Toshiba Phone System

What switch is better CISCO OR AVAYA.?

I work with a large health care company. And we are looking into a new phone switch Solution. We have over 400 analog phones and around 1000 digital phones at the main building. We also have around 10 smaller buildings that talk to the main building through a Nortel switch. That is what we have at present( Nortel ). All of the smaller buildings that have shelves off our main also have analog lines. Not all of the buildings have fiber ties to them. So the question is this. Which switch would be better in the long run. We will keep the main one we have for the time being as it is the newest of the bunch. We will be replacing the smaller ones first. But which system would be the better in this scenario.

Public Comments

1. Avaya would be better with the Nortel switch at present. We just went from Avaya with a nortel switch to Cisco and we are no longer able to use abbreviated dialing nor can we network voicemails with the other locations.
2. I think cisco is much better than avaya in respect of its performance and stabality and also more technical support is available than avaya. http://www.computerfreetips.com/Cisco_router_tips/main_router.html
3. Ive used the Avaya phones in the past and those have worked out very well for us. I would recommend them over the Cisco ones.
4. This is a really difficult question to answer not knowing your environment. I am a Cisco VAR, so I'm biased, buy Cisco! But really it is a lot more complicated than that. I would recommend that you do "tours" of each company's solution at their nearest campus. It is MUCH better to do these things off site (off your site) than on, because it allows you to truly focus on just one thing, picking the correct solution. No people are popping in for impromptu meetings, no phones are ringing for support "emergencies", etc. Both vendors in truth have good solutions - but they are indeed very different. You want something that grows with the company, something that is supportable with your skillset today, but that you can hire into in the future, you need something that meets your technical needs and you need to pick a company that you feel comfortable working with. I just went through this with one of my accounts, they went to San Jose, CA and saw both the Cisco and Avaya campuses, met the engineers, saw the solutions, were allowed to poke and play with each solution - they brought both business decision makers AND technical folks that would need to implement/support either system. I don't think that they have made up their mind yet, but I know that they felt it was the RIGHT way to go about making the decision. Hope this helps!