The IP Office is Avaya’s primary product line for small to medium-sized businesses. It is a hybrid PBX that is legacy digital technology at the core, but adds on VoIP and SIP support. The Server Edition is Avaya’s newest addition to the product line, and is delivered on an HP server.
Avaya IP Office 500 Technology
The operating system is Linux, the preferred choice for telecom systems today. The system uses a mixture of analog, proprietary digital, proprietary VoiP and SIP protocols. The server hardware is provided by HP, and thePSTN gateways (otherwise known as T1 and station cards) are provided by Avaya.
Avaya IP Office 500 Capabilities
Supports analog, digital and IP phones
Up to 250 SIP trunks per server
Up to 100 Voice Messaging ports
128 audio conferencing ports per server
Avaya Office IP 500 Strengths
Long traditional PBX feature list
Large conference call capacity
Supports legacy Avaya and Nortel phones
Conference call recording
Large number of resellers
Brand recognition
Good multi-location capabilities
Avaya Office IP 500 V2 Weaknesses
No call center capability
No IVR capability
Licenses required for SIP trunking and phones
From 1 to 6 servers are required, depending upon size and feature needs
Support is expensive
Older IP Office systems cannot be upgraded to Server Edition
Smaller Avaya resellers have limited data networking and SIP knowledge
