Are you happy with Call Manager?

[phnechic]

We are currently in the pilot phase of a Cisco Call Manager implementation that could affect hundreds of remote locations. The pilot is using a single cluster (1 publisher and 2 subscribers). So far, I'm finding the configuration to be stupidly complex. Can you tell me how you like your system? What do you like best about the system and what do you like least?

 

[RestonVoIP]

I'm not a vendor with this company, I think as far as branch office this is a better product at a good price point and best of all (no windows patches ). I would take a good look at this 1st.

http://www.shoretel.com/products/shoretel_overview/

Also Avaya's 8300's are good but expensive but some times you pay what you get.

 

[pndscm]

What do you consider 'stupidly complex'?

 

[HmmG3]

The frustration you may have when first learning it does make for a less pleasant experience. Once you start to understand and learn the system, it's not so bad. Having said that, coming from an Avaya background, there's definitely a lot Cisco needs to learn when it comes to telecom. I know what you mean by stupidly complex. If a person changes their name, see how long it takes you to update the phone profile, line profile and user profile (assuming you don't have to delete it and create a new one because pre-5 systems can't rename them). Another thing I can think of is when adding a new user profile on a 5.x system, you have to add them to a group, otherwise they can't log into the user web page. This means going into separate page to add the user account. The BAT tool automates this, but it's gotten to the point where if I have to add a single phone/user, it's just as fast to use BAT then it is to do it manually!

The good news is VoIP rocks when it comes to small office deployments. Being able to run all of them off a single system is much better then having each site run their own PBX and VM system. Just be prepared to spend more time with the daily administration of the Cisco system.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

It's an interesting system. There are a lot of neat things, but sometimes the compexity is more then is really required. The number of pages, fields etc. that one needs to fill out just to setup a single user is a bit much. I've found and reported a number of bugs, but that comes with all systems. They really needs some telecom guys to teach them how to setup a system. Overall, 7 out of 10.

 

[jneiberger]

Since it is partially my fault that phnechic has a Cisco system now, I won't chime in with what I really think. She might track me down and stab me in the eye with a pen. I do regret that I'm no longer there to help out.