atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems NEC v Mitel

Curious what your thoughts as vendors/support team are on the benefits of this system to Mitel for locations with <100 users. Desktop interaction is a huge benefit and Mitel really seems lacking here. How does NEC compare?

You can't go wrong with NEC, lots of large hotels with their systems.

You will find that NEC can do desktop with digital phones if your network isn't up to voip standards. Of course they offer a full voip system if need be. You really need to have what you want the system to do for you in order for anyone to put you down the right road. How you want calls handled, reporting, conference calls and all that. When up have a list if what you want down to the last item there won't be any oh btw what about this after the system is in. From you original post the NEC with a UCB server will do all that. That's why talking application vs what you want to spend vs real world comes into play. Hope that helps! At the end of the day vendor skill will be key.

I've worked on and installed both. Mitel in the 90's and early 2000's and NEC in the 90's to present day.

Both manufactures have a solid product, and with the right installer can be made to perform to meet your expectations.

NEC's desktop product has been updated about every 5 months and Red Phoenix is really pushing the web based version which should be available this year. The NEC SV8100 PBX equipment is rock solid and the failure rate for the hardware in minimal.

Put as much effort into finding the proper vendor/installer as you put into choosing the product and I'm sure you'll be satisfied.

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Correct me if I am misled, but I was told that Mitel no longer offers a TDM option. Their phones are IP only whereas NEC still offers a lesser expensive option of TDM pnones. This is a good option for those businesses that are small and/or do not have VoIP ready networks. You can still mix and match both technologies.

My two cents here: I'm with doghart: I've installed both and both are solid brands with good support.

NEC, imho, tends to be what I call an "Engineer's switch" -- you need the manual in hand while you program it, and it will do a lot of neat things if you can get all of the pieces to fit together. Some of us used to joke that the 2000 IPS used to run on voodoo. But once it's up and working, it's bullet-proof. I've got some IVSes from around 1999 that are running without a hitch. For example, speed dial buttons have to be set up in the button program (90yy=00), set to ring in the button ringing program (90yy=01, default is "ring"), then programmed on the phone by remembering a button sequence.

Mitel, imho, tends to be what I call a "User's Switch." -- you don't need the manual in hand, though it's useful to have it close by. It tends to work the way that the user expects; Speed dial is programmed by pushing the superkey until it says "personal keys?," selecting the button, and then punching in the dial string.

I find the Mitel sx-200 line to be much more forgiving. But the NEC 2000s and 2400s are robust feature-rich systems also.

That used to be the case back when. The new SV8100 line comes over from a totally different concept. In fact the entire system has built in web administration (multiple classes of service) with a help tab that walks a user though the steps.

Having worked on NEC systems for the past 15 years I don't thing that the SL /SV systems are end user friendly compared to other systems out there..

Interesting. I also have been selling NEC for the last 15 years (even i-series) All my end users find SV/UX systems really easy. In fact I have sold more than a few by simply showing how easy it is compared to the competition.