8x8 Work vs. Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
8x8 Work
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
8x8 Work is a collaboration hub for phone, video, and messaging. It brings secure unified communication and collaboration experiences to every employee.
$24
per month
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers hosted unified communications as a service.N/A
Pricing
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Features
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.5
461 Ratings
2% above category average
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
Hosted PBX8.9249 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)8.7113 Ratings00 Ratings
Directory of employee names8.6420 Ratings00 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
8.6
513 Ratings
2% above category average
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
Answering rules8.8465 Ratings00 Ratings
Call recording8.7397 Ratings00 Ratings
Call park8.6367 Ratings00 Ratings
Call screening8.5353 Ratings00 Ratings
Message alerts8.6447 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
8x8 Work
9.0
449 Ratings
6% above category average
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
Mobile app for iOS9.1378 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile app for Android8.8290 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Small Businesses
Broadvoice | GoContact
Broadvoice | GoContact
Score 9.4 out of 10
Broadvoice | GoContact
Broadvoice | GoContact
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(531 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(38 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(175 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.7
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.3
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(147 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.9
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.3
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.3
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.3
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.7
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.8
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.8
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
8x8 WorkCisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Likelihood to Recommend
8x8 Inc.
I believe that 8x8 Work is well-suited for any organization, whether it employs 1-2 users or thousands. It is so easy to deploy and use. We are mainly a MS Teams house, and we want our Users to use this for Meetings and Chats. The fact that 8x8 has the flexibility to disable this within the client, so that it forces our users to continue working in Teams for meetings and chats, and then use the phone element in 8x8 Work, is brilliant. Our company finds it extremely easy to use, and the fact that we have different departments using it, with each department having the ability to change their outbound CLI to reflect the area of the business they are calling from, is excellent.
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Cisco
It is well suited for: Clients with call managers that want to continue using Cisco and want to minimize the new CAPEX. Clients that want to outsource the platform management and support. Clients that have a variation on the number of extensions. Although, Cisco HCS, is a solution that has a higher opex than the ones supported in ISP IP Centrex.
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Pros
8x8 Inc.
  • 8x8 Work manages roles and permissions well. It is very simple to create permission groups needed for certain roles that may even overlap teams needs.
  • User management is fairly simple and straight forward.
  • Analytics reporting is good quality for the higher tier licenses
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Cisco
  • VoIP best practices
  • UC and IM
  • Centralized management and provisioning
  • Reduced OPEX/CAPEX in the implementation
  • Security and integration with other UC platforms using SIP (Except Lync)
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Cons
8x8 Inc.
  • The auto attendant has built in text-to-speech, but this same engine should be put to use for individual and ring group voicemail messages.
  • Call forwarding in the mobile app should be relocated for easier access. Instead it's buried somewhere under the generic "account settings"
  • The default user template disables voicemail text transcription. Why???
  • One fax number should be accessible by app for more than 1 user. Responsibility for faxes is usually distributed among a few people in a typical small office setting.
  • Ability to receive and send SMS messages from a shared "main company number" would be awesome. Ability to assign this to certain users would rock!
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Cisco
  • Integration with contact center plaforms
  • Integration with other UC platforms
  • Lower the tennant size and clusters capacity
  • Cisco's pressure to buy more and more licences, even not having a stale client pipeline (From the ISP point of view)
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Likelihood to Renew
8x8 Inc.
All our employees love this product. No one has ever had an issue, whether it be the phone or fax. Great during the winter when employees have to work from home because of the snow. Never had an issue with the phone app. Highly recommend this product
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Usability
8x8 Inc.
I'm not using it to its full capacity like a Zoom or teams Workspace. I use the service for phone calls, hate application on my cellphone and the voicemail apparatus. This we like because it gives us the feel of a large firm when we aren't.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
8x8 Inc.
As mentioned before, we have not had an outage with the phone system per say, There was an issue with the call center where we did have an outage, but it was quickly and promplty handled by 8x8 support, they got us up and going again within 24 hours. The 8x8 hard phone and softphone side of things have been rock solid, I couldn't ask for anything more seeing we are in health care and it's exactly what we were looking for. When and if there is an issue 99% of the time it's user error
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Performance
8x8 Inc.
None of the features that are available slow down the application. The reports (even the ones with hundreds of records) complete very quickly and the web interface as well as the mobile application never struggle to load or complete a task. The analytics will sometimes take some time to reflect the online status of users but it is to be expected due to connection speeds.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
8x8 Inc.
We are a USA based organization. Support was refreshingly quick (callback via phone or email, online live agents). Agents are knowledgeable, thorough in their explanations, and extremely patient when dealing with end-users at various levels of the ICT knowledge spectrum.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
8x8 Inc.
The person giving the training was very engaged, He also listened and answered all the questions. He created a video for our company while he was training in case we needed to reference it again in the future. The questions he could not answer were answered within 24 hours via an email to the IT support staff here so we could share the answers with the rest of the group
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Online Training
8x8 Inc.
online (video) training is good. No issues.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
8x8 Inc.
The implementation of 8x8 X was rather smooth. We had training prior to getting the system. The IT company did a good job on the training. The whole system is wonderful. Saves me so much time with the faxing, as i can just let it go by itself and not have to make sure pages don't get skipped, as with a regular fax machine.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
8x8 Inc.
I prefer 8x8 Work; it has the right number of features and modes for the communication I need. I much prefer 8x8 Work meetings to zoom meetings, as it is much, much easier to transition between devices when I am on the road. 8x8 Work is also easier to manage across multiple modes of communication.
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Cisco
Cisco HCS platform is to be seen as a centralized UC platforms, that can be scalable as an IP Centrex solution and as rich in functionalities as a Cisco CUCM. If you're looking for a solution and your main focus is IM & P functionalities rather than voice, Lync is a good solution. If your focus is voice and telephony, Cisco is a better solution
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8x8 Inc.
At this time, we’re very happy with the pricing model that we have worked out and they have provided for us. Just be sure to do your homework, and use your comparisons to work out your cost with 8x8. They will be very straightforward with you on what they can
adjust for you.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Scalability
8x8 Inc.
The only issue was adding licences was not via a button click but through your account admin which seems bad practice in a SaaS world as the user should be able to sign up, amend and close their account with ease
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
8x8 Inc.
PS had all the users etc. set up by our go-live date. All hard phones were activated and when we received them, all we had to do was set them up and punch in the activation code to activate them.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
8x8 Inc.
  • Getting access to emergency voicemails left on our office lines when we are at home, on the weekend, or after hours.
  • Texting clients from a dedicated office line portal, keep things private and organized.
  • The ease of installation and helpful support when needed significantly limit the time wasted.
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Cisco
  • Reduces the need to have a higher CAPEX in order to buy all the licenses at the start of the project.
  • The licensing is perpetual, the only associated cost with the licenses are SWSS.
  • Desktop sharing isn't a functionality.
  • Cisco SMB series can be used only with the higher cost licensing (Foundation/Standard).
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