NEW QX50 QX200 Upgrade or backup restore from 2X2 4x M8l M32X

[jloeken]

Hi all,
As we know there are the new Epygi QX50 and The QX200 great products to replace the old 2x2, 4x, M8, M12, M26 and M32x Series. This is fantastic to have to stock only 2 products.

I support many long term epygi customers from the old 2x to the Quadro M32x, some of the bigger clients i have managed for over 6 years and there infrastructure has grown and been added to over this time knowing that Epygi was the right Choice for them for quality, Support and backup.

BUT

I have just found out from ALLOY my distributor in Australia that if one of my clients old IP PBX fails then the backups i have are useless and i will have to Purchase one of the NEW QX PBX and configure it from scratch. This a Big risk to my company now as i have large scale companies using the M32x platform and it would mean allot of down time and money lost for my customer.

I am asking Epygi,

1. Is there a solution to this problem?
2. Can existing gateways work with the QX50 & QX200 ?
3. Can a QX200 be a redundant / Backup PBX to the M32X ?

****** For everyone that has an issue with this please post your opinion ******* I will continue to post comments from epygi.

Solution Suggestion.

1. Update firmware in old Quadro's to backup to the new QX format..(OPTIONAL Output file)
2. Add a restore Backup from old Quadro Page in the new QX Firmware .. This as a better option i believe.

[awhite]

Hello,
Thank you for raising this valid and important question.

As Epygi continually improves the product offering with the introduction of the new QX line of IP PBX and Gateways, we are encouraging our Value-Added Distributors and Integrators to migrate existing Quadro customers to the new QX line. By doing this, the customers will be able to take advantage of the new 6.0 software which has a new Graphical User Interface and new telephony features.

In order to make this sales migration seamless for our Value-Added Integrators, we are offering the Epygi QX Conversion Service. With this service, the Value-Added Integrator will provide directly to Epygi the latest Quadro configuration file and which QX model the customer is upgrading to. Epygi will then provide the new QX configuration file to be uploaded. Additionally, details of what the Integrator should check on the new configuration file will be given so that both Epygi and the Integrator can double check that everything is transferred over.

This service is available for $200 USD paid directly to Epygi for each configuration that needs to be converted. Units that are deemed to be RMA and are under warranty will be provided this service for free.

Regards,

Andy White

[jloeken]

Jason – my answers below in your original email.

Thanks so much,

Kelly Carden
Global Channel Manager
Epygi Technologies, Ltd.
================================================== ===============================

Hi,
I have one big concern with the QX move as do other resellers I have spoken too.

What happens now if one of my customers phone systems fails? We have allotted stock for the Quadro RMAs. For those units in warranty, we will replace with a new Quadro. However, if the unit is out of warranty and you need a replacement with the new QX line, Epygi is offering a conversion service where we will take your latest Quadro configuration and change it to a QX configuration so you can upload without having to do the manual conversion.
I have setup automatic weekly backups for all my supported customers in the event that something bad happens. Now what if it happens eg. Customer with an Quadro M32x and Licence keys and a FXO and isdn gateways. .....

Do I just order an QX-200 upload the M32 backup into the QX-200, and the customer is back up and running or am I going to be in the shit and have to program 100 extensions, sip accounts, AA’s, call routs and record all voice prompts again? This could be very bad for my business.. We completely recognize this and we would like to help our resellers sell more QXs by the service i mentioned above.

Do the old gateways work with the new hardware? They do.

Can the M32x and a Qx-200 work in redundancy mode together? No the systems have to be similar in order to do the copy over for hot stand by.

If restoration of backups is available to new hardware how long will this be supported and What models can be restored? Not sure I know what you are asking here.


Thank You,
Jason Loeken

[jloeken]

Dear Kelly,

I see clearly what Jason is saying, and to be honest I think Epygi is missing a key point which is somewhat concerning/disappointing.

We have many hundreds of phone system clients, many of which we use a variety of Epygi products. Like all phone systems there is a backup service to perform quick recovery should something be wrong (a curtail component in the business world).

Hiding behind the word Warranty does not cut it and if a client pursues a faulty product with the Department of Fair Trade within 2-10 years (particularly in Australia), they will generally be awarded the claim as the law recognises that hardware purchased should last for a reasonable, fair and equitable time regardless of the terms and conditions. I cannot comment on other countries, however I have seen and experienced the circumstances in AUS.

Back to my point:
As an example, we have 32X devices (some sites stacked up with another one or two) maxed out with extension licenses and some 200+ SIP trunks, plus in-depth configurations. The Quadro handles the entire sites authentication and in many cases (in our case) operating in Aged Care a mission critical industry who can ill afford for the phone system to be down for five minutes. If a site falls down, we need to get the site up urgently.

So, here is a scenario:

• A 32x falls over (ref note: this has happened to us a couple of times now even with new 32X under warranty (and the replacement warranty unit was also faulty), but thanks to the wholesaler they lent us a unit to get us out of trouble because Epygi wanted it back to check out, which took months by the way)
• We have a back up file
• We install a QX (can’t use the backup file straight away)
• We need to send our back-up file to be converted (that’s not going to be done straight away and will have a day or two delay at the best turnaround I would think, and that’s if you convert every facet correctly)
• So the only choice we would have, is to do an entire reconfigure which in many cases would take excessive hours at the customers expense, that they would not accept
• The configs on the large sites are so intense, and then we have no reference points to ensure we cover every facet of the operation
• We need to obtain 100’s of pass-codes, usernames, authentication details
• We can’t access residents units as this is their home (for example one site has 153 units, 153 IP phones and 153 care phones, so each units has two phones, one which needs to be manually restarted
• We operate VoWi Fi and DECT phones for carers which accept and control all the message and nurse call alerts
• To be honest, the client would see that as inadequate and I would be sued

Epygi, simply have not put enough thought into this and seem to be looking purely at hardware sales and not considering the reseller and most importantly their clients. Yes, for smaller clients with small configs, not such a big deal, but large clients a massive issue.

In our case this even gets worse, as we have chains of aged care all running the same Epygi gear. One sales concept we sold them was to keep consistency and we only have to worry about one device for emergency back up. I tell you that’s going to be thrown back in my face.

The message I read Kelly is, we will sell the product, however after the warranty period - let it be 12 months is is somewhat too bad as these are now the options. A customer would at least expect five (5) years out of a piece of hardware for their initial investment and we would expect they had a good experience and want the same brand when the replacement and expansion is due (bit the same as buying a car really).

I would be interested with your feedback and how to resolve this important issue.


Best regards,



Andrew Harrison (Managing Director)
HARRISONTECH

[harrisontech]

Thanks Jason,

I see you have already posted some correspondence from me. I am generally a pretty quiet guy, but I was just logging in to express my concerns because I feel very strongly about this issue.

I had a detailed chat with one of the senior maintenance managers of a large aged care chain whom I service which operate Epygi through all their sites. I have explained the current situation how we would have to perform complete reconfigures in an emergency situation and the downtime that would be expected, the type of cost that would be associated with that, such as hardware, license costs, and particularly labour costs.

His response was - "that is completely unacceptable and they will look at another service provider if need be".

So here is the go:
The is no question we will experience hardware/product failure at some point, but that is exactly why be perform backups (for quick recovery and minimum downtime).

I don't have a problem that hardware will fail at some point and us having to install a new brand/model device whatsoever. However, Epygi need to back their product range and write/develop an accurate file converter to cater for device recovery, and should bear no cost to the end user.

Andrew Harrison
Harrisontech Pty Ltd

[KSComs]

So as I see among all of the writing, the complaint is about Alloy not retaining Epygi Quadro stock to cater for your needs.


I really think us Aussies might need to look at this a little differently - especially for High Risk areas of business.

Where there is a high risk area, and you are selling into that market - sell them high availability - 2 x Epygi systems of the same with the same firmware level and configuration. That is their insurance that they have a redundancy and will form part of their back up plan.

This is a great opportunity and I will leverage the changes to my customers for those that need to upgrade or need high availability. Perhaps its a great time for them to take up on extended warranty.

Re Government topics - https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/co...mer-guarantees - please point out where it states that Epygi have done anything wrong.

Life Cycle of product has been catered for by Epygi - in fact, they are trying to assist companies that want to upgrade.They are even helping the reseller to market the latest technology to the customer, I see no wrong here - I see loads of opportunity.


Remember, if the customers system falls over you can provide the latest system with minimal programming and the customer would receive and make calls. I understand that some of you will have huge system deployments and that i am not the only one to make complex routing, the Epygi Quadro is a versatile system so much better than other systems in the market. I have seen many systems come and go after working closely in the telco arena since 1976, I understand change.


I see the QX as a major design change and upgrade of the Epygi Quadro is needed to keep ahead of the other systems on the market, why cater for less?

If your customer needs to have a spare system, cater for it or upgrade them to a QX. Epygi are offering an upgrade path to help you and your customer to get them into the latest hardware, I really havent seen many manufacturers over the years that have done this.

My 2 cents...

Kev

[woods]

my few cents (as a customer)

If the units are way out of warranty (I don't mean by a couple of months) then fair enough about needing to buy the new QX. However one should be able to convert the old backup file to the new format without needing to wait (let say at least for a few days) for Epygi to do it. For someone like me who (generally) don't use reseller or integrator this force me to contact a reseller just so they can get the file converted for me (yet more unnecessary time wasting).

Are there a technical reason for not having this feature built into the new QX so it can import old configs?? Why can't there be a separate utility downloadable from the support portal that can read and spit out a new QX config.

If you want to sell more newq QX wouldn't it make more sense to make it almost painless to migrate from old to new. Just about every piece of software I come try their best to even reverse engineer the competitor data to make it easy for customer to move to them.

If I had to do this complete reconfiguration then I might as well try out some alternatives. Some of Epygi thinking (like the fail-over licensing needing double the number of license) I just don't get!