Item: Fuze
Rating: 7
Author: Kainer Yu

Support Rating

I would like to say that Fuze technical support is very unreliable. Whenever I come into contact with them, they are not able to give me proper solutions to my technical issues. Whenever we've had a critical case that has a heavy impact on our employees, I'm not able to count on them to help us in that situation. It is much quicker for myself and my team to resolve the issues of a product that is not even our own.

Implementation Rating

Implementation on the other hand was fairly good. Getting the network infrastructure setup was a bit of work, but at least we had a bit of help from Fuze, in regards to that. Afterwards, we just had to notify our employees to install the Fuze client on their laptops and phones. After all that, the implementation went pretty smoothly.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Currently, it is being used by the whole organization. It was brought in to replace our traditional Mitel phone system. Our employees have it installed on their laptops as a softphone option and they also have the Fuze mobile app, so they can use Fuze on the go. It allows us to communicate with each other effectively, as well as being the main contacting tool used by our Sales to contact their clients. Generally, we just use it to call each other and people outside the organization.

Pros and Cons

The interface is very intuitive and I'm able to setup a call quickly with the people I need to contact.
Call quality has been especially good for me as long I have a stable internet connection.
It honestly feels like a real traditional phone, but the difference here is that it's in my laptop. I'm able to do everything that I need on the go when needed.

Their client software can face a few bugs here and then and it may take awhile for them to be fixed. One such example is the audio settings, it does not save the proper audio setup all the time when I'm docking and undocking my laptop.
Fuze technical support is not very good. They take a very long time to get back to you. When filing an urgent case that needs to be resolved quickly, I am not able to rely on them to give me the punctual and effective support that I need.
Registering conference phones can be a pain, as I have to follow a fairly long set of instructions to register them to Fuze.

Alternatives Considered

Skype for Business and Cisco WebEx Teams (formerly Cisco Spark)

WebEx seems to be a top contender against Fuze, but because it's more meeting based than for just individual calls we decided to disregard it as a solution as a replacement for our traditional phone system. Skype for Business on the other hand is also good and has the features we need, but it was too expensive.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Exchange, ServiceNow

Likelihood to Recommend

Fuze is well-suited for environments looking to move away from a traditional phone system. That means being able to have a cleaner network infrastructure, as Fuze is cloud based. It allows employees to also save themselves desk space, since they wouldn't have a traditional phone and they can use their phone number that they're assigned on the go, as opposed to being stuck to a desk.

If you're looking for decent technical support, then I strongly advise not going with Fuze, as there have been a lot of instances that I've had to solve the issues myself.

Good product, but not good service.

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Fuze