Mitel Phone System Reaching End of Life? 3 Routes to Take
Your favorite team trades your favorite player and suddenly you’re stuck wearing the old jersey. Or, when the Washington Redskins turned into the Washington Commanders. When and how do you make the change?
When Mitel announced that they would no longer be supporting MiConnect at the end of this decade, they put customers like you in this position — but the solution isn’t as simple as buying a new jersey. Business phone systems can be complicated, and you’ll have many choices to make. Affiliated is here to help you understand the situation and make the best decisions for your organization.
Take one of these three paths with your Mitel phone system.
1. Migrate to MiVoice Business
The most efficient path to take is to migrate to the most current Mitel phone system solution: MiVoice Business.
The Benefits of MiVoice Business:
- Not much financial strain on your organization with Mitel promotions
- Deployment flexibility (on-site, in the public cloud or private cloud)
- Suitable for organizations of any size
- SMB Controller is the best option for previous MiVoice Office 250, MiVoice Connect or 14.2 users, and for onsidte disaster recovery
- Full range of IP desktop devices and accessories
- Feature-rich unified communications platform for communication, collaboration and customer service
2. Migrate to RingCentral
Another route you can take is migrating from your on-premises phone system to the cloud. RingCentral took over Mitel’s cloud offering at the end of 2021. Migrating your Mitel phone system to a RingCentral cloud solution can be a low-disruption move for your organization, and Affiliated makes it simple. We are fully certified with RingCentral to provide a better implementation experience, onsite training and cutover, and onsite services post-cut to make your life easier.
The Benefits of RingCentral MVP
- Excellent reliability with 99.999% uptime
- Strong security from seven layers of protection
- Integrates with 250+ applications
- Migration offers minimal to no disruption to your business
- Ranked as a market leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant
- Powerful voice, video, chat and contact center features
As of June 2022, Mitel no longer accepted new contracts or customers onto the MiCloud Connect Platform, which includes the MiCloud Connect Contact Center or ECC systems. This decision was made as part of an agreement with RingCentral when Mitel chose to partner with them in 2021.
The following solutions will be phased out and replaced with RingCentral solutions:
- MiCloud Connect
- Sky
- MiCloud Office 250
- MiCloud Connect hybrid options
- MiCollab
- MOMA
- MOWA
- MiTeam Meetings
While current customers using MiCloud Connect will be supported, that support will stop in 2029. Regarding hardware, the Mitel 6900 series are certified to work with RingCentral. Even if you don’t act and migrate your Mitel phone system to a new solution now, you will need to sooner or later.
RingCentral Perks for Current Mitel Phone System Customers
These conditions can help offset the cost and lost time of transitioning to a new system:
- Access to free migration tools
- Special Mitel pricing
- RingCentral MVP compatible device
- Up to 3 months of free service
- Early termination fees waived
Mitel customers will not be automatically migrated to RingCentral. You will need to choose the best cloud solution for your organization, and Affiliated Communications will assist with migration, as we also provide Teams, Zoom, 8×8 and Dialpad.
3. Procrastinate Until You are Limited on Choices
Waiting until you have no other choice but to migrate to a new business phone system may seem like the simplest path to take. But delaying your decision until the last moment can cause serious disruptions for your organization.
It’s possible that you will be forced to replace your entire system because you are facing hardware failures, reaching the end-of-life phase, or because there is no longer any customer support for the system you were using.
Legacy systems are familiar and easy to use, but staying with a legacy system for too long can create problems. You will likely run into issues if you open a new office, hire remote employees or grow in other ways. A multi-line system could quickly hit capacity limits.
A traditional business phone system can be clunky and difficult to use. You could be required to log in to several interfaces to manage different phone numbers, and you might not have access to real-time visibility and other advanced call features.
Some on-premises phone systems can load slowly, which causes frustration for employees and customers. At the same time, some virtual phone systems can be unreliable, also creating a negative employee and customer experience.
Address these problems before they seriously impact your organization.
Affiliated Communications is Your Answer to Mitel Phone System Questions
Whether you are ready to migrate to a new business phone system next month or within the next year, our team at Affiliated Communications is here to help. We will guide you through the process no matter which option you choose.
Since 1984, Affiliated has navigated customers through the world of phone installation and service. Our team is highly skilled and manufacturer-certified so that you consistently receive the best and most cost-effective support. We proudly live up to our mission to provide excellent service and make your life easier, making us your ideal Texas communications partner.
Originally published at https://www.affiliatedcom.com on June 16, 2023.