atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information New phone system impressions

Background - We are a 7 location company with a total of about 65 handsets. 40 handsets at HQ, followed by 8,6,4,2,1,1 at the other locations. Most of the locations are connected via MPLS.

What started our search for a new system was the existing vendor for the current key system(NEC Aspire) at HQ raising their support contract to $5k this year and projecting at $7k for the next renewal. This caused owners to suggest that we should see what is out there.

I have previously overseen implementations of AT&T Definity 75, Nortel 6x16, Intertel Axxess systems. I cast a fairly wide net and ended up with a list that included the Avaya IP Office, Mitel 3300, Shoretel, Cudatel, Ipitomy, Allworx,HP/3com, and ESI.

Well after a 3 month search I think we have finally decided to go with an Allworx solution. At the end of the day the Allworx seemed to have the best blend of ease of use for both the user and the administrator, limited recurring licensing costs, and functionality. It was priced aggressively, about 30% below the Mitel and Avaya solutions but above the Ipitomy and ESI solutions. About even with the Shoretel price wise.

At the end of the day what really swung the deals was having a very well qualified and knowledgeable dealer presenting the Allworx.

Any gotchas I need to watch for as we go forward with Allworx??

Please don't use "handsets" when referring to the entire telephone set. It drives me bonkers.
-end of soapbox.

I don't see any problems that the Allworx system couldn't handle. It seems like you've done your homework.

If the installer that you've chosen is a Certified and trained Allworx partner who knows where to go for good, solid support on either the equipment or programming---and works with you very closely---I think you'll be very happy. That person (or company) that you're dealing with is the most important part of the equation. We're Allworx dealers and love the system--however, we have taken over some Allworx customers that were sold systems that weren't programmed right, didn't have the right software and then abandoned.

BTW---don't pay any attention to Minnesota Dave. He's a frustrated telephone guy and a frustrated Vikings fan.!!

The "Handsets" label for the telephones are part of the Allworx programming, and so is "Users" and "Extensions". From a programming standpoint ---they are all different. It took us a while to "get it", but now we do and it doesn't bother us as much as it did 7 years ago. Old habits are hard to break. :thumb:

My apologies to Dave - 65 telephones. I can beat frustrated Vikings fan, I am in St. Louis area and we have the Rams.

I definitely gave great weight to the choice of partner as is recommended on the board here. Every time I met with the vendor we chose I just grew more confident that not only could they understand what I wanted, they could provide me with examples o similar installations where they had actually done it.

For what it is worth, I found the Allworx and Shoretel proposals very close in terms of suitability for our application. The kind of surprise was the Iptitomy system was also close, but I just did not feel confident in the installer's track record with VOIP in general and multi office installations in particular. But it certainly looks to be an up and comer.

While I think that both the Avaya and Mitel systems could have met our needs as well, and ignoring the pricing issues, I really found their proposals kludgy. It seemed like both of those systems needed twice as many addon licenses and features turned up to achieve the functionality built into both the Allworx and Shoretel systems.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I second that statement !!!


...bob...