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Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) vs. Talkdesk

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ACall Manager is a unified call control center from Cisco that supports enterprise collaboration functions across the spectrum of IP telephony, video & web conferencing, and messaging. Features include call forwarding, call back, call transfer, ad hoc conferencing, and call park.N/A

    Talkdesk

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ATalkdesk® helps organizations operate a human-AI hybrid workforce with enterprise CCaaS and Customer Experience Automation (CXA). Both support omnichannel engagement across voice and digital channels. CCaaS provides routing, workforce engagement, agent guidance, collaboration, and analytics for human teams. CXA enables organizations to build and manage agentic AI agents using natural language and orchestrates work across AI agents, people, data, and enterprise systems. CXA can also work with an…

    $85

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Digital Essentials
    $85
    per month per user
    Voice Essentials
    $105
    per month per user
    Elite
    $165
    per month per user
    Elite
    $165
    per month per user
    Industry Experience Clouds
    $225
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing*Talkdesk also offers per hour login consumption pricing and concurrent pricing. Prices are based on a minimum 3 year commitment to these Editions. Additional telco and usage fees not included. Due to foreign exchange rate approximation, list price is not the exact price that will be quoted.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    As per the comments earlier, Cisco's focus has finally moved to Cloud and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) primarily stays as it solves specific business problems that Cloud-based platforms are trying to solve, slowly but surely. Cisco Unified Communications …
    Incentivized
    Talkdesk
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    33 Answers
    95%
    Would buy again
    350 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    34 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    280 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    352 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    200 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    224 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    7.6
    52 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Talkdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Hosted PBX9.427 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)5.238 Ratings00 Ratings
    User templates6.149 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call reports8.249 Ratings00 Ratings
    Directory of employee names9.150 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    7.9
    55 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Talkdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Answering rules9.352 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call recording5.234 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call park9.347 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call screening8.942 Ratings00 Ratings
    Message alerts6.847 Ratings00 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    9.1
    49 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Talkdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing9.139 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing9.249 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video screen sharing8.823 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant messaging9.427 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    6.7
    31 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Talkdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile app for iOS6.531 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android7.028 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contact Center Software
    Comparison of Contact Center Software features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    -
    Ratings
    Talkdesk
    8.2
    503 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Agent dashboard00 Ratings7.3482 Ratings
    Validate callers00 Ratings8.3422 Ratings
    Outbound response00 Ratings8.4442 Ratings
    Call forwarding00 Ratings8.5434 Ratings
    Click-to-call (CTC)00 Ratings8.2400 Ratings
    Warm transfer00 Ratings8.8457 Ratings
    Predictive dialing00 Ratings8.9231 Ratings
    Interactive voice response00 Ratings8.5324 Ratings
    REST APIs00 Ratings7.2256 Ratings
    Call scripts00 Ratings8.2231 Ratings
    Call tracking00 Ratings8.6450 Ratings
    Multichannel integration00 Ratings7.0331 Ratings
    CRM software integration00 Ratings8.6383 Ratings
    Workforce Optimization (WFO)
    Comparison of Workforce Optimization (WFO) features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Talkdesk
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    -
    Ratings
    Talkdesk
    8.0
    487 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Inbound call routing00 Ratings9.0447 Ratings
    Omnichannel inbound routing00 Ratings7.0325 Ratings
    Recording00 Ratings9.0471 Ratings
    Quality management00 Ratings8.5429 Ratings
    Call analytics00 Ratings8.5443 Ratings
    Historical reporting00 Ratings8.2451 Ratings
    Live reporting00 Ratings7.8444 Ratings
    Customer surveys00 Ratings7.3249 Ratings
    Customer interaction analytics00 Ratings6.8284 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Small Businesses
    CallFire
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Zendesk Talk
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Genesys Multicloud CX (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Fuze
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Bright Pattern Contact Center
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (57 ratings)
    8.3
    (517 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.5
    (40 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (17 ratings)
    8.6
    (333 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (9 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.5
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    5.5
    (132 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (7 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.2
    (224 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (8 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Talkdesk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    As a growing company, we did not have customer service contacts set up like a traditional contact center, even though we were trying to operate like one. Talkdesk made the transition simple to orchestrate the new setup, allowing customers to have their contacts answered quickly. As Talkdesk has continued to roll out new products such as Copilot and AI Autopilot, we are implementing and continuing to realize the benefits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • 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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    • Talkdesk excels at reporting. It offers a wide range of reports, such as Aux, AHT, and productivity reports, which are great for monitoring performance.
    • Talkdesk has speech-to-text analytics. This is an AI transcript system. The AI detects speech and transcribes it.
    • Talkdesk is easy to integrate with other apps. Such as Calabrio and Zendesk.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • 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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    • From experience, customer service is terrible, we've had 5 account executives over 18 months, extremely difficult to get timely answers to pressing issues.
    • Integration with other tools, such as ServiceNow, is not truly integration (in my opinion). There was a marked difference between what the salesperson communicated during the evaluation period and what we actually got once we purchased and implemented the product.
    • We continue to have stability issues which force our agents to restart the Talkdesk client. I frequently receive vague error messages ('something went wrong') that can be frustrating as there's no actual detail to what happened. To be fair, it has improved since we implemented the tool, but if you were to ask our agents what frustrated them, Talkdesk would be at the top of their list.
    • Being a multi-channel platform was one of the things that drew us to Talkdesk; however, the chat channel lags way behind voice in customization and reporting.
    • Lack of training resources. The 'Talkdesk Academy' is often very out-of-date. Would be nice to have actual webinars or online training (even paid training) for various functions of the tool like reporting, WFM, IVR, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    One of the best tools our there to tackle alot of our needs or issues within the organisation's and is value for money as you find alot of the features already in bedded and the Ai features are user friendly no need for additional training and Talk desk support when any issues arise is amazing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    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.
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    As a user, the Talkdesk system is pretty easy. However, as a leader or an admin, the system can be difficult to navigate. Talkdesk appeared to integrate different solutions into their environment. While the overall skin of the environment is pretty seamless, it's easy to see that some solutions are segregated off into their own area of the Talkdesk ecosystem. This is pretty evident with Identity, WFM, and System Analytics, where you have to navigate to their respective areas to pull reports and gather data. Where many other reports are available in Explore
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Talkdesk
    Talkdesk is very handy but, sometimes we do face issues were the system can just kick you out and not be able to do calls or receive calls but, what I like about the system once you start refreshing or troubleshooting, everything becomes normal it is a unique system and very modern we don't usually have system issues with Talkdesk.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Talkdesk
    reports are good until a report is a big one in size then the wait is longer and some call reports delay by an hour or so which is not ideal as we pull these hourly and need them from Work force management perspective and Quality reports are perfectly fine
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    If Talkdesk had a dedicated phone support line I would have given this rating an overall 10. Their knowledge base is absolutely HUGE and at times very helpful. It's easy to search through and their customer support chat system works perfectly fine, but there are just some times that you need to speak to a human on the phone to ensure you are always on the same page.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Talkdesk
    The training that was given to us was very smooth and professional. I give my trainer 10/ 10 rate the training was so smooth and very helpful she would make sure we also watch videos of how to use the system which made it very easier for us and what was interesting it is because, the system is also easy.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Talkdesk
    Nothing is perfect!! Needing the ability to repeat the training so everyone was on board was important. Not real sure how many people had to repeat the training as they trained on their own and given 30 minutes at a time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    This was the first phone system we implemented that could span multiple locations. We were very satisfied once fully implemented
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    We were very satisfied with the implementation of Talkdesk. The team was able to gather all the data and information about the system we had in place at the moment and delivered us a Talkdesk plan that suited our needs. We had a few calls after implementation where our questions were answered and gave us the confidence to continue using the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    Call recordings, quality assessments, feedback, coaching, and monitoring, the call flow is effortless and painless, changing statuses from after-call work is updated to be qued so you cannot change after aftercall work is finished, shows you the company metrics, SLA, abandonment, number of calls taken and record occupancy for you and the team. Many more features make Talkdesk an innovative software compared to its competitors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Talkdesk
    talk desk has helped us massively with flexibility of one system giving us all the relevant information we need to be able to drive improvement and also good service from work force management to quality improvement to the reporting of the work and inputs going in and assess outputs to determine the success of our work and remaining development areas
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • 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
    Read full review
    Talkdesk
    • Reduced hold times with callback feature = better CX
    • Easy transfer option between teams where we can talk rep-rep first before bringing the caller in = less repeated information the customer has to provide = better CX
    • Modified call dispositions allows for better call management & organization = less work on our end!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Talkdesk Screenshots

    Screenshot of Talkdesk Guardian™, which is a native cloud compliance solution that enables contact centers to gain visibility and take control of their WFH and hybrid workforce.Screenshot of Talkdesk Autopilot™, which is a tool that handles common customer queries, like orders, returns and billing, and automatically responds with conversational answers. And when complex cases are detected that need human empathy and expertise, the virtual agent will redirect customers to a human agent.Screenshot of Talkdesk AI Trainer™, which equips customers with tools to observe, simulate, and put guardrails on AI, according to their needs. This way, generative AI can be used responsibly, preventing AI mishaps, and protecting the brand from potentially poor AI experiences.