8x8 Meet (discontinued) vs. Cisco Room Series

The only issue that I have faced so far is learning the program. Being a new admin with 8x8 X Series, you have a lot of questions and need help figuring stuff out. They have great customer service. Every page on the admin portal they have a chatbot. When you need help you can click on the chatbot and right away you are either directed to helpful documents or a customer service rep.

If there is a collaboration space, there is a Room Kit solution that is appropriate. From the Room Kit Phone that is conference table sized and enables audio-only screen sharing capabilities on an existing display to the Room Kit Pro with multiple ceiling mics and the Presenter Camera for the back of the room, there isn't a better picture or clearer audio.

• The system allows our employees to work from home and continue to be connected to the phone system.
• Meetings are easy to join & establish.

• The Cisco Spark Room series has many new technologies that make this unit well worth the purchase. The auto room framing feature makes manual zoom and focus a thing of the past. The unit will auto zoom and pan to frame the screen around a single person in a conference room or zoom out and capture the whole room if there are multiple people in the conference. The Cisco Spark Room series also has an active speaker tracking system that will track users in the room and pan and zoom when that person is speaking.
• The Cisco Spark Room series units can be cloud or on-premise registered taking advantage of whichever platform best suits your needs and current investments.
• When the Cisco Spark Room series units are attached to 4K TVs or monitors you get the best possible resolution for video viewing with crystal clear presentations.

Incentivized

• Less wait time on Service calls.
• Admin view is rather complex.

• Does not work with other platforms like Zoom or Microsoft team
• It is very expensive compared to other similar products on the market like Polycom.
• Needs cisco webex licensing which makes it even more expensive to have this equipment in small offices.

We like our Cisco endpoints a lot. However, the technology is getting better in the Zoom room market and we are interested in exploring those options. I'd really like to see some new improvements in the room kit series such as wireless controllers and the ability to mount the room kits in multiple configurations. I would also like to see the Room Kit and Room Kit Plus series standardize their audio line inputs to accommodate 3rd party microphone and DSP solutions.

Incentivized

There is a considerable amount of tech know-how needed to really make the Room Series work for most scenarios. This might be a due to the stark increase in remote based productivity as a result of COVID-19 and quarantine protocols. But CISCO support and documentation have not caught up the increase in adoption of these technologies. As a result, only personnel with substantial technical expertise are able to really make these systems work for the use-cases that is most relevant to our setting here at Clemson University.

Incentivized

Once the order was place we received very quickly

Incentivized

Great product with a great user experience

Incentivized

With our Cisco service contract, NBD replacement and 24/7/365 support are included. We have not had any issues with trying to get a replacement for defective parts or for support (ie: software or troubleshooting). Very satisfied with the level of support available.

Incentivized

Very easy to implement. Integration into our Unified Communications platform was simple and quick

Incentivized

Cisco is the only vendor manufacturing the software (Webex Meetings) and the hardware (webex devices). This is a MAJOR advantage that no other solution on the market can offer. No problem of updates, obsolescence of certain related devices/software/firmware, connections (wiring, Bluetooth, etc ...). All other solutions depend on several different manufacturers and systematically generate more problems for IT teams and [operational] problems for end-users.

Incentivized

The product and backend systems are designed to scale from small to very large organization seamlessly and easily

Incentivized

• The cell phone app, 8x8 work, is great and allows users not to be tied to their desks
• Moves calls to other line if unanswered.

• With this system, our staff is able to collaborate remotely, eliminating the need for an expensive office space.
• So that HR can handle a steady workload, we can plan meetings using this tool.
• Facilitates problem solving, reducing the need for product replacement.

Incentivized