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