Presentations from the Aastra Day Please note that there are some slides that are poorly reproduced in pdf format because of the presenters use of overlapping transitions in their slides and graphics with shadows.. We do not distribute ppt versions however if you require them please contact Aastra directly.

Closed Session Summary Notes and actions(download 32K  )  UPDATED

Introduction and Aastra Update ( 932K )

Workshop MX-One V4 ( 2.94M )

Workshop Messaging V5 (731K )

Workshop Customer Applications ( 1.14M )

Summary

September 10 th Aastra Day Key issues  summary

We have a combination of information resources from the Aastra day and they are all available via the links opposite. The format of the day included,  the members closed session (users only) followed by an Aastra update delivered to all the attending audience. The afternoon consisted of 3 seperate workshop sessions on the key elements of the solution portfolio. The format of the day and the limited time meant that there was no concluding session to summarise the day, we are however seeking full feedback from those who attended.   The available resources consist of: Summary of the meeting notes taken from the closed session with actions to be addressed by the next meeting. The Aastra Update identifying where they are (market position, analyst reviews), current upgrading numbers for MX-One TSE and Solidus in the UK, and the partner program revamping they are undertaking. The three seperate workshops/presentations that were undertaken with the split into smaller sessions of 45 mins each.

Main Points

New partner program Aastra have highlighted they have revamped their partner program (see the Aastra Update for more details). Now the status of the partners will be  Elite, Premier, Select and Certified. Current choice for now remains the same for existing enterprise customers (Damovo, PNM, Westons, DV02, NCS). Aastra indicate they have 4 new partners going through accreditation. These are smaller partners aimed at the 'new business segment' for MX-One and not the larger Enterprises represented by the user group today. What is more relevant to existing clients is how competence levels will be increased and monitored by Aastra. The users concerns today are very much focused on levels of competence within the existing partners and the user themselves, to address the demands of a converging communications environment. This was highlighted in the closed session as something users want to see improving. The user group will seek updated status infomation from the partners to publish as we have had little directly from them and Aastra over the last 12 months during the transition.

MX-One V4 Should be launched to the customer by the end of 2009. Currently Beta trial phase ongoing in the UK. Feature information enclosed on the workshop slides for version 4. DNA will not be supported on version 4 forward. Upgrade costs to migrate from DNA to its equivalent in CMG is expected to be almost zero from an Aastra licensing perspective, however attention needs to be paid to the migration process and project costs from the service partner.  We would advise clients to discuss matters with your service provider (Customer Apps slides include some references to the application migration from DNA to CMG). We will seek to address this before or at the next user group meeting.

Customer Apps (Solidus/CMG/DNA) No formal functional list included currently for Solidus 7 (Aastra like to wait until final confirmation before releasing software functionality information). Launch by end of November targeted. The workshop set out to describe how Solidus/CMG can practically help bring about improved customer service and efficiency. The web based management tool will be part of any move to version 4 as it will include directory management,system management and MX-One management provisioning. All supported through one database i.e. no more synchronizing data requirement.

Messaging 5 See the Messaging workshop for functionality changes. Whilst new improvements are scheduled the overall emphasis is to encourage users to start deploying what they already have. It is still the case that the majority of messaging solutions only use 20% of the functionality they have today. Due for release by Q1 2010.

Demo facility/end points Aastra set up a demo facility showing live demonstrations of a range of multi-media features and the wide range of IP terminals. The  5000 range have been renamed the 7000 series and now have 4 terminals in the range supporting both SIP and H323.  The SIP only 67XX Aastra range have also been added to the augment the end point range on MX-One.