sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems Old NEC Aspire system challenges with Indepth Aspire, etc

After 10 years we are still running an old NEC Aspire 8-slot KSU PRI system at our call center. It has a 4-port VOIP card and we have one VoIP phone that sort of works without QoS. I have a couple of questions about this system because we appear to be set on keeping it another year.

First, for call reporting we use InDepth Aspire which requires a Windows XP desktop I keep on life support due to the age of the software and the requirement of parallel hardware dongle. Does anyone know if there is a way to run that software on Windows 8, perhaps upgrading to a USB dongle or eliminating the dongle altogether so I can virtualize the XP requirement? Or, are there any alternatives to the InDepth Aspire software that might run on Windows 8?

Second, would the Soft Phone application work with our VoIP card? Where can I buy a license for it? I'd rather not buy another refurbed VoIP phone...they and their power supplies seem delicate, which I assume is due to age.

Thanks for any help that might improve the speed of our limping along.

In case anyone reads this, our telco vendor told us that NEC advised them that Aspire parts are no longer available through them, including serial keys for their soft phone, etc.

System has been EOL for some time and had a hell of a run. NEC has 0% financing out now on the SV9100 and might be worth you looking into. Ten years in an eternity nowadays for a system and phones. Depending on how important it is for you having a working supported system now would be a great time before investing in more time and money into a dark hole. FYI the new ACD services can be virtualized.

I have a number of Aspire systems out in the field and have no problem getting new and good refurbed parts off the reseller market. That includes the Aspire IP sets. I try to run those from POE (rather than the wall wart power pack) - but depending on age, some of them are pre 802.11af and require a POE injector - won't work on a POE switch..........

Since these systems were still being sold by NEC as "new" and "cutting edge" as recently as 8 years ago - I was a bit disappointed at how quickly NEC dropped support on the system. Most of my customers do not consider 5 years an acceptable life span for a phone system.

Luckily - there were tons of these installed, so I don't see any issues getting parts for a long time to come. And forums like this provide a great resource for tech support.

Thanks for the responses. I found somebody with spare soft phone licenses, which are hard to find. But it's true there are plenty of sources for the hardware. We're going to ride this system out one more holiday season.