Klubar,
Dude, what comes between the "***"'s makes no difference! SMB expert business partner says nothing in particular about the IPO itself. I do not think you even have to meet the product authorization standards for the IPO to even be a platinum BP. Avaya has more than one product, and you do not have to be proficient in all of their products to get a rating of this nature.
If you bought a system from someone who you did not check their references on the specific product you were purchasing from them, I have to say that you did not do your due diligence as a decision maker about such an important decision for your company. I do not understand how someone can buy a system as critical to their business as a telephony system, and not check references of the vendor for the product they are purchasing from them. Requesting references from a vendor takes one email, and following up takes 10 minutes/reference with the refering companies, so maybe an hour if they give you 6 references. If they do not have 6 references on your system, with your applications, or similiar, then let me guess, they are not that experienced, maybe.
Your criticisms of the IPO are more so of your BP. Time server works, and is not an issue, you may not like it, but I have never had an issue with it in all my systems, so that is just a whine. Never had a request, or need for individually configurable voicemail message lengths in my vast experience with the IPO, so that sounds like a whine as well. Although you may make a big deal about it, obviously no one else does since I have 100+ systems, and numerous techs I have had the duty to support in their field ops who have never had issue with it. As far as vista support, LOL, that screams your BP was lame if they did not even ask if you were using vista when you were going to use phone manager.
I understand your frustration, as I have followed the BP 's who birth IPO haters ready to rip it out, but decided to take one shot at another vendor. They ended up liking their IPO, and some of them the other IPO they bought afterwards as well.
The reality is that you were suckered by someone who did not know the product, or you would not even be here looking to take revenge on the IPO for what this BP did to you.
Now do I blame Avaya for letting incompetents install the IPO, yes, but that is not reflective of the product, just the way Avaya authorizes BP's to implement.