sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information How long to most people keep their phone system?

I was reading that most people get a new car every 5 years on average.

I was just curious how long you find most people keep their telephone system? Does anyone have a customer who changes phone quite frequency for no apparent reason or vise versa someone who is running on a dinosaur phone system that beings museum.

When you change a phone system, what reasons do you generally find for the change?

1. Wanted upgraded technology features such as VOIP,CTI, etc..
2. Wanted more reliable equipment(old equipment was always breaking)
3. Wanted newer looking phones(cosmetic only)
4. Needed more stations for increased number of employees.
5. Other

This could be an interesting post.

Thanks.


[This message has been edited by sonic_blue_rocks (edited January 18, 2005).]

Most of my customers keep what they have for as long as it will last. Since the older Toshiba dk systems seem to last forever, a technician could starve waiting on customers to voluntarily upgrade. Most users hate to learn how to use new systems as well as new computer programs. My opinion and $1 will get you a cup of coffee in some places.
JBW

Well on our ESI and NEC systems about every 5-6 years. On our Tadiran/Sprint systems never. I have some system bought in 1986 running VOIP and the latest software.

The company I work for is a 3rd party refurb house.
The bulk of our work is about 20 yrs in age.
We refurb for large and small interconnects and some OEM's. We have a saying here, "we are on the leading edge of declining technology"! The neweset product is done for OEM's while the bulk is for the interconnects who have a large customer base, and yes, comapanies keep their phones for as long as they can. People expect these 20 yr old phones to work as well as they did 20 yrs ago.

I have one customer that still uses a NEC 2400MMG system Ver 4102 software...Circ..1982

Customers tend to understand comparisons to computer technology more so than they do telephone technology. Although it isn't a perfect comparison, when customers start having repeated breakdowns, I try and make the correlation of how old their phone system is compared to the age of the oldest PC in their office. Nothing lasts forever. At some point, the investment spent in repairs, frustration, and downtime ends up costing more than an investment in a new system with updated and newer technology.

Its seems very rare to install a completely new phone system for a company looking to upgrade. Most of the time people just keep their phone system for as long as it will last. The phone system manufacturers still produce a lot of new systems each year. I guess most of them go new offices installing a phone system for the first time?

Which 20 year old system is working with VOIP technology?

Thanks.

Tadiran Coral. Now sold as Sprint Flexicom. Everything is backwards compatable so ekt's (ugly) bought in the 80's are running on the latest versions.

If the system has caller ID and decent VM/AA
its hard to justify a new one unless maintenance costs mushroom or you outgrow it.