Kicking it up North: Continuant Support for Canadian Telecom Customers

Canada is home to multiple large telecommunications companies that provide essential solutions and services to organizations from BC to Nova Scotia. This includes three companies with 106,400, 44,600 and 26,000 employees respectively. 

There is, however, one service that these companies once offered but will no longer. They’re all currently phasing out their support for legacy telephone systems such as the Nortel CS1000 (aka Avaya CS1000) and the Avaya Aura Contact Center. For Canadian businesses using these systems, this change could dramatically affect their future.

We’re here to explain why this decision has been made and what options legacy customers have available to them.

What Canadian Telecom is Doing and Why

If you’re a Canadian business using a system like Avaya Aura, you may get a message soon letting you know that your provider will no longer support that system. If you’re running a Nortel Meridian or BCM system, that’s almost certainly a message you’ve already received.

Why? The world is moving on. Copper phone lines are being decommissioned as businesses, governments, and other institutions move to the cloud. Those that remain are more expensive to use than ever, making it almost impossible for the providers to justify the expense.

Then there’s the increasing shortage of parts and engineers for these systems. For older systems, these are hard to find and harder to pay for. Some providers have a serious staff shortage where tier III engineers are concerned, and odd are good they won’t be hiring any more.

At the end of the day, Canadian telecom companies are focusing on what’s next for the world of communications and encouraging their customers to do the same. What’s next will, of course, depend on the organization.

Luckily, there are plenty of options.

The Next Steps for Canadian Organizations

For many organizations across Canada, it may be time for an upgrade. The ultimate goal is to move from a legacy Nortel and Avayasystem to a modern, cloud-based UCaaS and CCaaS solution, or even a hosted PBX.

Does that mean it’s time to rip and replace? With how expensive that process is and how much it can disrupt business, hopefully the answer is no. That’s what Continuant is here to help with.

At Continuant, we’ve been supporting legacy voice systems for 28 years. Part of our bread and butter is supporting systems past end of life, so we’re more than willing to do what other providers won’t. We also guarantee access to parts and tier 3 engineers.

Now don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not stuck in the past. Along with legacy system support for Avaya and Nortel, we also provide modern cloud solutions from industry leaders such as Microsoft and Genesys. With both the old and the new covered, we’ll ensure you experience minimal downtime.

But can a Canadian organization really trust a bunch of silly Americans with their communications environments? I should hope so, since currently more than 60 Canadian organizations in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and more rely on Continuant’s support.

Schedule a call with us today and see how we can help you.