AllTrunksBusy

Bill,

The channel i work for offers both Cisco and Nortel products. Not sure about the 703t integrating with the Call Manager...

My opinion, Capabilities and features - Nortel wins out
Ease of Implementation - depends on what features you are after, the Cisco can be easier depending on the servers required.
Support and Maint - Same
Uptime and Reliability - Big win to the Nortel here.
If I had a Nortel Network in place now, I would migrate it to IPTel rather than replace it with the Call Manager...

ATB

fairways

"My opinion, Capabilities and features - Nortel wins out"

ATB - I'm curious - what capabilities or features are you referring to?

So far everything I have looked at as far as features go - Cisco can do the things we normally do.

AllTrunksBusy

Bill,

This is just my humble opinion.

On paper the features all match up as I am sure you are aware However if you compare them with Avaya and Siemens they will match up also. "The proof is in the pudding" as they say.

Nortel wins out in the folowing functionality that may or may not be relavent to you as things you normally do:
Multi site networking functions and features are transparent in the Nortel, the Cisco tries to do this but it is not as good (comparing similar functions with Main Site archetecture, Main site/Remote site is much the same)

The Call Centre Suite from Nortel is far superior to the Cisco offering.

Native full intergration to LCS/OCS without having to add hardware and software gateways between products for me is a massive plus (if you are going down the UC path).

Virtual office network functionality, hot desking, mobile workers, full integration with SRB and options of 1000B systems are all features that our customers are looking at and we position the Nortel as a solution in this space.

An admin system with messaging and maybe presence, all vendors are the same, Cisco are fantastic in this space and Nortel are trying to catch up with some of the end user funcetions that Cisco have introduced, it is the added functionality that Nortel have built over the last 30 years that makes it superior when you require the above mentioned features plus things like boss/secretary filtering that the Cisco doesn't really handle too well.

This is my Opinion, my company offer multiple vendor products and internally we use Siemens which also has some pluses over the Nortel and the Cisco but that is another story....

ATB

Ja9

My company is currently using AVAYA, Meridian and Cisco IPT, we have found that new users of Cisco are happy, however we have just taken a Meridian away from our HO for a Cisco and the users there are not happy.

General feeling is that the functions - such as BFS, Buzz etc are more complicated and difficult to use.

WhereWolf

Watch over the next year and pay close attention to what Microsoft and Nortel are doing in their joint development. You will see some very progressive integration that I think will make most folks sit up and take notice. I don't think the other players (while a few may have "relationships" with Microsoft...) will be able to produce anything even close. It's going to blow your socks off.....
Just my humble opinion.
Wherewolf

Twisted

System capabilities and features ---6 one way/ half dozen the other

Ease of implementation ---- Depend on expertise ...easy for Cisco Guy ...Hard for Nortel Guy

Support and maintenance --- Depend on skill level

Uptime and reliability --- Pridictable --It isn't TDM but it is the future--

How to integrate Cisco IPT with CallPilot (703t) v4.0--- No experience on this integration but it can not be any harder then OCTEL..that was managable

Problems and challenges you had to overcome in transition--- Narrow minded people that only know one product (I've been dealing with Nortel for 23 years, Manage 30 systems from Option 11 to a handful of 81 PII FNF). Most people do not want to learn new things. Alway keep you mind open and be eager to learn. We are deploying Cisco now and it's only as reliable as the people that support it. Unfortunately there is a learning curve from triditional PBX techs.

kbudurka

One thing that Cisco has always done well is document everything and give it away. I always get grief whenever I need to troubleshoot a Nortel problem because I'm a customer not a Nortel vendor.

So what if I don't have all the loads memorized on the PBX, do I really need too? Why can't there be a knowledge base and ALL documentation available for searching on Nortel's site without multiple logins?

The guys who come into call centers from the network side really are smart and can learn this PBX stuff. We're logical thinkers and if something makes sense, we understand it - no matter how cryptic the commands (many of us come from the M$ DOS days, and have used may flavors of unix)

Cisco's website gives it away - if you get in over your head and screw something up, THEN you call the Cisco partners - and you pay dearly for it.

Nortel's website makes you login in, then still restricts you from protected areas of support articles and knowledge bases.

If Nortel changed their way of thinking, they could WIN the battle of Cisco, Avaya, Siemans, Nortel.

I beleive the Nortel products are far superior - but don't force me to use a Nortel partner to even download PEPs I need because my VoIP is giving a one-way call (I could have searched for this and installed the PEP myself)

While I have many reasons for thinking Nortel technology is far superior, I will leave you with one of my biggest reasons why.

Call Pilot. We have version 4. It's the big rack mount unit. Did you know this server, running a microsoft o/s only has 521 MB RAM?? This box is BUSY and yet it seems to never require a reboot and never have performance issues.

If I used the same specs for any other microsoft server, well, let's just say it needs reboots (probably monthly works best), and you don't get much from 512 MB RAM anymore - not even on their desktop o/s's!

baellis

Bill,
I know I will get a bunch of flack from all of the VOIP Engineers and Salespeople about how great VOIP is, the cost benefits and ease of transition. I have been in this business for over 35 years and my two cents is before implementing any changes especially in a call center situation with multiple sites do a great cost benefit analysis and then compare it operationally to acceptible downtime and customer satisfaction as well as DR considerations. Legacy call centers are far more stable and feature enhanced then VOIP. Give it another year but let your senior management be aware of the possible problems. I have been an engineer for Nortel, worked for Vz for 13 years and ran the voice and data operation for six states of a large bank with several call center applications. I agree Nortel has some problems but they also make one of the most stable platforms out there. Good Luck

Meridianman05

for those of you who know, I left a job on the west coast directly relating to the issues of interoperability on this issue.

I personally experienced many "bugs" and issues with the Unity piece "playing well" with the opt.81. not to mention the management there had no clue how or how much it would cost and was hell bent on sh%tcanning the Meridian at all costs.

I had many looong weekends and nights spent working on unforseen "issues" which seemed to pop up out of no where seemingly.

I ran from the IPT world back into the familiar world of Nortel where I am now sitting in NC building out BCM's! lol


I would say to do ALOT of PRE-install engineering and make sure your network is built to handle QOS for voice, and the like.

Good luck!