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Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued) vs. HCL Sametime

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ACisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) was a telephony and VoIP business phone with unified communications features from Cisco, targeted at SMBs. The product is discontinued, and superseded by functionality found in Cisco Webex Calling.N/A

    HCL Sametime

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AHCL Sametime (formerly IBM Lotus Sametime, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in 2018) is an enterprise-level unified communications and VoIP platform. It includes features such as instant messaging, web conferencing, voice and video integration, telephony capabilities, and presence information.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    18 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued) and HCL Sametime
    Feature
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)
    8.6
    18 Ratings
    8% above category average
    HCL Sametime
    8.4
    7 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Hosted PBX8.010 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)9.116 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    User templates8.417 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Call reports8.34 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Directory of employee names9.116 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued) and HCL Sametime
    Feature
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)
    8.8
    21 Ratings
    5% above category average
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    8 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Answering rules8.819 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Call recording9.115 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Call park8.819 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Call screening8.920 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Message alerts8.419 Ratings8.06 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued) and HCL Sametime
    Feature
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)
    8.7
    20 Ratings
    9% above category average
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    6 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Video conferencing9.119 Ratings8.06 Ratings
    Audio conferencing8.820 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Video screen sharing8.21 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Instant messaging8.516 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued) and HCL Sametime
    Feature
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)
    7.2
    15 Ratings
    10% below category average
    HCL Sametime
    8.0
    8 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Mobile app for iOS7.315 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android7.114 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Small Businesses
    Zoom Phone
    Score9 out of 10
    Zoom Phone
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Voice
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Google Voice
    Score7.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (21 ratings)
    7.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.4
    (19 ratings)
    8.3
    (4 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (discontinued)HCL Sametime
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000) is well suited on small and medium sites that need entry-level voice and IP telephony capabilities, together
    with powerful, easy-to-use collaboration tools. However , if a single user interface or VMware servers are deal breakers for you, I suggest another call system will likely be a better fit.
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Sametime is well suited for very quick conversations, where you know the person is an active Sametime user. It also serves as an easy way to reach out to someone you may not know when looking for an answer to a quick question, as they are likely to be a Sametime user. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to use Sametime for Audio or Video chat. The quality and reliability are horrendous.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • provides phone support for many models of phones and conferencing devices
    • provides full telephony support for pretty much any phone requirement including call centre options
    • 911 service dialing options and tracking
    • bundle pricing on voice, phone and server licensing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • Sametime's web-based interfaces are "zero load", requiring no plug-ins to be installed to join a meeting, launch a meeting, or use chat in a browser. A plugin is required only if you want to share your screen.
    • Integration with IBM Notes is very tight. Sametime's chat status can change according to your Notes calendar. You can easily see if someone who just emailed you is available to chat. Your chat History is right inside Notes as well.
    • IBM's mobile apps are top notch. We automated the apps for our users thanks to IBM's work with third party MDMs. This made it very simple for us to deploy the Sametime mobile apps -- Chat and Meetings -- and get new capabilities such as Audio & Video mobilized quickly.
    • No down time, ever. The rock solid WebSphere back-end of Sametime means the environment is always up. Period.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Include tools for inter-cluster migration, currently these are provided by 3rd parties
    • Improve the software upgrade process by automating the pre-upgrade and post-upgrade checks
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • Not convenient for a large group meeting.
    • Very basic tool for internal communication only not available for third party communication
    • Very basic and limited mobile app features.
    • High speed connection is needed to connect to Sametime
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Happy with Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000); works great for us and costs to maintain it are well in hand. it also fits our current and future requirements going forward.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Sametime is now an embedded experience for our users. They know it, they like it, they use it, and they expect it to be wherever they are. Because it is pretty easy to use and NEVER goes down, users know they can rely on it and won't be frustrated by it. Sametime is right up with there with Microsoft Office in terms of user adoption and appreciation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    BE6K [is] not just a bare metal server ,it is [a] complete solution with its own management tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Just about everything works the way you expect it would and it's relatively easy for users to figure out. Sametime was one of those things that we started with only a few people as a "test" and before the test period was done we discovered a few hundred people had figured out how to log in and most got it working all on their own. Many of our users want to use Sametime and do so regularly; we do not have to create policies enforcing its usage. Users find it practical to use Sametime to do things like chat, transfer files, share their screen, and so forth.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    Typically if Sametime is not available, it's because Windows Updates were done on the servers and they were not rebooted. However, that's not a problem with Sametime -- in fact, if you have Linux you could probably run Sametime for years without any hiccups whatsoever. We have no internal Linux expertise.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    Generally very good. Occasionally AV or screen-sharing will stutter and every now and then I hear of it dropping out altogether, but in all cases it was easy to re-establish
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Overall, the product provides excellent value for money. Our employees may interact at the same time on the Cisco Business Edition 6000 without disrupting the conversation. We have a significant number of employees that perform the same thing with calls, texting, and presence, and none of them have an issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    I have not needed to use the Sametime support team. Our local support team was able to configure it for me.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Both Mitel and [Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000)] allow the benefit of virtualization. If desired you could have an entirely virtual system. Cisco handles the virtualization a little better, however Mitel MiCollab is easier to integrate presence and calls. Cisco underlying architecture seems to be a little more stable, Mitel seems to be a little more user friendly. There are pros and cons and both are good solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    We use Jabber globally in our company and Symphony (no relevant app in able list) in some of the teams as well. All these are instant messenger tools, but Sametime is the easiest one to be used and its chat history is easy to be searched. Sametime can be used to contact almost all internal staff as it’s included in default computer package. Symphony is used to chat with front end business while Jabber is used for call.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    HCLSoftware
    Sametime is rock solid. It runs on WebSphere, DB2 and other related IBM technologies. This does mean the back-end is highly complex and very difficult to learn and get comfortable with, however.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Been easy to scale as our business has grown and from acquisitions
    • Been pretty easy to maintain the software and upgrade it over its lifetime to date
    • Software and license renewals are pretty straight forward
    • Adding newer model hardware to the system is pretty straight forward
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • Sametime keeps many of our team members in contact throughout the day which leads to increased productivity which makes everyone happy.
    • We use the team chat room feature every day. This allows a team to stay focused on the task without any extra messages that are not on topic.
    • The split between IBM Sametime, Slack and Google Hangouts has caused some issues when team members are not checking for messages on a certain app.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots