sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems Evaluating IPK 2 - Pros/Cons?

Good day. I'm an IT guy who has just been assigned the task of answering whether our company should migrate from an old ACD/Voicemail system to Electra Elite IPK 2 or upgrade the current system. The monetary cost of each option is comparable, although a switch to IPK 2 is slightly less (~5k).

So, management has asked me to provide an opinion from a "techie" point of view. However, I have never dealt with telephony systems before. Consequently, I'm soliciting opinions, pros/cons of IPK 2, gut feelings, or fingers in the breeze to help me form an opinion.

Anything would be valuable at this point as I am starting from square zero (not even at 1 yet).

Thanks in advance.

mp

The IPk 2 is a good switch (with a lot of features) but it is still a little buggy. The IPK2 hardware is about the best on the market right now, since it was refined in the Elite 48-192 and IPK platforms. The software is the down fall right now, the software comes from the Nitsuko Aspire now an NEC company. The software was converted to use the higher quality IPK parts and cabinet but not all the bugs have been worked out. NEC has been releasing bug fixes on a regular bases and I expect that with in the next month most everything should be worked out. Feature wise the IPK2 has the most programming options that I have seen in a Key system before, it has really inpressed all of our tech's.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I beg to differ with you about the IPK II software problems.
NEC Infrontia the manufacturer of both the Aspire and the Elite series actually took the Aspire CPU board and the Aspire software and converted it to use on the IPK series. The Aspire software was originally used in the I series for many years. The Aspire system has been on the market for over 3 years and has a solid reputation.

All new products are going to have bugs when they first come out.

NEC mainly did ths to reduce costs associated with manufacturing duplicate CPU's, Voice mail boards and even some of the phones.


DJ

NEC just released R1.5 & it works great.

I understand why NEC cwent the route they did, but the IPK 2 was released with a lot of bugs, normal in new systems, and most have been fixed but not all. Rumor has it that release 2.0 is due out soon and should fix almost all the other bugs and add some more features / get some feature to work more like the IPK. I beleive that when all the bugs are worked out the IPK 2 feature wise will beat all other systems, including the aspire and the DSX. Dr.PBX the r 1.5 fixed most things we have still found multiple things that don't work or do not work correctly, but the bulk of the things that were broke have been fixed.

I'm curious about one thing though, did the Aspire have the same bugs that the original IPK2 software had, or did the bugs come from the conversion. I have never gotten anybody at NEC to say yes or no.

And I stand by my orignal post the IPK2 is a great switch but I would hold off a couple of weeks until the rest of the bugs get fixed, or plan on having to do a software upgrade.

Thanks for the comments. We are looking at a 2-6 month window for doing the upgrade/changeover, so they will have time to release at least one more bug fix/software upgrade before we implement.

Anyone who thinks that it is not a good system? Now is the time to tell me.

Thanks again.

mp

We have installed 6 systems, we like them and our customers are happy with them

Dan S

Since it seems that everyone likes the IPK2 system, is there any advice you would give to us as we are in the planning stages? Things to consider, document, or watch out for?

Would you suggest hiring a contractor to install/configure the system or would you let the vendor do it? Or a combination?


Thanks again.

mp

Dans.. Have these 6 system been complex (ACD, CCIS, CTI, Hotel) or basic systems?? We're still on version 1.01 down here and it's buggy.. Can't even get the PC Assistant software to work on it..

The Aspre had small issues when it first came out, mostly problems with networking and some issues with centralized voice mail.

Any roll out of a new product these days has issues,mainly because the Sales division forces the issue to get the products out the door before the engineers have even finished alpha testing....

The Aspire series is all the way up to 5.21 and 6.0 is on the horizon.

So the IPK II started out at 1.01 but it was the same generic as the Aspire 4.1.

The IPK does have CCIS networking between other NEC products whereas the Aspire doesn't.

All in all both are good products and have really driven NEC to become the number 3 leader in phone equipment.

DJ

At this point I wouldn't bet the farm on it. We tried to do a CCISoIP this week to a 2000IPS and no go. Asking the folks in Oz it appears no one has tried it and there are no plans at this time. The IPT card in the IPS that is required to make this work looks like it will become obsolite as the IPS no longer needs this card for CCISoIP.
Will wait and see..

Paul W

Yes all 6 we have installed are basic system.

The IPK II was rolled out from NEC as an IPK I with 256 ports. A marketing nightmare! As a long time NEC tech, I felt like learning a new product from scratch. Make no mistake, this is a Ntsuko Aspire product.

However, I have been "appointed" as the IPK II "guy" at my company. The system IS feature rich, but, the programming is very complex.

I recommend buying from an authorized NEC dealer to ensure access to NEC technical support.

This IPK II system takes some getting used to from an old NEC tech's view, but, it will perform some wild apps!

I have only scratched the surface of this powerful beast!

Yes there sure are lots of features on the IPKII. Down our part of the world we were lucky that NEC released a 16/24 hybrib keyphone system called the Topaz that used the Aspire software. Talk about overkill. But the end result is that the installers who know the Topaz and the Elite systems should have minimal problems coming to grips with IPKII. However this remains to be seen as I start my dealer tech training here over the next few weeks..
Wonder how long before the loose the CPU Lisence activation sheets.

I completely agree with IPKII! My company has installed several IPKII (both new and upgrades) over the last two months. If this is a new installation for you, you'll probably be pretty happy with it...if you're upgrade from a previous version of the Elite, you'll have quite a few changes to get used to!

Make sure you get the system from an NEC dealer and be sure you feel comfortable with the sales/install team!

Yes I have an IPK II system installed in our office... The software that is on the system is one of the original releases. We are in line and ready to upgrade to the R1.5 but I was looking to see if some one could send me a list of what they fix for the R1.5 update... if any one can help this would be great.

Thanks,
OfficePhoneGuyNeedsHelp

Office phone guy.

Problem/Question: The Electra Elite IPK II Main Software version 1.50 has been released to introduce some feature enhancements and to resolve some field complaints reported about previous versions. The features that have been added or enhanced and resolved field complaints are listed below.

Feature Enhancements

· Alarm Reports (New Feature)
· Call Forward Centrex (New Feature)
· Call Forwarding
· Call Monitoring
· Digital Voice Mail
· Direct Inward Dialing (DID)
· Direct Station Selection (DSS) Console
· Directory Dialing
· Do Not Disturb
· Hot Key-Pad (New Feature)
· Hotel/Motel
· Internal Hub
· IP Station (MEGACO) – IAD (Integrated Access Device)
· IP Station (MEGACO) – MG16
· IP Station (SIP) – MG16 (New Feature)
· IP Trunk (SIP) – MG16 (New Feature)
· IPK II PC Assistant
· IPK II PC Attendant
· IPK II In-Mail
· IPK II VoIP Management System (New Feature)
· ISDN Compatibility
· K-CCIS – IP with PVA
· Name Storing
· Operator
· Programmable Function Keys
· Station Add-On Console
· T1 Trunking (with ANI/DNIS Compatibility
· TAPI Compatibility
· Transfer
· Unified Messaging
· Universal Slots
· Voice Mail Integration (Analog)

Please refer to the Electra Elite IPK II Features and Specification Manual for a full description of the features.

Resolved Field Complaints
· When using the Directory Dial Feature, if a station/virtual is removed from PRG 11-02/11-04, the station number still appears in the directory dialing with questions marks in the name field.
· If calls DIL to a virtual and the first call is answered, a second call to the virtual will not display the caller ID.
· If the IPKII is set to send outbound CPN, International calls can not be completed.
· When using a PVA with the MG16 software, making multiple calls sometimes results in degrade with clipping and white noise.
· In Band signaling on SLI ports does not work when a Digital Voice Mail is installed in an IPK II system. There are no integration options for In Band signaling for fax servers when an In-Skin Voice Mail is installed.
· When setting up dial treatment tables, WebPro does not allow a pause to be assigned.
· Caller ID Edit mode does not add the trunk access code to the caller ID on analog trunk calls.
· ISDN PRI does not work for 7 digit dialing.
· You get a fast ring tone instead of a busy tone when calling in on a DID that is not routed through system programming.
· Some Analog Voice Mails require a digit or digits to be in front of the extension number when forwarded to the Voice Mail so that it will divert the call directly to the forwarded extensions mail box. This setting was controlled in the IPK I by MB 1-3-07, but there is no such setting in the IPK II.
· When using Hotel/Motel, if a room phone has a specific status set (i.e. Maid Required, Maid in Room, etc.) and the room phone goes off hook and then back on hook, the status light on the DSS Console extinguishes and does not return to previous state.
· When programming In-Mail via WebPro, In-Mail ports cannot be assigned as DP and Special, and they cannot be assigned to a department group. WebPro will not display these ports.
· Once you've set a date in WebPro PRG 47-12-07, you can't change it back.

We've installed about 40 IPK II's some with ACD, several with CCISoIP, and a few with IP phones. There are a ton a features, but many do not work right, even after the 1.5 release. Some features shown in the book and in PCPro just don't exist. Some are just so confusing and complicated for the customer that they just can't deal with it. The IPK I was definately much more user friendly and easier to program, but it had a bunch of limitations that the IPK II does not have.

As for the initial software release, I'm a Toshiba dealer too, and when the CTX came out it was even worse. It took Toshiba over a year and 2 dozen software upgrade to get the CTX to even resemble a phone system. I'm not making an excuse for NEC, they clearly did not put the IPK II through enough testing, but typically after 1-2 years the software bugs do get worked out. They also put zero effert into the documentation which is almost worthless. There is no excuse for having an I&M manual with typo's and totally wrong instructions.

It also would have been smart if they had a format feature for the compact flash card (Toshiba does) so you can keep upgrading systems remotely. Once you run out of room on the card you have to go on site and erase the old software. Since NEC came out with 1.0, 1.1, 1.15, 1.5, and now 1.51 that's a real pain in the ass.

Andy
https://www.teleco4.com

It's still Nitsuko, NOT, NEC.

Period.

:bang: