It just keeps working - Set it and forget it
May 03, 2021

It just keeps working - Set it and forget it

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

We are currently utilizing the Cisco Unified Communications Manager solution across all lines of our business. We have been using this application for about 6-7 years and it provides us with extremely reliable call handling/management capabilities. We also provides us with a very useful voicemail-to-email functionality, which ensures we stay connected with our team.
  • 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.
  • As with most Cisco products, they come with a higher price point than some of their competitors.
  • Due to the level of granularity that it provides, there is a somewhat steep learning curve to administrators who are new to the platform.
  • Navigation within the application can be difficult/cumbersome at time because there are so many different areas. I think perhaps a more simplified GUI would be an improvement.
  • Reliability is a huge factor for our organization. We have run this for years with practically no interruptions.
  • The ability to configure Hunt Groups and call routing
  • The ability to mask or alter the Caller ID info that displays on outbound calls is important to ensure that people dont call back directly to someone's extension (unless we want them to).
  • We previously had a traditional PBX system at each location and Call Manager has allowed us to centralize the administration of our phone systems
  • The ability to have phones "auto-configure" when being plugged into PoE has reduced the man-hours required to deploy new desk phones
  • Being able to configure different "roles" for the application saves us money by having Level 1 support technicians take over some easier tasks that didn't require our Phone Engineer to focus on.
The Cisco Call Manager application has been around for much longer than many of the competitors. As such, they have had plenty of time to resolve bugs and increase the feature set that comes natively with this solution. One of the biggest factors for us was the professional services/support that comes along with using any Cisco product.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) again?

Yes

Skype for Business (formerly Lync), Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), TeamDynamix IT Service Management (ITSM)
If you have a medium to large organization, the Cisco Unified Communications Manager solution is well suited for your needs. It may be a little "overkill" for an organization with just a few dozen people though. As mentioned previously, it isn't a "cheap" product, but I feel the costs are justified by the functionality, reliability, and professional support that come with Cisco products.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Feature Ratings

Hosted PBX
9
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
9
User templates
8
Call reports
10
Directory of employee names
8
Answering rules
9
Call recording
Not Rated
Call park
9
Call screening
9
Message alerts
9
Video conferencing
Not Rated
Audio conferencing
Not Rated
Video screen sharing
Not Rated
Instant messaging
Not Rated
Not Rated
Mobile app for iOS
Not Rated
Mobile app for Android
Not Rated