atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Other Telephones & Systems Sprint Protege

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).]

Yes the Protege had lots of features at the time it came out, but compared to the Toshiba DK series there is no comparison....The "Shiba blew it all away. And I sure do hope you have extra sets of underwear....

I guess maybe Walter has some valid points but he also said he thinks the Partner was good!
The Protege is fairly simple to program (once you get really used to it) and the LTX would get rather powerful, but the problems were not worth any of it's advantages.
My biggest cons -
phones lost programming sometimes when unplugged.
Keeping up with the software.

Biggest Pros - UCD groups EXTREMELY Easy to set up, Although I never set up a true ACD group that users logged in and out of with it.

It had it's place and we still sell the 308 version. (can't buy a ne Modkey 16 anymore)

he thinks the Partner was good!

Ok .... Tell me your thoughts are on the partner.

I have quite a few customers that own them...
Service call rate is very low....

The older MLS phones have the membarane problem... but I still see a lot of them ten plus year old systems out there humming away with no service...

20 or so years ago we were contractors for ATT and installed a bunch for them...

Im very much intrested in your reasoning for thinking there not a good system.

I do not like there voice mails and do not use them ... but do have a handfull of account that we took over that has them...

Walter

I like the partner as well. my problem with the Protege' and other systems like it, is that it is too feature rich. They add so many things that they don't work all the time. Case in point: One of the few Pros we installed called us and kept complaining that once they put a caller on hold, they could not retrieve it. sure enough, went out on site, and once the hold button was pressed, you couldn't get it back. It just stayed on internal hold. I have never experienced these issues on Partners, Nortstar, Legends, etc. I have not done much Toshiba, but it seems to be a reliable product. Half of a good product is getting to know it a taking care of it.

Let me stick my 2 cents worth in regarding the Partner.....

I have been on jobsites where Partners where located next to boiler rooms, electrical closets, plumbing closets and the friggin think was clunking away working fine.....

While Im not a fan of the modular connections or the slots that never seat properly, once it goes in it stays working forever.........

MY ONLY BEEF is I wish they would expand the thing to 2 cabinets, some companies cannot afford the complex MAGIX and find the Partner just fine.....

THEN AGAIN......the winner is the 1030/3070....what a rock solid monster.....

ZMAN

Funtion 69 then press F2 (display above this should say go)
Unplug the phone than plug back in

This will re-set the phone port...

Clears out any user programing .... Very helpfull to do this when you have a weird problem with a phone..

Walter

I install alot of Partner systems , & work on a ton of them. Nice system for a small office. Then only beef I have with them is that ports get staticy, especially on 206 cards. The cabinet is also of poor design, cards don't seat very well. I wish they did not have fixed extension #'s either. Partner systems run pretty warm, too. Just look at the discolored cabinets. Partner VM is complicated for the end user as well. But all in all a good system, I installed one in my house. Nope, not a mansion, but I had the spare parts & "just had too".

Sorry to have turned this from a Protege to a Partner system.

I always found the Partner system more of a very poorly designed piece of plastic that is over priced. Sure it is User friendly and easily programmed. But, It over-heats, real bad problems with 206 cards, takes up a lot of room, Cards don't always seat right, battery problems, and on and on. My biggest gripe though is that they won't DIE! They DO keep plugging along. With the Advent of the ACS, I thought they might try to migrate to the 21st century, but, for better or for worst, it is almost the same system as it was 10 - 15 years ago.
Also I have disliked any and all ATT voicemail (except for the AMANDA liscenced to AT&T)
Proteges still suck though, but if the price was the same I would go with the protege of a partner.

Sorry one more negative about the partner...2pair? c'mon.