Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM)

Cisco Unified Communications Manager 9.0

In process of growth of the user demand for high-quality mobile solutions and solutions for joint work of the company begin to look for economic technologies for satisfaction of the growing expectations. With respect thereto the Cisco company announced a series of new services and opportunities for the Cisco® Unified Communications Manager platform. These services and opportunities which were a part of the new version of a system of unified communications of Cisco (Unified Communications, UC) 9.0 solve many problems concerning the IT managers aiming to give to employees a joint work opportunity at office and beyond its limits.

The solution Cisco UC Release 9.0 forms a basis of strategy of the unified joint work. This version includes the following improvements in the structure:

Support of terminal units of other companies

The new feature of the solution Cisco Unified Communications Manager which received the name Extend and Connect is compatible to Cisco Jabber devices and any telephones of other companies installed in hotels, the airports, the congress centers and even in such exotic places as the offshore oil platforms and cruise liners plowing open spaces of the World Ocean. From now on all these devices can work in the environment of unified communications of Cisco.

The Extend and Connect function allows the deleted and sent employees to enter the phone number of the device of a voice communication into the client application Jabber working on the personal computer with the Windows operating system. After this Cisco Unified Communications Manager will direct all voice traffic directly by this phone number. As a result the employee will be able to work with any telephone set of any company and at the same time, being in a business trip, to use all functionality of a corporate voice communication and all office communication services, including services of accounting of presence, instant messaging and the subscriber's call a one click of the button. The Extend and Connect function continuously maintains excellent quality of a voice communication, irrespective of quality of broadband channel.

In Cisco recognize that all staff of all companies in all countries should have Cisco UC media access even if they do not use the terminal units Cisco. Extend and Connect provides to the companies economic technology of the user media access Cisco UC, allowing the solution Cisco Jabber to manage telephone sets of any supplier - old and new, analog and digital, including IP phones. At once after connection of phone to the line the subscriber will get access to all functions and opportunities of Cisco Unified Communications Manager which the Cisco IP phones use. Using the Extend and Connect function of the company will be able to protect the investments, continuing to use the existing terminal units. Besides, this solution facilitates transition from traditional PBX to more modern solutions, giving to customers all opportunities of the Cisco UC environment.

Support of convergence of the fixed and mobile communications

Such convergence provides to users of mobile phones of any type access to the functions characteristic of desk telephones. Access is provided in any place, and the subscriber is not obliged to use the smartphone or the special plan of numbering and should not set the client software on the mobile phone. Access to functions of telephone communication of a corporate class (the unified mailbox for voice messages, a standby mode, callback, conference communication and direct dialing of extension numbers) can be received via the new system interface connecting the solution Cisco Unified Communications Manager with the supplier of the user mobile services that provides transparency, intellectuality and controllability of communication services outside corporate office.

Quality improvement of video, strengthening of information security and convenience of use

Video extends in corporate environment more and more widely. With respect thereto IT departments should maintain quality, security and convenience of using of video services. Cisco UC Release 9.0 provides the following advantages:

• better management of bandwidth using the built-in solutions CAC (Call Admission Control is call management). CAC will automatically recognize a logical structure of network that allows systems to regulate in the dynamic mode exchange of traffic between clusters and platforms, maintaining optimal communication quality even in hours of peak load.
• Support of video devices of different types. Cisco Unified Communications Manager is the Cisco platform for control of all terminal units participating in joint work process. Since the latest version, Cisco supports recently announced Cisco TelePresence® TX9000 devices along with other terminal units telepresence (including codecs of series C and the system SX, MX, EX, VX, Profile, 3000, 1300, 1100 and 500) which are registered in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager system and are controlled it.
• Solutions of new generation for telephone calls directly from e-mail. These solutions known under the name "Uniform Resource Identifier" (URI) give the chance to contact any terminal unit connected to a system by a set of the email address instead of the phone number. Cisco UC Release 9.0 supports both traditional, and future URI systems. This solution will and simplify practical use of video technologies, such as TelePresence from now on.

Expansion of opportunities of joint work

Many Cisco UC Release 9.0 functions will help the companies to implement and operate solutions for contact centers. Here main of these functions:

• the Packaged Contact Center Enterprise function facilitates installation processes, settings and different options of software implementation Cisco for contact centers. Customers will be able quicker to deploy new solutions for contact centers and are easier to manage them that will allow to accelerate payback of these solutions and to reduce total cost of ownership.
• Exact routing (Precision Routing) for the solutions Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise gives to contact centers the chance to make the difficult decisions on routing of calls better meeting the requirements of customers taking into account different attributes and qualification of operators without complications which are usually caused by solutions of this kind.
• Numerous improvements of the solutions Cisco Unified Contact Center Express. Starting with the version of Cisco UC Release 9.0, Cisco supports the historical reporting using the intellectual Cisco Unified Intelligence functions providing important metrics for management of contact center. Besides, Cisco UC Release 9.0 adds function of web chats to the solutions Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, opening the new channel for connection of customers to contact centers. And, at last, in the last release supervisors of contact centers can carry out a number of important tasks, such as accounting of skills and abilities of operators using mobile devices (allows to send a question to the specialist having the necessary qualification).

The new features expanding abilities to manage and increasing convenience of use

Cisco UC Release 9.0 supports management of queues of calls. It means that incoming calls from users or user groups are transferred to a standby mode and are put in queue. In waiting time users listen to greetings and advertisements.

Record function by a one click of the button (One Button to Record) - one more new opportunity allowing to begin and stop record of a call directly on the terminal unit. Customers can configure the One Button to Record function on observance of statutory and regulatory requirements (so, in some countries of people, beginning conversation recording, it is obliged to warn about it the interlocutor).

New licensing terms

For the version of Cisco UC Release 9.0 the Cisco company introduced the system of licensing by the number of users in all product portfolio for joint work. Now the companies can purchase licenses for four types of employees: roamers (i.e. the employees who do not have a permanent desktop), employees with desktops, the employees who from time to time are working in the remote mode, and "knights errant", i.e. constantly working in the remote mode.

Besides, Cisco announced the solution Cisco Unified Workspace Licensing Premium Edition meeting requirements of the growing number of mobile users using the mobile solutions (such as Cisco Jabber Mobile) supporting various functions of joint work. This solution uses the program of licensing Cisco Unified Workspace announced four years ago. It helps the companies easily and simply, with high flexibility and profitability, to purchase the software licenses Cisco Unified Communications. These decisions were well made by the industry: by May, 2012 the number of users of these solutions in the world market came very close to 10 million people.