Ooma Enterprise vs. Mitel: Which Is the Right Phone System for Your Business?

With its many deployment options, choosing the best enterprise-grade phone system isn’t always easy. Moreover, there’s the pressure to get it right the first time because deployment at the scale of hundreds or thousands of users stands to magnify any potential issue. After all, one of the most frustrating scenarios is to start using workaround solutions on day one because your phone system isn’t meeting your business’ needs.

Like other business technologies, the decision about your enterprise VoIP system should take into account any current needs as well as any predicted needs based on your business growth trajectory. For example, you may be adding global offices locations or have plans to upgrade your business apps to top-tier solutions such as Salesforce or Zendesk. By thinking strategically, you can choose a phone platform that positions you to add on a enterprise call center software or full integration tools when you need them.

Cloud-based business VoIP provides the strong technology of internet telephony that supports today’s businesses. As GetVoIP explains, “Traditional PBX solutions are on their way out, much like their landline counterparts.” By focusing on cloud solutions, your business phone system will be on the cutting edge of today’s integrated communication technologies.

Two leading providers of enterprise VoIP phone service are Ooma and Mitel. Let’s compare these two IP-PBX providers to see how they stack up for reliable service, customization, available features, and deployment.

Ooma Enterprise vs. Mitel: The Basics

Both Ooma and Mitel offer telephone service for a full range of business sizes, from micropreneurs to large enterprises. In addition, Ooma offers residential phone service for a full spectrum of solutions, from a home phone to thousands of end users.

Comparing the enterprise solutions of Ooma and Mitel, we see two different approaches to phone service.

In Mitel’s guide to finding new enterprise phone systems, there are four distinct frameworks for large-scale telephone solutions, including both on-premise and cloud deployments. On-premises plans are MiVoice Business and MiVoice MX-ONE, and cloud plans are MiCloud Business and MiCloud Enterprise.

On the other hand, Ooma Enterprise avoids one-size-fits-all bundles that assume your business needs are the same as those of everyone else. Instead, Ooma provides customized solutions so your telephone functionality is in line with your business priorities. By tailoring your phone needs to your business, you could implement communications functionality that may help your business grow faster, in addition to potentially improving your ROI.

Ooma’s commitment to a customization doesn’t end after a purchase is made. After signing on with Ooma Enterprise, a personalized Success Hero is assigned to facilitate all your product needs, including tech support, service needs, or plan configurations.

With this relationship as the foundation, you’ll have concierge-like support to help with troubleshooting, feature requests, new location deployment, handset upgrades, and more. Success Heroes may call upon specialists to help with complicated situations, but there isn’t the typical customer support handoff or runaround. Instead, the Success Hero will remain hands-on, providing white-glove support from day one for all customers. In addition, businesses have 24/7 support, so you have access to technical assistance at all times of the day and through all time zones.

Ooma Enterprise vs. Mitel: User Experience

When comparing Ooma’s customer-focused approach to the service provided by Mitel, we see some striking differences. In particular, the recent Mitel acquisition of VoIP provider ShoreTel has been a dramatic upset for some users. On the review site GetVoip.com, customers have commented that their rollover from ShoreTel to Mitel was an extreme downgrade.

While Mitel’s overall score is 3.8 stars, its score for the past year is only 1.9 stars with 62 percent of commenters mentioning customer support challenges. “If we have a serious issue, it is virtually impossible to get in touch with Mitel support,” said one user.

Another user described Mitel’s support this way: “Each customer service attempt we make is met by the same routine: You make a phone call and report the problem, they promise you a time frame that they will call you back (usually 8+ hours), they don’t call back, so you call them again and the cycle continues. The amount of downtime with our phones is unacceptable and the customer service is never helpful.”

In contrast, when K4Connect implemented Ooma Enterprise at their call center, the user feedback spoke to the effectiveness of having a dedicated Success Hero. “There’s no run-around with Ooma, and no hidden agenda to push a ‘one size fits all’ product while only pretending to respect the customer’s individual needs.”

Ooma Enterprise vs. Mitel: Infrastructure

Hosted VoIP solutions are a way to manage your telecom so the burden of responsibility falls to your vendor, thus freeing up your IT staff to focus on mission-critical technologies and infrastructure. However, this choice can backfire if the phone service doesn’t provide maximum uptime and telephone quality.

That’s what makes a platform’s infrastructure so important. Just as a car’s performance is determined by what’s under the hood, the performance of a hosted VoIP service is rooted in its underlying infrastructure.

First let’s consider the technology framework of Ooma Enterprise.

The quality of Ooma’s service is based on two key components. First, its call controls are built on the premier approach of active/active technology. With a combination of both active/active data centers and active/active applications, Ooma’s infrastructure provides the confidence of continuous availability.

The second aspect of Ooma’s network to consider is its geographic distribution. The solution to global connectivity is not to rely upon single-stream data networks, but instead to provide a global architecture to meet the needs of global enterprises. With data centers around the world, Ooma’s back end redundancy means that a power outage in Cleveland won’t shut down the phone system of your overseas call center, for example.

In addition to maximizing uptime, distributed data centers can lead to increased call performance. This is because reducing the distance that data has to travel reduces your transmission latency, which can mean increased call quality.

Ooma’s network has eight globally distributed, load balanced data centers that provide location relevance for reducing call latency. The networks uses algorithmic intelligence so calls are instantaneously optimized based on existing conditions. The result is a consistent user experience around the world.

How does Mitel’s infrastructure of data centers compare to that of Ooma? According to Inc., Mitel has only five datacenters. Put another way, Ooma has 60 percent more than Mitel.

Ooma Enterprise vs. Mitel: Features

A wide set of calling features is typically available with enterprise-grade systems, and this is true for both Ooma Enterprise and Mitel.

Yet, again the difference between the two platforms is that Ooma is fully customizable to deploy the exact Ooma Enterprise VoIP features that support your business. Comparatively, the features available with Mitel may vary based upon the plan you choose.

For the sake of argument, we considered the MiCloud Flex plan and found that it highlighted many of the same features that are available à la carte with Ooma Enterprise.

Both platforms offer voicemail transcription, team chat, audio/video conferencing, business SMS, apps for desktop and mobile devices, and more. Additionally, they both can be deployed as a singular communications solution across multiple locations.

Integrations are a key feature for boosting productivity. Mitel mentioned integrations with Microsoft Lync/Skype, Salesforce, and Google as some of the ones it offers. With Ooma, automatic business integrations can include 50+ common apps including Salesforce, Zendesk, Google, Microsoft, and Service Now. In addition, Ooma has an open API for custom integrations.

MiCloud Flex doesn’t highlight analytics as one of its features. Yet, Ooma offers advanced call analytics to better understand telephone traffic as it relates to any number of useful metrics, such as sales revenue, staff performance, franchise activity, and more.

Also, Ooma has frictionless deployment where all software upgrades and feature updates are handled automatically by the Ooma support team. The result is a unified communications solution without any IT headaches.

Conclusion

Choosing the best enterprise VoIP phone system involves considering your current business needs in addition to predicted ones.

When comparing Ooma Enterprise VoIP and Mitel, Ooma has two major advantages.

Ooma provides a stronger user support system than Mitel. In the past year, 62 percent of Mitel reviewers on GetVoIP commented about the provider’s poor customer support. On the other hand, Ooma takes a white-glove approach with a Success Hero as a dedicated point person for each customer. Whether you need to update your plan or troubleshoot a feature, the Success Hero guides you through the process without passing the buck.

Additionally, Ooma’s phone service is fully customizable, avoiding the failures of one-size-fits-all frameworks. This attention to customer experience extends to all areas, offering phone service that’s reliable, high in quality, and low-maintenance. Ooma takes care of the service updates and intelligent call monitoring algorithms, freeing up your staff to be using the phone system instead of managing it.

Learn more about how Ooma Enterprise can help you with a custom communications solution. Read more Enterprise business content.

* As of February 2019