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How to integrate with legacy nortel pbx?

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tsteffens

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We currently have an MICS at a customers site. They also have a voicemail that recently failed. This nortel MICS pbx hosts 64 phones that are digital 2 wire nortel phones. The premise wiring is all old mixed cat3 and 2wire cables.

My initial thought was instead of replacing their old voicemail with another nortel one is to make 3cx be the voicemail for the pbx system.

Anyone know how integration between the two could happen cost effectively?
 
It would be easier to replace everything and move them over to 3CX.

3CX was not designed to be an add on voicemail system for a legacy PBX.

You would have to cost out a replacement VM system, take into consideration the reliability, and future replacement availability, then compare that to a quote for a new VoIP system and it's benefits.
 
Giving this some more thought...the big issue is getting trunking (or even lines) working between the two systems. Coming out of the Nortel, you would have to have SIP trunking capable of sending DID, or even caller ID, to route the call to the correct mailbox. Notification would only be available by email. Retrieving the messages would involve calling an IVR to select the extension you want, once again you would require analogue to SIP conversion. Given that the sets on the Nortel are two wire proprietary digital type and the trunking is probably analogue, and a limited number of spare trunks, if any, available, you really should be looking at a system replacement.

You should be able to justify the additional cost by the added features and flexibility that a VoIP system (3CX) would give the customer. Not to mention lower repair costs in the future.
 
I agree with leejor, a complete replacement makes more sense.

The older cat3 wiring should hold up using newer SIP phones, depending on the cabling layout you may be able to even connect inexpensive switches for other extensions nearby. Some might have PC's and you can connect off those with a minimal initial investment in new wiring. I prefer Cisco SPA5xx phones, but I have a few Grandstreams that were real cheap and work well. They can always come back to the wiring in the future if this can work out.

Not for nothing but any company with 64 extensions has at least 50 to 60 employees if not much more, there has to be either money and credit available or attainable for something as important as the company phone system. It is inevitable that sooner or later that Nortel system will have to be replaced, any money spent on keeping it going is being wasted, money spent on trying to patch to it is also eventually wasted.
 
If wiring is an issue you can also put in a Citel SIP solution and pair it with 3CX.

http://www.citel.com/Products/Portico.asp

It takes the Nortel M & T series phones and makes them behave as indipendent SIP phones (replaces the MICS) and then you use 3CX with a Patton Analog or PRI Gateway to replace the rest of the MICS and Call Pilot Functionality.
 
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