atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Cisco Telephones and Systems The install finally begins - UC560

Oh yeah I almost forgot.

The solution to the 3100 range not working?

Change the range to 3300..........

Luckily it was only 10 extensions/blast groups to change.

Works like it should now, and we never did find the reason the 31## numbers would not dial.

Though I have not dug into the phones themselves to see if 31# is some sort of shortcut combo. I will investigate that after things settle down.

Some day you will have to figure how much time per handset you have spent. Still 10 extension out of 70 is quite a few. Keep up the good work!

This is an amazing ordeal you have went through. My customers would never had accepted that they had to help with the install, and quite frankly, I would never have let them. I am curious what you got billed for installation, and if they plan on reducing the charges in any way. Would you be as so kind as to tell us who you compared to Cisco? and why you went with Cisco versus another brand?

Based on what I've read, AVAYA IP Office would have been started and finished over a weekend. This is not a large install.

I am not sure I want to sit down and figure out the hours. It has been a ton.

I now have a firm understanding of what needs to be done at each remote location to make things work. So the time spent at each will be much lower in the next week.

As for installation. It was quoted at 30 hours to do the entire setup from start to finish. This included all testing and final cut-over.

I spent that many hours in the first 2.5 days....

As for the systems we had quoted:

Hosted solution - through local cable company, lowest up front cost, highest monthly cost and I had little control over it.

Panasonic solution - lowest cost, but quote did not include any installation fees, not a very good feeling from the salesman.

Cisco - 2nd lowest cost, we had an existing Cisco network and it was coming from a large company. Plus they gave us a price break on the PRI if we ordered the equipment, this was the deciding factor.

Allworx - This was a VERY close 2nd, and I was very much wanting to go this way but the price break on the PRI tipped it in the other direction.

Toshiba - current vendor wanted to tie 3 existing systems together, add more systems at remote locations and basically keep building on what we had, this was in my eyes a mess and a bigger administration headache. Plus it was the 2nd highest cost.

Shoretel - great product, great presentation, even greater price, was just out of the budget as it was twice what the Cisco system came in at.

2nd quote on the Cisco solution. Had another large vendor quote the same cisco system, came in quite a bit higher then the one we went with.

That was the quoting process and solutions we were presented with. I really really liked the Allworx setup, but the price breaks on the Cisco were the deciding factor.

And now I know why.....

As for me doing a lot of the work.

In the beginning when we sat down with the engineers and went through my network I was told, "It should work with the setup you are running now"

Turns out they were wrong in that aspect and thus why I had so many issues. If they would have said in the beginning "You will need to setup a separate voice network thoughout the agency" I would have had that up and running before the gear even showed up. But the fact that I was told "It will work as is" is what is really really ticked me off.

On top of that the fact that our install is/was being used as a training tool just pushed me more.

I voiced that concern yesterday to the entire "team" and was met with a lot of apologies and claims of responsibility, but no resolution.

I will wait to see what happens on Tuesday when I am back in the office as its a long weekend up here and I am in need of a break.

Its Sunday again, and I will pray for you again.
Boy you really got the shaft with this one.

This tread will become part of my next sales proposal when we go against CISCO.

I'm supprised you did not look at AVAYA IP Office, it would have knocked Cisco out of the box.

Thanks again Tomorrow is a Holiday up here so no fighting with any systems.

None of the vendors pitched an Avaya solution. Though one of them mentioned it then pitched the Shoretel.

As for Cisco, its not Cisco's fault my vendor sucks. I have had nothing but great dealings when I have talked to the Cisco TAC folks.

It certainly is Cisco's fault ...... they allowed that vendor to become a Cisco dealer!

I have a customer that had a UC560 ..... until the vendor told them in order to program the system for the PRI they had ordered it would require the system to be removed from service for a week and sent out to someone to program. When he told me this i told him i could walk him through programming a PRI on systems i sell in about 30 seconds.

Really??

What is a business supposed to do without their phone system for a week??

In the time it took their old vendor just to program a PRI we had ordered and installed a brand new system and he put the UC 560 in the garbage.

And the reason he went to Cisco in the first place was that the vendor / sales rep promised that 5 or so advanced applications would work ..... NONE of them did.

Welcome to phones from the computer industry!

I’ve been reading this thread from the beginning, thinking that this is such a simple installation. What’s the big deal; just another day at the office.