Cisco began developing voice over IP (VoIP) communications and collaboration solutions in 1997. Currently, Cisco states they have more than 100,000 unified communications customers worldwide. The modern Cisco IP Phone portfolio includes VoIP and HD video phones designed to meet the needs of organizations.
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Grasshopper
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Grasshopper is an IP telephony business communication solution that provides companies with a toll-free or local phone number. It has both desktop and mobile applications and includes features such as custom greeting recording, call forwarding, call transfer, call reporting, and voicemail.
We have found so many use cases for Cisco IP Phones and have not come across too many situations where they were not well suited, other than being mobile. We have moved to another Cisco Solution for Mobile communications. We have phones all over the place, in offices, in clinical areas, in lobby or public areas, and even in all of our conferencing and meeting spaces.
Grasshopper is well suited for basic needs of texting in and out as well as calling out if you would like to avoid using your personal line. It also eliminates the need to have a dedicated land land in your office or business. You can obtain a vanity number and forward calls through grasshopper.
So while the 6800 range may not offer slick features, it still provides all the core functionality that businesses have come to expect from their VoIP handsets.
Most of the handsets that make up the 6800 series do come with a greyscale display, which may be disappointing if employees are used to working with color VoIP solutions.
It would be nice to have the ability to transfer some calls to another Grasshopper IVR, for those customers who mistakenly dial the wrong number (we have two incoming numbers, one for corporate and one for sales).
Likewise, it would be nice to have the ability to forward to a toll-free number, which would have allowed us to work around the inability to transfer between IVRs (see above).
Lastly, it would be great to have an 'emergency' switch setting (default off but could be toggled on) that would let us override all IVR settings and transfer all incoming calls elsewhere (either to a direct dial or toll free number) for those rare times when we cannot take any calls (such as a weather emergency OR the one time each year we take all of our staff on a retreat) - that would allow us to send all calls to a backup answering service rather than just voicemail.
i think it's profitable and a good return on investment as a person who make an architecture based on VOIP with IP phones i really enjoyed the process of configuration of the router , the switch and everything and then when i had to test the communication between two phones I've configured it was a joy. Also it's a good phone to receive and give calls to our clients.
Easy to use Functions are self-explanatory Light Efficient I generally have no complaints about them as they get the job done. Just a few employments on maybe graphics or so otherwise they are really great 👍 no complaints... Maybe it is just because is just a user and doesn't implement them or something.
Cisco support for me has always been my biggest issue with Cisco. It is very difficult to open a ticket without having your support contact info updated on Cisco Portal, which in most cases, is dependent on resellers getting this done in a timely manner.
When I was setting up my account I contacted support a couple of times. They were also very professional, personable, and helpful. Their response is prompt and thorough. I'm confident I can get any question answered as well as help with any issue I might have. That's pretty important to me.
The 8800 series phone is lighter and has a better build quality with all except the flagship phones from Yealink, Mitel, and Avaya. The Yealink S59 and Avaya Vantage have a touch screen interface the make them more akin to the old DX650 which is more high-end than the 8800 currently.
I have not used any other phone services like Grasshopper. I know that there is another option out there called Ruby, which is more like a virtual receptionist but since I did not try it out I cannot compare the two. When I started my company I found the services that Grasshopper offers to be perfect. It still works for us and we have no need to change to anything else right now.
I set up the desk for new hires in our group - it is super easy to plug in this phone and have them up and running.
Having the ability to pre-program speed dial numbers ensures that new hires are able to reach help without having to search for a number.
The ability to program ring tones is great, so if we are in the shared space meeting and we hear a phone ring, we know who's phone is ringing - the meeting can go on without everyone leaving to check.
