Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Reviews & Insights

Score8.7 out of 10

173 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Ease of Use and User-Friendly Interface: Users have praised the system for its intuitive design, allowing for easy navigation and efficient operation. They find it straightforward to use, enhancing their overall experience with the software.

Call Routing Capabilities: Reviewers appreciate the advanced call routing options offered by the system, which enable seamless communication within different departments. The ability to customize Device pools and utilize CSS and Partitions for calling controls has been particularly valuable for users.

Dynamic Routing Capabilities: Customers value the system's dynamic routing features as they provide flexibility, scalability, high availability, and simplified administration. This functionality enhances the efficiency of managing communications within organizations.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) Reviews

47 Reviews

Excellent reliable solution ideally suited to Cisco network users

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 19, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Unified Communications Manager is a terrific solution for general business communications. It is ideal for midsize businesses, but should be compared to many of the other VoIP solutions. Overall, it is a good solution if you are primarily a Cisco network shop and prefer to have an all Cisco solution. It does have good powerfail support with power over ethernet to a wide variety of phones

Pros

Power over ethernet
High quality reliable phones with excellent sound quality
Many offers of non-voice integrated communication services

Cons

It is a relatively complex solution
Administration is more difficult than other services
It is oriented to an all Cisco network solution

Likelihood to Recommend

This is the best solution for businesses with an all Cisco network that with to operate a premium high quality business voice desk phone solution. It offers a higher caliber deskphone portfolio than other off-shore brands, and represents you well with clients. The price may be higher than other services but the quality reflects the value.

Verified User

Vice-President in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Is Cisco a true UC player ?

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

December 19, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Unified Communications Manager as our Internal UC and collaboration infrastructure for our Voice Needs. Cisco Unified Communications Manager allows for an Enterprised-Grade with full security layers for communications for all our employees. Key problem that its solves is for multi-device support no matter where I am or what device I am using such as Mobile Phone, Mobile App, Softclient for PC, SIP endpoint, etc.

Pros

Scalability
Call Routing, Queing for calls
Full SIP compliance (support of 3rd party SIP endpoints as well as SIP trunks)
Redundancy

Cons

Dedicated up to date Jabber softclient
Better integration with Microsoft Teams
Ability to support legacy TDM phones for smaller office
Technology to support VoIP on legacy Cabling (CAT3)

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for an enterprise-grade UC solution for customers who would like UC infrastructure in Geo-Redundant data centers but still have the ability to access full features and functionality of Cisco Unified Communications Manager wherever they might be. In a sense a cloud solution but private cloud whereas we have an extra layer of security.

Asif Hameed

Systems Engineer in Sales at Telus (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

4 years of experience

Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 6, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work for Spark NZ which is a Service Provider. We have 20 plus customers using Cisco Unified Communications Manager. It is a solid call control platform which has efficient call distribution and facilities like Hunt Group and Pick up Groups. Cisco Unified Communications Manager also has basic que facility which supports customers with mini contact center type of work environments. Cisco Unified Communications Manager is very secure compared to other platforms in the market currently.

Pros

Hunt Group
Pick up Group
Call Queuing
Third party device integration

Cons

More efficient device search based on Ip addresses
Ability to look up devices last registered date and time
Native call recording function

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

15 years of experience

Cisco Unified Communications Manager - the best pbx you can have

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 9, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I actively use Cisco Unified Communications Manager for 6 years in my own company and also deployed it more than 20 times. It is used mainly for registering cisco phones mgcps and also 3rd party sip phones. Ip telephony is very common in whole world and CUCM provides best experience in this sphere.

Pros

Variety of sip registrations
Possibility of using h323 sip and mgsp gateways
Easy of use
User friendly interface

Cons

We have to press "find" button after every menu)))
Installation process can be more simple instead of being very old fashioned
CDR must be improved.

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Unified Communications Manager has very easy interface for configuring. I have deployed Cisco Unified Communications Manager from zero more than 20times across the companies in my country and I can confirm that in all cases it was very well suited. For the companies with call center it is very useful to use it next to UCCX

Agshin Aligulov

Unified Communications Team Lead in Information Technology at R.I.S.K. Company (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Cisco Unified Communication Manager

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 9, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have around 5000 registered endpoints. It is used to register the softphones for both contact center users, office users.

Pros

For call routing, dividing the different departments through Device pools.
Calling controls through CSS and Partitions.
Provisioning through Super copy.
Easy integration with the other third party components.

Cons

Simplified procedure for the bulk provisioning.
Easy grouping of endpoints.
List of items 500/1000 instead of max limit of 250.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is very easy for single components provisioning but for the bulk provisioning. Improvement on auto population at different integration functions

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

One of the best options around to get the most bang for buck

Rating: 9 out of 10

December 7, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

When trying to address a Unified Communications solution with a dynamic platform, there aren't too many options available, and Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) is probably the best choice. In our company, we use it for on-site and remote users, for internal and external communications and in conjuntion with Webex for video and meeting services. Besides, as technology integrators, we can use it as testing ground for new products and integration with other vendors.

Pros

Dynamic routing
Scalability
High Availability
Easy administration
Consolidated integration with networking equipment and other platforms

Cons

Classic Telephony features not implemented or done differently/indirectly
Licensing schemes changed several times through the years, not being so transparently transfered between versions

Likelihood to Recommend

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) is excellent for any company that has multiple branches and wants to keep a single platform for all communications, particularly if the branches are distributed in distant geographical regions or accross different time zones, since it can maintain a uniform and dynamic administration, adaptative call routing and easy network integration, great scalability and high availability, specially if the networking equipment is also Cisco.

Verified User

Engineer in Professional Services (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

15 years of experience

If you want the best Call Manager this your solution.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

May 2, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Problems?? Nooo, This is a very robust and stable solution, the problems are very minimal.

Pros

Integrated voice applications.
No need exists for special purpose voice processing hardware.
Production environments, requires only upgrading software on the server platform.

Cons

So, in each update Call manager is improving for be better.

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Unified, is a software application, enhancing its capabilities in production environments only requires upgrading software on the server platform, thereby avoiding expensive hardware upgrade costs. Less appropriate could be it's a litter expensive.

Starling Trinidad

IT in Information Technology at PETROQUIM (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

15 years of experience

Great Product but needs innovation to Sustain in Market

Rating: 8 out of 10

March 18, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Since we are service provided, we support the various customers in deployment and support for Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM). We also use CUCM for our internal environment as well. Below are a few business problems that this product addresses. 1. Lower the cost of calling within the organization through IP calling. 2. Ease of management and configuration. 3. Improved voice quality. 4. Integration with other 3rd party vendors \ equipments.

Pros

Smooth IP based calling on LAN / WAN
Integration with other Cisco UC components to provide enhanced features
Jabber registration for ease for calling from mobile devices

Cons

Does not have good reporting functinality. Most of the reports are pretty raw
CUCM still have many open bugs which needs to be fixed
Some of the configuration could be very complex and tough to implement
User guides could be made more user friendly and intuituve

Likelihood to Recommend

The Cisco Unified Communications Manager platform would be most suited for the below scenarios.
1. An organization with very restricted policies and compliance where can't move to cloud-based solutions for data security. They can install the CUCM on-premises.
2. An organization that is still on a legacy phone system could adopt CUCM to save costs and have better services.

RAJESH VENGILOT

Lead (Unified Communications) in Information Technology at Tata Communications LTD (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

11 years of experience

View profile

Heading toward the endangered species zone

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

June 10, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) is our primary voice platform being used across our organization. We use Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) for every possible business use case related to Enterprise Telephony imaginable. Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) is also used presently for all our voice-related compliance requirements and hence is fully integrated with many other collaboration platforms in order to meet those unique business requirements. Our main objective of sticking with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) as a hardware-based solution is to address specific business use cases that are regulatory and compliance requirements given that we are a large financial institution. We have moved away from Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) for key use cases which do not have dependencies on compliance that Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) solves.

Pros

Integrated well with other Cisco platforms
Recent code versions have better compatibility with third-party solutions

Cons

Biggest bottleneck with most of Cisco's hardware-based collaboration platforms is code management
If Cisco can figure out the number of bugs that constantly keep appearing for these platforms, it could face lesser challenges competing with challengers

Likelihood to Recommend

The product in general (in my humble opinion) has plateaued with regards to features and functionalities that it can provide in comparison to most cloud-based solutions available in the marketplace today. Plus, directionally and strategically, Cisco has realized, albeit a bit too late, that cloud is where the future is. COVID exposed the lack of scalability and the ability to quickly adapt. Cloud is the future. Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager) will exist for use cases that do not cater to large enterprise telephony requirements but rather to address more unique nuances like hardware-based storage for compliance, etc.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

Call it CUCM

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

May 24, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Unified Communication Manager is being used by our whole organization across all of our sites. This is the main medium of communication used within the company. It sometimes has delays but I don't think that this is the problem for CUCM, but the configuration of your entire network and how traffic is being transported.

Pros

End to end communication
Call forwarding
Call waiting

Cons

Programmability
Conference call

Likelihood to Recommend

It is suited for a medium to large company that needs communication with the entire organization. It is reliable and configurable in many ways. As a Network Engineer at our organization, we use this as our main communication line for it is reliable, easy to use, and to understand.

Haniel Carlos

Network Administrator in Information Technology at Land Registration Systems Inc (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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Heading toward the endangered species zone

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

June 10, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Integrated well with other Cisco platforms
Recent code versions have better compatibility with third-party solutions

Cons

Biggest bottleneck with most of Cisco's hardware-based collaboration platforms is code management
If Cisco can figure out the number of bugs that constantly keep appearing for these platforms, it could face lesser challenges competing with challengers

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience