2wire

Hi everyone,

Has anyone used Provision that can tell me some of the perks/downside of using Provision. Also if someone could put up one or two screen shots of the application that would be helpful in the description.

The reason I ask is that the company I work for has an opportunity to obtain a copy at a cost and would like to know how powerful this application is since Avaya does not really demo it as a product.

Thanks,

2wire

martinyoung

Provision is ASA on steroids. It is used for system turnup and installation. If all you are doing is system administration on one or two switches, it will probably not really benefit you. If you deal with a lot of Avaya switches and you have a large amount of changes every week, it will do you some good.

The downside is that it is installed on one computer and cannot be moved to another without Avaya assistance. It is also licensed from Avaya (and will only work with a valid license) plus the license is renewable every quarter. If you are buying this from someone other than Avaya you will need to buy the computer it is on also and then it will only work for the remainder of that license period.

The learning curve is somewhat steep and Avaya has a course you can buy that will teach it to you. But if you need the program, once you learn it you will wonder how you ever got along without it. When I worked for an Avaya Business Partner, Provision was a program I used probably every day.

I do not use the program now because even though I deal with five G3r's and three G3i's there is not enough programming to justify spending $hundreds every quarter.

__________________
Marty
Retired Avaya DSIC tech

PBXtech.info

 

ahays

Well ... here's a news flash for ya: The cost of the ProVision software is NADA, FREE, ZILCH. You can download it and try it in DEMO mode (http://provision.avaya.com) but you cannot send configuration info to a PBX. It's not the software ... it's the subscription that get's ya. The subscription rate is $1,150.00 per quarter ... that's right, every three months ... $4,600.00 annually ... PER COPY.

Having said that, it is truely a great tool if you install a lot of switches. If you install less than 2-3 PBXs per quarter then the cost/value relationship might be a bit high. Thing to do in that case is to find an independent SA/SS who owns a copy of ProVision and contract with them to do the software side.

regs,

.al.

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

2wire

Thanks for the input martin & al.

First of all I want you to know that we were looking to purchase it from Avaya. But the only way it seems to get a demo of the app. was to have an SA/SS come out to our site at T&M. That is why I was hoping for some screen shots.

We manage 6 large call centers that seat about 3000 plus people each and are staffed 24/7. We also have a couple of stand alone offices that we probably would not use Provision except for the corporate campus that has 4 buildings and about 4000 people. We may use it there for a large push. But our main goal is to manage the call center and the skills, vectors, vector variables, vdn, etc since the centers mirror each other for the same business units.

Al, the pricing you mention is ballpark with what we were quoted. I do like the FREE Demo mode option. Does it just go thru the motions, or does it allow you to download only but not allow you to push?

To both of you, thanks for the input. I would like to try it, but I think you are both correct in that it will definitely be overkill for what we do most of the time. I would really like to try it for our dial plan make-over. I think we are all going to loose some hair renumbering the centers and seeing if we caught all of our changes.

One more thing Martin, do you know what the course number is for Provision on the learning web site.

Thanks,


2wire

ahays

Again, you cannot purchase ProVision ... it's available for subscription only. Additionally, you can get a contract SA/SS to do the same thing for you. If you guys REALLY want a demo after you read the remainder of my comments then contact me and I'll put you in touch with an independant SS for about $95.00/hour who can demo the program for you remotely via a WebEx-type session.

Based on the scenerio above, ProVision is not the right product for your organization. If you were selling 3-4+ PBXs per month requiring installation then I would recommend ProVision because you can build an entire PBX from scratch "offline" and then push the configuration to the PBX. Most of what you want to do can be done with ASA and there are other thrid-party applications (UtilCall) that are designed to track and document your VDNs, Vectors, etc. that are MUCH more cost effective.

The pricing that I quoted was the Business Partner pricing DIRECT from the ProVision website. According to the ProVision website the demo is fully functional except that it will not allow you to connect to a PBX ... meaning that it will look pretty but is pretty much worthless from a functional standpoint.

Again, I can put you guys in contact with a 25+ year former Avaya SS that has ProVision that you can contract to assist you with the re-numbering. That type of work is all she does now.

BTP056W2

regs,

.al.

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

2wire

Hi al,

I am curious now that you mention Utilcall, is this similar to a product call Consistacom? Just wondering if you have used one or both of the products.

Here is the link:

Welcome to Consistacom, Inc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2wire

PBXtech.info

 

ahays

Neither ... but either one would likely be better for your organization than ProVision. UtilCall has a 10 day trial. Might want to give it a spin.

regs,

.al.

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