The IP Office is a hybrid PBX that is capable of VoIP and SIP support. The Avaya IP Office 500 is Avaya's primary product for small to medium businesses.

Avaya IP Office 500 Technology

Avaya IP Office utilizes Linux as its operating system, which is the industry's preferred choice for telecom systems. The system uses a mixture of proprietary digital, proprietary, analog, VoiP and SIP protocols to deliver a complete PBX system. The systems physical hardware is manufactured by HP while the PSTN gateways (otherwise known as T1 and station cards) are provided by Avaya.

Avaya IP Office 500 Capabilities

• Supports analog, digital and IP phones
• Up to 250 SIP trunks per server
• Up to 100 Voice Messaging ports
• 128 audio conferencing ports per server

Avaya Office IP 500 Strengths

• Long traditional PBX feature list
• Large conference call capacity
• Supports legacy Avaya and Nortel phones
• Conference call recording
• Large number of resellers
• Brand recognition
• Good multi-location capabilities

Avaya Office IP 500 V2 Weaknesses

• No call center capability
• No IVR capability
• Licenses required for SIP trunking and phones
• From 1 to 6 servers are required, depending upon size and feature needs
• Support is expensive
• Older IP Office systems cannot be upgraded to Server Edition
• Smaller Avaya resellers have limited data networking and SIP knowledge

Ideal Buyer

Avaya IP Office 500 is suitable for existing Nortel and Avaya customers because this PBX will function with their existing telephone sets. Also, the feature set this PBX offers is favorable for a wide range of businesses