The Cisco 7961 is designed to meet the communication needs of professional workers in enclosed office environments — employees who experience a high amount of phone traffic in the course of a business day. The Cisco 7961 provides six programmable line and feature keys (four more than the Cisco 7940) and supports the Cisco Expansion Module making it the preferred phone for telephone receptionists. It also includes high-quality, hands-free speakerphone capability and built-in headset connectivity. A large pixel-based display provides supplemental information, access to applications, and makes it easy to use telephone features.

The Cisco 7961 is dynamic and designed to grow with system capabilities. Features will keep pace with new changes via software updates to the phone's flash memory. Many of the features below will have expanded capabilities in the future.