IT

Rants: IT’s Dissent to Telephony

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File this under IT is what it shouldn’t be. I mean, IT as in Information Technology.

A partner  of mine gave me a link to a page entitled “Meridian System Tech Support Guide” written by a Nicole Hayward for some pro-IP voice provider. Joe the UCX Guy would have a field day with these types of sales traps.

Let’s take apart the post one by one and call this young lil’ whippersnapper out

It’s no surprise that many network administrators and IT professionals are seeking Nortel Meridian Phone System tech support.

Well, I mean if you’re in IT, you hate people, why would you want to manage a system that requires people skills (AND having to deal with end users?)

 Released initially in 1975*, it’s been said that the Nortel Meridian is still the most widely used PBX for businesses with 60 to 80,000 lines. But when it comes to support, the hard truth is: Meridian systems are well beyond end-of-life

* Somewhat misleading, the SL1 came out in 1975, the Meridian 1 went to market circa 1990. As she implies in the last sentence, lets not let the facts get away of a good sale. She uses Wikipedia as a primary source, instead of here. (Laughing out loud!) Don’t get me started with the agism on the last sentence.

Nortel went out of business in 2009, and Avaya acquired its assets. There is no single source for Meridian tech support, but I’ve gathered a few resources and tips below. Please keep in mind: You’re probably better off selecting a Nortel Meridian phone system replacement.

“No single source” – well wasn’t that Northern’s way of using vendors for non Fortune 500s? Whatever. Like the UCX system. All you need is a server replacement. All gateways and digital and IP stations made in the last 25 years will work, young miss. instead of some crappy phone service that that basically emulates tip and ring over IP to be honest. I gotta do a SIP article sometime soon.

On the common system failures, this girl confuses the M1 line to the key based Norstar. (And yes I’m being crude, because there are women out there who do love TDM phones and can be much more intelligent than some millenial)  Again, sales have no damn clue about telephony at all.

  1. System Programming Failure – “The Nortel Norstar system utilizes a super capacitor (super cap) for maintaining the programming data in memory. The problem is that the supercapacitor has a high incidence of failure as it ages. There are no outwards sign of failure (nor any way to test, other than unplugging the system) as it’s only there as a data “backup” system.”  [Kremlacek]

IT people or ones with aggressive sales backgrounds are very manipulative. If she ever worked for me, I’d press her for harassment charges, with her kinda tone that shows below.

If you have prior experience with Meridian equipment, manuals may help. Otherwise, don’t try this at home, folks.

What, I can’t have an M1 in my house? Not even an Option 11… my goodness what planet are YOU on?

While I couldn’t find a single repository of Nortel Meridian manuals on Avaya.com, many of the past PBX resellers and business partners have published them. I found a big list of Meridian 1 Options 11C, 51C, 61C, and 81C manuals here. You can find a particular manual by Googling the system option, e.g. “Meridian 1 Option 11C Manual.”

Yeah Google may not be your best friend, ever tried SUPPORT.avaya.com? And what is this Unix reference of “Repository” – we we call it in the ‘biz a COLLECTION…grrr! 

At this point, I want to become a Wookie…and I’m not even a Star Wars fan!

Among the other options, she writes about the various options, but basically rips and writes the content, and doesn’t put it into her words, like whatever Avaya’s brochure says, must be true, type of attitude.

So here goes the sales pitch:

While it’s tempting to keep your existing phone system on its last legs, consider the costs: your time, a technician service and/or Avaya maintenance contract, refurbished parts, etc. And at the end of the day, it’s a short-term fix. You are better off considering a new phone system solution, and it’s likely a hosted VoIP PBX will work for you.

Why hosted VoIP? If you were getting along fine with the basic phone system functionality that the Meridian PBX offered, your organization will be floored with the capabilities that a cloud VoIP providers offer.

Um, excuse me? Do you even have a clue how many features the M1 has, or are you judging on the original SL-1 specs from 1975? Oh wait, there’s more!

Switching to hosted VoIP can be done in a matter of days. Most hosted VoIP solutions, like OnSIP, have 50+ phone sytem features, utilize your existing LAN, and require no investment in equipment beyond the phones.

There is over 300 end user features on the M1 and I am not even CLOSE to being a Nerdtel fanboy, Nicole! There you go, these scare tactics + sales makes customers creep out and cave into some dummy millenials who can’t tell from tip vs ring, or the functionality of a true PBX vs some Asterisk type. Good luck cutting over to a “hosted” solution for 8,000 ports (an average port count in an M1 setup.)  These IT and sales people want to sit at their workstations and not get them fingers dirty in those lovely 66blocks with hard wired telephones.

Of that, lets turn this sales pitch, to something relevant to the Museum, if you walked away in the last calendar year learning something new about telephony, please return the favor with kind feedback or a donation or something on the Wish List. I’m love to get tiny compensation to take time out of my busy live to try to fill the Web of something other than the Political Correctness of Technology known as Information Technology or PCs. I stride to be 99.999% accurate and clear of all the exhibits and posts before it gets published.

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Topical: The Death of the Office Phone?

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Avaya (now my most hated telecom company, or should I say hated “telecom” company) is continuing to loose their roots. The very liberal, and extremely progressive technological company (that will never go public again) is now comparing office phones to “cord cutting”.

As he defines it “the practice of canceling or forgoing cable television subscription or land line telephone connection in favor of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service.”  Try putting salt in the wounds of victims of Hurricane Sandy or Irene who wanted their copper service because the damn thing works, without having to install UPS to technically inapt people. While this publisher admits POTS and copper service can be expensive, user choice should be an option. But options are limited as “the consumerization of IT” allegedly gives the user better choices (read inferior quality.)

Don’t shoot the messenger (that is me!) This is what their marketing people believe in.

Avaya Thinks your 8434's cord should be cut, or so says Steve Forcum!
Avaya Thinks your 8434’s cord should be cut, or so says Steve Forcum!

 

On a Linked In post, a “systems engineer” (whatever that means in today’s standards) makes weird claims that 89% of employees mobile devices connect to the corporate network, and another claim at a third of enterprises will no longer provide devises for their employees by the year 2016.

Another disturbing thing this alleged engineer says the following:

A lot of ink has been spilled proclaiming the death of the desk phone. Most of the authors of these obituaries proclaim that the new hub for business communications is the desktop computer. But this approach flies in the face of the reality that the time spent at our desks is declining. The devices employees are choosing to use are not their personal computers, but mobile phones and /or tablets. In a recent survey, 70% of responding employees preferred to use their mobile phone in place of their desk phones. Employees WANT to cut the cord. – Steve Forcum’s Linked In page.

 

Really?

I don’t want to cut my cord.

Ask every employee in this country and come back to me.

Stop with the lies.

Again this marketer type is giving some really weird numbers. My high school job was working at a semiconductor company supplying chips for the iPhone, doing accounts payable. I cannot, and say cannot do such work on my iPhone let alone my own laptop. There are laws like Sarbanes Oxley and other rules where we really need a PC. The phone on the other hand wan’t used often, so maybe eliminate a phone in that department could be plausible.

I think the Politically Incorrect approach, is how companies have no understanding or caring about the working class people. People need phones or PCs in some environments, whether its a fab or a place that does clerical work. Avaya’s out of touch marketing factor with an extreme anti-establishment, anti business agenda is murdering the desk phones for no reason. Avaya’s corporate ancestors (Lucent and AT&T) had strongly innovated for and by the end user. Nortel and others required a PhD to administer their PBX or even their deskset. This company is quickly getting destroyed all in the name to be hip and relevant.

I’m no longer on both the Avaya and Nortel list, but those list represent the majority. Some want the hip features, some like the cost effectiveness and some use it to make calls. Again their marketing department is tone deaf.

I am making a stand to boycott Avaya forever! I never thought in a billion years, I’d give up on one of my favorite office phone vendors, but Avaya lost us, they are too into sl*tifiing their company instead of being a utilitarian IT provider. And lot of this is part of the Nortel Enterprise unit, of the alleged innovation, progressive and destruction of the same ol. There is more job losses in Avaya Red (native) than Avaya Blue (Nortel.) They should call them for what they are, they are the modern day Nortel enterprise unit.