Avaya IP Office 412 vs Cisco N+1

I am evaluating VoIP systems for a new office space. The hardware and
cabling will be brand new and to specs for either system.

What are the pros and cons (preferrably from someone thats already
been down this road) to each of these systems?

We are expecting 30 users (telephones) to begin and one location
scaling quickly to 100 users and three locations.

Specific questions I have:

1) Can the Avaya system process the calls quickly and process
voicemail-to-email instantly like the Cisco Integrated Messaging?

2) Is their any gotcha's with either of these systems?

3) We have a solid Cisco VAR and service provider. How important is
after the sale availability in real world production systems?

4) How do the WiFi phones (802.11b) and Polycom IP Conference phones
work?

5) Is there any questions I should be asking?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Yes, have you looked at the Nortel BCM and the Mitel 3300 (or maybe the
SX200 ICP). Cisco is over priced for the small/mid market. If you're talking
100 phones per location, the Mitel is better then the BCM, but if it's more
like 75 phones per location the BCM is perfect. Let's see, BCM one box
includes Integrated Messaging and can do a multi-site centralized Voice-Mail
everything works EXACTLY like you are in the same location, supports Symbol
wireless phones (just like Mitel and Cisco) but adds a customized firmware
to support softkeys and features just like the desk phones. The Mitel does
all this too, is still less money then the Cisco, but would be more then the
BCM.

As for after sales service, this is EXTREMELY important especially with the
Cisco. How long has you Cisco VAR been doing Voice? How long Data? Don't get
me wrong, Cisco makes the best routers and switches but the Call Manager
just isn't ready (and I was trained on it, and I'm certified in Cisco IP
Telephony).

Good luck

--
Randall Cohen
Sr. Systems Engineer
Alternative Communication Systems, Inc.
Email: rcohen"_at_"acsvoicedata"_dot_"com
Remove the "_at_" and "_dot_" and replace with @ and . respectively.

 

Have you looked into the CCM Express stuff??
After sales support is very important. There is no way I'd purchase anything
if I had a doubt about the support.
I don't have experience with anything other than Cisco so I'll chime in on
that.

Our system has been stabel for the past two years. Not one glitch out side
of SLA. Over the same period, This system has been as, or even more stable
than our Nortel PBX.
We have over 1000 users on our call manager cluster. WiFi and Polycom's work
fine on the call manager.

If you go with Cisco, buy a server with Raid. Upgrades suck. Thats my honest
opinion. I have had problems with every one I have done. I do have multiple
other applications connected to Call Manager, like ACD, but I consider that
part as it's "certified.." Without being able to pull a hard drive out,
you're going to ahve some serious issues if you need to back out for some
reason. Patching really isn't an issue, becasue Cisco provides them for the
OS and all. Also, Cisco now gives their security agent for Call Manager and
Unity free. That's a nice plus. Unified Messaging works well. We are still
deploying it, and it has been alot better than I expected. Used another UM
product before that was pretty much worthless. Can't remember the name right
now...

For an installation that sizel, I'm not sure Cisco is the right choice
unless you go with Express. That lacks some of the features though...

hope my rambling helped some.

James