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Replaceing CS1000 in the next 24 months. 5

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jryker

jryker

IS-IT--Management
Feb 19, 2013
25
US
Who here is starting to or has replaced their CS1000? What are you looking at and why?

Nothing wrong with ours but we are starting to evaluate our communication needs for the next 10+ years. Clearly we are looking at VoIP and moving to SIP. We have 500 users at corporate office on the CS1000 using AT&T Digilink (ADL) and 10 satellite offices running BCM50’s through local telcos. Looking at something that integrates well across offices yet be self-sustainable. Looking for skills based routing and detailed reporting.

Quick short list is:
Avaya – natural since they are the incumbent
Cisco – All our networking equipment is Cisco and we have good VAR support
Mitel – We run VMWare in about 99% of the organization. Looks like VMWare has a relationship with Mitel that may be helpful.
Shoretel – up and comer but I worry about them long term
Microsoft Lync – I like a lot of that I see them doing but not sure since new to the game. Being that we are A) already a MS house and B) already own the licenses for everything. Do they have the features a traditional system has?

I’d love to hear some of your thoughts. What did you do, where are you going, ect.
 
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We had 4.5 CS1000 moved to 5.5 then 7.5. Will be moving to Avaya. Nortel will supposedly be gone by 2020 or shortly thereafter.
Nortel was still the 'best' in terms of ACD - Avaya supposedly bought them because Nortel's ACD was 1.5 years ahead of where Avaya was ... Cisco is good for Staff phones. I would not recommend for ICR (Intelligent Call Routing) or whatever they call it now.
Mitel and Shortel I have no clue but I would probably not go that route unless you are a smaller fish and want to try to save some green. Microsoft Lync I thought was more for collaboration - don't have a clue about their skill-based abilities, if any ...
Good luck with your path.
 
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Your looking at some good products and everyone has their favorat, But it may be worth a look at E-Metrol Tel UCx as well. If your going to IP, it gives you several choices and if needed you can reuse you BCM50s as digital gateways or go directly to IP with them as well. I know they are young, but they are former Nortel engineers.


If its not working, get a bigger hammer!

Avaya/Nortel/NEC/Asterisk/Access Control/CCTV/DSX/Acti/UCx
 
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You want a system that others in your area and line of business have chosen. All of those are good, but if you are the only customer for 500 miles, you can be sure it will be hard to get support.

The more common the system, the more competitive the marketplace. That is good for you.

~~
Gene at www.GHTROUT.com
 
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I definitely think you should look at the E-Metrotel Solution asap as well.

They just released this link on the E-Metrotel Forum....look at the endless Nortelesque possiblities listed in their user guides:


You can make the Nortel phones operate in either BCM mode with a feature button or in a CS1000 mode without feature key. The phones act more like feature rich CS1000 phones though...you can use any 3rd party SIP phone as well. I have a Cisco 7970 and Nortel 1120E SIP firmware load running on my system. I have my system SIP trunked to an Avaya IP Office and BCM as well.

Also, within the next few months, Meridian Digital PBX sets will be compatible.

Another interesting note is that the voicemail is called "UCx Voicemail" with all of the voice and system prompts recorded by none other than Joan Kenley, the voice of Meridian Mail and CallPilot. You can get a taste of her voice if you call their main number in Texas.

They are definitely beginning a grassroots movement to keep the Nortel product alive and kicking!





"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"
 
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Interesting comments guys. I agree with everyone's view point. At the end of the day, it's all about money and what you are going to get for it.

10 years ahead is a long time in today's climate. If you aren't going to be using some of the features mentioned above such as IVR etc, then some of the other manufacturers mentioned would seem to be worth looking at.

I've had customers who have ditched their Nortel kit for Mitel, Shoretel, Cisco and Lync systems. They all had different reasons for doing it and cost was a major factor. Then there was complexity, ease of programming, how good the kit was, security, features and many others.

These days, most customers now have a good IP network in place. It makes sense to go IP. Those customers I knew who went for systems such as Mitel and Lync found the systems easy to install, compared to the Nortel / Avaya. One customer ditched their old 4.5 CS1000M and two 3 year old Avaya Reds for Lync because they had worked out the cost savings in 9 Months would make the Lynce system pay for itself. They made many conference calls and also worked out that most of their staff could just have the Microsoft soft phones, saving money on handsets etc.

It's all down to choice. Not an easy decision to make in a hurry!.

All the best

Firebird Scrambler
Meridian 1 / Succession and BCM / Norstar Programmer in the UK

If it's working, then leave it alone!.
 
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Sad to see the Nortel go but even my mind set has changed and I have been doing Nortel for 22 years. I work for a large Telco and we have went to the Avaya IP Office and Shoretel lines as well as a new one made by Adtran that I haven't seen yet. The IPO is cheap and works well. Shoretel is very good but a little pricey. Not sure about the Adtran yet. Cisco, which we sell also is nice but crazy expensive. Like others have said, just make sure yo have good support in your area.
 
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We are starting to replace some older CS1000M, Option 11, key system stuff with an Avaya CM and Centralized SIP trunking. One thing we found is Avaya has some great discounts for replacing Nortel systems with CM. You should look into that as it may save you a lot of $$$$.
 
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Question I have to ask, the CS1000 isn't being discontinued, yet at least. Why would you replace a fully supported system that can be fully converted to VOIP? Even if it is discontinued by Avaya soon (a stupid move in my opinion), you'll have support for years to come on it. The system has the built in legacy of 37 years of quality voice communications from Nortel, layered with IP protocol on top of that.

"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"
 
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In my current network I have 75% legacy Nortel (YES), 15% Cisco, and the rest is Shoretel and Mitel.

The reason to replace the Nortel legacy workhorse is one of survivability - it will not be supported after some period of time (which keeps getting shorter). We looked at Avaya and honestly do not like their long-term probability as a company. So a decision was made to follow the data-dudes and go 100% Cisco on our network. Once I started working here and got exposure to all of the systems, I have to say I would have voted for the Shoretel system, or at least a split of Cisco and Shoretel. I like Shoretel because they dont really try to stick it to you financially for every little piece and the system itself is much, much easier to configure and maintain.

Alas the decision was made before I arrived and I am now training on the Cisco UCCX for call center, Unity Connection for voice mail, and have to log in to that CUCM on occasion.

My 2 cents.

JB
 
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Interesting thread. I work at a hospital that just invested in the CS1000E 5.5 about 4 years ago. We had bids from some of the above vendors but since we were looking for a hybrid system (IP with digital and analog capability) we went with Nortel/Avaya.

We were hesitant with going to a 100% VoIP solution and since we had a couple hundred patient phones, faxes, courtesy phones, emergency phones, etc., we went with analog cards (with very inexpensive but good quality analog patient phones) versus VoIP and generic SIP phones. This excluded vendors like Cisco and Shoretel because of the Hybrid request.

I'd say we're happy overall with the voice quality, stability, ACD/Contact Center, voicemail, etc. I don't think we anticipated the 7.5 release coming out so soon and the sales/service support issues with the 5.5 investment.

So I guess my question is, are there customers like large healthcare facilities out there that are going 100% VoIP/SIP even with hundreds of the traditional analog services like patient phones, faxes, courtesy phones, emergency phones, parking lot phones, etc.? Can you really economically replace the traditional faxes, courtesy phones, emergency phones with SIP phones, large scale fax serves utilizing POTS lines or PRIs with email and networked printers? Yes, we still have quite a few facsimiles. You'd be surprised how many insurances and heath care facilities still do business this way.

Oh, and does anyone recall what the end of service support is for the CS1000E Release 5.5?
Sorry if this ran off topic a little.
 
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@Funk49 - CS 1000 Releases 3.0-5.5 are currently in the ESS period with EoSS tentatively scheduled for July 2015 (Rls 3.0-4.5) and November 2015 (Rls 5.x). License expansions will continue to be available on releases 5.0 and 5.5 until EoSS (Nov 2015) through the eAuthcode process. License expansions on all older releases are no longer available
 
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You know, I recently did a google image search on 911 Call Centers and 90 percent of the images I came across either showed an M3900, M2000, M5000, or T/M Series Norstar set. I was surprised to see so many Nortel systems still in use, especially the CS1000 version.

I am friends with the director of a large hospital chain in NW Indiana which has been a Nortel user since the early 1980s. They are impressed by the robust quality of their SL-1/Meridian-1/CS1000 switch and are investing heavily in it with no desire to go the full VOIP route.

It is possible to use multiple analog lines on Cisco, but it doesn't seem to be the norm. Plus the great thing about your hybrid setup with CS1000, you can convert any of the digital or analog sets to voip eventually, even SIP.



"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"
 
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And I have heard it over and over from competition. Cisco, Shoretel and others will tell you that your Nortel CS1000 is outdated and unsupported and try and trick you into updating to theirs for a ridiculously cheap price. In reality your CS1000 is supported by Avaya still (not with loving care though).

Then, the vendors sock you with huge keycode and upgrade fees. Their systems are proprietary and do not allow a lot of choices when it comes to telephone sets. With the huge secondary market on Nortel phones out there, it only makes sense to me to continue the Evergreen commitment. Then when you are ready to upgrade if Avaya does finally cut the hatchet on CS1000, go with the E-MetroTel switch designed by former Nortel employees.

"Keep the Peace, Use RLS"
 
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I'm running CS1000 5.5 and happy with it, I will upgrade to 7.6 when necessary.
As of PSN003499u Dated Aug. 23, 2013 there is no set date for end of support on 7.6 yet. The minimum date will be at least late 2018. Who knows what system we’ll be using then. As you can probably tell I still bleed a little Blue.

I should have won the Power Ball and then I would not care.
 
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@jryker
What release are you running in today and with what hardware is it configured on?
Might just have to upgrade the main site to newer release and just run IP phones in a branch office zone as long as you have a stable network between your sites.
And if you are not to far behind in Software / hardware it can be quite an easy process.
 
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