You may have already gotten used to my last string of questions here, which 
-
I am not hiding it - are part of my attempt to gain info from the more
experienced people, on this subject, regarding a project I am working on for
deployment of multi-site IPT & VoIP. I have gone into some details, for some
questions I had, but now - reading tons of material every day, I have become
very worried about the full blown solution chosen, vs. what is being promise
d
just "around the corner". Here is where I would appreciate any comments, of
any nature, thoughts, experience, "what-if" - anything you can share about
this subject:

Scenario: multi-site deployment of cisco CM, with the following objectives i
n
mind:

1. Replacement of existing old telephony solution, Nortel-based, consisting 
of
PBX in each location, with Cisco-based IP-based communication systems (and
not only one-to-one replacement of phones, but also steps toward unified
communications)

2. Installation of cisco solution consisting of:
a. CM 4.x (advised by Cisco) at the HQ + Unity integrated with Exchange 2003
and a handful of IP phones (major testers of the technology) and integration
with existing Nortel PBX at the HQ (PHASE 1)
b. IP phones in the remote location (complete replacement of everything old,
including PBX) + SRST + standalone (storage-wise) Unity (PHASE 1)
c. Unified messaging at the HQ, in the "pilot" group, to the best of the
abilities and availability of products around CM 4.x (e.g. PA, among others,
as an example of what I am getting at) (PHASE 1)
d. Experience from c> ==> full implementation of unified messaging at the
first remote ("upgrade" of the standalone Unity into an Exchange-tied one -
is this even possible?!?) (PHASE 2)
e. remote site used as template fro all other sites (PHASE 2)
f. full upgrade at the HQ (PHASE 2), with the exception of Call Center
g. cisco IPCC replacement of the existing Nortel Call Center, after the
entire VoIP and IPT has proven reliable to sustain a Customer Service (PHASE
3)

3. The unified communications (including messaging) will eventually adddress
various business needs, primarily focused on mobility and real-time
communications and sharing

Having said all of the above, here are the issues I am struggling with:

- I have (and nobody in my network geeks group) no real experience with Cisc
o
VoIP/IPT;
- the suggested solution, from Cisco, revolves around a CM 4.2 and, graduall
y,
as explained above, updates to the point of full unified messaging - still
4.2-based
- I am getting conflicting messages from our cisco group - they advise us to
do the install with CM 4.2 (which would end up as a cluster of multiple
servers, at the HQ), not CM 5.0, but:
- I am reading and reading, and it appears to me that some features associat
ed
with CM 4.2 are dying (e.g. PA), while CM 5.0 seems to open the door for muc
h
more, but not everything backward compatible with 4.x
- tons of features are being advertised as related to CM 5.0, only, but are
not ready yet, and are to be released this year (majority in second quarter)

Bottom line - I am struggling with one major question (with no easy answer -
thus appreciating any comments this list may have): should I move ahead as
started, with the one site + pilot HQ, on CM 4.2 (PHASE 1), then go over all
phases, then analyze what would need to be upgraded to a 5.0 environment, if
certain additional features would become available and needed, and not
backward compatible
OR
should I just put a stop to the CM 4.x analysis and planning, and redo
everything (with the delay caused by various products availability) around C
M
5.0?

As I said - any $0.02-$64K comments will be really appreciated. I will try t
o
consolidate this type of info, in something useful, if enough data warrants
it.

Thanks,
Stefan

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