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Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) vs. Lumen Next-Gen Voice

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ACall Manager is a unified call control center from Cisco that supports enterprise collaboration functions across the spectrum of IP telephony, video & web conferencing, and messaging. Features include call forwarding, call back, call transfer, ad hoc conferencing, and call park.N/A

    Lumen Next-Gen Voice

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ALumen Next-Gen Voice offers cloud calling and business voice solutions that use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to transmit calls over the internet. Lumen Next-Generation Voice Services provide Dedicated LD and/or Toll-Free Service using a SIP connection. These services leverage the company's network footprint in the U.S., EMEA and LATAM to provide more than a point solution for customers solving for operational and efficiency challenges. Calls supported: Enterprise Long…

    $8

    per month (12-month term required) per concurrent call path

    Pricing
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Essentials
    starting at $11.50
    per month (minimum 60 mo term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Plus
    starting at $17.50
    per month (minimum 60 mo term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Premium
    starting at $22.50
    per month (minimum 60-month term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Cloud Voice - Specialty Lines
    starting at $47.50
    per month (minimum 60-month term) per user (minimum 250 users)
    Lumen Voice Complete (SIP Trunking)
    starting at $8
    per month (12-month term required) per concurrent call path
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricingNext‑Generation 9‑1‑1 available as an add-on (custom pricing).
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Lumen Technologies
    Chose Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Compared to ATT and Verizon, we have gotten much better uptime and pricing is better as well. There is much less red tape when placing orders or getting quotes. Real, actual support is also much closer to the customer, rather than being full of AI assistants and off-shore …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    24 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    25 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    19 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Cloud PBX
    Comparison of Cloud PBX features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    7.3
    42 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Hosted PBX9.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)5.130 Ratings00 Ratings
    User templates7.040 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call reports6.939 Ratings00 Ratings
    Directory of employee names8.640 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call Management
    Comparison of Call Management features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    8.2
    45 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Answering rules9.043 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call recording7.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call park9.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call screening8.036 Ratings00 Ratings
    Message alerts8.139 Ratings00 Ratings
    VoIP system collaboration
    Comparison of VoIP system collaboration features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    8.3
    41 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Video conferencing8.631 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio conferencing8.641 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video screen sharing7.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant messaging9.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile apps
    Comparison of Mobile apps features of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) and Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Feature
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
    8.0
    25 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile app for iOS8.025 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile app for Android8.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Small Businesses
    Zoom Phone
    Score9 out of 10
    Zoom Phone
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoom Phone
    Score9 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 Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (46 ratings)
    7.4
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (14 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)Lumen Next-Gen Voice
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Cisco Unified Communications Manager is suited for medium to large customers who are in search for a solid call control platform with added security in mind. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also supports receptions, small groups and also a mini contact center type of set up with its Hunt Group, Pick up Group and call queuing facilities and also with set up of music on hold function while calls queuing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    CenturyLink SIP is an acceptable solution if you have an on-prem PBX (ShoreTel, Mitel, etc) that accepts SIP. I have found a better solution is to run two different carriers through SD-WAN (such as Bigleaf or Velocloud MSR) and use a provider like BCMOne (formerly NexVortex) to manage the SIP.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • This solution is extremely stable and has been running in our environment for several years without (unscheduled) downtime.
    • The ability to have voicemails automatically sent as an email message is extremely helpful in helping us to keep in touch while away from the desk.
    • The Call Manager provides us very granular settings to route our calls as we want.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    • Reliable service
    • Supports wide range of key features
    • They do have high levels of support where you can receive real answers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Administration web page is little bit hard to understand at the beginning specially if you are not familiar with naming convention and GU Interfaces.
    • Call Detail Record interface is fine but would be desirable to include more options that fit organization needs in terms of reporting purposes.
    • Self Care Portal interface could be more useful to the end user if it includes options to manage some features without administrators involving.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    • Lumen-Centurylink has suffered from many noticeable outages in the last few years - this is a blow to their reputation that they still have to recover from.
    • Lumen-CenturyLink does not peer well enough with OTHER carriers - they depend on their own network to give you SIP, which means less true redundancy.
    • Lumen-CenturyLink needs a better customer portal/interface to handle failover, see the real-time status, etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We have been using this product for 20+ years and will continue too. This is a great product and new features are always coming out.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    The usability part of Cisco Unified Communications Manager is very much simple from a usability point of view. Day-to-day Move Add Change Delete (MACD) can be performed by the administrators very easily with simple training. From the initial deployment point of view, some of the thing can be improved to simplify the process.
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    CUCM is supported by most third-party vendors for related products, so it makes finding solutions to specific needs easy. Also Cisco TAC is very knowledgeable, and we have never run into a problem they have not been able to resolve. Usually they are resolved without the need to escalate tickers either.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    SIP service support is definitely improving. A few years ago I would have rated them a 2. Now a 7. But, Lumen still needs a better portal experience to report and see a real-time status. Also to manage SIP failover functions in a WYSIWIG/GUI interface. When Lumen's network breaks in a larger outage, there are long hold times and support is not good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    This was the first phone system we implemented that could span multiple locations. We were very satisfied once fully implemented
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We have been a Cisco based shop and have looked at other cloud voice options such as MS Teams pbx, and others, but ultimately, the features, endpoints, and reliability of Cisco has been the common factor in staying with them as our voice provider. Their integrations, room systems, and hybrid design allows for us to be flexible and keep a high up time vs reliance on 100% cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    CenturyLink [Enterprise Voice SIP] was the incumbent, so switching providers, particularly for our HQ was an overwhelming task for our small team. We did migrate from the legacy CenturyLink voice product EIPT to the new Voice Complete solution as well as upgrade our US and UK circuits along with a hardware upgrade of the managed PE routers in each location. We also decided to implement RingCentral in one of our very small international branches but the lack of features is problematic. We still have T1 service in our other international branches but are looking to go full cloud SaaS PBX there, likely through Microsoft Teams, which we already use for messaging. There are some complexities, as we can't port our numbers directly yet and need to set up an additional CUBE router for SIP. Eventually we hope to get to fully SaaS via Teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Communication and collaboration - Our offices are able to communicate both internally and externally due to this system.
    • Down time - Struggles with CUCM has caused a lot of down time due to the instability of the system.
    • High Costs - the cost of both the license and the maintenance was much higher than other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lumen Technologies
    • Faster learning
    • Increased numbers of calls
    • Organization of calls
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots