Call Manager is a unified call control center from Cisco that supports enterprise collaboration functions across the spectrum of IP telephony, video & web conferencing, and messaging. Features include call forwarding, call back, call transfer, ad hoc conferencing, and call park.
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Webex Calling
Score 8.5 out of 10
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Webex Calling is Cisco’s flagship cloud calling solution with over 12 million users worldwide. It delivers an enterprise-grade calling experience that enables customers to replace PBX hardware with a cloud calling solution. Webex Calling's connectivity and collaboration experience includes calling, meetings, messaging, contact center, and integrated devices.
Webex Calling does very well against all their competitors. Its strength is integration with Call manager, enterprise feature set, End to End Encryption, their own phones. Most vendors use third party phones and gateways which creates extra overhead in management. Having a …
Webex Calling provides the majority of the features of Cisco Call Manager with the flexibility of a cloud-based platform. This offers ease of management, zero-touch deployment of users' phones and devices, and the ability for a limited IT department to handle a complex …
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) does provide more flexibility in design, but is also more difficult than Webex Calling to configure to meet the requirements of the Ray Baum Act where there are multiple locations. CUCM also requires periodic updates, including …
Verified User
Contributor
Chose Webex Calling
Webex Calling works better with existing customers on CISCO UC/Communications Manager, and using the existing Cisco phone.
Verified User
Engineer
Chose Webex Calling
Previously we used Cisco UCM as our phone system, which is still Cisco's current on-premise offering. The main advantage of Webex Calling is the ability to easily connect phones and devices from outside the corporate network without having to create the Expressway setup first. …
The big advantage of Webex Calling is that the deployment could be fully in the cloud, you dont need to purchase hardware like SBC and you can add Cisco Webex Meeting and Teams to your user for more collaboration. It's the last piece of the puzzle if you already use theses …
From the experience we already have with working with Cisco technology and with everything new that is being brought to the cloud, we knew it was an excellent option.
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.
It's well suited for the hybrid work environment where we have people in the office, and people at home where, like I said, you don't have to provide a remote access point for the phone to be able to connect back or have to register through other means like expressways.
For example, with WebEx calling, it's an offer which include many features of each on-prem server and every features are included in WebEx calling. So that's something which is very appreciated by customer because they don't have to buy each server like it was the case. They just buy WebEx calling and they have many features. Even if they don't need it, they have it and we can give them the notice to use them and they can use it and they are very happy with this software.
Although it's very easy to use, once you understand the concepts of IP telephony, as I said before, I think Cisco could have improved the management interface of the platform, adding modern technologies and the design language of the other platforms like DNA Center, etc. This interface hasn't had a substantial improvement for about 10 years
It is a very easy product to deploy and configure and to really take advantage of. It does not matter if you are using it in an office or your home, or for a security office or a collaboration meeting room - you have the right endpoint available for each case and the configuration parameters to improve the functionality you need.
CUCM is supported by most third-party vendors for related products, so it makes finding solutions to specific needs easy. Also Cisco TAC is very knowledgeable, and we have never run into a problem they have not been able to resolve. Usually they are resolved without the need to escalate tickers either.
I have been working for a long time with Cisco as a provider and also Cisco TAC and Cisco Support Engineers. The support starts right beforehand in the documentation of the product you are interested in. From the start you have a good, complete, and detailed and easy to read datasheet and there's always someone available to answer any questions.
We have been a Cisco based shop and have looked at other cloud voice options such as MS Teams pbx, and others, but ultimately, the features, endpoints, and reliability of Cisco has been the common factor in staying with them as our voice provider. Their integrations, room systems, and hybrid design allows for us to be flexible and keep a high up time vs reliance on 100% cloud.
The differences between both software can be marginal in some aspects, but for the campaign in a proffessional level it was a clear win to Webex due the quality and security of the platform, being a Cisco product has more impact on the final decision, and in the end the overall experience has been great, having used Twilio in the past, that last part is my personal opinion.
Webex Calling allowed us to continue working in a remote world
While workshops are best in person, Webex Calling allowed us to continue offering that critical service and also included break out room functionality for small group activities, when needed.
The recording feature allows everyone to hyper focus on the discussion - if anything was missed in notes, it was always saved in the recording when we had one. Perfect for interviews and workshops.