Could use some feedback on this situation. First, I'm not a phone expert, but I'm a half-decent IT Manager who's managed to get more out of our 5000 than others before me.
So our association is moving locations. I have the base 5000 with some expansion modules, integrated VM (not enterprise) and Multitech Fax. Our handsets are the older digital Inter-Tel models. I have some traditional fax machines and analog polycoms on the floor. The polycoms works great, once I got rid of the Konnex Digital/Analog converters and had Mitel run analog lines to the conference rooms.
In the new location, the current plan is to provide 2 RJ45 connections to the offices...Cat 6 for the PC's running GB connections and Cat 5e for phones, which would be new Mitel Handsets that I'll roll into our current Mitel lease (we're serviced by Mitel...not a dealer. I love our tech, but not as much the sales org). I would assume that most with agree with me that it would be un-wise to wire our new space for digital phones. This is the opportunity to upgrade handsets.
My understanding of our 5000 (which is currently at OS 5.X and I've scheduled an upgrade to 6.X) is that it supports the IP phones just fine. However, can I still keep those few analog phones such as the Polycoms and the Fax Machines? I really don't want to get into Ethernet based conference phones. They seem a lot more expensive, especially in the Mitel line, and the Polycoms are cheap and work great.
We also have a VM running MAS 3.0 which serves as our UCA server. And we have a physical machine running MAS 3.0 which serves as our AWC server. After we upgrade our 5000 to 6.X, I am tackling the unification of those two MAS boxes into one. I'll just say it has been really hard working with Mitel on that. The obfuscation factor has been high. But I have minimum 2 years left on our lease, and after we add these new handsets, I'll probably be going back to a new 5 year lease.
Thanks.
Adam in DC