LG Ericsson Vs Panasonic 1

[Jonah29]

Hi everyone,
Years ago I always felt the TD and TDA range of systems were much more superior to the GDK and LDK range having had a fair bit of experience on both ranges.
My questions are;
Are the newer Panasonic systems as good as the TD & TDA where 10 - 15 years ago?
Have LG finally caught up with some of the versatility of the TD and TDA ranges especially when you put a TVM (TVA in the US) and TDA solution together?
Is the Panasonic Engineering Programming tool GUI as user friendly as before? I always felt that with a pana the features etc were a bit more self explanatory, whereas the LG terminology was only obvious to a Korean engineer.
Which systems actually do what they claim in terms of VoIP, SIP trunks, Multiple Site Networking and other UC features?

These questions are really only applicable to those who have a good working knowledge of both. I'm at a point now where I have to settle on one manufacturer or the other if I am to take the company forward and would appreciate any advice or opinions. Up until now I have been servicing, supporting and installing equipment that is a bit old so I don't really know how the most recent offerings stack up against each other.
I'm really wanting to know this information for a customer service point of view. I want to make sure the client gets a reasonably priced, reliable and feature rich system and one that is really engineer friendly.
Thanks in advance
Mark

 

[eddiebullman]

Hi Mark

I have worked with Panasonic for years but missed the NCP series systems out but have worked on the latest NS1000.

my opinion the LG UCP is far better than the NS1000

it is an IP platform so VOIP is no problem it can be a single box system IP Phones SIP trunks and UC out of the box.

also they are launching unified software which will work on UCP IP systems as well as the emg80 TDM system

so engineering should be easy as both systems use the same software which is all WEB based

and if you are in the UK pragma are very helpful.

the one thing i would say if you have a lot of TDA/TDEs you are up grading there is an option with the NS1000 to keep a lot of the legacy hardware but i still think the LG UCP is a better platform

 

[Jonah29]

Hi Eddie,
Thanks for the reply. I saw you had replied on the pana area too. Yeah I attended the Pragma Roadshow when they released the UCP. They certainly claim it'll do it all!

I have some experience of the eMG80, seems like a pretty good piece of kit. We've got voicemail to email, group mailboxes and I got the hang of the timed scenarios that seem to have taken over from the service mode options. Not sure about the use of RJ11 plugs though!

What is the situation with remote access on the eMG80 and UCP? Can you use ISDN like the ipLDK? We have a large number of clients who are really hot on network security and it's doubtful they'll let us use a VPN route to the system

Thanks
Mark

 

[eddiebullman]

Hi Mark

i have worked with the NEC XN120 for the past 10 years and the are on RJ11

there are a lot of the small systems that use RJ11 as that is the default connection type in the US

as for remote access as they are web based it has to be by IP

what i would say to you is get the IT company on site to set up a port forwarding rule on the firewall that can only be accessed from the public IP address of your office so then if you need to access the site from a different location you would have to VPN to your office first

and if you are using SIP they are going to have to open ports anyway

 

[eddiebullman]

Mark

just picked up your post in the panasonic forum

the communicator app was for the old LG ipecs mfim and the emg80 the new one on the UCP is called UCS which is also coming to the emg80 soon

as they are both going to run a unified software

pragma are having a few launch days this month for the unified software i am going to the on the 21st

i know i am sad for being in here this time of night but i am in a hotel as i am on an Avaya IP office course this week

 

[Jonah29]

Yeah I saw those launch days advertised on Pragma's site. I have put my name down for the Bristol launch which I think is the 20th. If you are on a course shouldn't you be studying all you've done today. I used to be IP Office accredited then it all died off because the large majority of our clients couldn't afford the cost and the boss got annoyed at the engineers doing the releases every three months. I really miss working on them, they do what they claim on the whole. What course are you on

 

[eddiebullman]

Hi Mark

my accreditation has expired so i am redoing the course as the last time i did the course it was version 4.0 and we are now on 9.1 so it was a few years ago i renewed a couple of times doing the online exam but thought i needed a refresh

i think this one is the what they call AIPS and the i am back down next month to do the advanced applications one which i think is ACSS

 

[Jonah29]

I was accredited in the late 90s that lapsed and I got accredited again in 2009 on ver 4.6. The 500 had just been released then and I have hardly touched one for about 3 years. Such a great system, mind you I was a real fan of the index too. Good luck for the rest of the course Eddie I'm off to crash now.

Regards
Mark

 

[xs650]

The remote access via ISDN to an UCP and eMG80 should be possible in the meantime.
At first this was not possible with eMG80 but now they found a way with an analog modem card.
Not really state of the art, I think.

 

[Jonah29]

Ha ha xs650,
No 56k modem is a bit out of date now but it is a great fall back even now. I rely on alog and isdn remote quite a lot. It always baffled me as to why we could never open up 2x isdn channels with the TA.
So do you have isdn or alog remote working on either of these two?
Mark

 

[xs650]

In my eMG80 a remote access via ISDN is not possible(I have no modem card in it).
I have openened a ticket when the eMG80 was quite new and after some tries with different
software version the answer was that it is not possible cause of hardware limitations.
Some month later they found a way with the analog modem card.
I think they got some pressure from other countries...

Wit UCP this is possible but it is quite slow at the beginning cause the system has to send a
2MB file.

 

[Jonah29]

Eddie,
However eas the IPO course.
I'm inclined to take a lot of what you said regarding pana vs lg on board. For someone so familiar with Avaya to say that LG are getting it right. They must be doing something right!!
I assume multi site networking is achievable since it was available on the ldk 20.
What about soft phone and screen based console? Is that what they're including with UCS along with the communcater app?
Thanks
Mark

 

[eddiebullman]

Mark

Multi site networking is achievable in two was you can network multiple system together or you could have just one system with remote trunk gateways and IP phones

you can also have redundancy setups on the 600 and 2400 CCUs

communicator is an old APP

now they use UCS which can be mobile desktop or soft phone with desktop

and there is a screen based console