There’s been some interesting marketing going on in the communications sector recently. Appealing to the marketplace with what Avaya has deemed “fake news“, Mitel published a post warning Avaya customers that the communications giant would be ending their support for the CS1000M platform in 2018. Mitel claimed that the lack of support might cause service risks for customers, and have a significant impact on productivity and customer experience.
Having examined the facts, Mitel were only responding to Avaya’s official documentation which clearly stated that the CS1000 was drawing to an end in 2018. Subsequently, Avaya blogged that the CS1000 would be supported as late as 2024.
Quick on the draw, Avaya immediately joined the conversation, responding that these “alternative facts” published by Mitel were completely false. The Avaya marketing team made a not-so-subtle jab at Mitel’s attempt to convert customers towards their solutions with the recent report and revealed that they would still be providing ongoing support to CS1000 consumers.
Ongoing Support for CS1000 Customers
According to Avaya’s blog the Communication Server 1000 continues to be a fully-saleable and supported product. However, they do note that the 7.6 release will be the final feature release for the product, meaning that you’ll only be able to get your hands on new service packs after this new update.
Avaya went on to try and reassure their customers that they would be continuing to work with partners, customers, and material suppliers to decide on a proper end of sale date for their product, and noted that even once an End of Sale date has been announced, they will continue to offer support to customers for a minimum of six years following that date. The guidelines Avaya follow when it comes to serving their customers means that the closest date we might expect an “end of support” deadline would be somewhere in 2024.
Avaya and Mitel Compete for Sales
It’s clear to see that Mitel is attempting to persuade Avaya customers to abandon the service in favour of their own products. After all, in their helpful post about the apparent “end of support” for CS1000, Mitel announced a range of best-option replacements for the CS1000 system, as it applies to multiple use cases. As you might expect, each of the options highlighted by Mitel pointed back to their product portfolio, with things like MiCollab messaging, MiCloud Enterprise, and MiVoice Business.
In response to this, Avaya suggested their own alternative options for anyone who might be considering leaving the CS1000 service. For instance, Avaya suggests that customers might want to migrate onto the Avaya IP Office platform or the Avaya Aura platform. They also noted that they’re planning to expand each of those offerings significantly with new announcements in the coming quarters.
Don’t Believe Everything You See Online
The latest battle between Mitel and Avaya just goes to show how misleading and confusing some industry news can be when it doesn’t come from an objective source. Despite Mitel’s insistance that Avaya customers need to come to them if they want to maintain ongoing support, Avaya claims that they’re focused on continuing to deliver partnership and guidance to their customers for “many years to come.”
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