As an Avaya dealer the only major difference is the voice messaging. The little 4 mailbox/2 port VM quoted by your Avaya dealer is only capable of one menu, certainly not what you are going to need for multiple companies. There is a 12 mailbox version, but it too only supports only one menu. You are going to need the Partner Messaging R7. That supports four separate auto attendents that can handle four companies and 200 mailboxes if you needed to. I actually wouldn't worry too much about the number of ports. Surprisingly two ports are satisfactory in many instances where it isn't hammered like most small businesses. If you find that two isn't enough you can always upgrade the license card.

I would also question the dealer to see if he is actually authorized by Avaya to sell Avaya products. That can be easily done by going to the Avaya site. I would also check the Vodavi dealer but it's less likely he is not legitimate. Avaya products are available all over the net as gray market and it seems everybody and their grandmothers are selling it. The reason I question it is because the ACS R7 continues to have problems, many legitimate dealers will know enough to sell only the R6. Both the R6 and R7 are just as current, offer the same feature set but differ only in the number of lines and extensions on the one module.

-Hal

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