awillerton

Hi there,

I'm new to telecom and have been tasked with putting together a proposal for changing out our aging PBX System.

We have three locations connected by WAN and would like to integrate all three using VoIP. The locations are approximately as follows:

Location 1 - 150 users
Location 2 - 70 users
Location 3 - 40 users

I have gotten proposals from 2 vendors. There are as follows:

1) Mitel SX200 ICP w/MX controller at location 1, w/ SX-200 MX at the other 2 locations.

2) Avaya Communications Manager Definity csi at location 1 & location 2 and the Avaya IP Office 406v23 Communications Suite at location 3.

Both systems are spec'd to have a similar number of IP channels, voicemail, ports etc. Being new to this, it is difficult to read through the hype, as the Avaya guy says the SX200 is a hybrid system and is not in the same class as the Definity. But the word "hybrid" seems to mean different things to different people.

Long and short, my research would indicate that Avaya is a true Tier 1 player but my question is, given our size, do we really need the Avaya? Would the Mitel do what we need it to do without compromising the functioning of our operation? Needless to say the Mitel is more competitively priced!

Any feedback, pointers of links to relevant support info would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Alex.