Re: Medium-sized phone system questions

On Thu, 11 May 2006 20:48:36 -0700, "Someone" <someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"Carl Navarro" <cnavarro@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:oau762let2s1pms6pnn7mc3f1vh1qk7j4e@xxxxxxxxxx

What phones do you have now? Are you spending an extra $2k on 17 new
phones, or upgrading an existing phone system?

Yes, I forgot to mention that. This is an old Merlin system, so everything including
the sets will be replaced.

Two ports for 17 phones is not unreasonable, and yes, avoid the BVM.

I'd still like four VM ports because we get a fair number of calls.

While you're avoiding, you might want to avoid the TA824 or TAW848 if
you are buying new phones or trying to reuse old TD phones.

Is that because of the VM limitation? We're getting new sets anyway no
matter what we go with.

No, it's because the analog phones only have 12 worthwile buttons.

A TDA-50 fits comfortably in the 8x20 starter range and handles 4 VM
ports, but the phones need to be digital. That's good, because a full
fledged VM system requires 3 buttons for call handling and the more
buttons you have the better.

Good suggestion, and the TDA sets have lots of buttons!

Yes. Make sure you get 7633 or 7636 sets so you can add the optional
12 button modules if you need them. 7630's won't work.


Lastly, you might look into other brands. The Inter-Tel EncoreCX, a
Partner ACS, or even the NEC DS-2000 are pretty competitive if you
have to buy all new phones.

Thanks. I'll look at them too.

.