Retire Merlin... Why? 6

[messagelink]

If Merlin ahs been such a work horse all these years and has changed to accomidate technology why has the product line and name been discon?

How about just updating it again? Is it a marketing thing?Any thoughts on this matter?

 

[eltorodeoro]

lots of thoughts on this... i cut my teeth on the merlin, and i will always insist that its one of the best systems on the market. why is it being phased out? the wonderful piece 'o' crap that is IP Office. take a peek at that forum... that's the future. goodbye, old reliable merlin. hello firmware updates and software incompatibility.

 

[Dexman]

As VOIP continues to gain favor in the eyes of businesses, CPE manufacturers realize that demand for traditional Key and PBX systems will start to diminish. The manufacturers need to field equipment that will be able to take full advantage of all that VOIP has to offer.

Systems like the Merlin and Partner were developed before VOIP either existed, or went mainstream. The 2 systems would probably need complete overhauls to get them to function as VOIP systems.

Avaya figured that it would be cheaper to start with a clean sheet of paper and design new systems from scratch. The new systems are physically smaller than the Magix & Partner ACS, so they take-up less room and probably consume less power.

Either way, it's sad that the Magix is no longer in production. One post I've seen says that Avaya's one-X may be the eventual replacement for the Partner ACS.

 

[Dexman]

Let me rephrase one of my statements.....

Avaya probably figured it would be better to start with a clean sheet of paper.

 

[2BAvoice]

I retired from Avaya with more than 32 years, and I never could figure out what they thought. I think this is a case of Avaya telling customers what the customers want. Like when GM and Ford, etc. kept making big cars and telling their customers that they did not want smaller more economical vehicles. (in the early 70's I mean). My opinion is that there will be a large number of customers who are not interested in VOIP for the next 20 years. Just my opinion.

 

[Dexman]

As a Central Office technician for a major IXC/CLEC, I have noticed that larger companies have been migrating voice service to VOIP.

Such companies, that can afford to purchase VOIP through a managed service provider where you tie directly into routers via a dedicated T1 or T3, usually fare well.

The problem is felt more by small outfits, like mom & pop stores, churches and such that are not high volume callers and cannot afford loop charges. These groups, if they want to use VOIP, have to rely on providers like Vonage or Packet 8 and connect to these providers via regular DSL or high-speed cable access. The QoS provided by companies like Vonage and Packet 8 has improved over the years, but cannot match the QoS of an end-to-end managed service provider.

 

[tdaugirdas]

I would add - that when using Vonage lines with a Legend or Magix PBX - even with good QOS - Caller ID information gets lost in the "noisy" signal and the Avaya switches seem unable to interpret it correctly. Sound quality is more than acceptable for a small user - as long as they have good upstream bandwidth (at least 90 kbs per Vonage line). Even losing the Caller ID - still saves a small business user a lot of money in local toll and long distance charges - and they can get 1 or 2 Vonage lines to route their outbound calls over.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[messagelink]

Try sending a fax over Vontage. Forget it.

 

[tdaugirdas]

I do Merlin Legend/Magix programming/backup/print all, etc. over a Vonage line with no problems. I guess 1200/2400 baud is not a problem compared to 9600 baud for a fax. My only problem with Vonage is no Caller ID to an Avaya PBX.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[Dexman]

I've seen comments on other posts that indicate that Vonage business users that get the free fax line can expect faxes to be successful about 80% of the time. It may very well be that the lower the baud rate, the better your chances are that data transmissions will be successful.

One question I have about providers like Vonage. We recently had someone who works for our company and lives down in the Carolinas spend about 4 weeks here installing equipment.

He uses, I think, Packet 8 VOIP for phone service and travels with his adapter and a cordless phone in his tool chest.

I noticed that the caller ID display on his cordless phone always read 3 hours behind Boston time. His response was "Because the VOIP service provider's gear was on the west coast, caller ID records were always in Pacific time".

His caller ID records never had a name display on the phone, just the calling party number.

Is this also the case with Vonage and other VOIP providers?

 

[tdaugirdas]

Vonage is supposed to provide both Caller Name and Phone# in their most recent version - however - as I stated - it transmits nothing to a Legend/Magix PBX. However, I have a splitter with a cheap Caller ID display - and both name and number are displayed accurately on that unit.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[Dexman]

When looking at any caller ID record, is the hour correct for your area, or is it off like my co-worker's was?

 

[tdaugirdas]

I am in the Midwest - and the date and time are correct on the cheap Caller ID display.

Tom Daugirdas,
President
STCG, Inc.
stcg.com

 

[Dexman]

Thanks Tom!