How to Improve Collaboration Efforts with Cisco Dedicated Instance

Many organizations are attracted to Webex Calling because of the reduced operational costs and improved productivity that can accompany a move to the cloud. However, some organizations haven’t been able to make the move due to certain requirements within their current collaboration environments. 

Dedicated Instance from Cisco allows organizations to keep all or part of their cloud calling infrastructure in a dedicated tenant environment. This lets them take advantage of the functionality and benefits of Webex Calling while maintaining some key functionality and capital that historically has not been available with Webex Calling.

Some organizations haven’t made the move to Webex Calling simply because the service is incompatible with their legacy phones, and they are unable or unwilling to jettison perfectly good office equipment. With Dedicated Instance, organizations can keep their legacy phones. In some cases, a portion of the organization might move to Webex Calling while the rest of the organization’s phone service is moved to Dedicated Instance. For example, a school district might migrate a newer administrative campus to Webex Calling while using Dedicated Instance to preserve the legacy phones in older school buildings. In this type of scenario, users still receive a consistent experience.

Third-party integrations aren’t available with Webex Calling. However, Dedicated Instance provides this functionality for organizations that rely on third-party integrations for their operations. For example, an organization might rely on a third-party paging application or a program that notifies security when someone within the organization calls 911.

Local survivability is an important part of many organizations’ business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Currently, Cisco’s multitenant Webex Calling does not support this capability. For organizations that require local survivability in case their internet connection is temporarily severed, Dedicated Instance is the right choice.

Many small and medium-sized businesses have come to rely on Cisco’s Contact Center Express offering to support their customers. Sometimes called a “contact center in a box,” Contact Center Express provides a secure and easy-to-deploy customer interaction management solution for up to 400 agents. The contact center is vital for many organizations, but Webex Calling does not currently support Contact Center Express. Dedicated Instance does.

Some organizations are initially hesitant to make the move to either Webex Calling or Dedicated Instance because they have come to rely on CDW’s managed services for their on-premises infrastructure, and the move to Webex Calling and Dedicated Instance creates a sense uncertainty. Fortunately, CDW also offers managed services for Webex Calling and Dedicated Instance.

Story by Marguerite Stevens, who, for over 25 years,  has brought extensive experience with collaboration throughout the industry. She has worked within and across product management and marketing, bringing visibility of customer problems and outcomes.