Toshiba Phone Systems Now Supported by Mitel

August 16th, 2018 by Ashlee Colliver

It was 26 years ago that I began my career at Van Ausdall & Farrar, fulfilling an entry level sales role in our Business Telephone Systems Division.

So many exciting changes have taken place since that time. A new name, Converged Communications Group, which better reflected our broadened portfolio that includes video surveillance, wired and wireless network infrastructure, along with our fast-growing network security business.

With this broadened and deeper portfolio, we have added several trusted partners, including Mitel, 8×8, Fortinet, Extreme Networks and PerfectView. But, the one constant has always been our partnership with Toshiba’s Telecommunications System Division, or TSD. My very first training experiences were with the Toshiba DK product line. Toshiba has long been known in our industry to provide high quality, reliable equipment and excellent support. We literally have supported thousands of Toshiba phone systems throughout Indiana and beyond over the past 30+ years.

Therefore, we were shocked and saddened to receive the news last year that Toshiba had decided to wind down their phone system division. Since that announcement, Mitel, another core partner of ours, acquired the assets of Toshiba TSD. Mitel’s acquisition allows us to continue to support our Toshiba base of customers for a much longer time period than we thought when the original announcement was made.

Mitel Has Made the Following Commitments

  • End of New System Sales – October 31, 2018
  • End of Add-on Sales – October 31, 2019
  • End of Technical Support – October 31, 2021
  • End of Warranty Support – October 31, 2023

This announcement impacts the following Toshiba product offerings:

  • Toshiba CIX40/100/200/670/1200
  • IPedge/App Server ES/EP/EC/EM
  • ACD
  • PC Attendant
  • UCedge/Call Manager
  • Lync Plugin
  • SalesForce Plugin

For Taske Contact and Essential products, Taske Technologies can provide partners with the system and add-on license as well as the technical support.

Mitel has allowed all existing Toshiba customers plenty of time to thoughtfully migrate to a new technology that will be supported for a long time to come. In fact, Mitel will introduce their Pathway Program in August, 2018 for all Toshiba customers. The Pathway Program will provide existing Toshiba customers amazing incentives to migrate to Mitel’s industry-leading cloud and onsite products.

Again, these incentives will be announced before the end of August, 2018. Mitel is a $1 billion global company with over 4,000 employees. They are a Gartner Magic Quadrant LEADER in unified communications. Therefore, Toshiba customers have a very cost-effective path to migrate from a very good phone system to a great one.

Plus, Van Ausdall & Farrar already supports over 22,000 Mitel MiVoice Connect and MiCloud Connect users. So, we have the expertise with both product lines to make this process a seamless and painless transition.

Please stay tuned for these exciting Mitel announcements in the next few weeks. In the meantime, please contact us if you want to get a head start on assessing a Mitel solution that will work for you. Whether we support your current Toshiba or not makes no difference in your ability to leverage the incentives that will be announced yet this month.

Posted in: Insights from VAF Blog, Business Telephones