Item: Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)
Rating: 8
Author: Steve Davis

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For the implementations I’ve delivered, [Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)] is used by the entire company, not just specific to a department. BE6000 has been used to unify call management, and messaging. It has been used to customer to business interaction, as well as mobility for internal connectivity. All in all, it is a good mid range system.

Pros and Cons

Reliability
Unification of call and messaging services
Platform is now unified with Call Manager. If you know one Cisco phone system, you know them all.

Setting up offsite mobility for Presence can be technically challenging.
Call manager can be complex. Experienced engineers required to maintain.
Easier wizard driven tools that are native may be beneficial.

Return on Investment

Longevity of hardware
Reliability of systems
Mobility and integration helps minimize commuting

Unified Communications

It’s convenient to have everything under one box. An engineer experienced with call manager and easily pickup the Presence aspect. Users love voicemail to email or audio and presence integration. Call handoff is a nice feature to be used between mobile phone and desk phone. Minimizing the amount of platforms we have to integrate is better for end users and those that support them.

Alternatives Considered

Mitel MiCollab

Both Mitel and [Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)] allow the benefit of virtualization. If desired you could have an entirely virtual system. Cisco handles the virtualization a little better, however Mitel MiCollab is easier to integrate presence and calls. Cisco underlying architecture seems to be a little more stable, Mitel seems to be a little more user friendly. There are pros and cons and both are good solutions.

Support Rating

Cisco TAC is typically great in support. Often times, I always look for a way to get immediately to tier2. By the time I call into support, I’ve gone above and beyond the steps that tier1 will attempt. The great thing about support is there are escalation paths. Tier1 is helpful with end users that are managing their own systems. For those with experience, the TAC has multiple levels of experience.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Juniper EX Series Ethernet Switches, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series, NetApp Element Software

Likelihood to Recommend

The Cisco [Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)] is well suited for organizations that have experienced IT staff, or an experienced consultant. Adds/changes do require experience and are not a “next, next, next” type of environment that power users can easily figure out. The system is good for mid range companies, roughly 30 to 1,000 user systems. It may be overkill for smaller than 20-30 user environments.

Cisco BE6000, a lot of features in a virtual package.

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)