Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued) vs. Zimbra by Synacor

The platform is perfectly suited for collaboration involving everything related to integrated voice and video systems. It is easily installed on physical servers and virtualized and can be accessed remotely. The BE 7000 modernized the infrastructure with voice-over IP and generates complete reports on the telephone and video usage of users in all the company's regions for internal control and auditing. The solution can be recommended for medium and large scenarios from 1000 users up to a limit of 5000 users.

Incentivized

I consider Zimbra Email & Collaboration a viable alternative to the major American cloud email platforms. In a scenario where data protection and privacy are critical, especially in an on-premise environment, Zimbra is a very suitable solution. It is also capable of offering a comprehensive set of tools and additional features (tasks, calendars, contacts, briefcase) in an integrated manner.

Incentivized

• Voicemail message are retained for a lengthy period of time.
• It efficiently allows for users to phone colleagues in other departments by the extension number.
• Headset usage comes in handy.
• Speaker phone capability works well.

Incentivized

• The management of incremental mail backup. It is very simple, and the administrators of my company recover information quickly.
• The management of the distribution lists is structured. This allows easy distribution of mass information.
• The web application is very complete and intuitive.

Incentivized

• The User interface of phone could be better and it can be more interactive. The options are complex.
• The configuration part is tough as we need to select them manually through buttons which make it a difficult task.
• If the bandwidth of network is low we may face some noise disturbance and jitter in voice.
• There should be proper documentation available for configuration part so that anyone with good knowledge can do it.

Incentivized

• User web interface could be more friendly, but it is enough for daily use. It could be renewed and has to consider some usability concerns. Improving usability would significantly improve users' satisfaction.
• Message backup recovery is not a simple activity.
• As an administrator, some of the features work better using the command-line interface.
• The webclient uses ajax requests in almost every event. Because of that you may need a fast internet connection to have a good experience. You can switch to HTML version but it will limit what you can do.

Incentivized

The web usability of the solution is adequate, with all functions integrated into a single interface. However, it is important to note that in the desktop environment, it lacks its own application and relies on ActiveSync synchronization with reference solutions like Outlook or Thunderbird. Some features, such as the briefcase, will be excluded. The same happens on smartphones.It is also common for competing solutions to include integrated chat or video call tools, which Zimbra lacks. These shortcomings are among the most frequently requested by users.

Incentivized

Overall, we were satisfied with the implementation. We perhaps should have spent more time consulting with Zimbra or others regarding best practices but as we got to know the system better we were able to make changes relatively easily after the fact.

Incentivized

Cisco Business edition are very comfortable and got great functioning. This name is a brand in market and the support from their side is very good. The life support of phones is very good. They have embedded with good security features and algorithm so interception become difficult by anyone. They are very reliable and has got great voice quality which makes it a best for every type of businesses. The support from Cisco is very good which I like the best.

Incentivized

• We were originally a Groupwise shop before changing to Zimbra in 2008. Zimbra, from an end-user standpoint, pricing, system administration, and management is a far better system.
• We use Google Apps for our students. We did not find it to be suitable for faculty and staff due to its lack of shared accounts.
• We are moving from Zimbra to Office 365. Office 365 offers just about all that Zimbra had, though its web interface is inferior to that of Zimbra. It does offer us greatly reduced costs though, and high availability. If Zimbra were to have a fully HA environment, we may have stayed with them.

Incentivized

• High ROI, the communication platform provides all the necessary that is required employees to be always connected wherever they are. This improves companies overall performance and certainly income.
• Simplified maintenance and user friendly interfaces. The platform has all the admin tool to make support easy and efficient.
• Employees are enabled with all the Unified Communication services and they are more productive which again improves overall company's performance.

Incentivized

• Improved internal communication and dissemination and distribution of messages and corporate objectives.
• The creation of an internal network of employees is something that gives us security and confidence.
• Having a private and exclusive messaging system differentiates us from the competition and from other companies.