Nortel Voice
Are you looking for the best upgrade path for your office phone system? Learn about Nortel Voice and the Avaya 500LN line telephone system, which provide a near-seamless transition to an upgrade.
Nortel Upgrade Paths
If you have a MICS, CICS, BCM, or Norstar phone system sitting in your closet, you already know the story. It has run faithfully for twenty years or more. Maybe longer. The phones still ring, the hold buttons still blink, and your team knows exactly how to pick up a line without anybody having to ask. But parts are getting harder to find, the voicemail card is on its last legs, and somewhere in the back of your mind you realize your system is aging.
So what are your options for a Nortel upgrade? The good news is that you have two very good paths, and both of them respect the way you have always done business.
The Avaya 500LN Line Telephone System
First, let’s talk about the official upgrade. When Avaya acquired the manufacturing side of Nortel Networks back in 2009, the Norstar family had a lot of loyal owners who were not looking to reinvent how they answered the phone. The Avaya 500LN Line Telephone System was developed with those owners in mind. It does not get a lot of advertising, but it is the true upgrade path from Nortel.
The 500LN is built on the Avaya IP Office platform and set up to be one of the closest matches to the Nortel or Norstar you have today. If you love your True Hold buttons, you will feel right at home. Those are the buttons that let you share a phone call with other team members seamlessly. One person puts a call on hold, another person walks over, presses the line, and picks it right up. No transferring, no shouting across the office. This modern system keeps that feel of an old-fashioned multi-line phone system, which is exactly what a lot of small offices, shops, and medical practices want.
There is also real comfort in the name behind it. Avaya traces its roots back to the communications business of AT&T and the famous Bell Labs. It has long served government and large enterprise customers, and it has a reputation for building reliable communications that keep running when it matters.
NorstarVoice Cloud PBX
The next best option is the NorstarVoice Cloud PBX phone system. Think of it as the best of both worlds. It was developed to emulate the call handling you have enjoyed for decades, including those shared hold buttons your staff depends on. Then it adds the advantages of a modern cloud phone system on top.
What does that look like in real life? Here are a few examples:
- Remote working is simple, so your people can answer the office line from home or on the road.
- A mobile app lets you place calls that show your office number instead of your personal cell.
- Calls can be transferred to your cell phone, which gives you amazing mobility when you are away from your desk.
NorstarVoice was built by people who worked with Nortel for decades. They know how Norstar users think and what they refuse to give up, and they developed this cloud upgrade with that in mind. It is not a one size fits all system from a company that has never heard of a Norstar.
Which Path Is Right for You?
If you want to stay on premises and keep a system that feels as close as possible to your current Norstar, the Avaya 500LN is the one to look at. If you want your phones to follow you out of the office and you like the idea of leaving the hardware behind, NorstarVoice is a great fit. Either way, you do not have to give up the call handling your team has relied on for years.
The most important thing is not to wait for the day your system quits. Planning a Nortel upgrade on your own schedule is far easier than scrambling during an outage. Give us a call, and we will look at what you have, whether it is a MICS, CICS, BCM, or an older Norstar, and walk through both options with you.