Cisco VoIP ConsultingExchanging live voice and video over Internet Protocol has progressed from simply being being a smart way to cut phone bills to an indispensable tool for competitive advantage. Converged communications, at one time restricted to managing Internet-based voice and faxes on a single system to replace traditional PBX systems, today includes voice and video, mobile communications, messaging, presence, services, and more all within a single framework that is easy to manage, scalable, highly secure, fault-tolerant, cost-effective, and user friendly.

Cisco is the leader in supplying solutions required to support the new paradigm of unified communications (UC). Cisco's UC architecture enhances the efficiency of information networks by slashing operational costs; combining multiple collaboration features with popular software applications to improve user output; supporting teamwork among employees, partners, and vendors to save time and improve business outcomes; and streamlining the support of your communications environment.

Cisco's Unified Communications technology address several important product categories:,

  • Call Control Platforms for controlling calls and sessions
  • Collaboration Endpoints to optimize end-user productivity
  • UC Applications for easy access to presence, IM, voice and video, voice messages, white boarding, and voice/video conferencing
  • IP Gateways for interfacing with public networks and remote users
Progent can provide the remote or onsite consulting services of a Cisco-certified CCIE expert who can assist businesses of any size to plan, configure, manage, upgrade, optimize, move, and repair Cisco unified communications products so you can realize the greatest business value of your communications system. Progent offers world-class consulting for every element of Cisco's unified communications solutions such as call processing and control software, VoIP and softphones, and immersive telepresence platforms. Progent in addition provides consulting and troubleshooting services for Cisco's rich media-optimized network infrastructure products such as ISR routers, Catalyst and Nexus switches, ASA firewalls, and IP voice gateways.

Call Processing Software - Unified Communications Manager (CallManager)
Cisco Collaborative Communications Consulting and SupportCisco's call-processing agent is the core of the Cisco IP Communications solution and gives you the flexibility to deploy a central call-processing design, a decentralized design, or a combination of both. In a centralized approach, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UC Manager or CUCM) extends corporate telephony capabilities to packet devices such as VoIP phones, media management appliances, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media programs across the IT environment. Cisco Unified Communications Manager supports extra voice, video, and data services including unified messaging, multimedia conferencing, and collaborative client communication networks.

The latest version of Unified CM, previously named Cisco CallManager, offers a wealth of enhancements that speed up ROI by cutting management and support costs, increasing user output, enhancing teamwork, accommodating the BYOD model of computing, strengthening data protection, and allowing optimal utilization of network resources. Top innovations include automatic dial-plan replication, simplified certificate control, expanded support for standards-based single sign-on (SSO) for administrators and users, device-independent call recording, on-the-road access without the need for VPN, a revamped self-provisioning utility that makes it simple for workers to manage their options for all of their endpoint devices, and support for Transport Layer Security for mobile users.

In cases where you deploy a central Unified Communications Manager cluster to control call processing for customers at distributed sites, administrators can help ensure continuous call operation through Cisco SRST, an IOS Software image for Cisco routers. If a Wide Area Network connection breaks, Cisco SRST in the Cisco router provides core Cisco Unified Communications Manager services until the link is restored. To learn about Progent's consulting support for Cisco routers, refer to consulting support services for Cisco ISR routers.

For small business networks, branch locations, and retail deployments that do not require the complete functionality available from Unified CM, Unified Communications Manager Express, previously known as CallManager Express provides an economical PBX alternative that handles the needs of locations with as many as 450 users. Because Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Unified Communications Manager Express (Unified CCX) is built into the IOS Software running on a Cisco ISR router, smaller organizations can rapidly implement a converged voice/data solution.

The Cisco BE6000 is a family of turn-key platforms that offer essential unified communications capabilities including routing, IP gateway, premium voice and video, messaging, IM and real-time presence, conferencing, and paging services, allowing any end user to connect on any device from any place. All BE6000 systems come preloaded with virtualization and Unified Communications applications software, making implementation fast and easy and reducing operating expenses for companies with up to 1000 employees. All BE6000 versions come preloaded with a virtualization hypervisor and UC applications. You can simply activate UC applications as their needs dictate.

The small-scale Business Edition 6000S includes five preselected unified communications applications preloaded on a single combination router/IP gateway/virtualized blade server platform and supports up to 150 workers and 300 devices. The medium-scale Business Edition 6000M includes four unified communications application options enabled on a virtualized Cisco C220 M4 server platform and can handle as many as 1000 users, 1200 endpoint devices, and 100 contact center agents. The high-end BE6000S Supports eight UC application options activated on a single virtualized Cisco C220 M4 server platform and has the ability to support up to 1000 users, 2500 endpoint devices, and 100 contact center agents.

For more information about Progent's support for Unified Communications Manager (CallManager), visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager design, configuration, migration and technical support.

Cisco IP Phones: IP Voice and IP Media Endpoints
An IP communications endpoint is an end-user instrument, either a hardware phone or a soft phone program on a PC or mobile computer. In the Internet Protocol environment, each IP phone is Ethernet connected. IP phones have all of the capabilities that an ordinary phone handset has, but IP phones can also provide additional functions such as the ability to access the web or run collaboration applications.

Cisco VoIP Phones ConsultingUnlike conventional Private Branch Exchange technology, in a Cisco IP communications network you can perform almost instantaneous relocations, adds, and modifications. You merely move the VoIP phone to your new spot, plug it into the Ethernet jack, and the phone announces itself with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. All client permissions and settings are automatically re-established, doing away with the cost and hassle of sending technicians to wiring closets. Another helpful capability is location independence, which allows you to log into any Cisco VoIP phone and get your personal phone ID and privileges.

Cisco offers a wide selection of Unified CM hardware endpoints. The entry-level SPA 300 Series are no-frills IP and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications devices offering high-quality audio, compatibility with hosted IP phone environments or an IP private branch exchange (PBX), easy deployment and highly secure remote installation, unobtrusive software updates, and browser-based set up. The low-end SPA301 is a one-line IP endpoint with no display or speakerphone, a base dialer with a single Ethernet connector, and a corded handset without keys. The SPA302D, designed solely for use with the Cisco SPA232D DECT ATA, is a multiline wireless Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications handset that supports 10-lines, a TFT 176 x 220 color display, and a keypad with a speakerphone. Cisco's SPA303 is an entry-level three-line SIP-based phone with dual switched ports, a 128x64 monochrome display and a speakerphone.

Cisco SPA500 Series IP Phones Consulting ServicesThe SPA500 family IP phones are low-cost endpoints with support for both SIP and SPCP call control protocols, two switch ports, speakerphones, built-in web servers, Power over Ethernet, and conferencing capability. Most versions have a 128 x 64 pixel mono screen display, The SPA501G VoIP phone supports eight lines and has eight soft keys but no LCD display. The SPA502G VoIP phone supports a single line and has no programmable buttons. The SPA504G IP Phone supports four lines and has four soft keys. The SPA508G has eight lines and eight soft buttons. The SPA509G supports 12 lines and features 12 programmable keys. The SPA512G has four lines, no programmable buttons and supports 1xGb Ethernet. The SPA514G supports four lines, has soft keys, and supports Gigabit Ethernet. The top-of-the-line SPA525G2 includes a 320 x 240 pixel color screen, supports five lines, and has five programmable buttons.

Cisco's Unified IP Phones 3900 Series and IP Phones 6900 Series are specialty VoIP devices intended for infrequent-use environments like cafeterias, hallways, and conference facilities. The Unified SIP Phone 3905 features VoIP phone features a 128 x 32 pixel mono non-backlit screen, a Ethernet switch, a speakerphone, and Power over Ethernet (PoE). The simple Cisco Unified IP Phone 6901 is a single-line device with no screen and requires a hook switch for transferring a call or conferencing.

The 7800 family of economical IP phones are VoIP endpoints featuring backlit monochrome screens, four programmable buttons, 11 dedicated buttons, an integral Ethernet switch with Power over Ethernet (PoE), and an integral speakerphone. Cisco's 7800 Series IP Phones support only the SIP call control protocol. All models in Cisco's 7800 family feature the same advanced speakers and microphones as Cisco's 8800 Series IP phones to deliver a state-of-the-art audio solution. Cisco's EnergyWise power-save feature, offered on the advanced 7800 units, reduces after-hours energy consumption by as much as 60 percent. The Cisco IP Phone 7811 is a one-line phone intended for common areas and for workers with infrequent call needs. The IP 7811 VoIP phone comes with a 3.28-inch 384 x 106 display and a narrow-band speakerphone. Wideband audio is offered through an extra-cost handset. Cisco's IP Phone 7821 is a dual-line VoIP endpoint with a 396 x 162 screen. The IP Phone 7841 is a four-line endpoint with a 396 x 162 screen and is the only model in the 7800 series that provides 1xGb Ethernet. The top-of-the-line IP Phone 7861 VoIP phone is a 16-line device targeted for administrative staff, call center agents, and managers who have heavy call requirements.

The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7900 Series are SIP and SCCP IP voice and video devices with a 320 x 240 pixel color screen, a 1xGb Ethernet switch, Class 3 Power over Ethernet (PoE), 10 fixed-feature keys and a speakerphone. The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7945G is a dual-line unit and the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G supports four lines. Both VoIP phones include a 5-inch display and four soft keys. The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7975G device is an eight-line media phone featuring a 5.6-inch touch screen and five programmable keys.

Cisco 8800 Series IP Phones Integration Consulting

Cisco's IP Phone 8800 Series is a family of SIP-based IP phones that features desktop devices, a conference IP phone, and mobile wireless IP Phones. The desktop models are five-line IP phones featuring a 5-inch 800 x 480 pixel display, a Gigabit Ethernet switch, a speakerphone, four programmable keys and 12 fixed-feature buttons. Cisco's IP Phone 8811 features a mono display and supports Class 2 PoE. Cisco's IP Phone 8841 features a WVGA color display and supports Class 2 PoE. Cisco's IP Phone 8845 has a WVGA color display, 720p HD video, an adjustable camera, Bluetooth, Cisco Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice, and supports Class 2 Power over Ethernet. The Cisco IP Phone 8851 features a WVGA color display and a USB connection with charging capability, supports Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice and Class 3 PoE, and is available in Bluetooth and non-Bluetooth models. Cisco's IP Phone 8861 includes a WVGA color display, Bluetooth, dual USB connections with charging capability, and supports Cisco Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice, Wi-Fi, and Class 4 PoE. The Cisco IP Phone 8865 includes a WVGA color screen, 720p HD video, a tiltable camera, Bluetooth, two USB ports with charging capability, and supports Cisco Intelligent Proximity for Mobile Voice, Wi-Fi, and Class 4 PoE.

Wireless VoIP Phone Integration and Troubleshooting ConsultingCisco's wireless IP phones are hardened wireless devices intended for professionals who are mobile within campus, hospitality, retail or other environments where management requires portable phones that provide more administrative control, security and durability than is possible with the BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) style of workplace communications. Cisco's 8821 and 8812-EX wireless VoIP phones offer on-the-move on-premises users the benefits of voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) communications in workplaces with 802.11x Wi-Fi infrastructure. The 8821 Wireless IP Phone includes a 2.4 inch color display, a durable shell designed to withstand dropping and IP67 for dust and moisture resistance, long-life batteries, a full-duplex speakerphone, and a Bluetooth 4.0 radio to support cordless headsets. The 8821-EX Wireless IP Phone adds protection against sparking for use in potentially combustible environments. The 8821-EX also features a case composed of industry-standard yellow plastics, which makes the device easy to locate during a crisis. Find out about Progent's Wireless VoIP Phone integration support.

Cisco 9900 VoIP Phones ConsultantsCisco's legacy 9900 line of powerful IP phones combine high-definition voice with high-resolution color video to deliver a productive multimedia UC experience for knowledge professionals and executives. Both IP phones in this line incorporate an SD 24-bit color display, a Bluetooth radio to work with a wide selection of headsets, and an integrated 1 GE Ethernet switch. The Cisco EnergyWise power-save feature is offered as an option and can lower off-work power use by up to 90 percent. The Cisco IP Phone 9951 features a 5-inch display and allows up to 2 Cisco IP Color Key Expansion Modules for adding scalability to customizable line and feature keys. The Cisco IP Phone 9971 features a 5.6-inch screen, an integrated 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi radio for connecting to voice-over-wireless LAN networks, and four soft-label programmable touchscreen keys to invoke Cisco UC features. The 9971 IP phone allows up to 3 Cisco IP Color Key Expansion Modules for adding scalability to customizable line and function keys.

Unified Communications Applications
Within Cisco's Unified Communications architecture, IP phone, IP video, and other converged applications are separate from the call- and voice-processing infrastructure, and they may be anywhere within the system. A single connectivity framework offers a versatile platform for feature-rich applications and serves as a solid basis for downstream convergence-based applications. Cisco works with third-party IT industry vendors to provide a wide selection of IP telephony and video software applications and products. Cisco also enables the ability to develop and manage specialized internal programs.

Unified Communications application software available from Cisco and supported by Progent include:

Cisco Jabber
Jabber is a unified communications client application that provides presence, IM, business-quality voice, high-definition video, voicemail, desktop sharing, and online conferencing capabilities for PCs, Macs, Apple and Android tablets as well as iPhones, Android phones, and Blackberries. Jabber is an evolution and combination of the Unified Personal Communicator, Cisco Mobile, and Cisco WebEx Connect, with important improvements in the areas of HD video capabilities and screen sharing, and expanding the collaboration experience to additional platforms and endpoint hardware. Cisco Jabber operates with Unified Communications Manager for call control, Cisco Unified Presence for IM and presence, Unity Connection for voicemail and automated attendant, and Cisco WebEx Meeting for conferencing and online meetings.

Because Jabber utilizes popular communication standards, it can communicate with a wide selection of non-Cisco products. For example, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) enables Cisco Jabber to exchange instant messaging and presence data with other XMPP clients including as Adium for Mac, IBM Sametime, and Microsoft Lync. Jabber features can be accessed from Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint. This extensive platform support optimizes output by providing a consistent user environment and fully enabling the bring-your-own-device model of computing. Progent can provide the services of Microsoft-certified Exchange and Outlook consultants and SharePoint application developers who can assist you to use Jabber with Microsoft's popular collaboration products. Progent also can provide help with iPhone and iPad integration and Android smartphone and tablet integration to assist your organization to enhance the productivity of your BYOD ecosystem.

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
Cisco WebEx Meeting Center enables web conferencing for participants using a browser or virtually any desktop or handheld computer. Cisco WebEx is delivered as software as a service via the Cisco WebEx Cloud. This makes it simple to deploy and scale, reduces the cost of administration, eliminates major up-front investment, features maximum uptime and world-class data protection, and delivers consistently high performance. Important features include the ability to share discrete content or an entire screen with remote attendees in real time, the capability to embed rich media into presentations including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, recording plus playback for training, single sign-on (SSO) and support for other Cisco collaboration products such as Jabber and TelePresence, plus strong data privacy and encrypted access with strict policy management.

WebEx Meeting Center Web Conferencing Consultants

WebEX Meeting Center runs on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux-powered PCs and permits mobile users to initiate, schedule, and attend meetings on Android devices, iPhones and iPads, BlackBerry phones, and Microsoft Windows Phone. Users can also launch online meetings instantly from Microsoft Office, Outlook, Notes, and a selection of instant messaging applications.

Cisco TelePresence Portfolio for On-premises Teleconferencing Ecosystems
For midsize businesses and enterprises who wish to create an in-house or hybrid on-premises/cloud solution for video conferencing, Cisco provides a selection of Cisco TelePresence software and equipment that deliver high-definition video conferencing for users with almost any IP endpoint at any location. Cisco TelePresence Server is an expandable teleconferencing bridge that runs with Cisco Unified Communications Manager to bring multiparty video, audio and content sharing to UC deployments and can expand meetings to support cloud-connected Cisco WebEx Meeting Center participants. Cisco TelePresence Conductor software streamlines the control of how conferencing bandwidth and features are rationed for each attendee, allowing managers to specify the precise service level and user experience required for every user. Cisco TelePresence Content Server captures video and presentations for live streaming and on-demand playback.

Cisco Unity Connection Platform and Unity Express for Converged Voicemail and Automated Attendant
Cisco's Unity Connection, an extension of Cisco Unified CM, is a converged voicemail solution that promotes teamwork by providing a variety of options for accessing voice messages within a framework that is simple to deploy and manage. Unity Connection allows you to access and manage voicemail messages from your Exchange inbox, browser, Jabber, a Cisco Unified IP Phone, a smartphone, or a tablet. Cisco Unity Connection also offers advanced voice-recognition features for hands-free management and extensive Automated Attendant functions such as intelligent routing for inbound calls and custom call-screening and message-notification options. The Cisco Unity Connection system runs as a fully virtualized system that can be hosted on a Business Edition 6000 server or a Cisco Services Ready Engine 910 router service module and can support up to 20,000 voice mailboxes on each server.

Cisco Unity Express (CUE), offered in select Cisco ISR routers, provides cost-effective voicemail, unified messaging, interactive voice response (IVR), and automated-attendant functions for small to medium businesses (SMBs) and corporate satellite locations with up to 500 users. Cisco Unity Express permits users to access and manage voicemail messages using a Cisco Unified IP Phone display, your web browser, or your email client. ISR Routers for which Unity Express is available as a network module include Cisco's 2800, 2900, 3800, and 3900 Series. Progent offers certified deployment and support services for ISR routers.

Unified Contact Center
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE or UCCE) integrates closely with Cisco Unified Communications Manager and agent desktop applications like Finesse to provide automatic call distribution features that allow an organization to match customers with the appropriate sales or service agent. Unified CCE or UCCE provides intelligent call distribution, computer telephony integration, multiple channel contact management, call queuing, interactive voice response and consolidated enterprise-wide reporting to simplify the creation and administration of a modern customer contact center. Cisco products supporting UCCE's customer contact management solution include Cisco Unified IP Phones, Cisco Voice Gateways, and Cisco LAN/WAN technology.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (CCX) offers a packaged bundle for building a customer interaction management center for branch or midmarket systems that support up to 400 agents. Several bundles are offered, as well as a variety of optional enhancements. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express works with Unified Communications Manager and offers smart call distribution, contact interaction management, integrated reporting, interactive voice response, and the ability to manage voice, email, chat, and social media requests. Unified Contact Center Express includes Finesse, a browser-based customizable desktop agent that needs no client software setup. Special options include call-in-queue, expected-wait-time messages, and productivity optimization with workforce and quality management.

Cisco Mobile Connect and Single Number Reach (SNR)
Mobile Connect, popularly referred to as Single Number Reach (SNR), allows users to be reached via one number that rings at the same time on their Cisco desktop VoIP Phone and their mobile phone. Users can transfer active calls between their Cisco IP phone and their mobile phone seamlessly. Unanswered calls can be transferred to a Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection voicemail account. Users can create personal access lists that determine which calls are directed to different endpoints.

Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning
Prime Collaboration offers an automated platform for first-time deployments and for “day 2” moves, additions, changes, and deletions. An intuitive interface delivers a single view of a subscriber and the subscriber's services. Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning significantly accelerates site rollouts and minimizes the time required for ongoing changes. Prime Collaboration in addition offers advanced analytics including application adoption and consumption trends, allowing administrators to optimize resources and further lower total cost of ownership.

Cisco Communications Gateways
Cisco's collaboration gateways permit Cisco Unified Communications deployments to connect with other systems and with users working outside the firewall. Cisco's portfolio of communication gateways deliver unified communications support for all types of gateway as well as session-border-control applications.

Collaboration gateways available from Cisco and supported by Progent's certified consultants include:

Cisco Expressway Converged Communication Gateway
Cisco's Expressway is an advanced unified communications and collaboration gatekeeper that enables companies to allow colleagues, suppliers, customers and prospects, or partners who are working on different network environments, workgroup applications, or endpoint equipment to connect to Unified Communication functions. Cisco's Expressway collaboration gateway integrates with an enterprise Cisco Communications Manager deployment or Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE6000), or can be run via the cloud with Cisco HCS to make productive collaboration more universal. Important capabilities of Expressway are are:

  • Mobile and Off-site Connectivity: Remote workers with any Jabber-compatible device or teleworkers with Cisco TelePresence endpoints get the benefit of single-sign-on plus Transport Layer Security (TLS) and can connect to all their Jabber applications (high-definition video, high-quality voice, rich content IM, and presence) without requiring the extra step of starting a VPN connection. Also, teleworkers have the ability to use their Cisco TelePresence endpoints without a VPN tunnel, providing a user environment at home the same as the office.
  • Cisco Jabber Guest Support: Cisco Expressway is required for supporting Cisco's Jabber Guest, which makes it possible for “guests” to communicate with your business simply and safely using lightweight browser and mobile multimedia phone calls.
  • Cisco Cloud Access: Expressway can function as a gateway that connects between onsite Cisco or non-Cisco systems and the WebEx cloud. By offering support for Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms, Cisco Expressway deliver an advanced, extensible meeting experience that transparently combines voice, high-definition video, and data sharing to any client, at any location, using any device.
  • Interoperability: In case your organization already has third-party video products, Cisco Expressway can help you to move efficiently to a Cisco solution when you choose. Cisco Expressway provides video interoperability with industry standard H.323, H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC), or Session Initiation Protocol environments. Internetworking capabilities supported by Cisco Expressway include IPv4 to IPv6, H.323 to Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Microsoft Lync H.264 SVC to AVC.
Cisco Unified Border Element
The Cisco Unified Border Element is an enterprise-class session border controller that connects unified communications networks to the IP PSTN. Beyond offering session border control, Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) provides easy and cost-efficient collaboration beyond the firewall. Important collaboration features supported by CUBE include:
  • Cisco WebEx Cloud Connected Audio for SIP-based audio conferencing
  • Voice/Video recording
  • SIP-based Call-center and IVR solutions
  • Policy-based evaluation of phone calls
  • Business-to-business immersive telepresence over SIP
Cisco Unified Border Element software can be licensed on Cisco IOS software and can be run on many of Cisco's enterprise-class router platforms, which include ASR 1000 Series, the ISR 4000 line, the ISR G2, and several models of Cisco's 800 Series fixed routers. Cisco's virtualized CUBE, called vCUBE, runs in an ESXi virtual application container.

Cisco's End-of-Life UC520, UC540 and UC560 VoIP Phone Systems
The end-of-life Cisco Unified Communications 500 (UC500) Series is a VoIP and unified communications solution for small organizations. UC500 models provide voice, data, voicemail, automated attendant, video, security, and WiFi functionality, run with older generation Cisco IP Voice phones, and support various public switched telephone network (PSTN) connections.

Cisco UC500 Series VoIP Gateway Consultants

Cisco's legacy UC500 VoIP gateway was the centerpiece of a complete unified communications solution

All UC500 packages include a compact switch with 8 Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) ports plus additional FXS and foreign exchange office (FXO) interfaces, a firewall, and VPN support. Integrated WiFi is optional. User capacity can be increased by connecting with Cisco Catalyst Express companion switches. Every UC500 model also comes with licenses for Cisco Unified Communications Manager for VoIP call processing and Cisco Unity Express software for voice messaging and automated attendant. The Cisco UC520 system supports 8 to 16 users and include 4 foreign exchange stations and 4 FXO interfaces. The Cisco UC540 package allows 32 users and has 8 FXO interfaces. The Cisco UC560 package allows 48 users and 12 foreign exchange office ports.

Progent's Cisco-certified VoIP consultants can help you to maintain your legacy UC500 VoIP system or plan and carry out an efficient migration to a current IP telephony and voicemail solution such as Cisco's Business Edition 4000.

How Progent Can Help You with Cisco IP Voice and IP Media Phones, CUCM, and Video Conferencing
Progent can provide remote or onsite access to a certified CCIE Collaboration consultant to help you to plan, install, manage and repair unified communications networks based on Cisco Unified Communication technology in an in-house, distributed, or hybrid deployment. Progent's Cisco engineers have in-depth experience with Unified Communications Manager and Cisco CallManager, VoIP phones and soft phones, UC applications like Jabber and Unity Connection, Cisco's video conferencing technologies, communication gateways, utilities built into Cisco Catalyst switches and routers. Progent can also provide support for related technologies such as Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony, CUBE, H.323 and SIP gateways, CAC, IP voice trunks, various signaling protocols, and AVVID. Progent's SIP infrastructure consultants can also help you to build SIP infrastructure solutions that incorporate SIP-based VoIP phones and video endpoints, SIP trunks, SIP conferencing and SIP administration tools with CUCM.

Progent's application developers can create specialized IP telephony applications that will enable your business to incorporate the capabilities of Cisco Unified Communications Manager into your business processes for increased efficiency. Progent can revue your existing network and Internet connectivity architecture to make sure your environment is optimized to support business-quality Voice over IP and HD video, help you to choose and install Cisco products appropriate for your present needs and future growth strategy, and interface your Cisco collaborative communications solution with technology from other vendors. Progent's CISSP-ISSAP certified network security and compliance consultants can assist you to create, implement, and test an enterprise-wide security and compliance plan for your converged communications ecosystem. Also, Progent can assist you to deploy Cisco fault-tolerant technologies such as Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony to provide cost-effective call control backup in branch office and home-office sites, and Progent's disaster recovery and business continuity preparedness consultants can help you develop a sensible disaster recovery plan to ensure the availability of your business-critical unified communications environment.

Unified Communications Manager/CallManager Upgrade Consulting
Releases of Unified Communications Manager 8.6 earlier than 8.6 and all versions of CallManager have arrived at end-of-life. This means Cisco will no longer enhance, fix, or validate this older software. Security updates for this business-critical product will stop, which in some situations may create compliance or legal liability issues.

Progent continues to offer expert support for end-of-life versions of Unified CM and Cisco CallManager, but in case your company is now using an out-of-dated release of this essential software your organization should begin now to plan your upgrade. Progent's collaboration consultants can help you to migrate smoothly to the current edition of Cisco Unified CM and can often save clients up to 50% off consulting costs compared to most computer service companies because of Progent's documented procedures and hands-on experience in this practice area. By adhering to leading practices, Progent can ensure that your business gets a fast payback on your IT investment by showing you how to benefit fully from the enhanced feature set, reduced administrative and maintenance costs, more productive collaboration capabilities, and stronger security offered by the latest edition of Unified CM.

Progent's upgrade services include return-on-investment analysis, project management, pilot testing, Cloud connectivity, setting up endpoint devices from Cisco and third-party providers, smartphone and tablet connectivity, security and compliance services, management automation, disaster recovery/business continuity planning, network topology design, training, and continuing consulting and troubleshooting. Progent also offers fixed-priced upgrade service bundles to keep your costs predictable and affordable.

For more information concerning Progent's consulting support for Cisco networking products, pick a topic:

To ask Progent about consulting help for Cisco products, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.