Cisco Webex Calling | Phone System (UCaaS) Review & Demo | I changed my mind.

Your company is in the market for a new phone system and Cisco WebEx Calling is one of the names that keeps coming up, but you are wondering if a company known for networking equipment can actually deliver a competitive cloud phone system.
In this video, I give you my full review of Cisco WebEx Calling using my 10 point rating system, demo the platform, and tell you when it is and is not a good fit for a medium to large-sized company.

Want a demo and quote on Cisco WebEx Calling for your company? Ask me today.

About Me

Mike Smith has been helping companies select the best telecom, WAN, security, and cloud services since 1999. He founded AeroCom in 2003, and has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in tech-heavy Orange County, CA. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

If this video inspires you and your company has over 100 employees, send me an email or give me a call at 714.593.0011. I will refer you to the best MSP to purchase Cisco WebEx Calling through, one that does a lot of Cisco WebEx Calling business and knows the platform inside and out. You will get better pricing and a much better experience than calling in on your own. I am a broker for all the major cloud phone system vendors, and in addition to Cisco WebEx Calling, I can give you additional recommendations to quote side by side. I have been doing this for over 20 years and it will not cost your company anything. Join the thousands of other companies who have used me to help their company make a better decision in a fraction of the time. Also do not forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel and go check out AeroComInc.com.

My Rating System

I rate business phone systems on a 10 point scale across 10 decision making factors I consider most important for medium to large size organizations: service quality, customer service, five year viability, features, user experience, administrative experience, global availability, integrations, pricing, and hardware. Feel free to customize this for your own company. If global availability does not matter to you, remove it from your own scoring and focus on the rest.

Service Quality: 9 out of 10

I do not have complaints from my Cisco WebEx Calling customers on service quality, and they do not carry a bad reputation for outages or call quality. Nine out of ten is about as high as I give any telecommunications provider, since technology issues happen occasionally with every vendor.

Customer Service: 5 out of 10

Here is some important background. Cisco used to sell WebEx Calling to medium to large size companies both directly and through managed service providers. In the last couple of years, Cisco shifted to selling exclusively through MSPs for medium to large size companies, reserving direct online purchases for very small customers only.

I understand why they made this change. It aligns with how Cisco already sells networking equipment, it likely reduces their direct sales headcount, and it avoids competing against their own longtime MSP partners. But I do not think it benefits you as the customer. You are now one step removed from Cisco when something goes wrong, since the MSP has to call Cisco to troubleshoot rather than you dealing with Cisco directly. On top of that, most MSPs specialize in routers, switches, and servers rather than phone systems, so when you do call them about WebEx Calling, you are often talking to someone without deep experience solving your specific problem. That combination is why I give customer service a five out of ten.

Five Year Viability: 7 out of 10

Cisco is a massive company and is not going anywhere. But WebEx Calling’s year over year growth is flat, compared to roughly 40 percent growth for Microsoft Teams Phone and Zoom Phone, and 24 percent for RingCentral. My theory ties back to the MSP distribution model. MSPs are not known for aggressive outside sales the way dedicated cloud phone system providers are, so WebEx Calling is not being pushed nearly as hard as its competitors.

That said, I still give this a seven because Cisco’s feature set is keeping pace with the market, meaning they are clearly still investing, and I suspect Cisco will eventually recognize that the MSP only model is hurting sales and adjust their strategy within the next five years.

Features: 8 out of 10

Cisco WebEx Calling covers all the basics plus nice extras like SMS, MMS, and AI call summaries. Their customer assist add on package is a solid bridge between a basic phone system and full contact center software, a trend I am seeing across the industry as vendors fill the gap between a 15 dollar phone system license and a 100 dollar plus per agent contact center license.

Customer assist gives agents real time call queue status, hold time and abandon rate visibility, and screen pops for incoming calls. Supervisors get agent queue status management, including the ability to manually toggle someone’s availability status, agent monitoring with whisper and barge, and both real time and historical agent and queue reporting. Inside the Cisco Collaboration Control Hub, supervisors can view abandoned call rate, average wait time, answered and bounced calls, and average hold time with clean visual reporting.

I give this an eight rather than higher because competitors like Zoom and RingCentral still edge them out slightly, offering things like callback in queue as a standard feature rather than an add on, plus deeper AI sentiment and evaluation tools for sales teams.

User Experience: 7 out of 10

The WebEx Calling interface is simple and easy to use, with clearly labeled options that are hard for users to get confused by. I took off points because most of the medium to large size companies I work with use Microsoft Teams or Zoom for instant messaging and conferencing, not WebEx, which means users typically have to jump between two separate apps. There is a Teams integration that helps, which I will cover shortly, but it still is not the same as having phone system and collaboration on one unified platform.

Admin Experience: 9 out of 10

The admin experience runs through the Cisco Collaboration Control Hub, which is a logical subsection of the broader Cisco Control Hub your IT team may already use for managing Cisco networking equipment. The left hand menu is divided cleanly into monitoring, management, and services.

Under services, you can manage all three PSTN delivery methods in one place: Cisco calling plans for Cisco provided dial tone, Cloud Connect for WebEx Gateway if a third party provider like New Wave delivers your dial tone, and local gateway if you are using on premise SIP trunks through a Cisco CUBE. Under management, you can see all of your licensing, including existing on premise CUCM licensing alongside your WebEx Calling licensing in the same portal. Under monitoring, a troubleshooting section lets you drill into media sessions by quality, which is genuinely useful when fielding a call quality complaint.

Global Availability: 9 out of 10

Cisco has a wide global reach. In countries where Cisco cannot issue a local number directly, like China, they can connect local SIP trunks through a local gateway so your entire organization stays on the same phone system platform regardless of location.

Integrations: 8 out of 10

Cisco has an open API and native integrations with major platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, NetSuite, and Teams. The Teams integration is especially seamless, embedding the full WebEx Calling platform as an iframe directly inside Teams so users can stay in Teams without losing functionality.

Pricing: 5 out of 10

Cisco WebEx Calling sits at mid range pricing on its own, but they do charge the same cost recovery and E911 fees I mention in a lot of my videos, adding about 5 dollars per user per month. On top of that, purchasing through an MSP typically adds further cost, since the MSP is charging for ongoing management and support. MSPs also are not going to offer the same aggressive incentives you see from direct providers like Zoom and RingCentral, such as multiple months of free service or buying out a competitor’s contract, since phone systems are not usually their core business.

Hardware: 7 out of 10

You are not locked into Cisco branded phones. Compatible devices from Poly and Yealink are available, giving you flexibility in make and model.

Final Score: 7.4 out of 10

Cisco has evolved impressively over the years, moving from on premise phone systems into a legitimate cloud phone system contender. It may not be the top option in the marketplace depending on your situation, but it is closer than people often assume.

When Is Cisco WebEx Calling a Good Fit?

Cisco WebEx Calling is worth strong consideration if your company already uses other Cisco products like ThousandEyes or Meraki, since WebEx Calling lives inside the same Cisco portal you are already using. It is also a strong fit if WebEx is your company’s primary collaboration platform for instant messaging and conferencing, or if your company still has on premise Cisco CUCM phone systems at some locations that are not reaching end of life soon, since you can manage both licensing types in the same admin portal during a gradual transition.

When Might Cisco WebEx Calling Not Be the Right Fit?

If your company is a heavy Teams shop with an E5 or E7 Microsoft 365 license, Teams Phone System is likely to be far less expensive since you avoid the Teams Phone Standard add on cost entirely. If your company relies on Zoom for collaboration today, that is another reason to look elsewhere. If your company is highly cost conscious, WebEx Calling’s pricing may not be competitive against other options. And if your trusted MSP does not sell Cisco WebEx Calling, that alone may be reason enough to look at a different solution.

Want a Demo and Quote on Cisco WebEx Calling?

Send me an email or give me a call at 714.593.0011 if your company has over 100 users and you are interested in Cisco WebEx Calling or any other phone system quotes. I will refer you to the MSP I recommend, one that does a lot of WebEx Calling business and provides fantastic customer service, and I may also recommend additional vendors to compare side by side. I am a broker for all the major cloud phone system vendors, I have been doing this for over 20 years, and it will not cost your company anything. The service providers pay my broker fee. Join the thousands of other companies who have used me to help their company make a better decision in a fraction of the time. Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel and check out AeroComInc.com. Thanks for watching. I will catch you on the next one.