atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Old Nortel Guy Moving to IPO

Jim,
This appears to be the age old question, stay the course or head a different direction. Rule 101 states do what is best for the client, then what is best for Jim, if both are the same that is a good day in our field. So one would view from the position, is the client at a technology disadvantage if they spend their money on old technology verses new. Remember the client relies and trust that you would do the right thing for them. When directing a client, I use the 5 year plan as my guide. Therefore in five years from now did you place them in a better position for their business with the CICS or the IP Office?
As for Jim, in 5yrs are you in a better position with not getting Avaya training class. If the answer is yes then stay the course if No send me your email and I will forward you the Avaya upcoming training class. Knowledge is power Francis Bacon!

Thanks for all the input, folks. All good thoughts.

I'm going to propose a BCM 50 to my customer, along with changing all of their 7310 sets out to new t7316e sets. This will give them a similar feature set, they already know how to operate the features, it will be an upgrade to their CICS, and I've had some BCM experience.

So, I think it meets the requirements: The customer will get an upgrade with a system that I can support. I can support it now, without delaying for more training, aggravation, and stress. I believe the customer will do just fine with the BCM over the next five years. They want a system with support. That's me.

There might be an IP Office in the future, but just not now. Thank you everyone.

Jim

That is a good medium choice, I have changed out many Norstar systems for the BCM in the last 30 days. The customer will receive the IP feature set and yet save money on the expense of not replacing the handsets.

I dont care either way, but, do you tell teh customer that the BCM will be discontinued in March 2012? Or not?

Just curious if they know that. It is not a bad decision, as they will be in a better position for migration, if they need, to IP Office down the road.

Sure you can get IP with BCM, but not much else. I have not done as many BCM's as I have MICS & CICS, and not as many IP Office's as BCM's, but the feature set in the IP office is much better than any BCM. I won't do a BCM anymore unless specifically requested, and only after I explain that it is discontinued in less than 6 months. An IP Office can use existing Nortel sets and also add additional Avaya and Non-Avaya SIP sets. With BCM you are stuck with phones that aren't made anymore.

I let them know about the Nortel/Avaya history, and about BCM eol. They will still get support from me after that, and from others after me. I believe they will be fine.

Jim

let me know if you need anything. I am not as well versed on IPO as some of the other guys, but I know enough about BCM and IPO to give you some feedback on differences.

Just my 2 cents here; we are currently abandoning the sale (not support) of BCMs and going IPO all the way. Toughest part is letting go of Nortel way of thinking when attacking IPO; it IS NOT a key system; if you have clients used to have lines 1-2-3-4 on their phones and don't convince them to change their ways, boy they gonna hate you!

What's long to learn is the principle of short codes; once you grasp it, there isn't much you can't do with it, although you can rely on a old hag to find the ONE feature it doesn't do and she doesn't need if she wasn't so damn stubborn.

AS for the MWI on M series, you need to configure a button as VM collect; your button will have an indicator beside it at least.

You can re-use most of the Norstar features everybody knows, with some little differences. Forget about call park though; that one is totally different.

IPO on Partner or Norstar mode is indeed disappointed for a key replacement . We bite the bullet and jumped over full blown IPO and did not regret at all . Still love the call pilot but VM pro is darn scary powerful and it is , dare to say ,fun to program it.
Automatic route fail over from PRI to POTS , phantom users ... Those are what we ask for years but never get in N* nor BCM .
Now if Avaya can give us vector programming ,I will dump all my Cisco tcl scripts and go 100 % vaya

you have vector programing..its called short codes! :toothy:

seriously, though, what do you want to do with vector programming that you can't already do on IPO?