Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CallManager)

What do you like best?

I like how well it works and integrates with our existing Cisco infrastructure as well as other third part products that we use. Everything just seems to work. Now that I have worked with it enough, I am comfortable making changes for when it is needed. It sync with LDAP which makes it nice for new users as well as using the Quick User feature to quickly assign a phone to an end user.

What do you dislike?

I would say if you need to make a configuration change, then it can become a challenge if you do not know enough about the system and what things will do. There are many menus within CUCM and you don't want to make a wrong change. I wish the UI was a little more friendly, it does seem a bit outdated. But, I get it, it works, so why change it. Additionaly, as everything Cisco, I do dislike the yearly suspport to pay to get any upgrades or to get a hold of Cisco technical support.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

If you are in the market for a new phone system, I would consider this on premisecloud solution, it may cost a bit more than some, but it is definitely feature full and things just work.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

We are getting flexibility to be able to plug a phone in any ethernet port and have it just work. Having this system over an old analog system allows us to manage it better than hiring someone for our old system. We also have the benifit if we can figure something out, we can just search the Internet as this is a widely known system and there is bound to be an answer for our question.