<DIV>All,</DIV>
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<DIV>I have a sales office that's going to be relocating. At the moment, they're on an Option 11, 3.0. There are other sales offices... mostly Nortel 3.0, where we're using VoIP trunking interoffice, and some softphones for remote users.</DIV>
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<DIV>Management is considering installing a Cisco Call manager in the new facilities where the sales office will move to. I'm not familiar with Cisco voice products. I'm the primary voice administrator across the offices, with local site admins. I'm not an installer. I can install/setup/etc line cards, etc. I do know BARS, Meridian Mail, and am pretty creative with interoffice routing, failover from VoIP to PSTN, etc.. Politics and economics are playing a large part in this consideration, and for the seemingly small say I have in the matter, I'd like at least to be able to intelligently put together a "pros and cons" of switching the system, since I'll inevitably be the guy that's called when something's not working properly. Besides the obvious things like having to train the users on a new system, can anyone provide me with some technical comparisons between a Cisco Call Manager's capabilities and the capabilities of a similarly spec'ed Nortel system (BCMXXX)? </DIV>
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<DIV>Since the Option 11 is getting old, we're leaning towards a Nortel replacement should we decide against Cisco. </DIV>
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<DIV>Here are a couple of concerns:</DIV>
<DIV>1. How easily will the Call Manager network with the Meridians for VoIP trunking? We're 3.0 on the Nortel side, so SIP is not in the picture.</DIV>
<DIV>2. How do the 2 manufacturers' multimedia/collaboration tools/products compare? </DIV>
<DIV>3. How do the call center apps compare? </DIV>
<DIV>4. How smart is it to put IP phones on all desktops when Disaster Recovery and Redundancy planning are just about the biggest issues right now in my department? </DIV>
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<DIV>At the moment, none of our offices is using Unified Messaging solutions. One office suddenly having this capability shouldn't be the reason it becomes necessary for all offices to have it. It's obvious that a business case should be made first for the solution, and then considerations for installations and rollouts come next, but you know how it goes... </DIV>
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<DIV>Thanks in advance for all of your advice..</DIV>
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<DIV>-- Chris </DIV>