Hello everyone
We have been using a wireless Polycom phone in one of our boardrooms for a couple of years. The quality of the audio on the phone is excellent, however, operation is a nightmare. When trying to hold a conference call the user dials the first party, presses the "flash" button calls the second caller, presses the flash button again and then presses *333 (not actual number, but that's not really important). Then, if they want a third party in on the call they have to press flash again, dial, flash, code. This in and of itself is cumbersome but not a deal breaker. The deal breaker is that if a party is called and they don't answer there is no way to drop the call without disengaging everyone on the call!
We have looked at solutions like a MAS and Lync integration. Both are great looking solutions that we are excited about. the issue is that it becomes are scenario where people must call in to a conference. There is a desire to be able to make calls on the fly easily.
We currently have 5212 and 5312 as desk phones and they handle conference calls properly. We are also using a 5324 with a "saucer" in a smaller board room. It does provide the functionality that we require but it has 2 draw backs. 1) the about of cables that need to be run make it look unprofessional (Cat 5 to the phone and then to the saucer plus an external power plug to the saucer) 2) The boardroom in question is much larger and the saucer does not provide enough coverage for large meetings.
The only option that my reseller could come up with was to have a 5312 in the room, set up the conference on there and then transfer it to the Polycom. While this solution will work it is not as elegant as it should be. I don't really want to have 2 phones in the room if I don't need them.
So, my question is, what are you all using? Anyone else using Polycom with Mitel and having a better experience? what about other phones for boardrooms?
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
