Nemertes: Avaya Leads Cisco with Lower TCO - 2009 Study Says

From Avaya Today:


According to an independent analyst survey of 1,400 customers, Nemertes concluded that Avaya is the lowest-cost IP telephony provider for deployments over 250 users:


Avaya has a proven lower 3-year TCO. Avaya is 36% less costly to own over 3 years versus Cisco (Capital plus Operational costs).

Cisco has a higher 3-year TCO. Cisco is 1.5x more costly to own and operate over 3 years versus Avaya (Capital and Operational Expenses).
Cisco requires 55% more staff than Avaya. In studying "Average Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees Devoted to VOIP, by Vendor" – Avaya requires only five (5) people on average, while Cisco requires nine (9).


“The underlying message here is that Avaya is easier to manage than Cisco, that its customers are better trained, or both,” according to Robin Gareiss, Executive Vice President & Sr. Founding Partner of Nemertes Research, and author of the 2009 paper “True Cost of Voice Over IP”.


Nemertes measured the true cost of voice over IP by capturing customer data on implementation, capital and annual operational costs. The 2007 Nemertes issue paper “Business Case for Voice Over IP” showed Cisco TCO was 47% more expensive based on a similar customer survey.


Also as a result of this survey, Avaya has been named as the top overall provider of Unified Communications (UC), and subsequently received the PilotHouse Award for Best Unified Communications Provider for 2009 from Nemertes Research. “The common thread among participants that favor Avaya is its technology, integration capabilities, and management tools.” According to Irwin Lazar Vice President, Communications Research, Nemertes Research.


Vendors were ranked in five categories: value, technology, customer service, integration and management tools. Avaya received top scores in technology, integration and management tools and ranked second in value and customer service. “One of the key strengths of Avaya is they understand high availability,” says the IT director of a large utility company. Cisco came in second, followed by Microsoft and IBM.


The goal of the Nemertes PilotHouse Awards program is to determine how well vendors perform in the eyes of their business customers. Results are entirely based on the views and experiences of actual customers of unified communications vendors. There is no vendor sponsorship of the research.


Nemertes: 2009 TCO White Paper: http://www.packetbase.com/userfiles/pdf/NemertesVOIPBusinessCasePacketBase.pdf