Item: Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Rating: 8
Author: RAJESH VENGILOT

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Since we are service provided, we support the various customers in deployment and support for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM). We also use CUCM for our internal environment as well. Below are a few business problems that this product addresses. 1. Lower the cost of calling within the organization through IP calling. 2. Ease of management and configuration. 3. Improved voice quality. 4. Integration with other 3rd party vendors \ equipments.

Pros and Cons

Smooth IP based calling on LAN / WAN
Integration with other Cisco UC components to provide enhanced features
Jabber registration for ease for calling from mobile devices

Does not have good reporting functinality. Most of the reports are pretty raw
CUCM still have many open bugs which needs to be fixed
Some of the configuration could be very complex and tough to implement
User guides could be made more user friendly and intuituve

Return on Investment

CUCM has been very cost effective
Collaboration between teams have been easier especially for the people working from home
User management has been much easier as the System easily integrates with the LDAP
Support cost has gone down due to ease of management

Support Rating

The Cisco Unified Communications Manager is quite good but it still has room for improvement. In today's world where organizations are moving towards cloud service where the services are provided on Pay as you use model, Cisco is still trying to catch up. Cisco has also started its Cloud-based service but it's still lacking behind other vendors. Still its the best on-premises solution as of today with great features and support.

Key Insights

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

Usability

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

The Cisco Unified Communications Manager platform would be most suited for the below scenarios.
1. An organization with very restricted policies and compliance where can't move to cloud-based solutions for data security. They can install the CUCM on-premises.
2. An organization that is still on a legacy phone system could adopt CUCM to save costs and have better services.

Great Product but needs innovation to Sustain in Market

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)