Zoom Phone Becomes Primary Phone Service Across UC Davis Campus
Quick Summary
- UC Davis is successfully migrating faculty and staff to Zoom Phone, integrating over 6,800 total phone lines into the Zoom Workplace application.
- The new solution offers improved flexibility, productivity, and accessibility benefits, including features like real-time captioning.
- The migration process was recently made more efficient by adding the ability to remotely convert existing Cisco desk phones to be Zoom-compatible, simplifying the transition for end users.
A new phone solution is bringing improved flexibility, productivity, and accessibility to the UC Davis campus. Most faculty and staff are now using Zoom Phone, with more scheduled to move over soon. Here's a look at the Zoom Phone numbers across campus:
Zoom Phone at UC Davis
- Zoom Phone application users: 4,900+
- Desk phone users: 1,270+
- Common area phone users: 700
- Departments/Units: 18
- Total lines moved to Zoom Phone: 6,800+
Zoom Phone boasts several benefits to other telephony solutions and has also received positive feedback among Aggies.
“I think Zoom Phone streamlines my work life,” said Steve Pigg, IT Director for the College of Engineering. “It’s one less app that I have to maintain and works exactly as expected. I love it.”
Zoom Phone Benefits
- Convenient & easy to use: Place and receive calls from your university phone number on or off campus.
- Enhanced accessibility: Generate real-time live captioning for audio calls, voicemail transcription, and more through the Zoom Workplace app.
- Integrated communication & productivity: Easily switch from audio calls on your desk phone to a Zoom Meeting on your desktop or mobile device.
- Automatic Spam Marking saves time and energy, identifying suspicious incoming calls as “Maybe Spam”.
IET Pilots Zoom Phone
The Zoom Phone Migration Project officially began in fall 2023 with Information and Educational Technology (IET) serving as the pilot group for the new phone service. Users in IET moved to Zoom Phone from Cisco Jabber. This added calling to the Zoom Workspace app, the same app most of campus was already using for videoconferencing. The team developed a myriad of support documentation to help users make the transition, including a website, flyers, a video, Knowledge Base articles, and regular informational emails. These materials can be found on the Zoom Phone project page: https://iet.ucdavis.edu/zoom-phone.
Zoom Phone Expands to Campus
After a successful IET pilot, the team shifted focus to the rest of campus, contacting various departments to find the perfect candidates to move to the softphone solution. They found eager first takers in the Office of Research and College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The team worked successfully with IT directors in those and other units and moved thousands of users to Zoom Phone throughout the summer and fall of 2024.
The next challenge for the Zoom Phone Migration Team was how to move individual users with desk phones who were unable to move to the app-only solution, call centers, and common area phones with no one user tied to the line. For some, they deployed new phones that were fully compatible with Zoom Phone, allowing them to move to the new phone service but still use a desk phone.
New Solution Saves Time and Energy
In July 2025, Zoom rolled out a new compatibility feature. This allowed the Zoom Phone Migration Team to test a creative solution for converting existing Cisco phones to Zoom Phone. This had the potential to save time and energy.
“New functionality recently released in a coordinated effort from Zoom and Cisco has provided a roadmap for converting existing Cisco phones in-place to be Zoom compatible. This process updates the Cisco phones firmware allowing it to re-home with the Zoom Cloud solution. The migration allows for a quick and simple transition for already deployed Cisco phones, to become part of the Zoom Phone ecosphere. The Cisco phones will show “Zoom Phone” in the display and Zoom features will be immediately available,” explained Brent Hammond, Communications and Network Technical Supervisor for IET Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS).
The Cisco on Zoom configuration was tested in a pilot in August 2025. The migration was executed remotely. Converting the Cisco phones in place minimized the impact on end users and saved time and energy preventing the need for phone installation crews. Leading up to the migration, Aggies received regular informational emails, including a new user guide and Knowledge Base articles to explain how to use their phones once they move to Zoom.
You can learn more about Zoom Phone on the project website at: https://iet.ucdavis.edu/zoom-phone