Do we offer Meridian Option 11 Support? Yes indeed. Oh, and for the -61 and -81, too.
The Nortel Meridian 1 was reputedly the most numerous PABX on the planet, designed around military requirements, and amazingly robust. It’s supposedly “end of life” now, but we argue vigorously against this death sentence in an earlier blog. It could be still serving organisations in another 20 years time.
However, programming is not for the faint-hearted. Think “a DOS version of DOS, and you might be somewhere near. Think of it as a mini- mainframe” , not as “Windows Does Voice”. Plus, there are the odd hardware quirks which only a seasoned engineer will know. So, in short, it needs folks around it that “know it”. But once it’s happy, it’s rock-solid and resilient.
And this is where we come in with Meridian Option 11 Support. We had a close relationship with an experienced Nortel BT Meridian Option engineering specialist company virtually from our first days of trading in 1999. And when we were approached some time back to install a used Nortel Meridian Option 11 as a “back-up/disaster recovery” system, we realised that we had the hardware, basic engineering, cabling, customer liaison, and project management skills gained through our history of PABX removal and recycling that could easily be converted to put things in. All we needed was someone from our friendly Option 11 engineering company to do the deep and mysterious programming bits. Voila! Total Meridian Option 11 Support. A team to put something in and make it work. Which we did. To the customer’s (and BT’s) satisfaction.
BT? Yes. Although we can offer Meridian Option 11 Support, we have no desire to be a maintainer, the on-call “AA/RAC” of the telecomms world, with people standing by to fix faults to tight time scales. Irresponsible? Not really, just that age and wisdom have taught us what we are good at, and what we shouldn’t take on. And servicing 24/7 maintenance contracts is not what our business is set up to do, although we know companies that do it, and do it well. So, our customer wanted BT to maintain the system we put in. They had to check it over as part of a Maintenance Acceptance Test. Which it passed, with compliments from the inspector.
So, for the customer, this installation, and his subsequent ones, turned into perfect “win-win” situations; we installed used Option 11 equipment at a fraction of the new cost. He then got BT to maintain. This is akin to an independent Mercedes dealer supplying a used, depreciated, well-maintained model, then covering it with a comprehensive factory warranty. In short, an utter bargain, with no shortcomings.
We quite like “beating the system” and offering Meridian Option 11 Support to customers. On this occasion, we came in at around one quarter of the equivalent price from “the official suppliers”.
Now, that was a while back. But in the meantime, we’ve taken on the Meridian Option 11 Support managed service contract for a multinational who are loyal to their Option 11. We “front-end” everything, including maintenance, becoming their virtual voice manager. Read all about it here.
So, if we can offer Meridian Option 11 Support for your organisation, be that on a Nortel Meridian Option 11, 61, or 81, please get in touch!.
