Cisco does have a softphone option, actually two. They have the legacy Cisco Communicator which looks like a desk phone on your computer screen with all the options of a 7960. Then they have the softphone through the Jabber application which is going to be a direct competitor of Microsoft Lync since it includes IM, presence, video conf, etc.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Frank Ress Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 12:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [NTSysADM] RE: How much to implement a Cisco telephone implementation Depends on a lot of considerations that you don't mention. Are you an Outlook/Exchange shop? How much value is there in unified messaging and the features that go with it (e.g. voice-to-text and vice versa)? Do you even WANT desk sets? (We're looking at the same migration, and intend to almost completely move to soft phones and headsets.) It's not either-or, you can save a lot with soft phones, but use desk sets where you'd like. What about web and video conferencing? Again, that's one of the attractive features to us in a Lync solution. We could do more self-hosting for these services. We looked at Cisco several years ago, when we first entertained our PBX replacement. They didn't yet offer soft phones, and the Cisco desk sets were pretty expensive. I have no idea how well they'd interoperate with the rest of a Microsoft environment today - and I don't know how much you care. We're a fairly pure Windows/Exchange/SQL Server/Sharepoint/Office environment. Lync fits well. I just wish that I had a budget. Unfortunately, management usually perceives this as a pure voice play, and it's anything but these days. Frank Ress From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stefan Jafs Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 10:35 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [NTSysADM] How much to implement a Cisco telephone implementation We are looking at replacing our old Nortel BCM 450 for about 275 users. The shortlist is Cisco and Microsoft Lync. We are leaning towards Cisco a bit more expensive but also only 1 vendor (the President likes the "hardware" platform, even though Cisco runs with VM's). Anyhow implementation is about $66k (Lync is about $56k), to me that sounds like about twice too much, has anyone have done a similar implementation, and / or is it a fair price? And we would do the placement of the phones ourselves. __________________________________ Stefan Jafs ________________________________ This communication is for the use of the intended recipient only. It may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, the disclosure, copying, distribution or use hereof is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please advise me by return e-mail or by telephone and then delete it immediately.
