BCM50 is much more "technician-friendly" than the old one. Release has been delayed but beta tests are running. I think that the BCM50 is the most best small business solution on the market.

It supports VoIP, networking and a PRI interface!!!
I don't know any other SMB solution that can offer these things.

It supports PRI?  I thought just BRI?  wow...

Just did a webinar for it.  Looks to be very sweet.  One thing I was not real jazzed about is that it does not have built in Qos and also the call center on the call pilot woul be more like a cp100 with no reporting on ver.1 . I am sure Nortel will give those a quick re-buffing and we will see patches or ver 1.5 very soon after GA.

there was one scheduled for 10 may - when was this?

OSPF is no longer supported... very annoying...

BCM 50 to be Covered in 10 May Nortel eSeminar
If your organisation has multiple sites, franchises or branch offices, no doubt you've been seeking the most cost-effective, productive and reliable way to connect people and sites. And no matter what business you're in, you'll want to project the best possible image and customer service so you can better compete. You'll want your employees to be able to exploit resources on the Internet and your corporate network, but without letting Internet viruses and hackers exploit them. And you need high-end performance and capabilities, but at a low cost of ownership.

The answer is a Business Communications Manager (BCM) system from Nortel -- an all-in-one platform for the converged voice-and-data needs of small to mid-sized sites. Three BCM models offer choices for every application -- from small businesses or branch offices with only a handful of extensions, to a multi-location business with hundreds of voice and data ports -- at a price point to suit any site. The new Business Communications Manager 50 (BCM50) platform is ideal for locations that need 3 to 20 stations with advanced capabilities, such as robust telephony features, voice messaging and unified messaging, IP networking, Internet/intranet access, contact centres with skills-based routing, IP telephony to users' desktops, and an integrated router option for Ethernet or ADSL routing.

Join Scott Hanwell, Nortel Enterprise Solutions Portfolio Marketing, on Tuesday, 10 May 2005, at 11:00 Eastern (10:00 Central / 8:00 Pacific / 16:00 UK / 17:00 CET) for this free one-hour Enterprise eSeminar Webcast.  If you are unable to participate via the Webcast, you will also be able to access this via an audio bridge (details at this link as well). In addition, this eSeminar will be archived for your access 24/7.
Register today at:

http://www.nortel.com/corporate/events/2005b/ent_events/may_10.html

There is an archived BCM 50 web seminar in the PIC. The seminar was ran on the 27th April

The archived is audio only, the one on May 10 is live Video

Not the one I have seen it has a presentation and audio.

thnaks ...i'll take a look

The BCM50 is also Linux based, so it should be very stable.

The webinar today was pretty good.   Nice to see that the BCM200 and 400's will move to linux by release 4.0.   

Let's hope the May 27th GA date that the speaker mentioned will actually be met. I'll stay optimistic since the speaker mentioned the BCM50 are in production now to meet the 27th date...   

they are going to make the succession systems also run on Linux (like alcatel, avaya have already done)
apparently it was going to be in the networld show at vegas

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/041805-nortel-linux.html

Great decision!!!
Maybe we'll get rid of vxWorks hell-shell

nortel is probably doing it for the money part ... royalty for every copy/ (now number of users) that ships out

This link has some good info on the BCM 50 http://www.marshallshouse.co.uk/news.php. It's a UK site, but may well be worth taking a look through it.

All the best

  Firebird Scrambler
Meridian Programmer in the UK

Anyone know if this will be available for purchase this week?  GA is Friday they say....

Good question Cobac.
I heard that the BCM50 would be released May 27th.

Still no fianl word. The GA on 3.7 BCM was a month ago and I still haven't seen docs on Nortel's website.

Anyone know a place for a good price on a 200? Tired of waiting, lol...

I know the BCM 50 will be GA in UK on the 27th May.The price structure is on the NNEC tool on the Nortel site.I have been speaking to our Nortel Rep and he has confirmed the 27th May.

Marshall

Nice to know that while the debate on the release date rages on, Nortel has already released a patch for it...

The download is the inst and admin software for the BCM 50

'estimated' GA in US is on Jun 24 - 2005

I have not installed one, but from the documentation I have seen from Nortel the only difficult things to learn that I have seen are the strange pinouts on the amphenols and the keycodes for enabling things are very different.  Other than that, assuming that the system is stable it looks to be good.

Here's a quote from one of my clients, who resently went against my recommendation to upgrade their existing Norstar to a BCM, and went with NEC instead:


"Junk is Junk!
we just had an NEC Dterm with the PSIII wireless installed in our 65,000SF shop in April, It TODAY still does not work correctly and every time the tech comes in to 'fix' a problem he either makes it worse or tells us that it can't be done and we have to live with it or we need to buy additional hardware to have the functionality.
We got the system for less money than a new BCM.
Wireless coverage is terrible, and the sound quality is just as bad.
Phones are difficult to program, and incredibly user UNFRIENDLY.
Even the Owners are now pised,they dont even want to talk to our retailer any more!
STAY AWAY"

mrmarshall:  There's also a patch for element manager.

Hey Jack,

The documentation is good at detailing the pinouts..

Does June 24th look like the new target date for release on the BCM 50?

Has any Beta tested it?  Just wanted to know who easy it is to install and use.

Let me know.

gosh, I cannot spell - SORRY EVERYONE ABOUT THE ABOVE POST.

Beta Testing OK. Support from Nortel absolutely HORRIBLE!!

Did you expect good support, they layed off all the good people years ago.

Actually I did. Regardless of what they did in the past, they have introduced a "new" product, sent all calls through the existing BCM service group, none of whom had a clue. It would have been easier to have a group of the engineers who had some hands on with the box available for support. Just my two cents..

I hope they get this thing GA soon.  I just sold 4 of them today.  I've not had one on beta yet.  I told the customer that it may take a few weeks to get them.  We'll get to installing their BCM400 unit while we wait.

I called Nortel pre-sales.   They told me that it was being manufactured and available on May 27th.  However, since they are backlogged with back orders on the system, they estimate "normal lead time" to be July 15th.   Whatever this means...

I did see a site that had keycodes in stock for the BCM50...  

Whats the site address for the keycodes.

cobac,

The backlog or back orders are due to several large enterprise customers.  I know of one that I can not name that has over 1200 systems on back order.  This is a very hot product in Nortel's portfolio.  

 

I'm no large enterprise, but I have 4 on order.  According to my nortel DSM, they are GA, but "on extended lead times".

acewarlock -

There are a few sites with the keycodes.  www.nextwarehouse.com has the BCM50 in stock as of this morning.  I ordered a package from a different warehouse, just waiting to see if it ships...  

Thanks cobac

Yes BCM's are shipping.  Order 4 units on May 30, and they arrived last week.  Sat down today to play with unit.  New BCM Monitor and has an Element Manager software for config.  Not the Java stuff as with 3.6.  The difference between BCM 3.6 and what the BCM 50 for config is like switching between Win95 to XP.  You know the functionality is there, you just have to find which menu/sub menu they move it to.  It is much more intuative then 3.6 and much faster.  There was no reboots etc when the keycodes where setup, one reboot for IP address change, but it was almost instantly up not the 20 min 3.6 takes. This unit will be the death of BCM 200 units. Smaller, faster, cheaper.  vxWorks is still alive and well on the Signaling Server that I have.  Also Callpilot 3.5 will be Wk2004 Server and Callpilot 4.0 will Linux flavor.

Is it normal for the unit to make a "clicking" noise when calls are being routed/direct to the IP telephones?

With my digital sets there is no noise, with the I2050 there is no noise.   

Whenever I transfer a call, or an inbound call goes to my i2002 the BCM50 "clicks" with each ring.  Just wondering if this is by design or not.

Other than that the unit is great, the breakout kit for the wall mount also works out very nice.