My friend Dennis Hartmann explores the shaped round robin (SRR) technology implemented on the Cisco 2960/2970/3560/3750 switches.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43221

Glad I'm not competing for UC520 installs in the UK against BT.
They have a game changer.
I just saw a press release regarding their wifi blackberry integration so you don't use cell minutes when on site with your UC520.

"BT has today announced plans to integrate the BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System (MVS) technology from Research In Motion (RIM) with BT Communications Complete (based on the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series platform)."

More info at the link below. Read more

CCNP Wireless, Cisco Certified Architect, and two New Data Center Unified Computing Specialist Certifications Announced at this Week's Cisco Live!

Cisco announced the release of four new certifications at the Cisco Live! show, held this week in San Francisco, CA.

Cisco Certified Architect, CCNP Wireless, and two new Cisco Datacenter Unified Computing Specialists reinforce Cisco’s commitment developing state of the art, technology driven, role based certifications that meet the demands of today’s network professional.

• Cisco Certified Architect (Available January, 2010) Cisco Certified Architect is the pinnacle for individuals wishing to establish formal validation of both design and IT skills in Cisco technologies and infrastructure.
  
• CCNP Wireless (Available July 24th, 2009) CCNP Wireless recognizes the expertise and technical acumen of wireless professionals who support and manage Cisco wireless LANs and networks.
  
• DC Unified Computing Design Specialist, DC Unified Computing Support Specialist (Available Late, 2009) The Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Design Specialist and the Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist validate a data center computing professional's knowledge, expertise, and ability to run mission-critical computer operations.

Further information will be made available on the Cisco Learning Network in the coming weeks in support of these new Cisco Career Certifications. Read more

Dear Cisco Small Business Partners:

Do you have some unique and creative examples of Cisco Small Business Technology usage? Read more

We are getting our social networking on!

Under your account settings (Click my account on the left sidebar)  you can now enter your twitter account info.  Read more

Great link to the IPexpert CCIE Voice blog post regarding what was shared at Cisco Networkers regarding the CCIE Voice 3.0 Exam.
http://ipexpert.ccieblog.com/2009/06/28/ccie-voice-v3-update-live-from-c...

What I find interesting is like the Route Switch Exam, before you can start your lab you will be asked 4 open ended questions worth 25% of your score. You must get 3 out of the 4 questions correct or you don't get to take the lab (and you are out $1400 without even getting lunch!). Cisco has added this to keep people from just memorizing the lab configs. Read more

Cisco SPA8800 Released - Earlier today pal Cory Andrews broke the news about the newest SMB VoIP product from Cisco, the SPA8800.
The Cisco SPA8800 is an affordable VoIP Gateway option for small medium businesses and VoIP service providers. The Cisco SPA8800 is SIP based and features four (4) FXS ports for connecting traditional telephones and or fax machines.
The Cisco [...] [Smith On VOIP]

I noticed that the SPA8800 is out. It looks like it is for the Open Source VOIP market and Cisco "Linksys" LVS Voice system as well. Since it speaks SIP it should be able to integrate with a UC520.

An Interesting Device. Here is a link to the product info on Cisco's Site. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10446/index.html Read more

On June 24th, 2009, Learning@Cisco will implement program changes to the CCNA Voice certification.   There will now be two options available for candidates wishing to achieve their CCNA Voice certification: A commercial option and an enterprise option.
The new CCNA Voice Certification enterprise option assesses skills/knowledge related to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0 (CUCM 6.0). It is typically employed by large organizations such as governments, large companies, and colleges.  Passing the CVOICE #642-436 exam will meet the requirements for this option.

The CCNA Voice Certification commercial option continues to use the IIUC #640-460 exam and assesses skills and knowledge related to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.1 (Cisco UME) and Cisco Unity Express (CUE), solutions typically used by medium & small organizations such as companies with less than 2,000 employees, retail businesses, and small school districts.

CCNA Voice and CCVP Q&A

Read more

The SBCS team is proud to announce four new third party applications compatible with SBCS 1.5:

Allscripts Integration - Communications Solution for the Healthcare sector Read more

Cisco introduced 3 new phones today.
 

I See no word on if they are compatible with the UC500 series and CME yet.  They also look like they do not support G.722 and are being introduced as a lower cost,enviro friendly handset.

Below are links to the Cisco 6900 Series Data Sheet and Data Sheets for the individual phones.

DATA SHEET - Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series

Cisco Unified IP Phone 6961
Cisco Unified IP Phone 6941
Cisco Unified IP Phone 6921

According to Cisco

The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series offers greater personalization, with the choice of two colors and two handset style options. Right-to-left language presentation is also supported on the displays, addressing the language localization needs of global customers.
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series is also more energy-efficient and eco-friendly, in support of customer green initiatives. A Deep-Sleep option provides energy savings. With this option, the Cisco Unified IP Phone 6900 Series consumes up to 50 percent less power in off-hours versus when the phone is idle during normal business hours. In addition, reground and recyclable plastics deliver a more earth-responsible solution. Read more

Just a heads up to confirm another SIP trunk provider www.flowroute.com on my UC520, running the latest IOS and CUE. Had to make firewall changes though. I had to drop it to "Low" just for testing but it doesn't seem like I can make ACL changes via the GUI still. Rates are very competitive, and they gave me a test credit to dial outbound. Will test inbound and DID sometime.

I set this up after upgrading to the latest CCA and the software pack. The software upgrade hosed my VLAN setting but that is another story. Read more

Dear UC500.com Community,

Following the recent CCA 2.0 availability notification, we are also announcing the availability of the corresponding UC500 Software Packs:

Manufacturing Release
UC520-7.0.3.zip

Early Adopter Release
UC520-7.1.1-ea.zip

These can be downloaded from the UC500 Download site, accessible on this Support Community:

http://www.cisco.com/go/smallbizsupport
(click on “UC500 Software Download”)

Release Notes for these two new Packs, cane be found on:

https://www.myciscocommunity.com/docs/DOC-7164

Best regards,

The SBCS Team Read more

UC500.com Community,

The Cisco Configuration Assistant(CCA) team is excited to announce the availability of the latest release of the product - CCA version 2.0. CCA is an easy to use interface for managing platforms within the Cisco Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) Solution.

In the CCA v2.0 release, users will notice major enhancements to improve both usability and functionality of SBCS. Some feedback provided by partners during testing included:

“I would prefer to use CCA 2.0 compared to using CLI. I need to start using it on the ground”

“[CCA 2.0] is right on the money. It’s easy to use, follow, and has wizards that really work.”

“This is well on the way to empowering the little guy to configure the SMB”

CCA v2.0 is utilized as part of the SBCS release 1.5 Cisco SmartDesigns to provide comprehensive deployment best practices guidance for the partners. This solution incorporates end-to-end design and fully GUI based deployment using CCA 2.0. The updated SBCS Smart Designs will be available beginning of June.

The major highlights in CCA v2.0 include:

• Telephony Setup Wizard — An easy-to-use set-up utility that quickly guides users through the steps required to set up a basic telephony solution for up to 24 users on newly installed Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series platforms.

• System Dashboard - Intuitive interface for viewing common system metrics, such as Event Notifications & System status

• Cisco Smart Business Applications – Support for new SmartApps; Webex PhoneConnect application and TimeCardView, Single Number Reach for IP phones is also supported with UC 500 Early Adopter software.

• Cisco Small Business ESW-500 Series Switches – Support for discovery, maintenance and configuration for the new Cisco Small Business ESW-500 switches

• Basic Automatic Call Distribution (BACD) – Support up to 10 B-ACD call agent groups and export of agent call statistics to server

• Direct Transfer to Voicemail – Transfer calls directly to voicemail using softkey or through Auto attendant

• Meetme Conferencing –Supports for built-in UC 500 conference bridge with 32 attendees per conference

• Hybrid Key System – Support Keys System trunk lines in PBX mode

• Voice customization – Support CIPC and Desk IP phone with same extension, Octal line support, Disable/Enable voicemail per user, monitor of Call Park slots, Call waiting with overlay, Watch mode, Fax mode for analog ports, Shutdown/Reset voice ports

• Additional Country specific Dial plans –CCA v2.0 adds default dial plans for Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Venezuela.

• Refreshed look and feel – CCA v2.0 has a simpler, refreshed menu & icon design

• Troubleshooting Tools – Network connectivity tools such as ping and traceroute. Voice diagnostic tools to verify Inbound & Outbound dialing from any extension configured on UC500. Advanced voice troubleshooting to view real time status and collect debugs

In summary, with CCA v2.0, highly requested feature and usability enhancements have been made to further aid our partners to deploy Cisco small business solutions. The CCA team will continue to develop features and functionality as we learn more about our customers' needs.

For more information and to download CCA visit:

http://www.cisco.com/go/configassist
http://www.cisco.com/go/smallbizsupport

If you have questions or product feedback, please post them on our Support Community:

http://www.cisco.com/go/smallbizsupport

Best Regards,

The CCA Team Read more

Microsoft Cuts Include Response Point - One Step Backwards -

Jon Arnold mentioned in his blog link above that recent staff cuts at Microsoft have targeted Microsoft Response Point.  This is Microsoft's entry in the SMB under 50 user VOIP market.  The product should still be around, but development looks like it is stalled.  A review of Response Point can be found here.  In my Opinion the UC520 is a much superior solution.

The SMB market is slow with the economy what it is these days.  (Did you notice that Cisco just dropped the price of the UC520?) With Cisco Configuration Assistant 2.0 on the horizon I think this bodes well for Cisco, but I think they should up the ante. 

How you ask?

Well, the 2.0 version of CCA looks like it will unleash many of the commandline IOS only features of the UC520 by allowing even more configuration of the Communications Manager Express feature set from the GUI.  This is good stuff. An add on I'd like to see is additional  CTI integration as a standard feature not an add-on.  Right now the stand alone Cisco Unified Call Connector is a separate license fee.  I think Cisco should give this software away in order to encourage  upgrades to Call Connector Server and Call Connector Mobility.  A VOIP system should have full windows/outlook integration out of the box, in fact most lesser solutions do.

That's just my .02

What do you think?

Ted Read more