Category Archives: phones

NEC Adds 9.5″ SV9100 Chassis For Small Business Clients

NEC recently added the smaller 9.5″ SV9100 phone system chassis, matching it’s predecessor, the 9.5″ SV8100 cabinet for small business customers.

NEC SV9100 9.5 inch chassis

Compact NEC SV9100 9.5″ Chassis for Small Business

Telephone Magic Inc. has been installing these smaller chassis SV9100 systems for a few months now and the verdict is in… WE LOVE IT! The 9.5″ chassis offers small businesses a cost-effective way to get the high end features of the award winning NEC SV9100 platform.

While the SV9100 is based on the solid foundation of the SV8100 platform, it has a much more powerful processor. It does away with the need for the PZ-VM21 Voice Mail card holder and the PZ-ME50-US Expanded Memory card, The InMail voice mail packake is now stored on a micro SD card which clicks right into a slot on the main control card (GCD-CP10). Like the SV8100, this system is hybrid in nature. It handles both digital and IP phones, has the capability to network between sites and add SIP trunks as bandwidth grows and QoS become more stable.

NEC UT880 tablet tepehone

The UT880 combines the ease of a touchscreen tablet and a familiar telephone keypad!

Customers are RAVING about the new UT880 Tablet Phone which combines the look and feel of a tablet with a standard telephone handset interface. This phone terminal combines touchscreen capabilities with a familiar phone keypad and video options – it is simply breathtaking!

NEC’s UT880 Universal Client is a multiline telephone application that emulates an NEC 32-line DESI-less telephone, comes standard in the SV9100’s user licensing packages. The interface of the UT880 Universal Client is designed to improve the overall user experience, while remaining intuitive—with no extensive training needed. You can see at-a-glance if you have new voice or instant message notifications, missed calls, meetings and new emails plus it provides access to all of the standard system features.

The UT880 and NEC's SV9100 create a powerful combination of innovation and user features!

The UT880 and NEC’s SV9100 create a powerful combination of innovation and user features!

Additionally, the UT880 enables access to the UC Suite Client – corporate directory, presence, instant messaging, unified messaging and call control – right on your desktop phone.

When NEC first release the SV9100 they created the UNIVERGE SV9100S and SV9100E Communications Servers. While they are both robust, feature-rich, Unified Communications enabled systems that are ideal for small and medium-sized businesses, the added introduction of the 9.5″ chassis offers the smallest of business clients to take advantage of the powerful SV9100 platform. Each server is designed to help solve today’s communications challenges and is built with your migration path in mind, so you can scale your communications as your business grows.

Because it is so future friendly and upgraded by frequent software improvements, NEC's SV9100 is likely the LAST communication system your business will ever purchase!

Because it is so future friendly and upgraded by frequent software improvements, NEC’s SV9100 is likely the LAST communication system your business will ever purchase!

The one thing we love about NEC’s SV9100 is that it is likely the last communication system your business will purchase. Unlike previous “in the box” phone systems that had a certain amount of set features that became antiquated and redundant over time, the SV9100 is future friendly – it’s a server that will regularly be improved going forward via software updates. As new features are invented and brought to market they will become available to your business team as you keep your SV9100 current with the latest Software Assurance,

The SV9100 also comes with a simplified user-licensing structure, which allows you to only pay for what your business needs, as you need it. Gone are the days of paying for 40 voice mail boxes when all you needed was six! Gone are the days of having to buy voice mail ports to be able to handle more calls. This system is provisioned for sixteen ports that will handle as many or as few calls as necessary. The SV9100 also easily integrates with your existing NEC technology.

In short, we are VERY impressed with the SV9100 communication system, and our initial experience with it tells us you will never regret a move to this platform. It is built on a solid foundation and will grow in just about any way you wish as your business changes and expands.

Everyone Seems to be “Hung up on VoIP”

It is AMAZING how many of our clients are all about “Don’t we need VoIP phones?” and “Don’t we need to get cheap VoIP truncks?” and “Aren’t SIP trunks cheaper?”.
Well, to answer ALL these questions… “YES”… under the right circumstances. Not everyone NEEDS more expensive IP phones. That’s right, I said it. I would LOVE to sell you more expensive endpoints and, WOW, I would REALLY LOVE to invoice you to rewire your entire building for Ethernet phone extensions, but, to be honest, YOU DON’T NEED THEM! (darn)…

You heard me. MOST small to medium sized businesses do NOT require IP phones. More importantly, their site Internet access will not SUPPORT loads of VoIP traffic with SIP trunks or phones either!

Most small businesses, EVEN WITH MULTIPLE BRANCHES, can take advantage of less expensive digital terminals and STILL utilize SIP trunks to save money by connecting their hybrid phone systems, such as the NEC SV8100 telephone system via IP daughter boards, such as the IPLB32 – opening a VPN tunnel between the sites where phone calls can be transferred back and forth. Again, this can be done with DIGITAL phones because the SYSTEMS are tied together with VoIP technology!

Before YOU make the mistake of spending an arm load of dough to buy fancy IP phones and swithces that, OMG, don’t work with your limited Internet bandwidth (ouch! YES, there’s the site limitation!) – call someone who REALLY knows their stuff that takes ALL of the environmental and carrier service capabilities into consideration before selling you what you THINK You need. It’s that simple.

Hey, don’t get us wrong – we LOVE the BUZZ words – they sell a TON of new equipment. But don’t sell yourself short and get a huge disappointment when you find out your new phones do not even work. Listen to a professional that can save you loads of money and aggravation by not only listening to what you want, but telling you EXACTLY what you NEED based on your requirements and local site capabilities.

VoIP – Surprising Facts and Myths

Voice over IP (VoIP) was introduced to the main stream well over 10-years ago by companies like Vonage, Comcast and Magic Jack. As a result, many business owners believe that VoIP will save them money and deliver them an advanced set of features and services that traditional digital systems and services cannot. This impression is absolutely false. VoIP is a fantastic technology when used correctly and when all parties are informed of the deployment pros and cons.

VoIP has some serious pitfalls in some applications, if deployed solely to save money. Here are four different examples of VoIP applications and considerations:

VoIP used by telecom providers to move voice traffic over long distances.
VoIP used by businesses within their organization, to eliminate traditional digital voice communication products.

VoIP used within Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) fabric, to deliver voice service to businesses.
VoIP used in the residential market to bypass traditional analog lines and services.

1. VoIP used by telecom providers for long haul applications – Telecom providers have been using this service behind the scenes, much longer than the service has been available to the public. VoIP allows telecom companies to move un-metered traffic within their own networks, over great distances for no additional cost. Providers are able to segregate these networks, prioritize traffic and control end-to-end transmissions, thereby delivering a high-quality communication. The switch gear used to control this traffic is far better than the equipment available to most businesses for their in-house networks.

2. VoIP used by businesses in their local area networks (LAN) – Here are some common misconceptions regarding an in-house VoIP deployment:

understand voip voice over IP

VoIP’s Surprising Facts and Myths

Myth one; “I bought a VoIP system and now all my traffic is VoIP”. FALSE. You can have a VoIP solution within your organization and connect to the public network using digital or analog lines and vice versa. Your VoIP solution is not dependent on using VoIP services from the public network.

Myth two; “If I install a VoIP system, it will save me money”. FALSE. If you implement a VoIP system within your own network and you take all the necessary voice and data traffic quality considerations in to account, this application will not save you money on services or equipment. So if this is the only reason you are doing it… Stop and consult a trusted advisor.

Myth three; “VoIP will give me more features”. FALSE. Today, hybrid voice systems will give you all the same features as a VoIP system. These hybrid systems can use your existing cat.3 or cat.5 cables to deliver a combination of VoIP, digital and analog phones while using a combination of digital, analog and VoIP services in the network. Hybrid systems are very versatile and they do a great job of protecting your past infrastructure investments.
When considering a business VoIP system and implementation, consider the following to assure a more successful result:

Make sure your cabling Category 6, gigabit Ethernet certified.
Try to isolate your voice and data network cabling and switches from each other.
Make sure you purchase professional switches and routers that have a proven Quality of Service (QOS) feature. This means staying away from big box retail stores. 
Try to purchase Power Over Ethernet (POE) switches for the voice network. Most VoIP sets come with local power, but a POE switch can keep your desktop environment clean and make moving phones around the office much easier.

3. VoIP and SIP – Buyer beware. Although this technology is pretty slick and down the road it will enable some pretty cool presence features, it is a bring-your-own-bandwidth (BYOB) product that will not save you money. This will change, but right now sales people are selling this product by convincing businesses to downgrade their available call capacities. They are also leaving out critical information regarding a new practice of charging for incoming calls. I am a fan of SIP, just not the way it is being marketed today. In my opinion, SIP is more viable as a redundant backup solution rather than a primary service.

4. VoIP for residential market – Pro: It’s cheap. Con: You bring your own bandwidth (BYOB) and the quality can be unreliable at times. Because we are discussing a residential application, the Cons are not reason enough to avoid this product. Call quality is not mission critical in your home. Therefore, the low cost benefit of this service makes it a formidable foe to traditional POTS lines.

It is very important that you rely on a trusted adviser when contemplating a VoIP deployment. If you feel you need to do this in order to keep up with the competition, you are wrong. For more information feel free to contact us toll-free @ 1-855-929-9199.

(originally via Scott Sinclair)

#Telecom #News – July 7th- July 20th, 2013

Telephone Magic Continues Support for Nortel/Aastra Meridian Centrex Phones

July 19, 2013 — Telephone Magic now offers replacement Nortel Meridian M5000 Centrex MBS 2 telephones with “As New” warranties at wholesale prices to enterprise clients. New Aastra Centrex phones are also available to ensure an ongoing supply to Cental Office controlled phone networks.

Telephone Magic Continues Support for Nortel Meridian 1 and Option 11C Phones

July 17, 2013 — As enterprise phone systems age, the first things to go are the phones. Telephone Magic now offers replacement Nortel Meridian M2000 and M3900 phones / Avaya 3900 series digital telephones with “As New” warranties at wholesale prices to large enterprise clients.

New Nortel/Avaya Phone Headsets Provide Direct-Connect Options for Business Users

July 16, 2013 — Business office staff can avoid the added expense of purchasing headset amplifiers with Telephone Magic “Direct-Connect” phone headset options for Nortel/Avaya Norstar, Meridian, and BCM phone system telephones.

Polycom SoundPoint IP SIP Phones – the Most Interoperable for IP-PBX Platforms

July 12, 2013 — The new Polycom SoundPoint IP phone Series from Telephone Magic is an enterprise-grade family of SIP desktop phones designed to make voice communications effective and productive.

NEC SV8100 Phone System Represents the Utimate in Unified Communications

July 11, 2013 — New NEC SV8100 phone system platform meets business demands for efficient, seamless communication to enable rapid decision-making and customer responsiveness. Telephone Magic offers the SV8100 to help small to medium-sized businesses succeed by placing people at the center of communications.

New Avaya 9500 Phones Ideal for Mixed Digital/IP Telephone Deployment

July 08, 2013 — Avaya 9500 Series digital telephones look and function like the Avaya 9600 Series IP Deskphones and can be deployed in mixed digital/IP telephony environments – the premium choice for businesses to add digital endpoints from Telephone Magic with a consistent appearance and user experience.