Modernizing Unified Communications for 1,000 Users: From Legacy On-Prem to Cloud UCaaS

Built for a World That No Longer Exists

A regional organization running a large, distributed workforce had built its communications infrastructure around Cisco Unified Communications Manager — a system that had served its purpose but was showing its age. End-of-support Cisco 6945 desk phones populated locations across the organization, legacy fax machines were still part of daily operations, and the workforce itself was shifting.

Staff were increasingly working hybrid schedules and needed to stay connected and reachable whether they were at their desk, working remotely, or in the field with clients. The existing system wasn’t built for that reality. It was built for a world where everyone sat at a desk, picked up a handset, and stayed put.

One Solution Had to Solve Several Problems at Once

With roughly 1,000 users to support, the organization needed a communications overhaul that went beyond simply replacing old hardware. Staff needed the ability to communicate with colleagues and clients from anywhere — without being tethered to a desk phone or forced to give out personal cell numbers. The blurring of business and personal communication had become a real operational and privacy concern, particularly for staff working directly with member clients.

The internal IT team needed a single management interface to handle phones, lines, call queues, voicemails, and faxing — rather than juggling fragmented systems. And the organization needed to do all of this without absorbing a massive capital expenditure. Buying new desk phones for 1,000 users simply wasn’t a viable path forward. Faxing also remained a compliance and operational requirement that any new solution had to accommodate.

Cisco Webex: One Platform for the Entire Workforce

NetSphere introduced Cisco Webex as the organization’s new unified communications platform — a cloud-based UCaaS solution purpose-built for exactly this kind of distributed, hybrid workforce. Webex gave every employee a business phone number accessible through a mobile or desktop app, eliminating the need for desk hardware for the vast majority of the organization. Staff could now make and receive business calls, manage voicemail, and communicate internally without ever exposing a personal number.

For the IT team, Webex’s cloud dashboard consolidated management of phones, lines, call queues, voicemails, and eFaxing into a single interface — a significant reduction in administrative overhead. Dedicated call queues were configured for crisis response and community-facing teams, ensuring 24/7 availability for the organization’s most critical lines. PBX setup was handled for both office and residential locations, giving each environment the right configuration without over-engineering either. Integration with both on-premises and cloud Active Directory enabled single sign-on, simplifying deployment and ongoing user management. For locations and roles that still required desk hardware, compatible physical phones were retained selectively — eliminating unnecessary purchases while keeping critical positions properly equipped.

One of the more complex pieces of the engagement was the number porting process — migrating approximately 1,000 business numbers from the legacy on-premises system to the Webex cloud platform. Each number had to be ported without disruption to ongoing operations, preserving established contact information for staff, departments, and client-facing lines across the organization.

$51,000 in Savings. A More Capable Organization.

The financial impact was immediate and substantial. The projected capital expenditure to refresh hardware organization-wide came in at approximately $255,000. The Webex OpEx model came in around $204,000 — delivering roughly $51,000 in savings while providing a more capable, more flexible solution than new hardware ever could have.

• Employees across the organization could now be reached through a dedicated business number regardless of where they were working — with nothing more than an app on their phone or laptop, eliminating personal number exposure entirely.
• The IT team gained dramatically better visibility into call activity across the agency — inbound, outbound, queues, and usage patterns — along with a management experience that reduced supporting 1,000 users down to a single, intuitive dashboard.
• Onboarding new users, updating call routing, and managing lines no longer required the overhead the legacy system demanded. What previously took significant IT effort became a streamlined, cloud-managed process.
• Decommissioning the on-premises Cisco UCM infrastructure freed up physical space and resources in the data center, reducing operating costs and moving the organization another step closer to a cloud-first infrastructure strategy.
• The organization moved from aging, end-of-life infrastructure to a modern, scalable platform — and came out ahead financially in the process.