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Limited Functionality of Cisco 8945 handsets

rowdygardner
Level 1
Level 1

We have recently purchased Cisco CUCM 8.6 & UCCX, routers, switches etc. with about 2,000 x Cisco 8945 handsets. After being told by the Cisco sales team how great their product is, we are extremely disappointed at how limited the features and functions are compared to the system it's replacing. Basically I think we've been sold a lemon. As the Cisco partner that's implementing our system keeps telling me that each thing we ask for is not possible, I will be logging various discussions via the Cisco Community to see if any one else can provide feedback on how things can be done.

Below is a list of some of the things that disappoint us. I'll log seperate discussions for each and see what response I receive:

1. It takes a minimum of 6 button presses to make a call via the Personal Address Book. On every other phone i've ever used it's 2-3 button presses.

2. No incoming caller id appears if entry is found in Personal Address Book. This was invented in the 1980's and every phone system seems to have it except Cisco. This can't be the case can it?

3. Need to login to phone (with extension mobility) plus you need to login to Personal Directory. There should be a setting that automatically uses you phone login to connect to Personal Directory.

4.  Corporate Directory linked via LDAP to Active Directory only allows you to dial extension numbers. It does not allow you to dial Mobile numbers (cell phones) or full phone numbers.

5. We have to setup call flows in 3 different systems (ARC Operator Console, UCCX and CUCM) to incoming handle calls to some numbers. I thought this system was meant to be unified?

6. Call log does not have seperate lists for answered and outgoing calls. It only has All and missed.

7. You can only listen to voicemail messages from Jabber via PC speaker. If I have the phone selected as my voice path, it should allow me to listen to messages via phone and not go through the menu system. 

8. You can only listen to voicemail messages from Microsoft Outlook via PC speaker. You should be able to listen via phone as they are supposed to be linked together.

9. Incoming calls from a cell phone (which is linked to an extension via single number reach) only shows the extension number of the answering handset. It should also show the name of the caller.

10. Background wallpaper images have to be manually set via the handset. This prevents us from rolling out new images to all handsets when we have a new marketing campain.

11. No click-to-dial from internet explorer in Jabber.

12. Can't add your own contacts manually into Jabber. Need to add them as Outlook Contacts.

13. Can't quickly copy Personal Address Book entries from one extension to another. This needs to be done manually.

14. No button on handset that I can press to divert all calls to voicemail (or another location). Need to press "Forward All" and enter destination each time.

Please reply to this discussion or to future ones that i'll log for each limitation that I find.

4 Replies 4

Aaron Harrison
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Hi Robert

I feel your pain.

You've highlighted a lot of common pain points with the system - some have workarounds, some are subject to future software releases, some are features that existed but have not been carried forward into the newer handsets or apps.

However - there is a lot of stuff there. I see you've made some separate, single issue specific posts and I'd recommend that you continue to do so to get some more concise responses - I'll try to respond to them. To respond to all those queries would literally take me all day, and we're all basically volunteers here :-)

Regards

Aaron

Aaron Please remember to rate helpful posts to identify useful responses, and mark 'Answered' if appropriate!

Oh - and please don't shoot the messenger when I do :-)

Aaron Please remember to rate helpful posts to identify useful responses, and mark 'Answered' if appropriate!

Stephen Welsh
Level 4
Level 4

Hi Robert,

I appreaciate your frustration, Cisco appear to put their effort into "collaborative" features instread of better feature parity with traditional telephony etc., it's always been like that....

I noticed your point on background images, there is a new capability to set a http url to a background image against the phone setting in UCM. You can do this for multiple phones using "Device->Common Phone Profile" select/create a profile and then set the Background Image property.

Unfortunately it's quite common to buy 3rd party "add-ons" to close some of the feature gaps, I recomend you close all the gaps as best you can natively, and then "shop around" to close any remaining gaps.

One thing you may want to look at is PhoneView from UnifiedFX (http://www.unifiedfx.com), it alows you to do almost anything with all your phones remotely (including see the screen/activity of all IP Phones at once), so at least you can take advantage of the IP connectivity of your new system and save on site visits

Thanks

Stephen

I'll answer some of this, and as Aaron said, don't shoot the messenger

2. No incoming caller id appears if entry is found in Personal Address Book. This was invented in the 1980's and every phone system seems to have it except Cisco. This can't be the case can it?

A: That's correct, we don't provide such capability

4.  Corporate Directory linked via LDAP to Active Directory only allows you to dial extension numbers. It does not allow you to dial Mobile numbers (cell phones) or full phone numbers.

A: That's the built-in corporate directory, you can build your own directories to do that and more

5. We have to setup call flows in 3 different systems (ARC Operator Console, UCCX and CUCM) to incoming handle calls to some numbers. I thought this system was meant to be unified?

A: What did they exactly told you was Unified? or what is your idea of Unified??

You need separate products as they have different purposes, CUCM is the main gate, it's the call agent. UCCX is for your Contact Center, and I'm not sure if you're referring to one of the CUxAC or a solution directly from ARC. In the past we provided an AC, but it was removed since CUCM 8.X

10. Background wallpaper images have to be manually set via the handset. This prevents us from rolling out new images to all handsets when we have a new marketing campain.

A: New releases can do that for 89XX and 99XX, no Cisco solution for other models

14. No button on handset that I can press to divert all calls to voicemail (or another location). Need to press "Forward All" and enter destination each time.

A: That's how it currently works, CFA button + destination OR press a speed dial OR VM button

HTH

java

if this helps, please rate

www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk

HTH

java

if this helps, please rate
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