Opinion on IP Office

[BuckWeet]

What do you all think of the IP Office product line?
I come from working on DEFINITY and CISCO IP Telephony systems.. I must say I'm kind of disappointed in the IP Office product. It seems like they took the Merlin and made it IP capable.. The product seems hoaky and makes you wonder why they do somethings like they do.. I don't really understand why they just didn't adapt Definity software to run on the cheaper hardware, and just limit its features...


Thoughts/Opinions?

BuckWeet

 

[Pepperz]

If it were a Merlin that had been IP-ized, it would work a lot better. It was "invented" in Europe under a different name and then relabeled by Avaya to bring to the US market last year. Since then several software upgrades have come out, and after a few more, it will probably be a pretty good product. It sells mainly to the IT types as anything IP enabled is appealing from the admin point of view. The hardware quality control is not good now, but eventually will be. If I had to choose to run my business on it or not, I wouldn't, not just yet. Probably in a year it will be pretty good, but for right now, it's really appealing to get "so many features" in one package. The package just isn't ready to open yet. TipHelp@charter.net

 

[eod]

We had an IP Office for a short while. We had our vendor remove it and replace it with a Magix (which I'm not happy about but atleast it works).

The Ip Office was a mess from the get go, the main draw back is there are a whole list of features on paper but when it comes to the Ip Office actually doing those you find out that "It'll be available in an update".

The #1 complaint from customers calling in was the "Please Wait" recorded voice. It'll Ring, then right off answer with "Please Wait" then hold music, then over to the auto attendant. That is if the ip office didn't end up disconnecting the call.

If we had it to do over again I would of gone with an Inter-tel.

 

[kompupro]

Gentlemen,

As with all new pieces of equipment, it's all in the programming! If your vendor coudn't program the IP Office with your specifications then you shouldn't blame it on the hardware.

I've been working with the Network Alchemy "Argent" & "Branch" for almost four years now and have come across many programming nightmares! It seems that the Telco guys have a completely different attitude toward an IP enabled switch than the IT guys.

And to add insult to injury the documentation is very good, if you read it! [F1]!!!!!

 

[schned99]

I have to agree with Kompupro. I have been training on this product for several weeks and just completed my first install. You have to approach this product from a completely different persepctive. I have been a Definity provisioner for quite some time and I find that the steps I take to put in a definty system are completely different. If you properly program the IP Office, it is a very powerful and versitile system. With the increased number of endpoints on the 412, I would not be supprised to see this product steadily encroaching on the mid-range product market very soon.

 

[VOIPeng]

The IP Office, is a great fit for the small-medium sized business, it gives them advanced multisite networking features that even the Definity lacks, in addition it adds convergence to the small medium enterprise solutions. This product will continue to become one of the market leaders in it's market. As new releases enhance reliability and add additional feature this product will be more and more popular.

Any small-medium business that is looking to buy a PBX, whether it's a Partner/Magix, should take a serious look at this product as I'm sure it will be a better fit and provide them with investment protection for later years as VoIP becomes a mainstream technology.
Thank you,
Frank Mirecki

 

[routermad]

I love this switch. but it does require more testing before general firmware releases.

 

[IPGuru]

Kompupro hit the nail on the head.
the IPO is a verry capable switch but remarcably simple to programm
sometimes deceptivly simple. Most of our systems go in , have a week or so of tweaking as the customer changes thiermind on what they want then we never hear from them again

when we do have a fault report from a customer over 90% can be fixed remotley, most are simple usere error, enabeling forward unconditional etc.

Most problem sites are caused by incompetent programming