Cisco Call Manager vs Nortel Communication Server 1

[Breezermagic]

I am preparing to deploy a new IP telephony solution and am grappling with the Cisco vs Nortel argument. There has been a lot of bad press about CCM including security vulnerabilities, lack of core features, scalability, etc. What is true? What isn't? Only users will know? What can you tell me? Where are the "hidden holes" that I might fall into with Cisco?

 

[jneiberger]

Our company is in the process of picking a VoIP vendor. We're a Nortel shop so we included Nortel, and also invited Avaya, Cisco, and Mitel to the table. We established some objective criteria, did our research, and objectively scored the vendors...Nortel was at the bottom.

This is a personal opinion, but I'd avoid Nortel VoIP like the plague. If your choice is only between Cisco and Nortel, it's a no-brainer. Show Nortel the door, and then call your Cisco rep and tell them the good news.

Why limit your choices just to Cisco and Nortel? I think Avaya and Mitel both beat Nortel. Heck, depending on your environment, maybe ShoreTel would work. They're probably better than Nortel.

As reported to me by someone who works at consulting company (who does NOT sell any actual voice product), Nortel is a follower and Cisco is a leader. Who do you want to do business with?

 

[Breezermagic]

Thanks for your feedback. You know this is one of my dilemmas. I hear a level of dissatisfaction about Nortel and Cisco but on the other hand they are both out there winning business. I hear your consultant but I believe that IP Telephony as such is a stepping stone to a full-blown SIP-based multimedia environment with collaboration. If I look at Gartner they show Cisco leading Nortel in IPT but in multimedia they show Nortel, Siemens and Alcatel as the Magic quadrant leaders and Nortel and Microsoft as the collaboration leaders with Cisco in the Niche player segment. If you look at Stanford University and City of San Jose, they both went to Nortel when one would consider Cisco would have been an obvious choice given the locality. It makes me wonder that there's more to the story.

 

[johnpoole]

i've installed both nortel and cisco, having very litte trouble with both.. if your going pure voip, i would go with cisco. but i'm a tech, no tie/no pa. i perfer nortel in the tdm world due to the ease of providing 24/7 service. the last 20 large hospitals i've worked on were nortel due to critical care. the only plus with nortel voip in a nortel shop is shared ext numbers between voip and tdm. i wish everyone would buy mitel, way more overtime booting the system everytime you call tech support. either way cisco voip is not to be confused with cisco data switching. it's a good product but not the star of the show like most cisco. if your doing in house programing, nortel is the hardest to master, a lot of data or newer techs hate nortel because of that, command line programing. it a phone system, 94 percent of tdm switches used by dial tone providers are nortel, not because they are easy to program, but because they work for decades without a reboot.. i'd love to find a server that would do that

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[johnpoole]

btw that's just my opinion, and i may be wronge

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[jneiberger]

johnpoole brings up an excellent point. Are you already a Nortel shop? If not, what do you have now?

 

[srmega41]

On your comment about the City of San Jose, there is more to the story. Cisco was originally awared the contract, but there were some politicians that said the selection process was not valid. The City was forced to cancel the contract and start the process all over again. My gut tells me Nortel saw this as an opprotunity to get into Ciscos' back yard, and offered a great price. I also think the decision makers saw a possible conflict if they selected Cisco again; knowing the other vendors could claim the process was still flawed.

In either scenario, I think the San Jose deal should never be considered in any comparison between Cisco and Nortel. The other deal is also interesting, but the requirements of the University should ALWAYS be considered when evaluating a vendor selection. As jneiberger said, we did a four vendor evaluation, and our needs and requirements are much different than anyone else would have. Try to find commonality in businesses before evaluating their decision.

A Nortel solution can be great, if their strenghts line up with your needs, same for Cisco, Mitle, ShoreTel, Avaya, and so on.

I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on this one. Great questions.

Scott M.

 

[johnpoole]

as usual i agree with scott, only the user can tell me what they want/expect from a system. i would never let any goverment choice sway my outcome. how many people that had a vote in the choice, knows either software, let alone all four

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc