To continue on Nortel training path? 1

[GregL123]

Hi there,

Just thought I'd get people's opinions about this...

Do I continue on the Nortel training path with what is going on?

Whoever buys the Enterprise Division... are they going to keep the product alive? Are they going to migrate it into their own product with their own programing language/interface etc..

This is a question that I am battling.. is it worth going through Nortel training.. Should I hold out until it gets sold and find out the buying company's strategy, that way I can make a better informed desicion? it may change, it may not... Don't want to go through it and waste time and money (because Nortel training is ridiculiously expensive! Although I don't know if it is in line with other companies) if is going to be scrapped.

Anyway, curious about people's thoughts.

Thanks

Greg.

 

[mforrence]

No matter what happens, the products will be on the streets for years to come.
Mike

 

[GSmitherman]

Avaya has a history of buying the competition and killing the product. An example is Octel. Avaya bought it and killed it. It will be interesting.

 

[paterson]

No matter what happens, the products will be on the streets for years to come.

While this may be true, I don't want to be stuck working on old equipment/software at the expense of staying current on the new technologies coming out.

I have a feeling that the Technician Specialization (or as I like to describe it, "Technician Siloing") of the Nortel PBX that currently exists will get even more pronounced. This means that if you have the skill set for Nortel PBX, you should have no issues finding work.

You just have to ask yourself if you want to work on new stuff or stay stuck where you are!



_______________________________________________________________

If you did not take enough time to get it right the first time...

What makes you think that you have time to fix it?

 

[NECPBXtech30]

My opinion is... Go to NEC training!!

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Sir Winston Churchill

 

[pbxn]

I'd say yes continue with the Nortel training, but I'd personally try to get more of the IP related nortel training; IP fundementals, etc.. Doesn't hurt to have some database admin training as well, if you don't have it already.
You could also chose the path I'm currently working on, and that is add some Cisco to the knowledge catalog. Main reasons for me adding Cisco to my nortel training is so I'm not pigeon holed in the future of just being a nortel switch guy. TDM will eventually go away, maybe 10 to 20 years from now, with the advances of IP trunking, sets, SIP etc, its becoming more and more a hard sell for smaller business' not to go IP

 

[Sympology]

I'd agree with the above, although Cisco is not the be all and end all. Look ata Avaya and even Microsft OCS. Could even swing out to the likes of Audiocodes.
Must of our systems are now IP and have no TDM in them at all (most not Nortel kit). We bring the ISDN's into ISDN to SIp converters at our carriers sites, then belt them all around the world. So much easier than trying to resolve a ISDN issue with an East European Telco!

Most people spend their time on the "urgent" rather than on the "important."

 

[Dexman]

Quick detour.....

I think TDM will be around for a quite a while. Yes IP will grow and TDM will continue to contract, but there are still too many small venues where traditional telephone service makes more sense. Gas stations, churches, convenience stores, doctors' and dentist offices are some examples.

If it ain't broke, I haven't fixed it yet.

 

[pbxn]

Your right Dex. Guess I've been working big corp accounts too long, I tend to forget about the smaller venues. But with that said, with IP growing in popularity theres plenty of room out there for more start IP companies like Vonage to provide that service a heck of alot cheaper than TDM.

 

[Dexman]

Very true and for small venues, price seems to be what gets people to jump to the Packet8s and Vonages.

One of the main drawbacks to IP is when you lose power you lose your phones. The types of UPSs that small venues can afford won't hold a system up during a protracted outage.

With TDM service and systems like the Avaya Partner ACS, just hook up a few single line telephones and you're back in business for however long it takes for power to be restored.

Sorry for hijacking the topic again.

For the topic at hand, I would say to continue training on both IP and traditional systems as they will be around for years to come, no matter who takes over Nortel's Enterprise division.

If it ain't broke, I haven't fixed it yet.

 

[RMXRider]

Nortel will fade into history, like the rest - ROLM anyone?

Technology is a change or die field, if you are retiring in 5 years or less, then Nortel techs will have work.

If you want a career in this field, look elsewhere - Cisco, NEC, Avaya, MITEL are good bets.

You want to invest your efforts into companies that invest in themselves via R&D. If they arent willing to spend money to better their products - then they are just spinning down the drain of dead technology companies.



|Michael Berg|Communications Electrician|City of Los Angeles - Information Technology Services|555 Ramirez|Los Angeles, CA 90012|

http://ita.lacity.org

 

[RKDavis]

Rolm's downfall was whem it was purchased by IBM. They did this because Lucent purchased I belive NCR?. Then Siemens bought what was left of the Rolm line up. Mitel has the hospitality industry pretty much too itself. So I aggree with Dexman about TDM. I would get network training with emphasis on VoIP. I belive Nortel tech's will have at least 10 years of demand.

 

[peporter]

I am currently an ex-Rolm Engineer that did not want to go the way of Siemen or IBM and decided to go with NEC and eventually included Shoretel, Since Rolm eventually died away. Very little 8000 and 9751's left in the world. Some but not many. This took about 10 years to happen. So will Nortel. Give it about 10 years and it will to be pushed out of the way to allow for the bigger companies like Avaya, Cisco, and Mitel. Notice I did not mention NEC. I personnally feel that NEC is soon enough going the same direction as Nortel. Although they do have a great VoIP solution. There are just to many better and easier solutions for VoIP out in the market today. NEC has been having loads of financial issues in the past and my warm and fuzzy feels it probably will not last more then 10 years before it also meets its end and sell away. I agree that TDM is becoming a thing of the past, as is old tip and ring phone guys. You can work on 1A2 keys, small mom and pop venues and keep your head above water for a little bit of time. But not for very much longer. Now that VoIP is getting so much cheaper, safer, quicker intallation and easier to maintain from the Data side point of view. I have seen numberous IT/IMS companys oust their old and newer TDM systems just to replace them with VoIP systems, so that the Maintenance and administering of the system falls with in their own IT staff. Therefor killing the need for phone guys. If your not in the Data field now or at least heading that direction, that is the direction that we must all be heading or we will be left in the dust.

Phillip E. Porter
Senior Systems Engineer
VA Medical Center Louisville Kentucky
Telecommunication Solutions Group, Inc. (TSG)

 

[RKDavis]

I have noticed that when a Voip system is installed, that the IT/MIS data guys's control the switches,routers and backbone. The admin or physical duties are still handled by the "phone" guys. Configuring phones, MAC request,voicemail password resets and telco issues still fall on the "phone " guys.

 

[Dexman]

The thing about VoIP that gets me is that, in many instances, you need someone who is IT savvy on staff (or pay good money for a contract) in order to troubleshoot some of the even "Mickey Mousey" stuff. Also, in order to get decent sounding calls without sacrificing bandwidth, you would be looking for, at the minimum, a T1 pipe and some form of hosted service.

For larger companies in the "small business" category, that's all well & good. But where does that leave the little guy like churches, the corner store, gas stations and stand alone outfits that have no need for high levels of networking and can't afford the fixed costs associated with a T1 loop?

I'd be hard pressed to suggest to a business that they go with a provider that uses the public Internet for access (think Packet8, Vonage & Skype). Those are good for residential service, but in a business setting where you live by the phone and die by the phone, TDM still has the advantage of being able to deliver 99%+ uptime.

If it ain't broke, I haven't fixed it yet.

 

[GSmitherman]

VOIP whether you like it or not is the present and future of telecommunications. I agree 100% with peporter. I have seen more than one company close in Indiana recently. It seems the people at least familiar with data found new jobs. Most "phone" guys are still looking for work.

 

[RikRodgers]

I have to agree with you, Dexman.

I first went to voip school about 10 years ago, when the tech was still really new. I could see then that it was going to take off, but quality of service at that time was so bad I didn't consider selling it to my customers.

Over the last decade it's gotten better, but qos is still an issue.

Not even mentioning upgrading LAN's to handle twice the load, voip systems are at least twice the cost of a traditional ksu. Mom and pop companies simply can't afford the price tag.

 

[GSmitherman]

Rik, you must be selling the wrong VOIP equipment. The ShoreTel systems we sell have no QOS issues. Customers always say how much better the sound is over their previous system.
We sell to enterprise customers as well as small business. The system scales from 10 to tens of thousands. If I were looking at what training will benefit me, VOIP related training seems like the way to go.

 

[RikRodgers]

I've been making a pretty good living on traditional ksu's, and my customers haven't been impressed with voip price tags, so I haven't been pushing them.

In the industry's defense, most qos issues with voip anymore trace down to poor installation practice, but I have seen some systems out there (sorry, DLink.) that just measure up.

 

[alamtnman]

I've been considering some training my self. Do you think it would be better to go ccna/ccna voice or would I do just as well taking some asterisk, or shortel training. how much in common do all the voip systems have in common and how much is proprietary to the individual system.

Tim Roberts
RCDD
Roberts Low voltage Systems and Design