Will SS and SS+U bankrupt Avaya

[jimbojimbo]

Looking at the SS and SS+U offerings from Avaya it is such a dramatic shift in the maintenance pricing structure that I am wondering if anyone out there is actually going to purchase it or will it lead to another delay in customers upgrading there systems. Trust me, you didn't budget for it.

I have a few suggestion for everyone on Avaya today.

1. Get a quote immediately for an upgrade to CM4.0 with utility maintenance for 4 years (you should have at least 6 months left to purchase CM4.0).
2. Get a quote for an upgrade to CM5.0 with SS+U for 3 years (due to initial product house discounts the SS+U is actually cheaper then SS).
3. If you currently have DCS or Enterprise Edition you MUST upgrade to enterprise edition. If you do not, DONT UPGRADE TO ENTERPRISE EDITION IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 500 PORTS. It will kill you on the maintenance. It ends up being cheaper in the long run to purchase standard edition and ala carte ESS/LSP licenses than to pay for the maintenance on Enterprise licensing (note: this may be something to discuss with your CFO since the license purchase and maintenance costs are treated differently). Standard Edition now includes QSIG and DCS so there really is no other compelling reason to switch unless you are a center stage ATM platform.
4. Based on 1 and 2 above act quickly to lock in. You will probably want to re-cast you maintenance for as long as possible.
5. WATCH FOR UPDATES ON THE PROGRAM FROM AVAYA.

 

[captainnick666]

Thier path is clear to me, if you want them to help you when you have an issue, pay big bucks.

this doesnt even include MM, AES, or the other products.

 

[Nick44]

I work for a BP.
We wouldn't take the kit on if we couldn't make money from it, and we couldn't take it on if we were more expensive than Avaya.
From a maintainer point of view it's a great product to have because it causes so few problems and the hardware is so robust.
When you do have a hardware failure and have to bite the bullet and buy in kit the cost can make you wince, but it's all swings and roundbouts at the end of the day.
The move to software based product will eventually change this, but it will take a long time to leech through. I still have 14 year old V4 kit on my books, never misses a beat and provides good revenue.


Speak softly and carry a big switch

 

[rejackson]

SS, SS+U, FCE, CMEE, SILO topology. I can usually get an idea of what some of these things mean by reading the comments but the most I can figure is that they are maintenance plans.

The only thing we have, and just got, is MSPs (Maintenance Service Permissions). I paid $300 to talk to Avaya one time over the last 2 years and that was a waste of money. Its cheaper to keep some spares around and trash what breaks.

BTW: With 30 years of IT background I can say that if Avaya plans to be a software only company they are in big trouble. The weakest part of their product is the short sightedness of their software development teams. It seems stable enough but I can't tell you how many times I run into limitations that just don't have to be there. Its like they don't understand the power of software over the old limits of circuit based systems.

 

[LucienJ]

Anyone out there got links/whitepaper, etc to this topic. We are currently on CM3, and need.want/have to upgrade to CM5.
Any suggestions welcome.

 

[jimbojimbo]

LucienJ

Read my first post. Find a business partner that understands SS and SS+U and can provide you with some "guidance". Depending on your systems, current licensing, quantity of RTU, etc... things can go a couple of different ways. DON'T upgrade to 5.0 until you fully understand the impact and have had both an upgrade to CM4.0 with utility maintenance and UPPCM quoted and also have a CM5.0 quote with SS+U quoted. Don't bother with just SS quote right now because Avaya product house special pricing on upgrade licenses makes SS+U more cost effective.