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

Hey we all have our favorite system! I was just amused by the copy and paste of the sales brochure. No offense intended. :toothy:

Good point Mark

= :sleep:

I am looking at Shoretel, Cisco and Altigen to replace our aging phone system. I see there has been some great debate compaing these systems. Is there any specific details that make one stand out over the other? Some one commented that AltiGen was a poor choice based on hardware. I had read a number of positive things about Altigen and the system seemed pretty easy and flexible. It is on a Windows platform which I think is a negative also the Outlook integrations is not as strong as Shoretel. I do not plan to do VoIP but have regular T's for phone traffic so the WAN stuff should not be an issue. Any comments would be appreciated. THank you.

We sell and install Altigen so obviously we will appear biased. The system has become quite a robust one. The fact that it is based on a Windows platform has proved to be a benefit, allowing the most complex system features (those requiring a technician/programmer call out with other systems)to be programmed via the good old point and click. Of the three you have mentioned Altigen has been in the telephone business the longest I do believe having been providing telephone systems since 1996. I will not point to the other sytems negatively or positively as I have not installed them. I chose the Altigen system, when looking for a dealership for a system with voip capabilty, for three reasons.
(1)Ease of installation
(2)Ease of Operation and
(3)Ease of upgrade/expansion
I strongly recommend that you speak in length to customers of each and if possible choose customers that have had their respective systems in place for at least a year. Ask them questions regarding return on investment, on going costs for upgrades and system changes, and finally ask about features (call recording, call mangement, etc...).
It is all about due dilligence. Afterall it is a significant investment and a little research can save a lot of heartache.
If you would like more info feel free to pm or email me.

Do you want to own a system or do you want the system to own you?

If you are not going to have VOIP then why are you looking at any of these systems?

I do not intend to direct my telcom traffic over the interne, VOIP, I do want the features and functioanlity of IP phones with the integration into Outlook etc. A traditional phone system does not offer the sort of flexibility that the IP solutions do. It seems to me that VOIP has been tagged to several differnt definitions. One is directing your traffic over the internet as popularized with Vonage and the like. The second seems to refer to the IP PBX.

if you are not going to use remote phone, mulit-site and soft phone why pay 2x for the same thing?

Not sure I understand your question. Traditional PBX is on the way out, more costly to maintain and fails to offer the sort of integration an IP solution offers. Most of the references I have spoken to do not direct the majority of their traffic over the Internet.

When I got in this business 21 years ago, 80% of the market was six lines or less and I would guess that it is still relatively close.

I'm on voip but that is because I am paying my ISP $60 for what I used to pay SBC $120 after I switched from Verizon that was somethingover $160. The Sipura boxes feed off my same old DSL and I feed them into a Toshiba CIX 100. That is voip without all the sip stuff.

All these VOIP only systems and the Key/voip combos are going to go to 20% of the market. At least that is until you get phones with voice announce intercom, off hook voice announce, lots of buttons, etc.

There are going to be 8 line key systems manufactured for a long, long time. Adding on some VOIP capability to larger systems is happening, but not wholesale replacement of key for voip, and it won't for the forseeable future.

But then I could be wrong, I was married twice.

Oh, maintainance. If you spill water on your pbx phone, you can swap it with another in a minute. Try that with a voip phone that has to be reprogrammed.

We have had so few bad phones and cards that anyone who has to complain about maintainance is selling junk or gets two lightening strikes a week.

And yes, we did just loose our largest customer to a VOIP, and only because Samsung's biggest hunt group was limited to 48 and they needed 80 or more. Such is life.