3/16/2011 -- At its Cisco Partner Summit in New Orleans earlier this month, Cisco Systems Inc. announced its Unified Communications (UC) 320 and Unified Communications Manager (CM) Business Edition 3000, new Unified Communications entries that it says are designed for small and medium-sized (SMB) businesses. Cisco also unveiled Partner Advisor, a new sales productivity initiative that aims to connect Cisco Select and Cisco Registered partners with agents who can (notionally) personalize and accelerate the sales process.

Cisco positions the UC 320 as a collaboration system designed to support single site environments of between two and 24 users. The UC 320 includes both data and wireless support, in addition to features like voicemail and automated attendant. The Unified CM Business Edition 3000, on the other hand, is designed for larger and/or distributed environments of up to 300 users with support for as many as 10 sites. It, too, supports features like voice mail and auto attendant, along with more sophisticated amenities -- such as, for example, the ability to park or hold calls, conferencing, single number reach (to forward calls to mobile workers) and extension mobility. Cisco also announced its Unified SIP Phone 3905, a new IP-based phone designed to complement the Unified CM Business Edition 3000.

Select Cisco partners spoke glowingly about the new deliverables. According to Reza Khorramian, vice president of sales with Business Communications Solutions (a Cisco-certified small business and UC partner), the new Unified Communications Manager Business Edition 3000 is a snap to set up. "After a brief introduction and training ... we installed it with a live network connection to the public telephone network. Setup was very straightforward and simple, especially compared with other PBX systems we have installed," said Khorrmian, in a prepared release. "There were no issues getting the system installed and adding and changing users and features. Installation did not require in-depth network training and we were able to get the system successfully making calls in less than an hour."

Cisco says it's specifically targeting an SMB segment that it feels is underserved by existing UC offerings. It's also trying to combat the sense that Cisco's UC stack is too complicated or costly for SMB buyers, argues Rick Moran, vice president of marketing for Cisco's Small Business Technology Group. "UC isn't just for the higher-end customers, said Moran, in a video presentation. The new UC offerings "really [allow] you, whether you're a business of two or [a business of] 20,000, to have the right solution from Cisco."
-- By Stephen Swoyer