Is Cisco UCM Cloud or Webex Calling Right For Your Move to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)?
Organizations across the globe are shifting the way they do business. Employees, partners, prospects, and customers need to connect. This is true whether people work in the office, in a hybrid model, or fully remote.
Email is useful, but people work together in many ways. They use tools like voice calls, web and video conferencing, voicemail, mobile devices, desktop sharing, instant messaging, and more.
Unified communication (UC) integrates these different tools so people can work together more effectively: from anywhere, and on any device.
However, UC can be complicated, and with many businesses moving to the cloud to reduce CAPEX spending and get away from constantly maintaining costly infrastructure, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) is an attractive alternative.
Many different UC solutions exist, but organizations prefer a trusted UC leader and a well-known company. Companies are consistently implementing Cisco for their UC and UCaaS needs.
They are a leader according to many analyst firms. This includes Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for UC and Aragon Research’s Globe for Unified Communications and Collaboration. They also have trusted names: Cisco and Webex.
Burwood has a team of UC experts. They have experience working with top UC vendors like Cisco. Burwood helps you unify your communication channels. This can improve business continuity and boost employee productivity.
Burwood Can Help with UCaaS
Considering moving to Unified Communications as a Service? Burwood can help you make the best decision for your business with a UCaaS whiteboarding session.
We can help you evaluate how to migrate your existing UC solution to the cloud or adopt new technologies like Cisco UCM Cloud or Webex Calling to meet your organization’s unique needs and provide you with a clear plan to UCaaS success.
Get Started with Your UCaaS Session Today →If you have chosen a Cisco solution but are new to UC, it can be confusing. You need to know which UCaaS solution fits your business. This confusion can come from both business and technical needs.
Should you invest in Cisco UCM Cloud for your communications needs? Or is Webex Calling a better fit for your business? We’ve provided some guidelines to help you better evaluate your path forward with Cisco UC solutions.
The first decision to make is whether to choose an on-premises UC solution or a cloud-based service. This choice is important for your business. Several factors exist in that debate. These include technical skills and needs, cost versus benefits, and your organization's goals and strategies.
Also, the nature of your business should be considered. In many cases, a hybrid cloud solution may be the best UC approach for your organization. No “one size fits all” answers exist here, but some general questions and criteria may help you decide. Asking yourself these three questions may help bring some clarity to your decision:
How large a role is the cloud playing in my overall IT strategy today and in the future?
What kind of control do I need to have over my communications and why?
What other systems do I need to integrate with and support any UC decision?
If UCaaS is right for your organization, the next step is to choose from the many UC solutions Cisco offers. We will focus on two of Cisco’s most popular products and their benefits to help you make a better decision.
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM)
The Advantages of UCaaS
Considering moving to Unified Communications as a Service? Burwood can help you make the best decision for your business with a UCaaS assessment.UCaaS has clear advantages over on-premises UC for many companies, including:
Cisco Unified Communications Manager offers reliable and secure call control. It works on any device and supports voice and video calls, messaging, and mobility. The system is scalable and easy to manage.
You can choose unified communications as a public or private cloud service. This is available from Cisco Powered Partners like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
You can choose Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cloud. This is a cloud calling solution hosted by Cisco. It is led by partners and offers high-quality unified communications. You can use it for collaboration as a service from the Cisco Webex cloud.
The Cisco UCM solution features IP telephony, high-definition video, unified messaging, Instant Message, and Presence. Cisco UCM supports dedicated office-desk VoIP phones as well as other endpoint devices like telepresence endpoints, media-processing devices, gateways, and multimedia applications.
For businesses with special communication devices and spaces, Cisco UCM could be a good choice. It supports desktop phones and offers detailed management options for UC devices and sessions. It also provides important metrics and management features.
Webex Calling/Webex Calling Dedicated Instance
If you feel like you need a more hands-off approach to voice and video communications without the need to support dedicated communication equipment, Webex Calling or Webex Calling Dedicated Instance might be a better fit for you.
Webex Calling offers apps for mobile, tablet, and desktop. This lets your employees have business numbers without needing a physical VoIP phone.
Webex Calling contains all the critical features you’d expect from a professional, business-grade video and voice solution, including:
the ability to seamlessly switch from desktop to mobile,
call transferring,
call waiting,
voicemail,
call merging, and
the ability to make a call into a meeting to involve multiple stakeholders.
Webex Calling Dedicated Instance is an extra service in Webex Calling. It offers a fully redundant cloud instance.
This instance is based on the Cisco Unified Communications system. It focuses on helping customers who need to support older Cisco devices. It also offers local survivability solutions and existing integrations for important business workflows.
Webex Calling is great for organizations of any size. It is especially good for small and medium-sized businesses. These businesses may not need detailed control of their UC environment.
They might not plan to provide dedicated VoIP desktop devices. Cisco UCM Cloud and Webex Calling Dedicated support more older Cisco devices than Webex Calling. Webex Calling needs specific devices to connect.
Cisco UCM Cloud to Webex Calling: Head-to-Head
Sometimes when trying to decide between two UCaaS platforms, it is important to keep size in mind. Historically, Cisco UCM Cloud has focused on large businesses with over 1,000 users. In contrast, small to mid-sized businesses with 10 to 1,000 users benefit from Webex Calling.
This doesn’t mean Cisco UCM isn’t a good choice for customers with only 1,000 users or that Webex Calling can’t scale to larger enterprise needs. Both solutions are enterprise-grade, but if you need to support less than 1,000 users, consider Webex Calling as your first solution.
Another topic for consideration is the integration of existing systems and technologies you are already using in your organization. Both Webex Calling and Cisco UCM Cloud are strong platforms for UCaaS. However, Cisco UCM Cloud has the most features for calling and voice messaging right now.
Who Should Consider Moving to UCaaS?
UCaaS makes great sense for certain organizations, including:- Small to medium-sized businesses who don’t want to maintain a dedicated data center
- Call or contact centers with constantly changing workforces
- Large businesses with multiple locations, branch offices, or work sites
- Companies with numerous remote or “work-from-home” workers
- Organizations of any size that are moving to the cloud
Cisco UCM supports robust APIs for configuration and provisioning (e.g. AXL) and device monitoring and call control (JTAPI).
Webex Calling cloud API features are still new. They support fewer options than Cisco UCM Cloud. This is especially true when trying to connect with tools you may already use, like ServiceNow for your support desk. Integrations with Cisco UCM already exist or can be made possible through a better set of APIs.
In the end, the decision of which UCaaS solution is right for your business will come down to a detailed examination of technical requirements, business objectives, and offered features/functions.
It will also come down to how your UCaaS solution needs to interact with existing systems and solutions you may already be using too. Current device usage must be factored in to determine which solution will provide the best results and whether it would require swapping out any physical devices that are in use.
Burwood Group can help you make a wise decision for your individual organization if you’re struggling and can help with the UCaaS migration process to get you where you want to be.
Learn more about preparing for a UCaaS migration with our latest whitepaper.
Download here: Three Critical Considerations for Migrating Voice, Video, and Contact Center Applications to the Cloud
With a team of UC experts and years of experience deploying solutions for Cisco UC in addition to other industry-leading UC solutions, Burwood allows you to unify your communication channels to allow for increased business continuity and employee productivity.
Our programmatic approach aligns architectural, engineering, and project management resources to deliver a comprehensive experience to guide you through your entire UC migration. Burwood also offers an Adoption and Training team that can assist with driving end-user adoption of your new UCaaS solution and promoting ongoing employee productivity and success.
As the nature of how and where we work changes, organizations everywhere will continually need to evaluate how they communicate and do business. Burwood’s Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution with Cisco gives you the flexibility you’ll need to quickly adapt to changing business needs, no matter if you choose Cisco UCM Cloud or Webex Calling.
To learn more about Burwood’s UCaaS solutions, contact us to identify your requirements, evaluate your current workstreams, and learn about more UCaaS best practices.
