A PBX that will redefine your needs and raise your expectations to a new level!
October 31, 2023
A PBX that will redefine your needs and raise your expectations to a new level!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Other
Overall Satisfaction with Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs
When the pandemic started we needed to make a change and enable our users to work from home. While this was possible for them at the time, they did not have access to their office phone, so they could not accept or make calls with their office number. So we were force to move to a new ΠΒΧ, that would support remote connections. After looking at all available solutions and compared them we concluded that the UCM6308 was the best choice available
- Wave is a great solution to have access to your phone from your laptop while working from home
- Managing extensions and all the PBX features is very easy
- Grandstream does listen to the customer and they accept reasonable change requests that will benefit users
- The UCM supports paring 2 devices and creating a standby cluster for high availability!
- The UCM gets updates very often and new features are added constantly.
- The cluster implementation does not work on all network modes. Would be great if this was improved.
- Wave on mobile phones works in a different way than on desktops and this makes it hard to set it up for use on the firewalls, as it requires different and more permissions than the desktop app. For example is one receives an invitation per email on the mobile phone and wants to participate in a Wave meeting as a guest, the still need access to the network ports needed to login the extension (while they only need / want to join the meeting as anonymous users). On the desktop app this is not needed.
- There is a limit on the number of 1 device per connection type. We have an extension used in the maintenance department and is shared by 6 users. We were able to install it on 1 PC, 1 Wi-Fi phone and 1 Android shared mobile phone. We would like to install it on a second shared mobile phone, but this is not allowed by the UCM policy. We could use anther extension to do this, but the maintenance department does not want this. They want to accept calls with problem reports only on one extension. Would be great to be able to install the same extension on more than 1 Android devices.
- Wave desktop and mobile apps
- Frequent updates which include new features
- IP Phones zero config
- Easy configuration / management / deployment
- Ability to work from home and have access to office phone number
- Ability to make basic video conferencing
- Ability to have access to the office phone on the mobile phone
We were considering a solution from Alcatel at first. Very stable implementation for sure, as there are no frequent updates and no new features. Also no conferencing solution was included. A separate solution was offered for extra cost. So the choice was between a very stable PBX which would be pretty much unchanged for ever and a dynamic solution that would constantly grow. Without any doubt we opted for the ever growing / changing solution, knowing this would cost us in minor problems / instabilities. We did NOT regret this decision. So having opted for a growing and constantly developed solution we also look into the solution provided by Yeastar. By comparing the 2 solutions it was obvious that the Grandstream UCM 6308 was the best solution for us.
Do you think Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs's feature set?
Yes
Did Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs again?
Yes
Using Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs
120 - All our employees that have a desk in all functions we have in our business use our Grandstream PBX.
- Daily phone communication both inside and outside the company
- Remote access to office phone when connected via VPN
- Occasional simple video conferencing, mainly meet now function
Evaluating Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs and Competitors
Yes - We used to have a Siemens HiPath 4000 PBX. Obviously this was a very old PBX, very stable on one hand but it was not able to cover our new needs, for example remote access for our remote workers. Also as it was very old it was getting hard to get replacement parts. The Siemens Hipath 4000 Management was also very complex. In short it was an outdated solution that we wanted to replace.
- Scalability
- Ease of Use
- Other
The main reason we chose the pair of UCM 6308s, was the fact that the UCM is a constantly growing ecosystem that is constantly getting updates and new features. We had a stable but stale solution and wanted to break away from this staleness.
Would not change a thing. Maybe we would lower our expectations concerning the video conferencing feature, as it is unfair to expect it to be on the Skype For Business level, as we did at the time.
Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs Implementation
- Third-party professional services
The initial implementation was done by an external partner. As we had to turn off the current connectivity to our provider in order to switch over to a VoIP connection, this would result in downtime. So we needed to get the new PBX functional asap. So there was no question about getting the initial implementation as a service. If they old and new PBX could work in parallel, we would probably make the initial setup on our own. We now maintain it on our own as well.
Change management was minimal
- Missing minor features the users had on the old PBX
Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - We have reported several bugs so far. Many of them have been resolved and in a reasonable time frame as well. There are few that have not been resolved, but the overall experience is more than positive.
Using Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Making / receiving calls on IP phones
- Making / receiving calls on desktop / mobile apps
- Planning video meetings on future dates
- Outlook integration is not as smooth as we have seen with other apps, e.g. Nect Cloud Talk
Yes - The Wave mobile app work fine as far as setting up and using an extension is concerned. When used for joining meetings as guests the implementation is not the expected one (as with desktop app), but instead one needs to open on the firewalls all the extra ports needed for logging to use an extension.