Member experience with CM 1

[whitfield77]

We are looking at purchasing a Call Manager system. Our Cicso rep put together a nice 'dog & pony show', but I'd like to get some real feedback from users.

How difficult was initial install?
Any serious on-going problems?
Is TAC support on the same level as router type products?
Anybody networking to remote offices using central CM?
Is the standard conference bridge functionallity worthwhile?

We may put the sell to upper mgmt as an overpriced conference bridge, which can easily be justified by eliminating our outsource conference costs. This would let us get a unit in the door, then come back later and say look what else we can do. I know, why not sell the thing on all merits, but you'd have to work here to understand upper M's thinking.

Any thoughts, suggestions, warnings.... would be appreciated.

Chris Whitfield
Sr. Telecom Specialist
Pacesetter Corp.

 

[mknoxwfc]

We have installed the Cisco Call Manager 3.1 with Unity 2.4.6 running about 165 phones. We also have the ICD running for the Auto Attendant and a mini Call Center. Once it was up and running it works very well. We moved off of a Lucent/Avaya Switch.

How difficult was initial install?
Our issue with the install was lack of experience on the installer’s part as well as provisioning problems with our PRI supplier. You need to be very specific with what type of PRI you need otherwise they will give you what they think you need. If you get training on the CCM and find a qualified installer, with experience, you shouldn't have any difficulties.

Any serious on-going problems?
None, all is working as intended. There are some missing functional area's but Cisco is working fast to fill those gaps.

Is TAC support on the same level as router type products?
Yes and no, you need to ask to be redirected to someone with CCM experience. We have had no issues with TAC and the product.

Anybody networking to remote offices using central CM?
I have heard from our installers that they have clients who are doing this without any real problems, you have to make sure you follow the guidelines from Cisco on setting up the QoS correctly on all the routers so that voice packets have the priority.

Is the standard conference bridge functionality worthwhile?
We have used the built in Meet-Me conference bridge and it works very well, it is very basic. We do not have the nice front end installed but we are thinking about it.

Any other questions please let me know.

Michael

 

[munsonbrown]

The meet-me conference is one of my favorite features. I set up ours so that a caller from the outside can be transfered into a conference by our autoattendant.

 

[whitfield77]

These conference features you mention, are they included in the base CM platform? Like I said, we may try to get it in the door based on the conferencing abilities, then branch out from there. We have another meeting with Cisco today. Hopefully they will finally give us some list pricing. Been asking for it for weeks now.

Thanks for the info.

Chris

 

[mikebryan]

We have a CallManager running 4 remote offices and it works extremely well for us.

Each remote office has a local 2600 operating as a analog gateway, configured for SRST. Having a centralized CM makes the administration so much easier than having distributed call managers.

 

[mknoxwfc]

The Meet-Me conference is a very nice feature and allows for quick or planned conference bridges for internal and external users. Gets us away from trying to setup the multiple three-way conference calls between companies.

Meet-Me conference is included with the CCM but does not have any management components or front-ends, you just define a number or group of numbers, in the CCM, that will be the individual bridges. There is no way to see who joins or any way to kick anyone, there is also no security so anyone can join just by dialing the bridge number. We set up separate bridge numbers for executive and general use.

There is an add-on that you can purchase that will allow full control over the bridges.

We have not tested the load yet, so we don't know how many conferences can be help at a single time.

 

[munsonbrown]

The default Call Manager install allows for 4 simultaneus conferences with 10 members in each

 

[whitfield77]

We just had another meeting with Cisco yesterday. Finally got pricing, so we know were not wasting our time. They mentioned the add-on, it's called Conference Connection. The 20 port version lists for 15k, but sounds like it's very talented. Web based scheduling, pin codes, auto extension if resourses available, etc...

mikebryan - How many users do you have at each site? Cisco says to allow 80k for each uncompressed call. I wonder why run uncompressed with todays compression algos. Are you compressing the voice? If so, any quality issues? It appears that you are doing exactly what we are going for.

Chris