Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review Sametime is well suited for very quick conversations, where you know the person is an active Sametime user. It also serves as an easy way to reach out to someone you may not know when looking for an answer to a quick question, as they are likely to be a Sametime user. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to use Sametime for Audio or Video chat. The quality and reliability are horrendous.
Read full review Pros Vibrant display Retains mute functionality between headset and speakerphone Consistent and incredibly clear audio Energy saving mode, during nighttime hours Mute light is physically linked with the button and the feature, if that light is on, you KNOW you're muted! Variety of customizable ringtones Supports up to 10 lines, if needed Built-in camera provides quick and easy access to join any meeting or call in 720p HD Read full review Sametime's web-based interfaces are "zero load", requiring no plug-ins to be installed to join a meeting, launch a meeting, or use chat in a browser. A plugin is required only if you want to share your screen. Integration with IBM Notes is very tight. Sametime's chat status can change according to your Notes calendar. You can easily see if someone who just emailed you is available to chat. Your chat History is right inside Notes as well. IBM's mobile apps are top notch. We automated the apps for our users thanks to IBM's work with third party MDMs. This made it very simple for us to deploy the Sametime mobile apps -- Chat and Meetings -- and get new capabilities such as Audio & Video mobilized quickly. No down time, ever. The rock solid WebSphere back-end of Sametime means the environment is always up. Period. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Not convenient for a large group meeting. Very basic tool for internal communication only not available for third party communication Very basic and limited mobile app features. High speed connection is needed to connect to Sametime Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Sametime is now an embedded experience for our users. They know it, they like it, they use it, and they expect it to be wherever they are. Because it is pretty easy to use and NEVER goes down, users know they can rely on it and won't be frustrated by it. Sametime is right up with there with Microsoft Office in terms of user adoption and appreciation.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Just about everything works the way you expect it would and it's relatively easy for users to figure out. Sametime was one of those things that we started with only a few people as a "test" and before the test period was done we discovered a few hundred people had figured out how to log in and most got it working all on their own. Many of our users want to use Sametime and do so regularly; we do not have to create policies enforcing its usage. Users find it practical to use Sametime to do things like chat, transfer files, share their screen, and so forth.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Typically if Sametime is not available, it's because Windows Updates were done on the servers and they were not rebooted. However, that's not a problem with Sametime -- in fact, if you have Linux you could probably run Sametime for years without any hiccups whatsoever. We have no internal Linux expertise.
Read full review Performance Generally very good. Occasionally AV or screen-sharing will stutter and every now and then I hear of it dropping out altogether, but in all cases it was easy to re-establish
Read full review Support Rating A support case manager from Cisco responds quickly to all of the tickets that are logged on its portal. Problems are resolved in a matter of few hours. Additionally, they also offer a guided AI based troubleshooter that is capable of solving the majority of typical issues with much ease.
Read full review I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.
Read full review Implementation Rating Reduced equipment and infrastructure cost increased productivityEasier network management
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review We use
Jabber globally in our company and Symphony (no relevant app in able list) in some of the teams as well. All these are instant messenger tools, bu
t Sametime is the easiest one to be used and its chat history is easy to be searched. Sametime can be used to contact almost all internal staff as it’s included in default computer package. Symphony is used to chat with front end business while
Jabber is used for call.
Read full review Scalability Sametime is rock solid. It runs on WebSphere, DB2 and other related IBM technologies. This does mean the back-end is highly complex and very difficult to learn and get comfortable with, however.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Sametime keeps many of our team members in contact throughout the day which leads to increased productivity which makes everyone happy. We use the team chat room feature every day. This allows a team to stay focused on the task without any extra messages that are not on topic. The split between IBM Sametime, Slack and Google Hangouts has caused some issues when team members are not checking for messages on a certain app. Read full review ScreenShots