Avaya Aura vs. Avaya IP Office

Avaya Aura is secure and reliable; in our case, for customers that looking for stable solutions on voice, Avaya Aura is that solution fit. In a scenario where our customer is looking for digitalization, I think Avaya Aura is less appropriate.

Incentivized

The limitations of this unit are 2000 users, across 32 different locations. It is an SME product that is well past the border into enterprise territory with out having the enterprise expense. To top it off you can virtualize the servers! Anything outside of this scope would need to step into an Avaya Aura system. Do not forget to check with your vendor for leasing options if you do not want to have your new phone system fall into the category as a capitol project.

Incentivized

• So one of the things it's done well is it's stable. It's networked at all the sites. We have five-digit dialing everywhere, and one of the features we like is the crisis alert feature. So if somebody calls 911 at a particular school, it sets an alarm off on the phones upfront and displays the extension number and the room number of who called 911. So they can respond and they know where to send first responders. So it's pretty cool.

Incentivized

• It is a phone system. It dials calls, makes sure there's a secure login, and keeps securities actually quite good on it. It provides and allows for VPN access into the VPN phones, into it via SIP or via IP sac, and has a good voicemail system.

Incentivized

• The length of time to get an engineer's schedule needs to improve, especially when we're having service-impacting issues.
• At times, some of the engineers have language issues which make it difficult for some of our team to work with, despite the knowledge of the engineer.

Incentivized

• Rush for updates. At times an updated will fix one problem, and inadvertently create another. However with due diligence from your business partner (Tektivity) patches are tested before being rolled out in production environments.
• Part itemization. If you purchase a new system, the power cord does not come with the unit, that is a separate part. Very minor in the grand scheme of things but as a reseller and a customer still somewhat annoying.
• Large convoluted organization. As a user trying to navigate the AVAYA website, and track down information can be daunting. Even calling support can be challenging, you never know if your call will be routed to India, Brazil, or Denver. That is why the relationship with Tektivity is so important. You can leverage your business partner to get the answers you need so you can spend your time tackling issues that need your attention.

Incentivized

We are happy with this product since we have used until now around 10 years.

Incentivized

Oddly enough I have been impressed with the IP Office platform so much that I have integrated one into my home. My wife was not happy with it initially but once she started using it she was very happy with the results. It helped that I programmed it to work just like a home phone but with features and options that I can utilize remotely. I would be more than happy to put an AVAYA IP Office against any other phone system on the market, and let you be the judge.

Incentivized

Avaya Aura is extremely complex. Now that AI has come into the fold, Avaya needs to apply AI processes and tools to help identify and resolve issues with an installed platform. In addition, proactively identify potential issues. Ayaya has had some financial difficulties over the last few years. This may be why they outsource their expensive support. Our customer experience would benefit by having access to Avaya knowledgeable Engineers for questions about products and services as needed.

Incentivized

Avaya IP Office is a great system that is somewhat affordable for most SMB's. However, In our experience, Avaya IP Office has a tendency to shelve some of the license as you upgrade the software release on the PBX switch without giving back any comparable license to compensate. The Voicemail Pro license is quite expensive and most of the functionality that most business needs are not covered in the standard voicemail offering.

Incentivized

So I've seen the Cisco product out there. I've seen the old Nortel products, Mitel, I've been doing this for a long time. I've seen a lot of other products. And Avaya, Nortel were the Western Electric and Northern Electric of the world way back when. So pretty much the grandparents of all the other stuff that's out there. So their foundation is really strong. So I think this product stacks up amazing, especially for places that are mission critical, like hospitals, maybe the military, and stuff like that. They have the app, if you need an app, they do stuff on mobile devices, and that you can have remote workers. So I think they stack up really well against the other companies. The problem is probably advertising and the schools that are teaching this stuff are promoting a particular product and that's where the other products have the advantage. They're in the schools and it's, I call it indoctrination, but they're in the schools and they're teaching the people. The other product, their competitors are teaching in the schools, their product line. And that's how they can do promotion better.

Incentivized

I've evaluated Cisco and Mitel as well. So from the phone system, while feature functionalities, they've all do some of the same things. The biggest benefit of the IP office is that it is hybrid. You can do digital analog and IP all out of the same box, the same telecom system.

Incentivized

• Incremental cost saving so far, not seeing a huge difference between individual setup and onboarding an individual group on the central system.
• See some overall collective benefits in terms of support for the groups already onboarded.
• The increase risk of have a centralized system, wherein a single issue could impact each individual.

Incentivized

• When selling to a prospective customer, I always do a 10 yr ROI to show the benefits of Avaya IP Office or ACO and which scenario would fit best.
• CAPEX vs OPEX
• Number of phones needed as well as other features need to be considered to determine if Avaya IP Office fits best.

Incentivized