Will UC540 support 6961 with 8.1 Software?

[lbroering]

I see there are phone loads for 69xx phones with the

8.1 Software pack for the UC540. Will the 6961 phones work with this?

[Steven DiStefano · Accepted solution]

•Cisco Model 79xx, SPA3xx, SPA5xx, CIPC & 69xx IP Phone Support

Cisco Model 6901, 6911, 6921, 6941, and 6961 IP phones added in 3.0 (not 6945 yet)

Drag-and-drop phone firmware upgrades are also supported for these phones.

[Mario Garcia]

Steve,

Any plans to support 8900 series phones?

Mario

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Steven DiStefano]

Plan to yes. Needs to be a supported phone type in CME version we include and test in the product suite first.

As with any forward looking roadmap, can't commit any timeframe.

Do you feel like you can sell a few with each deal, one or two, or looking to build your whole practice with them exclusively? Or is it a simpler inventory for selling other Cisco Voice solutions further up the specialization chain?

Appreciate your motivation here, so I can share it internally.

[michael.zeiss]

Hello Steven,

in order to give you an anser for my customers, the decission taker in small business is most often "design oriented" in my customer base. The are buying iPads and iMacs and iBooks, so if his desk phone looks like from the last century, its not easy to sell.

So the easiest way to sell a UC is to give him a "cool phone". In fact, when I can raise the decission to renew the telephony system, it should look new also in terms of design.

Technically, the 79xx is really good, but it is no longer trendy!

Greetings

Michael

[David Trad]

Hi Steven,

Do you feel like you can sell a few with each deal, one or two, or  looking to build your whole practice with them exclusively?  Or is it a  simpler inventory for selling other Cisco Voice solutions further up the  specialization chain?

The design specifications of the 8900 series is pretty funky, the screen real estate is awesome, the button layout and configuration is well thought out, and the price point of them is pretty damn good, even for the top end one.

You could scrap the 7900 series right now and if the 8900 series were the 1-for-1 replacement, I reckon you would sell more of them than the 7900 series.. But don't get me wrong, the 7900 series still look much more sexy than your Shoretel, Avaya, Samsung, LG & other lessor brands They are just an older design and sadly people follow trends like sheep, so new space age designes or effecient layouts win the day.

I have to say the SPA phones do not raise any eyebrows, the screen real estate is not good at all and their voice quality is questionable, however they win high praise and points for space saving on the desk, whilst still maintaining a reasonably modern look, but no matter what are still referred to as Linksys phones even though they have had a minor design change, they still resemble them.

The two biggest sellers for the UC-500 series would be the 6900 series and the 8900 series, the 9000 series is just a tab bit too expensive for your <50 seat deals IMHO.

Just some food for thought

Cheers,

David.

[Steven DiStefano]

Much Appreciated.  This is well known indie the PM team.  I agree with you.

P.S. stay in touch,

Steve

[David Trad]

You bet I will Steve

[Nathan Compton]

8900 and 9900 phones are SIP phones, and CCA at this time only supports SCCP.  While I have no doubt this will eventually be supported, it will take some time.

Adam Compton