On the 4th of February, Avaya announced their intention to discontinue the supply of ADI licenses for any software version prior to R10 for the IP Office 500v2 phone system after the 5th of December 2019. This means that you will not be able to add any functionality unless a software update is performed to bring your system up to at least R10.1 or the current R11 that are licensed under the PLDS system. In the event of an SD card failure (they do wear out) it will not be possible to do a license swap to a new card without upgrading. R11 was originally released in May 2018 and is currently at Feature Pack 4, Service Pack 1.
Advantages of upgrading:
- additional features
- the ability to support newly released J-series and K-series phones
- a much improved web interface for making common configuration changes
- the ability to get manufacturers support for hardware components
- fewer restarts being required for certain program changes
Ongoing maintenance will be simpler too with the elimination of various virtual licenses that may have been created with past updates and are locked to the chassis.
Disadvantage of upgrading:
- Some of the older phones are no longer supported although they will still work.
Recognising your past investment, Avaya has a loyalty program providing discounts to enable the upgrade of the core chassis from anything prior to the IP500v2 and to replace unsupported phones with current phones.
If you choose to remain on your current version then your phone system will continue to operate as it has done but you will not be able to add the necessary licenses to allow VoIP lines. This is important with the elimination of ISDN. The only alternative to ISDN is VoIP which need to be licensed. It is possible to use a converter to present VoIP lines as ISDN but we feel they are a waste of money since they will no longer be needed if the phone system is updated.
Will I need to buy a new phone system?
If you have an IP500v1 chassis then yes but these were superseded by the IP500v2 in 2010. The IP500 v1 has not been able to be upgraded for a number of years.
What do I do now?
Contact us. We can advise you of the best course of action, supply and install the upgrade should you choose to do it. We can also supply ADI licenses now to enable the upgrade to VoIP lines later but you have to move quickly. If you already have IP phones and multiple sites then it may be worth looking at the bigger picture and assessing whether Server Edition is a better solution of the future. You can then rationalise the lines since small groups of lines are inefficient.
