We are a small company and looking to purchase about 25 new office phones. We are looking at the Avaya Partner, Legend, and IP office. More specifically the Partner system. Our needs are typical, voice mail, call forwarding, Auto attendent. We are now using a 20 year old Merlin System. We looked at Toshiba and other private names but were unsure of their reliability and service record. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Tester) posted on that vast internet thingie:
We would, of course, invite you to look at our phones at
Steve at SELLCOM
I like the new Panasonic TDA series, extremely flexible, great features.
But the main thing, is to have an installer who knows the system well and can make it do what you want. Be clear about any special needs you have, such as- call distribution, multiple company names/voicemail, caller id routing, t1, whatever.
Charles
Ask ten techs and you will get ten answers. I have been a tech for over 25 years. I love the Avaya line, I love the Toshiba line (very durable), I love the Nortel line. There are many many systems out there to choose from. I think that you should look to industry leaders like Toshiba , Avaya, Nortel. They have been around since I started and they are still here going strong. Best of luck in your purchase. By the way buy based on your needs not on price.
Any one of the three (Legend will actually be called Magix these days if you looked at a brand new system) would feel like a breath of fresh air after a 20 years old system.
I have a feeling that Magix will be phased out by Avaya in a couple years as it's market is being taken by both Partner (lower end) and IP Office.
From the remaining two IP Office has much more functions and extended capabilities (like voice-over-IP). Its voice mail system (VM Pro) is also extremely capable, with virtually unlimited auto attendants and message storage. In addition to that it is very easy to tie IP Office into your computer network and have people call from Outlook by clicking a single button (using TAPI interface), which is a very neat feature. For a very busy office it may also matter that IP Office can take (multiple) full T1s whereas partner only takes up to 16 channels off a T1. All these features come at a premium in price, obviously, which I would estimate at about $200 to $400 difference per extension, depending on the configuration.
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