The Protege is not made by intertel. (its made by Tcom, the same people that make comdial, vodavi and a host of other systems.
Early versions were a nightmare.
The phones are not garbage, but I would not install them in a harsh enviorment(repair shops, marinas, etc)The hook switch problem is do to abuse not normal wear and tear (if you want a phone you can beat up then Nortel and Lucent win hands down).
The voice mail Protege Voice is made by a company called ABS talks... I have never installed one, although we have some customers that we service. My opinion of the voice mail is that it is not user friendly but seems to be a very stable product.
The software: Yes they have changed the versions of software more often than I change my underwear (not really but it seems like that) And yes when the new version comes out to fix and old problem the new software has a problem that the old one did not have.
That might not sound bad and in some cases it was but overall it was not a mjor issue. You see the reason that the Protege was an easy sale was because of the software. The Sprint software blew away Norstar, Avaya, Toshiba, Panasonic etc.
This phone system was so powerfull I could sell it on application not price. We would use the Telekol voice mail and more recently we used the allen voice mail. The intergration was real tight.
I have 3 or 4 hundred very satisfied Sprint Protege customers.
I have been in the business over 25 years (a old 1A2 tech) and I do believe the Protege was a good product when you look at the product overall and compare it to other systems its size. I sell avaya and norstar and love there systems, but again depending on the application the Sprint would kill both of them.
Anyway that was then and this is now, yes the Protege is now a system of the past (It is still sold and from my understanding there are no plans to discontinue it in the near future).
The new Sprint system (called the K3 ) is just as more advanced than the Avaya Partner, Panasonic or any other system that is in the 24 co line 48 extension system. Has most but not all of the advanced features of the Protege, but check out this one feature that I find a real deal closer. You can assign 8 extensions that whenever they go off hook there calls are automaticly recorded into a seperate mailbox (not there personal mailbox).Think of the applications you can sell with that... and the phone migrate into there larger system that is made by Tadiran.
Anyway Im done, I just wanted to give you guys some more informative insight on Sprint.
If you really knew the system you wuold of understood its merits.
As discuused you all had valid issuses but your overall conclusion was off base.
I hope you see my responses are not bias and as I noted I sell many more systems than Sprint.
Walter
Why would anyone buy a Sprint Protege?
Application and Price
[This message has been edited by walterv (edited July 12, 2004).]
