rixride

How much of a cost difference is it between migrating your current system to voip and purchasing a new one?

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fantech

Although I have already received 2 complete quotes from Avaya (initial and revised) I have only received wishy washy ballparks from the "other" integrator.
Albeit, the ballpark given was comparable for a complete install of a new system (forklift upgrade, phones included) as it is to IP enable our current system keeping our digital phone sets. But until I see a hard proposal I am not going to count on it. Then of course I would have to consider any upgrades to our existing LAN to accomodate the additional voice traffic. I already know my switches are not PoE ready, so there's an immediate additional expense for those as well.
That ballpark also did NOT include redundancy between sites either, that would require additional licensing... and expense, another ballpark figure provided. There was also no mention whether or not that figure included installation and training... He's a slick salesman though, I'll give him that! He knows how to rub the right people the right way!

rixride

Hehe, If they are good they always make you happy before you sign.

Wow, so are you saying that you could get a whole new system for the same price as upgrading your existing system?

If that is true here is my suggestions;

1. Find your budget price for this project and go and see 2-3 vendors solutions. Off hand, I would say if you are going VoIP: Nortel CS1000S-, Avaya IP Office, Cisco Call Manager, those would be my pics if I was going All IP.
2. Next make sure you have vendors that have done installations like yours before, ask for reference sites and go to them to see how their adminstration likes the systems.
3. Features, Find out what features you need vs want and then compare the systems. Some system will throw in features you don't really need but they are nice to have, but it costs more to have them, some systems don't even have specific features you may need and have 3rd party work arounds. This is important to know because it plays into the overall pricing of your solution.

4. Make sure whatever vendor you choose has a 24/7 call center at thier facility. If they backend to the manufacturer you may be in for a big suprise.

Also compare prices get 2-4 quotes from different solutions, I am sure most will be on par to you pricing.

It doesn't make sense to keep an old system and try to upgrade it when you can purchase a new one for the same price. You will get a longer life out of it and you can sell the old one to pay for your color display IP Phones.

But seriously, if you are going to pay the money you might as well go new.

Also buy purchasing a new system, you can take your time with migration, you can have the new system up and programmed and the new phones out and tested interally before you even do the cutover. All the station programming and configuration can be done ahead of time. You can do practice runs and cut over groups when you want too.

In my opinion it make more sense to buy new if the costs will be even close to the same. Less headache in the long run.

Hope this helps.

How many phones are you looking at replacing?

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fantech

min 500 phones across 5 sites + modem and faxes (100+ combined)

What about IP to all the desks? Any concerns with this, or have those nightmares been addressed now?

rixride

As long as the infrastructure is in place you should be ok. Especially with a mature product.

I wouldn't hesitate unless your network isn't up to par. You may hire someone to do a VOIP Network assesment before you do. I would highly recommend it with that many phones. Also it may be helpful to engineer the network to seperate voice and data traffic via Vlans.

But to answer your question. With today's IP telephony I don't think I would be concerned with using all IP phones

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jsaxe

I wouldn't be in such a rush to go VoIP to the desktop right away, if only because of the cost.

The Mitel 3300 will interface with their legacy SX-2000 TDM cards, cabinets, and phones. There is a whole lot of them out there, and they've been around for a long time. That means you can get replacements from several reliable refurb sources, if not from your Mitel vendor.
I would roll out a new system like this:

1. Get the IP-capable switch and do your trunking/networking via IP
2. Next, VoIP Phones to Teleworkers, if you have any... This can be your test-bed.
3. Once tested and proven, give them to senior staff (You know how they love them some nifty toys...)
4. Take it from there as your needs and budget dictate.

I'm biased, OK, I used to work for Mitel and it's a great company with a great product. I believe they will emerge as the number one in VoIP for the major enterprise market. Other manufacturer's recent security woes, lack of features/flexibility, etc. are things to keep an eye on. Check out Mitel's hardware warrantee and "future-proofing" plans, too.

jsaxe