VQ’s Monthly News
August 2026

From crisis response to TMS migration at scale

This month’s newsletter is packed with resources for organizations managing mission-critical collaboration environments – from preparing for Cisco TMS end-of-support to understanding what sovereign deployments really require.

We also look closer at crisis coordination, exploring how Advanced Conferencing Center (ACC) can support complex incident response when different teams, stakeholders and external partners all need to work together.

And, following Cisco GSX, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to meet with us. It was great reconnecting with the Cisco community on what’s top of mind for the collaboration sector.

The Crisis Call: Coordinating incident response communications

When a serious incident happens, getting everyone onto the same call is only the start.

Technical teams, legal and comms specialists, executives and external partners can all be involved in the response, with each requiring different access levels and visibility all while operating as one coordinated effort.

Robb Boyd explores what a crisis call requires and how VQ Conference Manager’s Advanced Conferencing Center (ACC) provides the structured environment for complex, high-stakes communications.

9,000+ Cisco devices. One seamless TMS migration.

How do you replace Cisco TMS across more than 9,000 collaboration devices without disrupting your user base?

That was the challenge facing one of the world’s largest national intelligence agencies, which operates more than 9,000 Cisco collaboration devices supporting over 60,000 users.

Cloud-based management was not an option, and the replacement needed to integrate with multiple CUCM clusters while preserving existing hierarchical address books and keeping the experience unchanged for users.

Working with us, the agency completed its migration to VQ Conference Manager within a planned two-day window. Conferencing resumed on schedule with no noticeable change for end users, while administrators gained more automated and scalable ways to manage tasks such as certificate management.

The agency has now retired TMS ahead of its end-of-support deadline and is planning to roll out further VQ Conference Manager capabilities.

Read the case study

Replacing Cisco TMS? Compare the features side-by-side

“I need to replace Cisco TMS. Does VQ Conference Manager offer the feature I rely on?”

It’s one of the most common questions organizations ask us as they prepare for TMS end-of-support in January 2027.

Our latest comparison provides a practical side-by-side look at Cisco TMS and VQ Conference Manager across the areas administrators ask us about most, including:

• Meeting scheduling and One Button to Push
• Cisco collaboration device management and automation
• Address books
• Analytics and reporting
• Device database requirements
• Multi-tenancy and access control

The aim isn’t simply to replicate TMS functionality, but to show where a modern platform can reduce administration and extend what teams can do.

Explore the TMS feature comparison.

Deploying conferencing into high-security environments: What do you need to know?

For government, defense, intelligence and other regulated organizations, deploying conferencing software raises questions that go far beyond technical queries.

Where is the data held? Who controls the management layer? What security assurance exists? And how does vendor location, sovereignty requirements and regulation affect deployment decisions?

Our latest blog tackles some of the questions we hear most frequently when organizations assess collaboration platforms for high-security and sovereign environments, covering areas including:

• Role-based access and meeting security controls

• Self-hosted and air-gapped deployment

• Security testing and independent assurance

• GDPR and EU Cyber Resilience Act considerations

• SSO, MFA and enterprise identity management

Read the full blog

Catch up on demand

We’ve also got two pieces to catch up on this month: our VQ Conference Manager 4.9 webinar, now available on demand, and a new Cisco Partner Spotlight video featuring VQ Communications.

Cisco Partner Spotlight: Predictability in a Chaotic World

Cisco has put the spotlight on VQ Communications in a new partner video exploring how the VQ and Cisco partnership helps organizations keep critical communications secure, predictable and scalable.

Against a backdrop of global uncertainty, the video looks at why mature, on-premises collaboration infrastructure still matters for organizations that need control over where and how their communications run – and how VQ builds on Cisco technology to support secure, mission-critical environments.

Watch the Cisco Partner Spotlight

Discover what’s new in VQ Conference Manager 4.9

Take a closer look at the latest VQ Conference Manager release, including the multilingual Meeting Services interface, UI and accessibility enhancements, new occupancy and environmental analytics, and continued security and performance improvements.

Watch the webinar on demand.