Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

Score8.7 out of 10

173 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)?

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.

Categories & Use Cases

Hosted PBX
Hosted telephony infrastructure obviated the need for local PBX hardware
Category average: 8.1
Answering rules
Ability to enter rules to route calls to main number or other extensions in case of absence
Category average: 8.5
Call park
Ability to hold calls in virtual location and subsequently access from any phone in system
Category average: 8.1

Video screen sharing
Users are able to share their screens with other meeting participants on video conference calls.
Category average: 8
Call reports
Historical call analysis and trending metrics
Category average: 8.1
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
IVR is a phone menu allowing callers to interact with the system through voice and keypad
Category average: 7.7

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager).

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

17.7%

711 installations of 4,024

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

10.1%

405 installations of 4,024

#3 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

9.8%

395 installations of 4,024

Verified User

Vice-President in Information Technology (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is a terrific solution for general business communications. It is ideal for midsize businesses, but should be compared to many of the other VoIP solutions. Overall, it is a good solution if you are primarily a Cisco network shop and prefer to have an all Cisco solution. It does have good powerfail support with power over ethernet to a wide variety of phones

Pros

Power over ethernet
High quality reliable phones with excellent sound quality
Many offers of non-voice integrated communication services

Cons

It is a relatively complex solution
Administration is more difficult than other services
It is oriented to an all Cisco network solution

Return on Investment

Clients love the quality of the solution
Their customers appreciate the professional image
The sound quality is excellent

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Avaya IP Office

Asif Hameed

Systems Engineer in Sales at Telus (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Unified Communications Manager as our Internal UC and collaboration infrastructure for our Voice Needs. Cisco Unified Communications Manager allows for an Enterprised-Grade with full security layers for communications for all our employees. Key problem that its solves is for multi-device support no matter where I am or what device I am using such as Mobile Phone, Mobile App, Softclient for PC, SIP endpoint, etc.

Pros

Scalability
Call Routing, Queing for calls
Full SIP compliance (support of 3rd party SIP endpoints as well as SIP trunks)
Redundancy

Cons

Dedicated up to date Jabber softclient
Better integration with Microsoft Teams
Ability to support legacy TDM phones for smaller office
Technology to support VoIP on legacy Cabling (CAT3)

Return on Investment

Supports 3rd party SIP trunking that allows flexiblity
MS Teams integration whereas, we can leverage the Cisco Unified Communications Manager trunks for Direct Routing (trunking)
Provides the extra layer of survivability with a redundant infrastructure (geo) which allows for business continuity in case of outage

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Avaya Aura, Avaya Call Center Elite and Avaya IP Office

Other Software Used

Five9, Avaya IP Office, Cisco Meraki Dashboard

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work for Spark NZ which is a Service Provider. We have 20 plus customers using Cisco Unified Communications Manager. It is a solid call control platform which has efficient call distribution and facilities like Hunt Group and Pick up Groups. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also has basic que facility which supports customers with mini contact center type of work environments. Cisco Unified Communications Manager is very secure compared to other platforms in the market currently.

Pros

Hunt Group
Pick up Group
Call Queuing
Third party device integration

Cons

More efficient device search based on Ip addresses
Ability to look up devices last registered date and time
Native call recording function

Return on Investment

Secure call control platform which our customers trust
Feature rich for any type of customers
Great functions on Cisco phones connected to Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)

Other Software Used

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE), Webex Calling, Webex App

Agshin Aligulov

Unified Communications Team Lead in Information Technology at R.I.S.K. Company (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I actively use Cisco Unified Communications Manager for 6 years in my own company and also deployed it more than 20 times. It is used mainly for registering cisco phones mgcps and also 3rd party sip phones. Ip telephony is very common in whole world and CUCM provides best experience in this sphere.

Pros

Variety of sip registrations
Possibility of using h323 sip and mgsp gateways
Easy of use
User friendly interface

Cons

We have to press "find" button after every menu)))
Installation process can be more simple instead of being very old fashioned
CDR must be improved.

Return on Investment

Phone depreciations occure very rare and this is very important for the customers
System requirements are very low and this makes customers happy too
Services can run almost for 2 years without restarting.

Alternatives Considered

Avaya Aura and 3CX

Other Software Used

Avaya Aura, 3CX, Grandstream UCM series IP PBXs, Yeastar P-Series PBX System

Starling Trinidad

IT in Information Technology at PETROQUIM (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Problems?? Nooo, This is a very robust and stable solution, the problems are very minimal.

Pros

Integrated voice applications.
No need exists for special purpose voice processing hardware.
Production environments, requires only upgrading software on the server platform.

Cons

So, in each update Call manager is improving for be better.

Most Important Features

Only requires upgrading software on the server platform, thereby avoiding expensive hardware upgrade costs.

Return on Investment

You can get preinstalled with software.
Its interface provides access to html and online help for users and administrators.
You can upgrade while they continue to process calls.
Upgrades take place with minimal downtime.

Alternatives Considered

Sangoma Asterisk (formerly from Digium), MetricStream Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Polycom RealPresence Group Series

Other Software Used

Sangoma Asterisk (formerly from Digium), Polycom RealPresence Group Series, MetricStream Business Continuity Management (BCM)

RingEX

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Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

What is Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)?

Categories & Use Cases