atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Vodavi Telephones & Systems Vodavi Xcelerator

Well, I gave mine a test run. In a word, it's OK. Here are some of my observations:

It's going to need to have a POE switch connected between it and the phones unless you want to use the power adapter for the phones (included). By the time you add a POE switch for this purpose, it's not going to be an "inexpensive" system.

I was a little disappointed to see that the feature codes are completely different from the STSe, XTS and Telenium. That's one of the reasons that I always have reservations about taking on new products because that's just something else that the office staff will have to learn to operate and support.

For a 3-line, 4-station system, it truly is plug and play. Beyond that, you really need to have a strong knowledge of IP to do any kind of programming. There's definitely no system programming from a set available. Then again, the features are fairly limited so I don't see it being terribly complicated to learn.

The phones are fairly sturdy and have a pretty nice interactive display and navigation keyset. For a small customer who absolutely, positively must have a pure IP system, this seems to fit the bill. It appears that the final cost will end up being about double what and STSe system of comparable size would be.

Ed, it didn't start as an inexpensive system, so adding an FS108P didn't put the bar thru the roof....

Just O.K. is not encouraging. What about AA and voice quality? Do you have Interview or Instruction boxes? Does it do Unified messaging well, or at all?

Inquiring minds want to know before we take the plunge.

Carl

I think when the factory was touting it as a low cost IP solution they were assuming all small shops would use the power brick on the sets and not a POE switch. It is very limited in what it will do. As Ed says a small 3X4-6 man shop requiring pure IP will find some benefit. SOHOs will probably also like the platform. Still I don't see the 3 X 24 solution. SIP trunking is available but it's not something your run of the mill small shop is going to implement. The voice mail to email is nice in the low end. 4 hours voice mail is OK but not ideal. Jury is still out.

Agreed. Carl, the voice quality is comparable to the STSe in-skin flash voice mail, which isn't bad. It operates almost exactly the same except that it's ext. 200 instead of 440 by default. When I went through the manual today, there were quite a few mentions of the 240 minute storage limit. There's really no way to connect an external voice mail to it.

Now if space in the closet is an issue, this is your solution. The "KSU" being smaller than a phone book means you can put it just about anywhere. Other advantages are using remote switches on a single cable run to reach distant locations is obviously something to consider. The phones are sturdy and attractive. If you have ever programmed a router, programming on this system follows the identical procedure.

Overall, it's really not bad and that's not what I meant to imply. I think that it has it's place out there, but until SIP trunking becomes more widespread, I am a bit nervous about selling a 3 line system. I can't tell you how many Panasonic 308's I had to change out for "just one more line" and the customers usually weren't very happy.

When/if this system can expand beyond three POTS lines (I have been told that it may reach six lines), I won't have a single problem with selling it. So far, I think it's pretty good for someone who insists on an IP system, but the STSe is a much more feature-rich and expandable system. I like it a lot and I believe that it works. We are going to start in-house training on it next week, so maybe once we navigate the programming, I'll have a better outlook.

Ed....

"When/if this system can expand beyond three POTS lines (I have been told that it may reach six lines)"

I was told that there was an expansion module in development several months ago. Let's hope for the best.

Yeah, Dave I heard the same thing. Last I heard was that it's due to come out 4th quarter of this year, but nothing definitive.

Ed

Nice reveiw, ive not got to play with my unit as of yet.

It may come along , just have to see when expansion module is ready.

A 3 port system for analog is a little risk at present, but when SIP comes ready for rural areas
and people want, well i guess a guy will have to
sell em something on this line.
(long live the sts e ).

Aastra just released, or is close to, the 5i Sip phones. They had a price increase, but my original Venture IP had a 4 port gateway, an FS108P switch, and 3 480i phones for the same money as the Xcelerator.

Maybe it's time to revisit the product line.

Carl

Well I just got my unit today with two phones............................................................................................................I'm not excited. The positives for me are : Inexpensive, built-in vm, easy to set up with the web browser, wireless router.

The negatives : 3 pots lines , auto attendant sound quality seems just below the inskin flash ( to me ), No dial actions available !, The phones look like something from Radio Shack, c.o. forwarding timer has to be 10, 20, 30, seconds ect; caller id only shows number, without poe you have to use a power cord, And the most negative thing of all is that I called Vertical to ask a couple of simple questions and they only have 2 guys that have a good knowlege of the product. Everyone else had half a days training and didn't cover the vm.

I don't think I can sell this product very easily, atleast until you can have more than 3 pots lines. Maybe I'm jumping the gun here , but I'm not as happy as I thought I would be with this product. I can assume the Wave product is much better, but for now I will stick with XTS-IP / STSe. Just my 2 cents.

One thing to keep in mind with the VM is to setup the Unified Messaging portion of it. Then you can store as many messages that you would like(Save them to your PC or Server). I have set this up and it works well and the storage capacity as well as the length of days(7) that a message will be stored is a good reason to set it up. But the VM definetly needs some tweaking. Overall I would have to agree that it is geared toward the smaller end of the spectrum. There are lots of little things that i personally think need to be looked at. I will also tell that the Fax recognitions works great, i did have an issue with it at first but had to change some settings on the Fax machine itself to make it work correctly. The Power Fail to the FXS port(analog port) works as well.If any of you have questions let me know i would be glad to assist.