Cisco Unified Communications Manager Makes Our Phone Calls Braindead Simple
June 05, 2019
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Makes Our Phone Calls Braindead Simple
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) is the firm's on-premise phone switch. We use it in all our offices in several states tied back to our production data center. We also use the voicemail, presence and Jabber features integrated with the product. All firm phone calls, voice conferencing and internal texting are made via this product.
- Cisco Unified Communications Manager is extremely reliable as a phone switch should be. We have never experienced downtime attributable to it.
- The Cisco platform is easy for users to learn and utilize.
- Integration with voicemail and directory services are well done and easy to use.
- Integration with Jabber text services and presence are handy time savers and conveniences.
- It can be tricky to implement emergency services through the product (think 911 calls).
- Would like to see additional enhanced conference calling capabilities to potentially replace paid services.
- Phone sets can be expensive when purchased in small quantities.
- More soft buttons for additional saved phone numbers would be handy.
- The RFP response from our Cisco partner for the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) was less expensive than the competitors.
- Ongoing maintenance for the product has also been competitively priced and our warranty and maintenance programs have covered all our needs.
- We are able to avoid some external conference calling services by using the built-in features of Call Manager.
- We were able to avoid an add-on product for internal chats by using the integrated Jabber product.
- Avaya Business Communications Manager, Mitel Applications Suite and MiCloud Connect (formerly ShoreTel)
We've had the system for a number of years and the technology has changed over that time. We anticipate this system will be functional for us for at least 10 years. At that time, we'll start evaluating new technology to see if the Opex model is better in the long run than the Capex model that an on-premise solution provides. Once installed, the on-premise switch lets us very flexibly add users without additional cost (except for the phones themselves). Hosted systems charge extra for that. The overall cost of ownership for an on-premise system appears to be less in the long run.