Alternatives to Cisco IP Phones

BlueyVIII · ‎05-27-2009

Hi,

My organisation have asked me to investigate alternatives to Cisco IP Phones for our IPT implementation.

We currently have standardised on 794x or 7912 models, however, these are now relatively expensive due to the $ to Â£ exchange rate.

I'd like to convince the organsiation to stick with our existing policy but need some information to support this.

My question is 2 fold.

1. What are the "cheaper" alternatives to Cisco IP Phones? I'm guessing any model which supports SIP?

2. What will the feature "gap" be between Cisco (SKNY) and SIP phones.

Any help greatfully recieved.

Cheers,

Rick Morris · ‎05-27-2009

When considering the Phone Type you must also consider the license you need to run that phone. If you are using the Call Manager 6.x and not running CUWL you will need more DLU's depending on the tpe of phone. If you buy phones that are not standard it will require more DLU's to make it operational. Cisco's little way to make it more cost effective to use their product. It might be cheaper to buy a non-cisco phone but it will cost you more in license if that is the direction you go in.

paolo bevilacqua · ‎05-27-2009

1. correct

2. very wide. basically, with a third-party SIP phone, no feature is guaranteed to work. It may work after you research on, asthe TAC won't help (even if you pay a license).

Then you have the added overhead of managing tow different sets of devices and having to explaining to user why something that can be done with one, it cannot with the other, handle the migrations, etc.

BlueyVIII · ‎05-27-2009

Thanks...thought that would be the case.

Is there a document that compares the feature set of SCCP vs SIP? This would be useful to help justify sticking with Cisco phones for the foreseeable future.

Cheers

paolo bevilacqua · ‎05-27-2009

There may be such a document, but it may not helps as much, because beancounters will understand that third party SIP == cisco SIP, thing that is far from true.

Your best defense may be that CCM is largely a system built on proprietary protocol for enhanced performances and features. Once you deviate from the proprietary part, you renounce to the features as well.