Mitel Forums > Non-Mitel Chatter

What are you using for a small digital phone system today?

(1/2) > >>

acejavelin:
What are people using for small digital or digital hybrid phone systems today? The office with under 20 phones, doesn't have or want network cabling done, doesn't want VoIP or hosted, but just a traditional digital phone system? We had sold ESI Comm servers for many years and they worked phenomenally well, but those are now End of Life and we need a replacement. Is Avaya IP Office the only real solution with digital phones that is viable? We begrudgedly support Avaya IP Office, mainly because we acquired another reseller who was a dealer, but would prefer not to continue that product line. So many of the companies that made great digital phone system are gone, which is understandable in todays market, but what other options are out there?

ralph:
Wow, that's painful.
I haven't touched a digital phone in years.
I'm not even sure that Avaya supports that anymore.
You may have to go to the used market for that.

But I'm curious, why doesn't the customer want to have network cables?  You'd still have to run cat 3 cables for digital phones and if they had any computers at all they'd need to have network cables anyhow?

Ralph

ZuluAlpha:
This isn't a real answer to the question but for us it's been a combination of ASU-II's (where single line is practical like lobbies) or Streamlines to get them to IP. Some buildings we support it is impossible to run data because data runs to switches are over 300 ft. Data users have a combo of wireless (LTE/5G and wifi) or no data at all in some areas. In a couple the Streamlines have provided wired access to data via the phone data port where none was available at all - albeit with slow bandwidth.

acejavelin:
We still run into the stigma that "VoIP is bad" sometimes and although most people will eventually get over it, some do not. A lot of our clients are very rural and just do not want IP... They want 5 phones with 2 lines and a shared fax, put a caller on hold here, press All Call and make a page, go to any phone and press Line button to answer calls. Most of these locations would have old Partner, Iwatsu, Toshiba, Comdial, or similar digital phones and they don't want anything else.

The cabling thing is funny... We see offices with say 3-6 employees, just a wireless router with a printer plugged into it and everything else is wireless... They don't want to pay to get Ethernet cabling just for their phones.

This is not for one customer, but it isn't a majority of them either, it would be a select few... Maybe a 6-10 systems a year.

Used isn't a viable option, customers want new. I know Avaya still makes and supports digital phones on their IP Office platform. I don't know, maybe Avaya is the only alternative right now... That is why I am asking if there is a small(ish) company out there making specialty products I am unaware of. 

With the sunsetting of the MiVO 250, we don't even look at Mitel for anything under 100 phones unless it's hospitality... Our primary push is our own hosted platform... For better or worse, it is  what it is and the direction of the company, but we still want that small digital option because we see the demand (although small) from our customer base.

lundah:
I think the small digital systems are going to die off anyway because the telcos are trying to get rid of their TDM infrastructure just as fast as the regulatory bodies will let them. At some point it will just be too expensive to keep POTS lines and PRI's unless it's converted at the demarc from VOIP of some sort.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Sitemap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 
Go to full version