should offer you an extremely good price.

Thanks,
Colin

http://www.3sixtynetworks.com

 

[telcodog]

If budget is the issue, have a look at EMetroTel!

 

[GordonKapesMZ4]

I second that telcodog! I've put experimental BCM aside, except for 2 sets and converted the rest to the Emetrotel UCx platform....you wouldn't believe how easy remote worker works with the UCx. I simply provide the external IP address to the phone, plug it in a remote connection and it works very well.

Also, while the UCx 50 is meant to attract BCM50 customers, I think the BCM customer will be happy to find it is more feature rich like a CS1000.

For example, if you have multiple UCx sites in your business, such as a larger UCx1000 and smaller UCx50 or UCx 450, the Nortel phones will operate identically. The BCM 50/450 did not all resemble CS1000 or CS2100 operation, so your remote sites with smaller systems would have completely different administration than the CS series. The fact that the BCM revolved around locked down Norstar feature codes and didn't allow for simple things such as:

-configurable line key display
-call buzz
-internal call hold
-the full 8 Unistim ring tones
-allowance of Nortel SIP and 3rd party sip devices
-time and date display unconfigurable
-configurable IP phone display messages

were only a few of the things that annoyed me with the BCM, that are all available on my UCx50.