This has become thoroughly enjoyable. Especailly Hals bit about "shovels have been replaced by backhoes".
The average telephone user has NO freakin idea how the phones work, and really don't care. Whether it be the key system in a small business, church, home, etc, or a PBX in a larger business, TDM or IP means nothing to them. They just want them to work. They fully expect them to work. Unlike their computers and the attendant networks that are ALWAYS messed up. I'm so torn on this. I can see telephony is going IP and can see some advantages. But why replace a paid for working system just for the latest and greatest? Only to help my resume as far as I can tell. (And that can not be overlooked) I think the Avaya and NorTels of the world fear being left behind with TDM. And there has to be more money in it... else they would not be driving it this way. (Perhaps these are my motivations as well...) As for the Partner. I've been around them, working on them now and then, never enough to really know what I'm doing and having to relearn it (get out the manual) each time I see another one. But seems like with most key systems they have WAY more features/capabilities than the average user ever taps into. Why the need to go to a r7 anyway. Is this a case if ain't broke don't fix it? A shovel (phone) makes a pretty good shovel (phone). Why try to put the darn then on your PC? Excuse me while I reboot.
