Which PBX to choose? Avaya or Cisco?

[Dan24]

Hi,

We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).

I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...

Thanks in advance,

Danny

[Mike Schumann]

What's wrong with your old Panasonic PBX?

Mike Schumann

Post by Dan24
Hi,
We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).
I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...
Thanks in advance,
Danny

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

[Dan24]

Post by Mike Schumann
What's wrong with your old Panasonic PBX?
Mike Schumann

Post by Dan24
Hi,
We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).
I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...
Thanks in advance,
Danny

** Posted fromhttp://www.teranews.com**

No PRI support. Too much money to upgrade and no one will support it
(distributor claims it's no longer supported and replacement parts are
unavailable).

[s***@comcast.net]

For an office that size, and with a small remote location, I'd look into a hosted VoIP
solution from someone like M5 Networks:

www.m5net.com

or Covad

www.covad.com

or Vonage

www.vonage.com

Post by Dan24

Post by Mike Schumann
What's wrong with your old Panasonic PBX?
Mike Schumann

Post by Dan24
Hi,
We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).
I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...
Thanks in advance,
Danny

** Posted fromhttp://www.teranews.com**

No PRI support. Too much money to upgrade and no one will support it
(distributor claims it's no longer supported and replacement parts are
unavailable).

[unknown]

Post by Mike Schumann
What's wrong with your old Panasonic PBX?
Mike Schumann

A better question might be "What's wrong with Mitel?" - Why aren't they
among your list? Might it interest you to learn that Mitel won a 'best of
Interop' award this year (2008) in the VOIP and COllaboration category,
beating out both Avaya and Cisco?

And yes, Mitel does make an ideal small business PBX in their 3300-CXi
model.

--
Hooked On Ebonics, Lesson 5: Use the word "fortify" in a sentence.
FORTIFY: I axed dis ho how much an she said fortify.


----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

[Hongtian]

Hi Danny,

I think your requirement is simple. Why not try miniSipServer? It is
professional SIP server for windows platform and very easy to use.

Post by Dan24
Hi,
We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).
I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...
Thanks in advance,
Danny

[Dan24]

Post by Hongtian
Hi Danny,
I think your requirement is simple. Why not try miniSipServer? It is
professional SIP server for windows platform and very easy to use.

Post by Dan24
Hi,
We are a small business with 15 employees and are recently reviewing
some offers to upgrade our old Panasonic PBX to a new one. We have 14
employees in our main branch and another employee in a remote branch.
We have 2 very competitive offers from Avaya for IP Office 500 with 14
digital 5410 phones and 1 IP phone for the teleworker and the offer
from Cisco includes 2811 router running Cisco Communications Manager
Express (CME) with 15 IP phones model 7911.
One of the things that bothers me with Avaya is that their solution is
not pure IP and they don't support SIP phones (only SIP trunking). On
the other hand, their solution seems to have more features than
Cisco's (the free Phone Manager Lite software for example) and I heard
they keep updating IP Office with new features in each version
(version updates are also free).
I need some help making a decision here, please share your thoughts &
experience...
Thanks in advance,
Danny

Our telephony uptime is extremely important and we can't afford to
have it running on a windows server (not that there's anything wrong
with Windows, just that from my experience computers crash more often
than dedicated hardware).
If you want a reliable solution running on Windows that also requires
purchasing reliable hardware (with redundant components) and putting
together the hardware+software cost would probably be too expensive.
Besides, I prefer a company that manufactures both PBX and phones
since that allows for usage of maximum features and interoperability.

[unknown]

In article

Post by Dan24
Our telephony uptime is extremely important and we can't afford to
have it running on a windows server (not that there's anything wrong
with Windows, just that from my experience computers crash more often
than dedicated hardware).
If you want a reliable solution running on Windows that also requires
purchasing reliable hardware (with redundant components) and putting
together the hardware+software cost would probably be too expensive.
Besides, I prefer a company that manufactures both PBX and phones
since that allows for usage of maximum features and interoperability.

All the more reason to consider MITEL. If you ever find yourself being
forced onto a VOIP platform, there's nothing out there today more stable
or bulletproof than a resilient Mitel MXe-3300. MITEL is also a legacy
PBX manufacturer (not a marketing company like Cisco). MITEL has been
designing PBX systems and telephones since the mid 1980s. The shit simply
works. You couldn't ask for anything better.

- - - - - AND..... it doesn't run on MS Windows

in fact, the very newest MITEL 3300 Communications Director (MCD),
presently in late beta trials, is running on a SUN SunFire X-4150 sever
under Linux. If you're needing a phone system that you could launch into
outer space and have it still working upon return to Earth, you've found
it.

There's still plenty wrong with MS Windows. While I would have to agree
that MS Windows has come a very long way in recent years, it still
requires periodic reboots and *frequent* patch management. That's NOT
where you ever want your phone system to be. If you're in the market for
a dime store or duct tape phone system, there's plenty of them running on
Windows, in all price ranges, from Asterisk to Microsoft OCS.

--
Hooked On Ebonics, Lesson 12: Use the word "hotel" in a sentence.
HOTEL: I gave my ol lady da crabs and da hotel everybody.


----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

[f***@gmail.com]

Post by unknown
In article

Post by Dan24
Our telephony uptime is extremely important and we can't afford to
have it running on a windows server (not that there's anything wrong
with Windows, just that from my experience computers crash more often
than dedicated hardware).
If you want a reliable solution running on Windows that also requires
purchasing reliable hardware (with redundant components) and putting
together the hardware+software cost would probably be too expensive.
Besides, I prefer a company that manufactures both PBX and phones
since that allows for usage of maximum features and interoperability.

All the more reason to consider MITEL. If you ever find yourself being
forced onto a VOIP platform, there's nothing out there today more stable
or bulletproof than a resilient Mitel MXe-3300.  MITEL is also a legacy
PBX manufacturer (not a marketing company like Cisco). MITEL has been
designing PBX systems and telephones since the mid 1980s. The shit simply
works. You couldn't ask for anything better.
- - - - - AND..... it doesn't run on MS Windows
in fact, the very newest MITEL 3300 Communications Director (MCD),
presently in late beta trials, is running on a SUN SunFire X-4150 sever
under Linux.  If you're needing a phone system that you could launch into
outer space and have it still working upon return to Earth, you've found
it.
There's still plenty wrong with MS Windows. While I would have to agree
that MS Windows has come a very long way in recent years, it still
requires periodic reboots and *frequent* patch management. That's NOT
where you ever want your phone system to be.  If you're in the market for
a dime store or duct tape phone system, there's plenty of them running on
Windows, in all price ranges, from Asterisk to Microsoft OCS.
--
Hooked On Ebonics, Lesson 12: Use the word "hotel" in a sentence.
HOTEL:  I gave my ol lady da crabs and da hotel everybody.
----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----http://www.pronews.comThe #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to add (no offense) that in my opinon PBX is a out of date
system. The phone system I have rad the most positive feedback of is
GoHello. It is very user fiendly and the interface I can personally
recommend. Look into this adress I you will find a free try out !

www.gohello.com/12b3