We're looking at replacing our voice mail system (MerMail) when support ends (December, we've been told). Vendor is trying to sell us Call Pilot. Seems like I've heard a few negatives about it on this board. Is it any good? Are there severe problems with it? Anything we should know about migrating MerMail to CP?
TIA, Sam
s**ts over meridian mail, and mail is reaching end of life
Is it any good? We migrated from Octel to CP 4.0 a year and half ago. We expanded our feature set significantly. The only problems we've had were related to Microsoft updates for worm/virus prevention caused by the fact that NT 4 version that runs on CallPilot is a Nortel Proprietary install that has to be updated by them. Amidst the Zotov and Blaster virus outbreaks, Nortel wasn't as quick to the plate with a software solution as I would have liked, but by taking network-based preventative measures, there was no real issue. Like any mission-critical enterprise system, Call Pilot has its nuances, but it's a very reliable and very robust system overall.
As with any Windows product you must back up your CallPilot. I have had no problems with my system and it has been online for about a year. I would strongly recommend before you bring you CallPilot online you install another hard drive to mirror the two. Provides great redundancy and allows you to restore the Vmail system very quickly. I don't think that Nortel recommends this but it is any easy install and works with Windows NT.
Callpilot 4 doesn't run on windows nt 4. It runs on windows 2003. If you buy enough licences for desktop messaging so that a majority of users can have this class of service, you can be very feature rich. you can use mycallpilot to listen to your messages over a web brower interface or intergrate it with outlook to manage your messages through that way. It also can send you a email that you have a message if you set up text messaging.
Meridian Mail release 13 is not MD'd until October of 2006. Depending on your hardware/software release, you should still have support until that date. However, Nortel is offering a very nice incentive plan for Meridian Mail users to upgrade to CallPilot. Essentially you will get 70 CallPilot voice mailboxes for every Meridian Mail port transferred for free. This program expires 12/30 this year. If you are looking to move towards a unified messaging platform on a Nortel PBX, CallPilot is definately the way to go. Admittedly, Nortel had some issues with the early releases (1.0-1.5), but since 1.07 it has been a very stable messaging platform.
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