Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services vs. FluentCloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers hosted unified communications as a service.N/A
FluentCloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
FluentCloud, from FluentStream Technologies, is a dynamic, cloud-based business phone system. FluentCloud includes FluentStream's leading phone system, phone service and customer support team, all in one. The FluentCloud product aims to provide businesses with new telecommunications flexibility, with an emphasis on price and performance. In addition, the vendor offers a wide range of custom applications and communications integration strategies to businesses and software…
$20
per user per month
Pricing
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Essential
$20.00
per user per month
Advanced
$30.00
per user per month
Complete
$45.00
per user per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsUnlimited calls to the US and Canada, first-class quality and 99.99% uptime US-based customer support team and fully customizable plans with “A-La-Carte” options.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Cloud PBX
Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
FluentCloud
8.9
2 Ratings
8% above category average
Hosted PBX00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
User templates00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Call reports00 Ratings7.82 Ratings
Directory of employee names00 Ratings8.72 Ratings
Call Management
Comparison of Call Management features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
FluentCloud
8.4
2 Ratings
0% below category average
Answering rules00 Ratings5.62 Ratings
Call recording00 Ratings9.62 Ratings
Call park00 Ratings6.92 Ratings
Call screening00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Message alerts00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
VoIP system collaboration
Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
FluentCloud
7.0
1 Ratings
17% below category average
Audio conferencing00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Mobile apps
Comparison of Mobile apps features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications Services
-
Ratings
FluentCloud
5.0
1 Ratings
50% below category average
Mobile app for iOS00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Mobile app for Android00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Small Businesses
Nextiva Business Phone Service
Nextiva Business Phone Service
Score 9.1 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Nextiva Business Phone Service
Nextiva Business Phone Service
Score 9.1 out of 10
CloudTalk
CloudTalk
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Score 8.6 out of 10
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.6
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Hosted Unified Communications ServicesFluentCloud
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
FluentStream Technologies
I have tried a few programs over the years to record and track calls and this one is by far the best. Easy to use and more functions than I will ever use. I love the reporting options. There was one particular scenario that comes to mind where I was glad to have FluentCloud. I had a client that was really really angry, cussing, yelling, threatening suit, etc. because he had gone to an appointment almost 2 hours away and when he got there the woman told him that we forced her to schedule the appointment, that we were pushy and rude and she just wanted to get off the phone. Thankfully I found the recording and was able to prove to him that she DID schedule the appointment but she also picked the day and time, answered all of the questions and took absolutely no persuasion at all. Basically it was an easy close. The client couldn't believe it and still to this day he is my client.
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Pros
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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FluentStream Technologies
  • FluentCloud is excellent at customer service, their staff is always helpful and responsive. I have never had a typical service experience where first diagnosis is always the user's system. Their engineering staff is also hands on, I've been so grateful to have Brian's help in selecting the right router - he even configured it for us.
  • Ease of use, the system is quite easy to use even beyond adding extensions, users, new DID phone numbers and complex routing queues. It's also easy to configure feature codes and program them so users can perform multi-step tasks with a few key punches on their dial pad. We use feature codes to allow callers to switch their caller ID to our DID numbers that are local to the area on the fly.
  • Robust features: ability for whisper coaching, barge in and a dashboard to visually check the status of each user.
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Cons
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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FluentStream Technologies
  • There are times when calls are really garbled, there was a couple months there that we couldn't listen to any of the recordings because they were not decipherable.
  • They changed something recently where now when you are listening to a recording and you hit pause it takes you back to the beginning when you start again rather than just continuing where you left off. That is a pain in the butt because I have to pause quite often for interruptions.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
No answers on this topic
FluentStream Technologies
At this time there our research has found that feature for feature there isn't a better solution for our needs at this cost point. We have had great success and don't foresee a need to change
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Alternatives Considered
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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FluentStream Technologies
I have used others besides what is listed below but FluentCloud is by far the best I have used, especially when it comes to tracking and reporting call volume and production of our calls. Being a call center that is production based on call volume having something like FluentCloud is essential.
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Return on Investment
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).
Read full review
FluentStream Technologies
  • FluentCloud is a good value, we have done extensive cost comparison and the feature set vs price is very favorable.
  • The lack of a contract and ability to dynamically add or remove extensions as needed is great, we only pay for what we use.
Read full review
ScreenShots

FluentCloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Completely hosted VoIP solution with 99.99% uptimeScreenshot of Online web portal with full self-management capabilitiesScreenshot of Full Call Reporting Dashboards