Cisco IP Phones vs. Lifesize Video Conferencing

Cisco IP Phones work incredibly well in almost any business environment. The wide variety of offerings from Cisco really can cover almost any business scenario. The physical deskphone, such as this 8800, works particularly well in office settings, or in a small home office setup (like mine). The configuration of these Cisco IP Phones can be the difficult part, but it is never an impossible task. These 8800 series Cisco IP Phones are likely a bit too nice to be used in dirty or industrial environments, where you would probably benefit from a more rugged and purpose-built phone. These might also be a bit expensive and have a few too many features for a common area "service" phone, such as waiting rooms, foyer locations, or something similar. Instead, there are lower-end models that would likely fit that need better.

Incentivized

I think there's much better options out there. In a small setting, they might be suitable but I don't believe they scale very well in any medium-large size businesses. We wanted to take advantage of things like a Microsoft Exchange calendar, a "Join Now" button and integrating with Teams. These are all things that our company made a sizeable investment on and in order to take things to the next level, we had to move on from Lifesize Video Conferencing.

Incentivized

• The speaker is pretty good and almost as clear as the 7800 and 8800 series phones.
• It is about the same as a 7841 in almost every aspect, except it has no POE, but the power adapter is included. It also doesn't have as sleek of a look, and the screen is quite low in resolution.
• It delivers reliable, business-grade audio(opens in a new tab) in an energy-efficient package that will appeal to many organizations. Specifically designed for companies with “moderate to active VoIP needs.

• The touchpad makes it extremely easy to join or start conference calls with a single pushbutton.
• The Lifesize solution is affordable and has been extremely reliable for our video conference calls.
• Camera quality is great and provides clear video for our organization.
• The pan/tilt/zoom features are very helpful to focus in on specific people or items during a training or demonstration.

Incentivized

• I guess it'll be like trying to use headsets for those critical phone models. The product obviously makes it a bit difficult because you can have certain types of adapters, so making a universal adapter that could go with other headsets would be easier.

Incentivized

• International users have experienced spotty/jittery sound and video.
• Connecting to meetings that are on different conferencing services is very clunky and not end user friendly.
• Being able to remote control the camera from a mobile device would be nice. If a change is needed during a meeting, the menu is pretty large and draws plenty of attention and distracts the audience.

Incentivized

i think it's profitable and a good return on investment as a person who make an architecture based on VOIP with IP phones i really enjoyed the process of configuration of the router , the switch and everything and then when i had to test the communication between two phones I've configured it was a joy. Also it's a good phone to receive and give calls to our clients.

Incentivized

I have a lot of Lifesize hardware and I do like Cloud but I am always watching the market for a company that will finally nail this space. I feel like Lifesize has a solid head start but I hope they can create a vision for the marketplace and execute in a meaningful way.

Incentivized

Easy to use Functions are self-explanatory Light Efficient I generally have no complaints about them as they get the job done. Just a few employments on maybe graphics or so otherwise they are really great 👍 no complaints... Maybe it is just because is just a user and doesn't implement them or something.

Overall experience with Lifesize Video Conferencing has been great. While it serves it's basic purpose of allowing smooth video/audio meetings of people located at different places with option of screen sharing/chatting/ recording, what add to it's pros are it's accessibility from various platforms, flexibility to switch to a listen only mode in case of network issues and ease of operation.

Incentivized

Since we are an educational institution we not only have scheduled classes which must be available, but we have staff members in a variety of areas ranging from recruiting and admissions to advancement and the President's office who need to connect with students, alumni and other interest groups, often at odd hours. I have not, since using Lifesize had anyone complain of not being able to connect

Incentivized

Lifesize is an amazing platform for VC. However, it is a costly solution for any scaling startup. However, implementation and user acceptability was fairly easy and worth the additional spend. Quality has always been on point and support has always taken care of us. Our account manager also ensured a seamless transition process for Google Hangouts. Will go with this solution again at any other organization.

Incentivized

Cisco IP Phones support have met our business time to resolution, leading us to very low downtime, and allowed us to interact with our customers quicker and better and provide us with an adequate ROI. Cisco support has been within established SLA and the quality of support has been high leading to a high % of first touch resolutions.

Incentivized

Most of the front-line call takers are only as knowledgeable enough to tell you to reboot or reset. If your issue is more complicated than that, it will need to be escalated. On the other hand - most of our problems have been on our network side. The techs are ALWAYS super nice and try to be as helpful as possible. They do care about fixing the problem.

Incentivized

Sensus was really helpful in the initial setup and training of our technical Support Team. Sensus gave us training on site so that it would be our own equipment that was set up. Then the in house tech team took over to train other users who would be using the system. When needed the Sensus and Lifesize tech support were really helpful in trouble shooting or guiding us through any difficulty.

Incentivized

I gave this rating because Lifesize's website offers multiple quality videos that shows you exactly how the software works. The videos are divided into different categories which makes searching for a video fairly simple! If for some reason you have a question not answered in one of the how-tos you can always contact support. Excellent product, excellent service!

Incentivized

It's complex to set up but with the help of New Era we were able to do it quickly and efficiently

Incentivized

Great for companies that need to accomplish multiple things at once while at different places. From our experience, broadcasting news is most favorable considering the level of excellence you get with the product plus the affordability. It can be used both privately amongst employees, or shared publicly through covering events

Incentivized

We have switched straight to Cisco IP Phones without any other considerations. We wanted our phones managed correctly with a reliable solution and this is where we landed. We did not need to check with other vendors or solutions to make this solution. We love what we have now, and we do not have any plans to change anytime soon.

Select Lifesize Video Conferencing because it is an online meeting software that has a robust interface, a pleasant interface, and solutions that we can take full advantage of, it offers immediate solutions for screen sharing communication through the web or app. It has worked perfectly for me, offering quality and security as well as being fast and with a free trial, which adjusts to the needs of its users.

With LifeSize Cloud, it's very easy to simply add another Icon to your system and join it to your cloud. You can easily and instantly create meetings and add users both in your organization and out without any difficulty. The cooperation between the Icons and cloud users running on their laptops makes it easy to scale this out to your entire company, including joint venture without difficulty.

Incentivized

• I set up the desk for new hires in our group - it is super easy to plug in this phone and have them up and running.
• Having the ability to pre-program speed dial numbers ensures that new hires are able to reach help without having to search for a number.
• The ability to program ring tones is great, so if we are in the shared space meeting and we hear a phone ring, we know who's phone is ringing - the meeting can go on without everyone leaving to check.

Incentivized

• First the cost of licensing was significantly lower than other applications. We were able to experience an almost immediate return on investment now having the ability to bill the health plans for Virtual Visits.
• Again, the lower cost of licensing allowed us to provide more users within the company with license. I am unable to share the specifics of our contract with Lifesize Video Conferencing. What I can say is the price made it easy for us to subscribe to Lifesize.

Incentivized