Cisco Unified Communications Manager - VoIP Phone Solution on Steroids
Updated October 02, 2019
Cisco Unified Communications Manager - VoIP Phone Solution on Steroids
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
We use Cisco Unified Communications Manager across our entire organization. This includes 30+ sites and about 1,200 phones and users. This allows for easy four digit dialing between offices and provides organization wide voicemail and instant messaging and presents. The system also allows us to receive calls originating from location and answer from another to provide better coverage between departments and regions.
- The first strength is this is a VoIP system allowing voice to travel across a data IP network. This makes cabling for phones very easy as the phone will utilize the same network cable that your PC would. This also means less infrastructure to support voice. No need for large PBX systems and closets that hide cabling nightmares.
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager is a very flexible product. It can be custom configured to best suit your business needs and locations. It can be used as a single tenant or multi tenant system. Each site or office location can be configured separately from others for greater control.
- Cisco offers a wide range of phone models for various needs and supports many third party SIP phones. There are also multiple ways to integrate with legacy systems during a system migration or when integrating a new company or office.
- Licensing can be difficult to understand. Cisco has changed licensing models multiple times over the years and determining what modes is best suited for your company can be difficult.
- Systems backups need some work. If you are in a multi server geographically separated environment backups can be a problem. All servers are included in a backup session and if servers are across a WAN connection all that data is being pulled across the WAN. I would like to see cloud backup or multi location backup options.
- When phones move between sites/subnets it would be nice to have a feature that could automatically move the phone configuration from one device pool to another so that location specific options are set for the moved phone.
- A positive impact would be we no longer need any expertise to manage a legacy PBX system and running out of ports for users.
- A negative impact would be as we grew we found we needed more expertise with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. This required additional training and time.
- A positive impact is with many of the other applications that utilize Cisco Unified Communication Manager we have a more collaborative user base.
I have not used any other products like Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Do you think Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)'s feature set?
Yes
Did Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) again?
Yes
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Feature Ratings
Using Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
600 - All business functions from office staff to field users and everything in between.
2 - We have two employees that manage our Cisco Unified Communications Manager. This is not their only function and only accounts for a small percentage of their time. These individuals are network oriented and have knowledge of IP networks and routing.
- Internal and external communications. (Send and receive phone calls).
- Internal collaboration with instant messaging and sharing.
- Remote access has been a big part of our current usage. Being able to have a phone or softphone at home or anywhere you have internet access.
- Instant messaging and presence is now a staple with our users.
- Tighter integration with other Cisco products. Webex, Teams, Telepresence.
Evaluating Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Competitors
Yes - Legacy AT&T PBX
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor Reputation
- Analyst Reports
Flexibility. Being able to deploy to multiple locations over a single physical network and allowing users to move around as needed.
I don't believe I would change anything.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - General office setup was our first phase. We then expanded to remote locations. After this was complete we then started exploring users for many of the options and features available.
Change management was minimal - We first implemented many years ago and change management was not part of our process.
- Setting up the VoIP gateways. This was a new concept to us and we needed additional knowledge to understand the setup.
- We implemented this solution when the product was young and at that point there was many bugs. We performed upgrades constantly.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Kept well informed No escalation required Support understands my problem Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - Support is part of our contract. We are in a subscription plan and support is included.
Cisco has always provided exceptional support whenever I open a ticket. I have used Cisco support many times and have always had great service and knowledable engineers.
Using Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using | Requires technical support |
- Cloning or copying of phones to easy setup
- Nothing specific. This is a detailed system and knowledge of VoIP is needed to understand the setup and functionality