SX200 vs 3300

[ctmedina]

I was not quite sure which forum to post this in, but I have some questions regarding the difference between these 2 systems. My VAR has not mentioned anything about the Sx200, most likely becasue they were an Inter-Tel shop before the merger and now only sell the 3300 line. So I guess my biggest question is what can I do with a 3300 that I cannot do with a SX200? And vice versa! Is the cost difference significant? I know the programming interface is different, but if I have some 3300 knowledge, can I learn the SX200?

Any input would be helpful.

Thanks,
Carlos Medina   

[ralph]

I only touch the 200ICP everyone in a while.
The interface is completely different.   If you like the 3300 interface, you won't like the 3300.
I find it much more difficult to work on the 200.  Much of what can be done very easily on the 3300 can be a significant challenge on the other.
Call rerouting is one thing I can point at.  Not as much control as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sure the 200 guys are gonna want to poke my eyes out for all this.

In general, the 200ICP is designed for smaller customers.   If your company is of any size, I'd suggest you be a lot happier sticking with the 3300.

Ralph

[Chakara]

  I've touched a 200 - and few 3300's.  One thing I like on the 200 is the xfer to voicemail.  Just works without all the pain of programming.

  That said, I'm not a fan of the 200.  Over the years I have run cost comparisons on 200 vs 3300 several times for small installs (say 20 phones).  It has gone back in forth, with the 3300 being just slightly more to being significant more.  The last time I ran it the (probably 2-3 years ago) the difference was trivial and I've sold that to the company now, so we aren't doing new 200's anymore.

-Chak

[bluewhite4]

We've had 4 or 5 200's in the world, and just recently replaced two of them with 3300s.

There used to be huge differences between the two. The 200 is/was a key-system, and the 3300 if a PBX. The 200 was what you wanted for a hotel; it had all the hotel PMS integration you'd want. The 3300 was meant for large companies. Over the years, these distinctions have faded, and now the 3300 can do almost everything a 200 could. Still a few features missing, true on-touch day/night button that lights when in nights.

Originally the 200 was the only system to have "Call Park" obviously that has been brought to the 3300 now.

Like Chakara said, the 200 has a much better interface for transferring calls directly to a voicemail box. It has always been a "hack" to do it on the 3300.

DID handling, the 3300 has always had the better options.

[ralph]

Somewhere in the back of my aging mind, I seem to remember that the 3300 now includes a day/night button with LED.   
Version 4.2?

Ralph

[bluewhite4]

Somewhere in the back of my aging mind, I seem to remember that the 3300 now includes a day/night button with LED.   
Version 4.2?

Ralph

Your partially right. 4.2 does give you a Day/Night indicator button, but if you press the button it doesn't do anything. If you did it on a 200, it would switch between days/nights.

[Chakara]

  Waste of a button, IMHO...

-Chak

[bluewhite4]

And for me it would be. But for companies too small or too cheap for a 5550, there is no easy way to know the what mode the system is currently in. So now that the 3300 can give me that Day/Night indicator, great, but then I also have to have a button to change the mode? That to me is the real waste.

[ralph]

I've got a case (on a 2k) where a user swears they put it in night mode and then it "goes back to nights all by it self".
I can see in the logs where the user never put it in day mode at all.
Obviously a crack smoker.
This is where a button with a LED would come in very handy.

Ralph