System Comparison information wanted

[OzzieGeorge]

I am looking to put a system comparison together but being somewhat tied to the NEC brand I don't know enough about the other systems. Has anyone here ever done something like this or have information that would point me in the right direction. I am not naieve enough to believe that there won't be things other systems do better and I am also interested in that information as well.

Has anyone ever done a cost over lifetime analysis for various pabxs?

Any links to articles would also be of interest.

Thanks in advance

Ozzie

 

[grh959]

I am in the same boat as OG. I have been working on NEC for the last 15 years and the city I work for is looking to upgrade or replace our 2400IMX / 200IPS network. Some of the "comparisons" I have seen have been no more than sales pitches. I have seen one comparison from Gartner Group but it is more of an executive comparison vs. a technical / operational comparison.

 

[donporter]

I can tell you that I have been on the outside of NEC only working with Intertels, NBX, and Siemens for 8 years until now. But now,I have two 2000IPX and when to training on the system and ACD. NEC has a market but it is closing more and more. They limit the knowledge in the manuals to "keep people out of the high end tech changes" maybe good for them and bad for us. They have all the features needed but how they work and the limits to this features are different. Go with a industry standard system to save on finding vendors and techs in the area. If you are going to support it with an high end employee then with the industry standard comes forums with work arounds, true bugs, and helpful hints.

If you are looking cheap don't use Microsoft PBXs because of steady upgrades with Microsoft and the PBX vendor software.
Cisco have a system that will do backflips and I know 3Com has a low end system that works for basic setup and work well for many other features.

If you have a large call center don't be cheap every new feature on the market works great and it can help with keeping agents and customers.

God Bless Mothers

 

[belevedere]

I work for a National NEC vender and have worked for NEC America. We are also selling the Nortel product. I can relay some issues about Nortel. First, they charge for tech support and it is not cheep. Every Monday they release a series of patches that must be installed. If you have support from Nortel and do not have the latest patches they give you grief. Their tech manuals are not very easy to follow. The larger product (1000E) is based on the old Meridian with 20+ year old command lines. All technical training is done through Global Knowledge. You can go to their web site and look it over. Basically for the 1000E you would need to attend 4-8 courses to learn the system. IE:T-1/PRI is a week long course. BARS/NARS (LCR) is 2 weeks, Their MAT terminal (TM 3.1) is a 2 day IS course and administration is a 4 day course. The smaller products BCM50/200/400/1000 can be done in a week long course. Simple things from the NEC world such as one key for speakerphone on/off takes two keys on Nortel. The phones have less buttons and use a shift key to use more. Once working it's a decent system, but converting a customer from NEC to Nortel can result in some customer dissatisfaction. I am by no means trashing Nortel, just relaying my experiences.

 

[pave35]

I have worked with NEC for many years after working on a range of other systems. I have also taught many classes on the product and the most common reponse I see is the respect for the functionality and flexibilty of the system while at the same time concern over the complexity of the programming.
The great thing is you can make the NEC do almost anything and usually with the touch of a button on a keyset but programming that "anything" can be a complex set of maneuvers.
Students and techs have commented on other systems that when asked to perform a function slightly diverse of an existing feature it is a definite no. "This is how it is done" with no regard as to what the customer actually wanted. My experience with NEC is that 99% of the time there will be a simple work around that will meet the customers requirements or even another feature that surpasses their original expectations.
Now on the down side the documentation is not the greatest nor is it easily obtained by a customer. This could be considered a good thing in the eyes of some due to the complexity mentioned above. I have defintiely seen far better manuals on other systems.
Then as for support NEC is relatively cheap if you are certified. No charges unless you are not. I have heard a LOT of horror stories about support from Shortel lately from techs stating the inexperience of the support people if you can get hold of them. I also just heard that Nortel is moving their telephony support to overseas. To Mexico and Turkey. Don't know how true this is. Anyone else heard the rumour?