An Absolute Beginner

[roasa3]

Hi There,

New guy here. My company is looking into upgrading our phone system in the near future and we are very happy with Avaya and will continue to avail their products. However, being unfamiliar with PBX and other aspects of the Telephony system, is there a guide where I can get a dumbed down explanation of what my company is paying for? We recently got a quote and I was hoping there was a way to simply explain the items on the quote.

E.g.
1000 MSG R6.X AV 1 SEAT MAINSTRM MMIP x $36.23
1000 SA ESS C/D AURA ,SG 6 MAINSTREAM 3YAN x 0.55
1000 UPG ADV AURA MSG 6 MAINTREAM 3YAN x 0.58
100 SA ESS C/D CCRG ELITE AGT 101-250 3YAN x 3.02
100 UPG ADV CCRG ELITE AGT 101-250 3YAN x 2.92
600 UPG ADV AURA R6 FND/S 3YAN x 0.95
600 SA ESS C/D AURA R6 FND/S 3YAN x 0.85

If there is an area on this site that will assist me in understanding these items, please direct me. Thanks in advance.

[markgallagher]

Simple, don't buy from them if they won't explain clearly and to your satisfaction. I have a colleague who has been dealing with a site that got conned (only word for it) into a system that was totally excessive for their needs and was being used at less than 5% of its capacity and abilities.

A good reseller will explain what the package includes and why. Deal with a good reseller.

[roasa3]

Thanks, yes I am looking for more peace of mind. Yes I can ask them what the items are and to why my company needs it. I was wondering if I can get a, absolute, unbiased info from this forum. And I do appreciate the help.

[marzahn]

Mark is Right

I want to second everything Mark has said. We currently have a sales rep that wrote the same kind of quotes complete with $20 power cords. After we started negotiations with a competitor, he came around.

Cost of equipment and software upgrades will continue rising if you do not ask questions, Sales managers take a dim view of their sales people losing business. So you always have quite a bit of leverage to use if used judiciously.

I don't know what version you are running. But keep in mind that you can now run call manager 6.x in a VM Ware environment. That takes the expensive Avaya hardware out of the picture. And one more thing . . . if something does not ring true, put the question here as you have done. I have gotten statements that were simply not true out of sales staff and even Denver a time or two.

[roasa3]

Thank You!

I really appreciate all the tips and suggestions guys.

Don

[roasa3]

Hi Bill,

Yes we were quoted around 16,000 for 2 DL360PG8 AVAYA CM servers. So if we have VM ware option we save this money?

Don

I want to second everything Mark has said. We currently have a sales rep that wrote the same kind of quotes complete with $20 power cords. After we started negotiations with a competitor, he came around.

Cost of equipment and software upgrades will continue rising if you do not ask questions, Sales managers take a dim view of their sales people losing business. So you always have quite a bit of leverage to use if used judiciously.

I don't know what version you are running. But keep in mind that you can now run call manager 6.x in a VM Ware environment. That takes the expensive Avaya hardware out of the picture. And one more thing . . . if something does not ring true, put the question here as you have done. I have gotten statements that were simply not true out of sales staff and even Denver a time or two.

[richa164]

You really need to get an explanation here as already stated , on your parts list you have licenses for elite agents etc , do you know what these are ??

The quote for x2 cm servers at 16000 is ridiculous and i can only think that licensing is obviously part of the quote.

State what you need , are you for example a call center that requires skill based routing , pc softphones , advanced external reporting , call recording . Or simply a large site that need people to make and receive calls ??