Organisations operating Avaya Aura and IP Office systems are taking note, as stock of some of Avaya’s most popular desk phones are now running low. The Avaya 9600 series desk phones have constituted some of their bestselling models in previous years. Robust, well-priced devices with high quality audio and lower power requirements the 9600 series devices were hugely popular with customers using Avaya’s platforms.
Avaya announced in July 2018 that the 9608G IP Deskphones and the 9611G IP Deskphones were to become end of life on June the 10th 2019. The now imminent date has increased demand as no further units will be manufactured or sold post the deadline.
In their End of Sale (EOS) notice, Avaya has advised customers to consider alternative models such as the J179 and J169 IP Phones as potential replacements. However this will not be suitable for users of older Avaya backend systems as the J Series phones are not backwards compatible. In the event of the 9600 series devices becoming completely unavailable users will have to consider migrating to newer communication systems entirely, such as Avaya OneCloud. The UCaaS solution is available from Avaya as a private cloud offering and certain offers do include discounted, or even complement free of charge, J series devices.
The dwindling 9600 series stock numbers have encouraged many customers to buy up remaining units to satisfy their requirements for potential further expansion, exacerbating current stock issues. Avaya has though stated that, as usual, they will continue to honour existing enhanced and extended warranty services although the end of manufacturer support will follow on the 10th of June 2022.
So if you use the 9600 series phones currently and have no plans to update your whole system anytime soon, it might be worth contacting your Avaya stockist to see if they can supply you with some spare devices. Many distributors and resellers do offer stock storage services which might enable certain customers with small expansion requirements to maintain their current systems and endpoint arrangements. Avaya has said they will “make every effort to supply the discontinued models for all orders, but cannot guarantee product availability through the End of Sale date. Avaya reserves the right to manage and/or limit order quantities, or to cancel orders if supply is no longer available”
Considering the current situation it seems likely that stock will have been exhausted well before the EOS date and in that event Avaya will accelerate removal of the product codes from price lists and order entry systems.
