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Nortel Networks' Business Communications Manager 50: Page 3 of 3

Bottom Line

By my calculations, $372 per user will get you into a no-frills eight-user system using digital handsets. Licenses to access advanced features like voicemail, fax service, IP lines and/or call-center functionality are extra. A typical office configuration with midrange digital phones and voicemail will cost $560 per user. A full-blown system with all features enabled would be more than double that price before discounting. Add IP phones to the tune of around $200 per user due to higher per-line licensing and handset costs. Nortel has convergence nailed down, but hasn't quite made converged IP communications a cost-effective reality.

Joel Conover, a former senior technology editor of Network Computing, is principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure at competitive intelligence firm Current Analysis. Write to him at [email protected].