Looking for opinions/advice on Smart CallConnector server

[sossie]

Hi all,

I have recently setup a Smart CallConnector server. I'm interested in any feedback anyone can give on how useful they have found it. I haven't really found it to be brilliant so far and am wondering if anyone else manages to impress clients with it - given its cost.

It would be interesting to know where it is going on the road map. Given Cisco alreay has a confusing array of incompatiable software apps for their array of incompatible phone systems, eg. Call Manager, Call Manger Express, BE3000/6000 etc, UC320...Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, Jabba....etc 

I know a lot of talk has been made about the development of the UC320s will they be supported by SCC or will they have a seperate app?

A couple of the problems/questions I have found so far if anyone has any thoughts I would appreciate...

Does the advanced Smart Call Connector toolbar support Firefox, or any other browser?  The reason I ask is that one of my clients main line of business apps is browser based but it works better in Firefox, it woudl be great if the toolbar worked here to enable the click to dial "highlighter"

Some numbers are not picked up as phone numbers in IE using the Advanced SCC IE plugin highlighter tool (so can't click to dial), whats with that?

Also I have found a problem with the 2.01 Advanced Smart Callconnectoer toolbar in certain situations:

I have Windows 7 64 bit and outlook 2007 32bit installed on my PC.

If I try to install the 32bit Advanced client it says I need the 64bit, but if I try to install the 64bit in won’t install as outlook is only 32 bit. I can only install the 64bit version 2.0 client (which seems to work ok).

Thanks for any opinions - all appreciated.

Simon.

[David Trad · Accepted solution]

Hi Simon,

Its odd that these threads always pop up, it tells me that that Cisco may not be marketing SCC properly, or the product just hasn't hit the mark as well as they predicted it would.

It would be interesting to know where it is going on the road map. Given  Cisco alreay has a confusing array of incompatiable software apps for  their array of incompatible phone systems, eg. Call Manager, Call Manger  Express, BE3000/6000 etc, UC320...Cisco Unified Personal Communicator,  Jabba....etc  

I understand where you are coming from with the fragmentation notion, its quite right, but at the same time a required evil that Cisco must do, it is never a wise choice in Telecommunications to make one product fits all, it just does not work.

As for where SCC is going, it has made major headway in its development over the last 2 years, previous versions were not even worthy of being put on a bonfire (Call Connector) in my opinion that is, but SCC has made some leaps and bounds, the thing that gets me though is that with Cisco having Jabba, they never have fully utilized it, heck even the old open source version has more features then some of the stuff that is being released by Cisco presently which works of Jaba.

I have seen some demonstration of what Cisco Jabba can do, the problem with this is that they were demonstrations only, demonstrations of a product/service that is not yet come to market but is being promoted to partners & clients, and not ready/available for UC's only Call Manager... This to me at the time defeated the purpose of demonstrations and thus just stuck to doing them ourselves.

I know a lot of talk has been made about the development of the UC320s  will they be supported by SCC or will they have a seperate app?

There is something on the roadmap, and having a guess it would be Jabba related as the UC-320 is a SIP appliance, even right down to the FXO ports as they communicate internally using SIP as I understand it, so this is an ideal Jabba environment.

And to add to that, If I am not mistaken we will also see the UC-500 series move away from SCPC/SCCP to being a SIP based appliance, thinking about it, this is a logical evolution for Cisco as it would bring down manufacturing costs right down, and much easier to go to market with.

Does the advanced Smart Call Connector toolbar support Firefox, or any  other browser?  The reason I ask is that one of my clients main line of  business apps is browser based but it works better in Firefox, it woudl  be great if the toolbar worked here to enable the click to dial  "highlighter"

NO Well I have never gotten it to work, only with I.E

Some numbers are not picked up as phone numbers in IE using the Advanced  SCC IE plugin highlighter tool (so can't click to dial), whats with  that?

There are so many factors that can be in play on this one, but you have to consider that this is an OS supported application, so everything has to be right in the OS configuration (And Outlook as well) before you can get it right in the SCC system, many people forget about this, and it can sometimes take hours of configuration tweaking to get this right.

If I try to install the 32bit Advanced client it says I need the 64bit,  but if I try to install the 64bit in won’t install as outlook is only 32  bit. I can only install the 64bit version 2.0 client (which seems to  work ok).

HUH??? Man that sounds so much like a Bi-Pola install, or one that has split personalities

I have never seen that issue ever... I wonder if Windows is automatically trying to install it in compatibility mode??

If you can draw any comfort from futurising, then be comforted that eventually Cisco will get everything Unified and bolt-ons and products will work across all product ranges, not just for certain ranges, cannot say if it will be like this for all products, but it would have to be for the most of it.

My personaly opinion is do not sell SCC unless it is a deal breaker without it, you will find that it will end up taking up 80% of your support time, and dealing with end users because it wont start, or it has lost access to the DB, or the SIP services stopped working etc...etc....etc....etc....etc....etc... starts to happen you will wish you never have offered it up, and will most likely want to shoot yourself

just a bit of food for thought

Cheers,

David.

[sossie]

Thanks very much David, a personal opinion from someone experienced was just what I was after. And the fact that you agree with my thoughts is even better ;-)

Is there another alternative to SCC?

What about CUPC (Cisco Unified Personal Communicator)? Is this similar to SCC and does it work with CME or UC500 ranges?

[David Trad]

Hi Simon,

I have only seen CUPC once in full deployment when I assisted with a Call Manager Roll out, it certainly looked the part and even more so had better accessibility options over Call Connector (The option at that time).

However the latest CUPC looked amazing when it was demonstrated to me late last year, and it again far out ways the options available to a user then what you see on the UC-500 series.

CUPC for UC-500 series system is not available (At last check), but this could change when Cisco begin the migration to a SIP based system as opposed to SCCP/SCPC, which if the whispers on the grapevine are correct, it shouldn't be long before that happens

Then we will see an ushering of a new interconnection age with CUPC (Jabba) and all its features hitting the UC-500 series systems and I would imagine the BE3000/5000/6000 series as well, and if lucky who knows maybe even the UC-320

Or I could just be dreaming LOL

Cheers,

David.

[John Platts]

CMBE 3000 actually supports the Jabber Client with the 8.6(3) release or later. In addition, the Android version of the Jabber client is supported with Cisco CME 9.0 or later.

[David Trad]

Hi John,

Thanks for the heads up

I never got the chance to test the BE series systems before I moved on (Was quite disappointed about that to be honest) so was not sure what it supported.... So thanks for chiming in

Cheers,

David.