MaltMan1

I was informed that my version of software is at end of life in April so it gives a pretty good reason to upgrade. I am told by the business partner that this is very simple and will be pretty straightforward. Is this the case? What should I look out for besides making sure my current circuit packs are the correct vintage?

Soon after this upgrade we want to network 2 other IP offices. The IP offices are located overseas and I want to know if anyone has experience with an overseas system dialing a US #... does the US switch make that call based on LCR definitions?

nexSIP

I dont know if i would consider this simple. To a sales guy its simple i guess :)
I assume you upgrading to the S8700(ish) platform because of the end of life. Which is quite a big change.

IPOffices like up via IP really good. Avaya requires a site survey to make sure you can handle it. If you know what your doing you dont need Avaya.

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ahays

I don't know ... if properly configured by the Design Specialist it's pretty much a cakewalk. Then again, I have SS's and SA's with ProVision to do the programming for me. All I have to do is come along behind them and clean up. http://www.pbxtech.info/images/smili...0&%20Spicy.bmp

That whole network assessment (NA) thing is changing too. The $10K pricetag that Avaya placed on it was bogus and they're now certifying BP's to conduct their own NA. You know, Avaya won't even support an IP Office WAN connection without a NA. I have a couple of IP Offices connected to an S8700 via IP Trunks utilizing the Intuity as centralized voicemail. 100% of the trunking is IP over a point-to-point T1 (except a single POTS for 911 access) and all of the DIDs come in through the S8700. However, the first words out of Avaya's mouth when I called for support was "where's the NA?" So, I was left to figure out the problem on my own.

.al.

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Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
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MaltMan1

Well that is good info (another 10K). I won't be going to the S8700. I will be just upgrading the software and the guts of the existing definity footprint to be up to the latest release of software. I won't be having the IP offices sharing the resources, I will just want them networked on the WAN to take advantage of LCR. Does that make things a bit more simpler?

ahays

No, no, no .... don't misunderstand us. The Network Assessment is only applicable if you plan on implementing VoIP ... particularly in a WAN environment. I would definately recommend that you consider the S8500 or S8700 when you upgrade because the G3r and G3si platforms (hardware) are also at end of life. They're going to support them a bit longer but by moving all the way to the S8500/S8700 now it will save you much cash in the long run.

You can still network the IP Offices back to your system via VoIP without a NA and make it work just fine. By not having the NA it simply means that Avaya won't support that piece of the puzzle ... but you can still make it work and utilize it without their direct support and without jepordizing any other support issues that you might have.

regs,

.al.

__________________
Al Hays, ACE, MCSE, CCNA
Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
Training: http://www.jeral.com/avaya-learning.html

MaltMan1

The cost to upgrade was around 40+K so it was fairly reasonable. We don't want the other IP Offices to share our resources (DID's and VM). They will have their own resources. the only thing I need them to be able to do is 4 digit dialing between and toll bypass. I would love to go s8700 now.... believe me.

I thought it was 2008 that the refrigerators were not going to be supported.

PBXtech.info

 

MaltMan1

Unless of course anyone has suggestions on some colorful ways of explaining to upper mngt that the 8700 upgrade makes more sense and be able to quantify it.

ahays

It's not the MCC cabinets, it's the UN331C processor. You can still upgrade to the S8700 processor and continue to use the MCC cabinets (a most common configuration). The UN331C processors are at end of life and if you simply upgrade the software without upgrading the platform then you're going to be in the same boat in a very short time and will have to upgrade to the S8700 in order to escape "end of support" on the hardware.

regs,

.al.

__________________
Al Hays, ACE, MCSE, CCNA
Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
Training: http://www.jeral.com/avaya-learning.html

MaltMan1

Do you know when those processors will be at end of life?

ahays

They are at end of sale RIGHT NOW. You CANNOT purchase a new G3r with a UN331C processor at this time. End of support will occur shortly. I used to be able to access the end of life area of the BP website to get the specific date, but since they redesigned the site I can't find squat. I know it's there, I just haven't been able to locate it.

.al.

__________________
Al Hays, ACE, MCSE, CCNA
Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
Training: http://www.jeral.com/avaya-learning.html

PBXBear

We have been told by our AVAYA Global Account team EOL on the G3r Processor is end of 2006 - unless you have a pre-existing mainteance contract, which AVAYA will respect.

ahays

I found some information on the BP website as follows:

1) G3r:
New G3r systems are no longer available.
Upgrades to G3r ended in Dec 2004. Migration to the S8700 platform is now mandatory.

2) G3si:
New G3si systems are available through 6/16/2005.
Upgrades to G3si are available through 12/15/2005.

3) G3csi (ProLogix):
No expiration dates for New systems or Upgrades.

Note: These dates refer to sales, not support. I still have not been able to locate the end of support dates ... but I'm looking.

regs,

.al.

__________________
Al Hays, ACE, MCSE, CCNA
Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
Training: http://www.jeral.com/avaya-learning.html

liquidvw

Wow $40K to go from V8 to CM2.0. I just did that at one of my sights (V8 to CM2.0) and the cost was a lot less and I had to upgrade 100 agent licenses which was almost $14K with my discount.

I am reluctant to make the big leap into external 8X00 processors. The inskin process just work fine for me, but I guess that I will have to make the change at some point.

ahays

Here are some links that I have located on End of Life/End of Support that should be accessable to the general public:

UN331C Processor Server Pack: End of Sales Notices
http://support.avaya.com/japple/css/...umentID=161345

Avaya Call Processing Software Release 2-10: End of Sales Notices
http://support.avaya.com/japple/css/...umentID=161351

DEFINITY® Servers: End of Sales Notices
http://support.avaya.com/japple/css/...Release=162134

End of Sale Notices (All Avaya Products): End of Sales Notices
http://support.avaya.com/japple/css/...ucketID=147386

regs,

.al.

__________________
Al Hays, ACE, MCSE, CCNA
Homepage: http://www.jeral.com/
Training: http://www.jeral.com/avaya-learning.html