Software upgrade cost

[slapin]

Hi,
I cannot get a clear answer from VAR about software upgrade cost.
Does anybody know how much would it cost to upgrade an 3300 ICP from V6 to V7. I mean actual cost of software and obtaining a new options password in case if there are new features introduced in the new release such as SIP. And an estimated cost for upgrade from V7 to V8.
Thank you

 

[TheMitelGuy]

Call 1-800-MITEL-SX. Ask the nice ladies at the console to direct you. They will put you in touch with sales and tell them what you just told us - you don't want to deal with a regional office, nor do you like your current dealer. They will help you guarenteed.

As for working directly with Mitel, doubt it will ever happen. I like the current model - and I think most of the customers do as well.

Mitel works VERY CLOSELY with their VARs.

 

[slapin]

Thanks,
I'm fine to work with anybody who would give me the service ans stuff that I want. And I'm agree to pay a small fee for accessing AMC trough VAR and not almost 3K for a "free" upgrade. Most of the customers don't have choice and don't want to know about options and other stuff as long as satified with products and services. We worked about 3 years with the same VAR and everything was fine until they decided to increase a cost of a maintanence contract. Actually that why I have raised the question, why it's more then usual and for what am I paying. See a part of the oficial answer above...

 

[whykap]

I would have to agree that dealing with MITEL as a VAR has gotten better but saying that keeping everything behind password protected websites (except marketing garbage) is how everyone likes it (including customers and VARS) is preposterous.
If me as an end user want to do my own upgrade and the software itself is free I should be able to do it. If I screw it up and need VAR support to fix it then fine. Charge me!!

My point is I should be able to go to mitel.com and download my upgrade without even the VAR involved.
However in the MITEL world the maintenance is with the VAR and not MITEL directly. Which means you are relying on the VAR.

That's where CISCO is doing it correctly. Maintenance agreements are directly with CISCO as they will not hide behind their resellers when s__t hits the fan.

And obviously that the CISCO products are crap vs MITEL is a matter of opinion. CISCO sold the largest amount of IP sets this year. There has to be a reason for that when it competing against companies that have been in the Telecom industry for many years.

Let's face it. Nortel and Avaya ar in the crapper and probably not making a come back any time soon. MITEL is holding out strong with a great product and OK support.

I worked for a platinum MITEL VAR from 1994-2000 and 2001-2003. Now I work for a CISCO gold VAR so I've been on both sides of the fence.

CISCO is not goint to loose it's VAR standards anytime soon. As a matter of fact a couple of moths back they changed to the harder side.

MOST cisco VARS cannot sell or install CISCO IPTEL products unless they phave passed and retained the certification rules. On the other hand I can buy a 3300 ICP from Graybar these days. Along with a couple of 66 blocks and x-connect wire. Talk about loosening up.

And when you decide to connect two sites that have any given systems what is the routers on both ends? I would say any respectable customer who is concerned about QOS, support and interoperability would put a CISCO router.
So in generic terms CISCO is still the backbone of the whole network anyway.

Ready to hear everyones opinion on my rambling.

Cheers

 

[slapin]

We are CISCO certified VoIP permier partner. Status is not so high but it's OK of our business. We never ever contacted CISCO for support because of great web resources available without any passwords or protection. CISCO complies with RFC and ITU recommendations and participates in creation of those standards. It allowes to keep it running and bring more users regardless of their existing platform. We've depoyed large data networks with end-to-end QoS enabled and installed Cisco as a VoIP platform. It might be MITEL... But this is already a different story

 

[TheMitelGuy]

Slapin: If you are a CISCO Certified VoIP Partner, why would you want the Mitel 3300 Core Software?

 

[slapin]

TheMitelGuy
We don't go with just a name. We considered Cisco,Avaya,MITEL and few other VoIP systems. And MITEL 3300 ICP won at that point. Great feature set, embedded voicemail with huge (100s hours) storage, stable, reliable. Fast deployment per site. The whole system is chaper then CISCO. That pretty much why.

BTW with Cisco 3750 PoE switches combined with MITEL ICP we never experinced voice degradation or similar issues for about 3 years. I think it was a good decision. The problem is not technical but ethical. How a reseller can claim that free software upgrade cost almost $3K per site without blinking an eye.

 

[whykap]

They must have included the upgrade labor is my guess. If not you can report them to MITEL. I know that it will not endorse that.