Cisco Finesse vs. Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

I didn't personally hate working with Finesse as an end-user, but the frequent bugs and crashes were troublesome. While the frequency wasn't daily or weekly, it was enough to be memorable and difficult to work through. At times the software would crash across the board and take 15 minutes to recover, which pending call volumes, could be highly problematic. When it was working I had few issues or complaints.

Incentivized

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is suited for medium to large customers who are in search for a solid call control platform with added security in mind. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also supports receptions, small groups and also a mini contact center type of set up with its Hunt Group, Pick up Group and call queuing facilities and also with set up of music on hold function while calls queuing.

Incentivized

• Keep detail record of the agent and supervisor activity.
• Help to create agent and give them access to different teams and different skill groups.
• Allows the supervisor to keep a track record of the agent different states like ready, not ready, in call, [etc...]

• This solution is extremely stable and has been running in our environment for several years without (unscheduled) downtime.
• The ability to have voicemails automatically sent as an email message is extremely helpful in helping us to keep in touch while away from the desk.
• The Call Manager provides us very granular settings to route our calls as we want.

Incentivized

• There were too many outages
• There were a number of times I would get kicked out of the system without reason
• Reports were difficult to read

Incentivized

• Administration web page is little bit hard to understand at the beginning specially if you are not familiar with naming convention and GU Interfaces.
• Call Detail Record interface is fine but would be desirable to include more options that fit organization needs in terms of reporting purposes.
• Self Care Portal interface could be more useful to the end user if it includes options to manage some features without administrators involving.

Incentivized

We have been using this product for 20+ years and will continue too. This is a great product and new features are always coming out.

Incentivized

It is easy to use, but there are outages that affect the overall customer satisfaction. There were many times when we were unable to enter the call queues or even our direct lines because the system was not functioning properly. It was extremely easy to transfer people and that was a great function of the program.

Incentivized

The usability part of Cisco Unified Communications Manager is very much simple from a usability point of view. Day-to-day Move Add Change Delete (MACD) can be performed by the administrators very easily with simple training. From the initial deployment point of view, some of the thing can be improved to simplify the process.

We have hardly had any problems, but the attention provided when we need support has been very fast and effective

Incentivized

CUCM is supported by most third-party vendors for related products, so it makes finding solutions to specific needs easy. Also Cisco TAC is very knowledgeable, and we have never run into a problem they have not been able to resolve. Usually they are resolved without the need to escalate tickers either.

Incentivized

This was the first phone system we implemented that could span multiple locations. We were very satisfied once fully implemented

Incentivized

We used to use Dialpad and it was a great tool. Since switching to Cisco Finesse, we have had no issues with call forwarding, call transfers, or holding. We no longer experience any issues with our callers in the queue or any issues with call playback for quality assurance. Cisco Finesse has made things much easier around the office.

Incentivized

We have been a Cisco based shop and have looked at other cloud voice options such as MS Teams pbx, and others, but ultimately, the features, endpoints, and reliability of Cisco has been the common factor in staying with them as our voice provider. Their integrations, room systems, and hybrid design allows for us to be flexible and keep a high up time vs reliance on 100% cloud.

Incentivized

• Cisco Finesse is a pivotal piece of HubSpot's world renowned Customer Support team, seamlessly integrating with our product to deliver our customers the highest level of support.

Incentivized

• Communication and collaboration - Our offices are able to communicate both internally and externally due to this system.
• Down time - Struggles with CUCM has caused a lot of down time due to the instability of the system.
• High Costs - the cost of both the license and the maintenance was much higher than other systems.

Incentivized