Phone Systems - The mighty have fallen

In January Avaya/Lucent/ATT filed for bankruptcy, now Toshiba closes entire phone systems division. This is not a surprise to me one bit. Phone system use has hugely changed over the past 10 years and will continue to migrate towards mobile friendly systems.

I am proud to be the owner of Western New York's oldest technology solution provider. I, and my staff, have seen hundreds of companies in the telecom industry come and go. I was able see firsthand, in the late 90's, this happening. I saw a new Telecom system provider, Allworx, at the Comdex convention in the late 90's and thought their product had promise. I handed them my card and told the vice president to call me after they reached their fifth year in business. I was honesty frustrated with the Avaya/Lucent/ATT phone system we had and that we had literally blow up due to storms 3 times. Yes, we were on our fourth system and I wanted to give our techs mobility and I wanted a phone on my desk at home that connected to my office. At the time we did not sell phone systems as they we legacy devices and not integrated into any computing platform. I watched old telecom installers struggle on the installations and changes that we periodically made. I wanted a more flexible system, thus my interest in this new technology called VOIP. (On a side note we worked with Multitech on a VOIP solution for a company here in Batavia to integrate their ATT systems years before this, so I knew what this was)

Moving forward, 5 years and a month from me handing my card to the VP, I get a call from the very VP stating he had my card and a note to call me when they reached 5 years. I was astounded and impressed he actually remembered our conversation and kept my card. I scheduled a meeting and demo of their equipment. I signed on as a dealer on the spot. Within two months we were trained at their corporate headquarters in Rochester, NY and had our system installed, replacing the Legacy ATT system.

I have never looked back. My company is an APEX dealer and advisor/tester for Allworx. The company, over the past 11 years, has listened to recommendations and incorporated almost everything we asked for in their system. They designed their system as a direct replacement for Legacy Phone Systems, including POTS (plain old telephone system) line capability in there man processors out of the box. They have continually innovated and made their systems move with the market. Their newest systems allow for both Android and I phone’s to be used as a full extension on the system. This allows you to be anywhere and pick up a call from anyone dialing the office. They make systems for both small offices and large ones with over 100 extensions on a system. The best part is their systems are both affordable and come with a 5 year warranty.

We have clients using the Allworx systems from Boston to Miami and as far west as California. We design, support, and install systems anywhere our clients need us to be.

If you are on a Nortel (fully out of business), ATT/Avaya/Lucent, Toshiba, or Intertel systems we can help you painlessly migrate to an Allworx system, Call me today at 585-343-2713 or email me at [email protected] or Linkedin, I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Paul Marchese, CNE