MiCollab 7.3 iPhone 11.x Confirmation

[anikan]

As per my previous post apologies if I use the wrong terms, I haven't looked at our phone system in probably 5 years (I don't even have a logon) and due to role changes I now have re-inherited responsibility and am trying to catch up - hope someone can help.

I have inherited a MiCollab 7.X project conceived in 2016, installed at cost in April 2017 and never worked since.

Our controller is an 8 year old MXE 3300 running 7.3. We have the compatible version of Call Centre installed. The vendor does not want to upgrade the MXE 3300 to 8.X because they say the hardware is failing, there are no parts and it will cause compatibility issues flowing on to Call Center requiring its upgrade and so on.

After a meeting today the vendor advised that we could fix the MiCollab 7.X install allowing testing and 10 or so users to use it whilst in parallel we work on  the upgrade of the controller hardware, software, call center, possible virtualisation then work back to MiCollab 8.X.

Somewhat happy that there was progress I have come back to two issues:

a) It appears the month after we installed MiCollab there was the mandated 8.X upgrade for iPhones (https://4sightcomms.com/mandatory-micollab-8-0-upgrade-for-apple-ios-users/)

Is someone able to tell me whether iPhone iOS 11.X is still compatible with MiCollab 7.X and are there any significant end user impacts? Or are we dead in the water, either upgrade everything to 8.X or change phone systems?

b) MiCollab is incompatible with 74 of our handsets as they are 52xx models - is someone able to explain why a handset become incompatible with MiCollab given it is a software solution?

Thanks for any help, after going back and forth for the last couple of weeks I am coming to the conclusion either the Mitel suite and licensing is too complicated, our vendor can't explain it well, Im getting really dumb with age, or to get just two test users on MiCollab I have to upgrade everything.
 

[VinceWhirlwind]

The first question is - what is your voice carriage service? ISDN or SIP?
If it's SIP, then it's a no-brainer: buy an upgrade to virtual licence, then replace the 3300 with a virtual server.
If it's ISDN, then you should still consider buying an additional controller licence and then move all your users to a new virtual controller leaving the old one there just as an ISDN gateway.
 
Your vendor is probably on the right track - those 3300s are a nightmare. It could be that yours doesn't have the memory to support v8, or it could be that your vendor has been burnt once and have decided to never risk the time and effort of upgrading one ever again. Or both.
 
Upgrading the MiCollab is very easy. You just build a new server with the correct specs and the software wizard will access the old one, copy its config over and then switch the old one off. You should get this done. Your vendor will need to give you the .ova or .msi (depending on whether you have VMWare or HyperV).
MiCollab 8 is fine with Controller v7.
 
I don't know what the "MiCollab is incompatible with 52xx model handsets" could refer to. Doesn't make sense. MiCollab Client runs on the desktop and talks to the controller. The controller talks to the phones. The important thing is that the controller version supports the handsets (which it does).
 
Having said that, the new 69xx phone models are really good, and the price is good too. (Well, not the 6920s, we've had to RMA so many of them you wouldn't believe). You'll need controller v8 to support them.

[acejavelin]

I have a different take on this...

95% of all the systems we have out there are physical 3300's, and as long as you don't have a original CX/MX or an LX controller, and you have 512MB or better of RAM, you shouldn't have any problems upgrading from 7.X to current... an "8 year old" system is probably an MXeII or a CXII, which the only issue with parts is the hard drive since it is EIDE and not SATA, but honestly you can use off the shelf 80GB-250GB drives which are still plentiful and cheap online. That said, virtual is the way to go and if you have the VM environment in place, by all means do it!

MiCollab should be upgraded to current... especially if iPhones are used as mobile clients, although if you have a solid MDM system you can deploy the old app version as an interm solution.

I have also not heard of the 52XX incompatibility issue with MiCollab, perhaps for flow through provisioning, but we have systems with MiCollab with digital sets and they work for basic desktop clients so I don't see why 5212/5220/5224 sets would be an issue, but if you have some of the oddball ones like a 5235 they are an issue, but I don't think it's MiCollab but MiVB 8.0 doesn't support them anymore.

As Vince said, the 69XX series of phones are great on the 3300, but the 5320/30/40 sets can be purchased quite cheaply on the secondary market and are workhorses that have an extremely long life span, although consider the "e" models if you require gigabit connectivity.

[anikan]

Thanks for the advice all, really appreciate it, especially for a "guy off the street".

Our system is the original MXE - I dont think it is a II and I know it isnt a III - thats what the vendor want to upgrade to.

We have ISDN, SIP is a bit difficult where we are, and in 1 to 3 year we are relocating to a new site - 250+ people, two factories, warehouse the lot - totally greenfields - we may not even stay Mitel.

So Im trying to figure out how to keep the world going for a year or two, not have the global HQ phone system reliant on a PATA / IDE drive and not spend money in private manufacturing - oh and deliver everything that's wanted now. Fun times.

Have heard I can swap our the PATA drive in an emergency, our local provider appears to be conservative, if I was using our Indonesian or Vietnam providers I don't think this would be considered so "difficult" or "risky".

So I think my plan is that I will get the controller virtualized, leave the MXE as the ISDN gateway, possibly even upgrade it to a minimal MXE III even if its "just for insurance". Then when the new site is up, SIP it, hook the SIP to the virtual and decommission the MXE.

Just need to figure out the timing for OS upgrades, we are 4 our 5 people effectively looking after a 1000 - resources are very stretched and I need to keep Call Center going.

My understanding if we upgrade the controller to v8 we have to do Call Center at the same time but we can leave the clients on the old software and catch up with their end device upgrade and training later. The business wants me to continue a MiCollab trial, even if its 7.X whilst all this is happening then catch up to 8 when all done. Again fun times.

Like you guys I have been very confused by the 52XX incompatibility and challenged our vendor twice, for ref here is what they said: "...the 52xx series handsets do not work as they cannot be linked via the MiTai proprietary signalling. This was only a capability introduced in the 53xx series phones...".

Im disappointed, they are a workhorse, the 100Mb is a problem but Im getting great deals on the 2nd market - probably as everyone is trying to get rid of them.

Thanks again for the comments / advice. Really appreciate it. I might post some other questions if thats ok - its a challenge to not having been in this work for so long to come back to 6 challenges in one month.

One last thing, from your guys opinion and experience, if you were going greenfields for 250+ staff - would you stay Mitel? Half my meetings seem to be our vendor apologies how "confusing" the software / options / licensing / roles are.

Note we have recently installed Mitel controllers in New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and about to do China - so moving aware from Mitel for the HQ would be a big step.

[VinceWhirlwind]

I think you should bump the MiCollab upgrade up your list of priorities, as your call centre agents can use the desktop client for managing calls which is usually a good step up from managing them via the handset only.
The upgrade order should be:
MiCollab - this one's easy, plus it sounds like you're not using anything on the MiCollab so pretty risk-free. Make sure you enable AD sync so that provisioning users becomes much more seamless. You'll have to figure out how to make MiCollab 1. Talk to AD, 2 Talk to Exchange. You'll have to figure out a good template to use to provision your users.
MiCC - seeing as this is just a Windows server you shouldn't have too much trouble with this.
MCD - pretty straightforward, but these things are pretty cranky. The reason your provider is being conservative is that after opening one of these up to swap bits, it might never boot up again.
 
A site move is definitely the ideal opportunity to change things, although you don't want to be making too many major changes during the actual relocation.
 
Staying with Mitel is a good idea because most of the financial investment is in the user licences which you already have. As far as functionality goes, it's up there with the best.
Moving to another vendor would be either:
 - expensive (eg Cisco Call Manager)
or
 - disappointing (eg Skype-for-business).