OMG...It looks like I'm in the same leaky boat. I was an Executone tech and cut my teeth on Charter telephones with rotary dials in 1981 and stayed with them through thick and then untill Intertel killed them off. I found Vodavi infinate (looked like an Encore CX in black) life was good again.I have sold a ton of STS systems, they just the right size for 98% of my customers and now there going away. I sold one SBX, the programing was completely different and I may never catch on. Went to an MBX IP training course. And it looks like Ed is right, "rack mounted" Patch cord network telephone systems is where it is heading to. I'm too old and tired to learn something new and too broke to retire. If I wasn't self employed I'd tell my boss to kiss my ass and go to the house.
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George I feel your pain. If it is any consolation for some darn reason my customers who have an SBX really like the thing. I think they like it more than my STS people liked it when it first came out.
www.myrandomviews "Old phone guys never die, they just get locked in some closet with an old phone system and forgotten about"
Retired, taking photographs and hoping to fly one of my many kites.
Originally posted by cswroe: I did notice that some modules (digital and analog) on the MBX have champ connections, so there is hope for those punch tools yet.
I was told the CO and Station modules take amphenol cable. Vertical sought input from their dealers on preferred method and 25-pair amphenol was the preference more than modular jacks.
The CPU card however is 6 SLT/6 digital on mod jacks.
We knew the STSe was gone when they raised the prices so you could not be competative with it. We have installed 4 SBX IP 320 systems to date and I have found it to be not as bad as I thought it would be, hows that for a compliment. I thing the wiring scheme borders on the bizarre. The programming on the GUI is OK but the documentation is really not very good so I find myself calling tech support for some embarassingly simple things. Even tech support admits the documentation is lousy. I have been selling IPitomy on the IP side and its fine but its does not price well on small configurations. The SBX is cheap and so far it seems to work. I would not use it in anything but a pure "key system" application, but for that it fills the bill. I loved the STSe, thought the flash programming (like XTS) is great and button programming was always a snap. You are correct, the XTS is on borrowed time with the big push on the MDX. For me that will be the death knell. We have been selling Vodavi for almost 10 years and we loved the XTS. While the MDX programs like an SBX, frankly I have to get certified on it to sell it and theres lots out there now, with most manufacturers relaxing requirements with respect to quota, etc. I still have quite a few STS systems in service and for the most part they have held up well. Things always change in this business and not always for the best.
The MBX manuals are on the Vconnect site. It does not look like it programs the same as the SBX....has a web interface similar to the Telenium (sorry for cursing) but not exactly the same layout...actually looks pretty good. I did not see anything mentioned about an admin program like the SBX, but just browsed through the manuals.
I attended the MBX webinar today and was somewhat impressed (or relieved). Yes, thankfully the station connections are via 25 pair cables except for the first twelve. Since it programs much the same way as the SBX, at least we'll only have to learn everything over one time. While I'm generally satisfied with the system, it does have a few drawbacks:
1. Two different processors determine the system size. Although this is similar to the way the XTS is, you'd think with today's technology, they'd provide some form of an upgrade/expansion instead.
2. 414 maximum ports and only 324 stations max doesn't make me feel too comfortable. If they are seriously going to offer this as a replacement for the XTS, they're going to have to come up with something more.
3. The cabinet architecture is a bit strange, but I guess we'll get used to it. It seems that with the horizontal card slots, it wastes a lot of horizontal wall space. It seems like more of a vertical card file arrangement would be more space-efficient.
2. 414 maximum ports and only 324 stations max doesn't make me feel too comfortable. If they are seriously going to offer this as a replacement for the XTS, they're going to have to come up with something more. ---------------------------------------------------- That's a REALLY serious problem for most of us.
We are looking at doing the LG Ericsson IPECS LIK system which grows beyond the MBX and supports the Vodavi phones.
ElectSys Tech LLC Hosted Phone Systems Solutions Provider Allworx, Sangoma, FreePBX Telephone & computer systems in the Jefferson City, Columbia MO area.
I got my MBX-100 in on Wed and have it set up and working on my test bench. So far I have to say that I really like it. Have not had a chance to get into the voice mail or AA yet but will try and play with that this afternoon. Have an STS phone, a SBX phone and a IP 8000 phone running on it currently. SBX phone had to make a line cord for it to work.
