Tag Archives: cisco ip phones

Cisco 7800 Series IP Phones – Solid Performers

It was exciting to write about the Cisco 8800 series of IP phones. I mean, they have nice colour monitors, Gigabit connections, HD video cameras. Those are SEXY phones!

Then, there are the Cisco 7800 series IP phones. Solid, feature-rich, reliable, secure, ergonomic, cost-effective, which is all great. They’re affordable phones that are a super choice for companies who are using digital or analog phone systems and considering switching to an IP-based phone system to take advantage of different features VoIP has to offer.

Cisco 7800 series IP phones

Cisco’s 7861 IP Phone – 16 lines, great for call managers and executives who spend a lot of time on the phone.

Great. Wonderful. But sexy? Not really. Still, a lot of people are going to find these phones attractive because of their simplicity. They don’t use much power, have a decent feature set, are ergonomic and are nicely designed. The wide-band audio and full-duplex speakerphones will be appreciated, I’m sure.

Does it matter if a business phone has a large colour monitor, or enables video conferencing from your desk? If it matters to you, then Cisco’s 8800 series is probably for you. For those looking for a dependable, reliable desk phone that’s got the features the majority of businesses will need, the 7800 series is for you.

What’s a Collaboration Endpoint?

col·lab·o·rate

verb: to work jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something

If you’ve read any literature from Cisco, you’ll know they refer to their phones as collaboration endpoints.

Seems like a hi-filutin’ way to talk about a phone.

At least, it would seem that way at first glance. After all, a phone’s a phone’s a phone. Right?

Collaboration Endpoint: A Worthwhile Term

Cisco would be happy to prove you wrong, as their IP-based 8800 series of phones, I mean, Collaboration Endpoints do their utmost to help you communicate clearly and effectively. And if you’re lucky, your work involves producing or creating something of value. So, a Cisco phone may be just what you need to help you collaborate with your co-workers.

Cisco IP Phone 8865 - a video collaboration endpoint

Take Cisco’s 8865 IP Phone. It’s a video phone, digital camera, phone, speakerphone, and uses Bluetooth to connect to your mobile phone or a Bluetooth wireless headset. You can route voice calls from your mobile over to your desk phone with this system. You can also continue to use your wireless Bluetooth headset from one device to the other.

Sounds great, but who’s going to use all this stuff? As it turns out, there’s pretty much something for everyone in here. Consider Millenials. Studies have shown Millenials don’t like desk phones. Many prefer their smart phones over a desk phone. More importantly, how they communicate shifts, as they will start a discussion via text, then transition to a video chat, and then to messenger or text chats again. IP phones with video capability that can interface with smartphones may be important to Millenials as they shift into office-based knowledge-worker roles.

On the video side of things, being able to see the person you’re communicating with makes it easier to communicate clearly, build trust and enhance long-term relationships. Whether it’s with customers or co-workers, communicating clearly is a necessity. When you consider that 70% of communication is non-verbal, the importance of video communication increases greatly. Forward-thinking businesses recognize that video communication can provide a significant competitive advantage and increase staff productivity.

When you next hear the term “Collaboration Endpoint”, you might want to think of it differently. Perhaps you’ll think of it as a tool that helps your team communicate clearly with customers and each other, that gives your business a competitive advantage and that meets the communication needs of the newest to the most senior people in your organization.