Video and Telemedicine

For businesses, bringing people together face-to-face leads to advantages like improved communication, better, faster decision making and more effective team work.

In the case of telemedicine, high-quality video conferencing can save lives. Telemedicine can mean many different things, but often it involves connecting patients in small, remote clinics to specialists in large urban health care centers.

Telemedicine makes it possible for patients who need acute, chronic or emergency care to meet face-to-face with highly-trained specialists without the expense, inconvenience and delay associated with travel. Local providers perform assessments and provide care under the guidance of the specialists.

For patients, this means improved access to high-quality care. For local clinics, it means the ability to serve more patients locally and for specialists, it means being able to efficiently deliver more care to more patients from a single, centralized location.

When Renown Health (Northern Nevada’s largest integrated healthcare network) decided to implement a comprehensive telemedicine program to serve rural residents, they evaluated solutions from a number of video conferencing vendors including Cisco (Tandberg) and Polycom. In the end, Renown selected Scopia video solutions from Avaya. The result is the highly successful R-TeleMed program, currently covering 25 specialties with more on the way.

Scopia video solutions offer a number of advantages over competing solutions. Scopia video is the only option that provides HD-quality in both the data and the personal-interaction channel. For a specialist, the ability to view a diagnostic image, for example, in HD is critically important. Scopia solutions also offer important advantages in terms of security, ease-of-use and interoperability with existing systems.

You can learn more about Avaya and Renown Health’s R-TeleMed program here.

Infographic: 5 Keys to Mobile Video

Incorporating mobile devices into enterprise videoconferencing requires a different strategy from implementing conference room video. Our new infographic shows the top five considerations when deploying mobile video solutions in the work place.

More than 70% of organizations are planning to get video capabilities within the next year, according to a study by Network Instruments.That rise in implementations means companies need to consider video in a way that is both cost-efficient in the short term and fits with long-term communications planning.

The benefits of mobile video conferencing include faster decision-making, enhanced collaboration, and improved sales and revenue. But businesses must also consider a solution that is easy to deploy and use.

See all five key considerations in our full infographic here: 5 Keys to Mobile Video.

Using the Cloud and Managed Services to Make More with Less

The bigger a company is the bigger their IT staff – a truism. While the best companies learn to scale operations and solutions beyond a 1:1 ratio, staff growth inevitably follows corporate success and computing sophistication. However, the vast majority of companies are on the ‘understaffed’ side of this growth in a significant way frequently lacking dedicated IT staff completely. The majority of companies rely instead on local consulting companies, staff with rudimentary knowledge, or the teenage children of the owner (in all seriousness I’ve seen this too many times to count).

A large non-profit I spoke with not long ago has a staff of over 1,000 with geographically dispersed sites, but an IT staff of about 6. They certainly had little hope of getting everything done through no fault of their own with so few people to manage a dozen servers and over a dozen remote locations. This last case is extreme in its ratio, but the limited staff overwhelmed by the amount of work and its complexity is all too common. How would they have time, initiative, know-how to move to the cloud?

One of the keys is timing, not finding the time, selecting the window that helps avoid disrupting ongoing operations or slipping delivery dates. While some companies make an outright strategic commitment to the cloud diving in deep, the majority want to put their toe in the water to test it out. Adoption of cloud computing is being used far more than most people realize from payroll by ADP to CRM & SFA (salesforce.com, NetSuite, Intuit), and hosted VoiP/PBX systems. While cloud computing is the most important change in IT today, the majority of companies systems are still run in-house and moving anything to the cloud creates significant discomfort for many.

Testing the Waters

Here are some steps for deciding how to test these water vapors:

1. Select a provider; learn how things work; make a plan.
2. New initiatives make an excellent choice in generally avoiding CapEx, avoiding impact to current systems, and significant unknowns surrounding total computing requirements and change management.
3. Integrate initial efforts with already planned deployments.
4. Use existing maintenance windows for integration and testing.
5. Pick a system/solution that has low business impact risk – not payroll, CRM, SFA.
6. Duplicate your production system, or use a non-production environment (development, test, QA) though alternative environments are uncommon for smaller companies.
7. Avoid “leaps of faith”. They don’t really work for computing solutions… test, test, re-test.

 

Common Uses

• Secure file sharing with your extended team. From managing your own file system to using cloud SharePoint, there are many options available.
• Everybody has email, but many cloud solutions offer integrated calendars, folders, document management, and more making teams far more productive with all the email touch points.
• Expand web and application servers to reduce latency for remote workers, improve overall scalability, or free expensive hardware for more critical in-house computing.
• Establish a backup service – very easy with commonly available tools with direct file system integration as a drive letter (Windows) or volume (Unix).
• Duplicate databases for high-availability or business-continuity use cases – MySQL Cluster, Oracle streams, SQLServer replication, etc. from the current system to a cloud database instance. Implementing a redundant database would be the easier and safer use, but with the option to change to a high-availability solution at a future date.
• For some companies with more sophisticated data needs (and staff), data warehousing and lightweight BI of the reporting variety would be a good option. Performance is sometimes an issue for cloud databases. But for prototyping, developing and more, it could be a good starting point. Moving to dedicated, private cloud solutions, provide excellent capabilities for databases while supporting the dramatic benefits of the cloud simultaneously.

Strategic technology to deliver optimal customer service

Today’s customer requires instantaneous resolutions on the communications channel they prefer, but most businesses aren’t able to fully meet these demands.

Forrester examines the technology updates needed to empower agents and managers to deliver quality customer experiences, every time, regardless of the channel.

To learn the four key solutions that efficient and empowered agents need, download Forrester’s The Strategic Role of Customer Experience Technologies.

The Secret to Leveraging Mobile Devices at Work

Mobile devices like tablets, laptops and smartphones have transformed the way we communicate and share our lives, both professionally and personally.

How can you leverage this technology to your competitive advantage in today’s tough economy?

Watch the video MobileCollaboration Solutions from Avaya to learn about integrated, simple-to-deploy and easy-to-use tools to leverage mobile technology, regardless of your budget or bandwidth.

The benefits of mobile collaboration from Avaya include:

• Flexible, adaptable and scalable solutions that create efficiencies and put critical resources at your fingertips.
• Easy access and visibility into employee availability, keeping everyone updated.
• Secure and quick information sharing using user-friendly, drag-and-drop functionality.
• Predictable, solid return on investment.
• Ability to effectively reach new customers and communicate with current clients.
• Round-the-clock service and support so your IT team can focus on core business initiatives.

See how Avaya can find you a solution that works with your budget and helps you get ahead: http://bit.ly/101P4AL 

Case study: Launching 4,000 video conferencing accounts in 5 weeks

Today’s slate of personal video conferencing systems –when deployed to a critical mass of employees – have overcome the limitations andbad reputation of the past and have significant benefits beyond travel savings:

• Improved team building
• Better integration of resources
• Faster decision making 
•  Richer interaction

 To demonstrate the capability of video in the modernworkplace, Avaya implemented the SCOPIA desktop to 4,000 users worldwide,including the management team and field sales and marketing teams.

 In the new white paper (sponsored by Avaya) “The Viabilityof Large-Scale Personal Video Conferencing Deployments,” Wainhouse Researchtook a look at the results after two months, analyzing the early conclusionsand benefits after more than 35,000 meetings with 85,000 attendees were held.

Among the conclusions:

•  
• “Click-to-connect” conferencingsolutions can enable sales to connect with customers and prospects with aricher, more productive interaction experience.

• Product development and marketingteams reported that having everyone video-enabled made the teams more cohesiveand improved overall working relationships.
• Global logistics and supply chainmanagement teams used video to reduce on-site supplier meetings and to makein-person increasingly more productive since relationships can be establishedbeforehand.

To read Wainhouse Research’s recommendations andlessons learned when implementing person video into the enterprise, downloadthe free white paper here: http://bit.ly/VAqloa  

How Avaya Stacks up Against Enterprise Video Competitors

Video is changing the workplace, and by most expert accounts, will enable more remote workers than ever and even replace phone conversations someday. Several major factors explain why the rollout has been slower than originally predicted, including worries about cost, lack of sufficient bandwidth and trouble scaling solutions to meet the needs of individual businesses.

In “Pervasive Video in the Enterprise,” Constellation Research Vice President and Principal Analyst Dr. E. Brent Kelly examines these pain points and compares the five major vendors in the space: Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, Polycom and Vidyo. The report gives you a real-world formula to compare the total cost of ownership of implementing universal video.

According to the report, the main reason desktop video can be so expensive and not yet pervasive lies in the cost of a hardware multipoint infrastructure and the network required to support ubiquitous HD video. Avaya’s solutions, with a software-based multipoint infrastructure and industry-low bandwidth needs, are the clear future of pervasive video.

Kelly’s conclusions find Avaya Aura Conferencing to be the most affordable, even balancing for different bandwidth requirements and vendor discounts. Avaya’s Aura and Flare solutions can also claim:

 

• ·       Lowest bandwidth requirement of all compared vendors (1280 kbps)
• ·       Lower one-time costs than Cisco, Microsoft and Polycom
• ·       Exponentially lower total cost of ownership than Cisco, even when a 60% Cisco street discount is applied to the formula
• ·       Integrated call control and integrated audio and video conferencing for full third-party integration with all competitors
• ·       A system specifically designed to handle audio conferencing and video on the same platform, making it quite flexible to effectively scale for either audio, video or mixed deployments

 

Click here to see the multiple cost breakdowns from Constellation’s formula, compare total cost of ownership, read a thorough explanation of each vendor’s offerings and learn about the advantages of adding pervasive video to your business.

Seven Really Good Reasons to look at Hosted VoIP

Outrageously Affordable, Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Business is more unpredictable than ever––growth one year, contraction the next year. Ideally, you want to be able to secure the most advanced technologies without having to spend significant money upfront on hardware. Hosted VoIP makes this possible. With a Hosted VoIP solution, you save from  day one on your monthly communications service fees and upfront capital costs. All you need are VoIP-ready handsets. That’s right, no expensive boxes or systems required.

And the last thing you want to do in this economy, or any economic climate or that matter, is spend tens of thousands of dollars on a phone system. With Hosted VoIP, there are no large servers or systems to purchase. Other than the phones, there are no capital expenditures to depreciate over time. Which means it comes off of your books. And with low monthly communications service fees, you get an outrageously affordable solution that connects your business and employees to a host of capabilities thatdramatically improve productivity.

Minimal IT Support Required

Unlike the complex traditional phone systems that sit in a closet, Hosted VoIP requires very little IT support or training to administer. You can quickly add users, delete users, enable additional features––all without additional support or staff. The reason? A simple web interface. In fact, a Hosted VoIP solution is so simple, users can manage their own features right from their computers. It’s one management issue that can be taken off the shoulders of your IT or Office Manager. Who knows, maybe they’ll even thank you for a change.

Business Continuity

Let’s assume some worst case scenarios: Your building is flooded. Or an earthquake wreaks havoc. Or a fire knocks out power for miles around. Now, let’s assume you have Hosted VoIP. Want to know how things would be?

Business would go on––uninterrupted. Since no physical box resides on your premises––it resides in redundant and secure data centers––customers can still connect with your business because employees can work from anywhere.

The reason? A web-based portal that allows you to quickly forward calls to cell phones or other phones in unaffected locations. It’s an incredibly fast and easy way to take control of a disastrous situation and ensure that anything major becomes just a minor incident.

Scale Up/Scale Down

Five year projections? Ten year projections? Frankly, for most businesses, it has become nearly impossible to make accurate predictions. It’s why you need a highly-flexible technology like Hosted VoIP. Hosted VoIP is a sure way to give you the peace of mind that comes from not being constrained by a phone system that only supports a fixed number of employees and can be costly and complicated to expand. If resources become squeezed, you can quickly scale back. On the other hand, if you open a new branch office, or need to provide remote communications, or just need to prepare for a spike in demand around the holidays, it’s quick and easy to scale up without any disruption to your business.

Total flexibility. Easy to manage. Quick to deploy.

Hosted VoIP is a decision with only upside

More Functionality

Even if you’re jaded about technology, once you see all of the advanced features and functionality that are available from a Hosted VoIP system, you’ll be seriously impressed by the impact it can have on your business. And the best part is you can activate only those features that you need to make your company more productive. It starts with HD voice, the clearest a business call can get. That’s just scratching the surface. Through Hosted VoIP, you can have voicemails automatically forwarded to your email; you can make a call from a cell phone or remote office and have it appear as a call from the main office. You also have the ability to integrate with Outlook or Salesforce.com.

Basically there isn’t much you can’t do with Hosted VoIP.

Automatic Upgrades

With Hosted VoIP, there’s no box on your premises, so there’s no hardware to upgrade in order to take advantage of new features and technologies. Because your service is outsourced, upgrades are provided through software changes that happen automatically in the background. Of course, you’ll be made aware of any new capabilities as they come on line. That way, you can quickly utilize them to support your employees and better service customers.

So stay focused on your business and leave the upgrades to your Hosted VoIP service provider.

Focus on Your Business

One of the best ways to stay competitive is to focus on your core business. With a Hosted VoIP solution, the management of increasinglycomplex business communications is done for you off-site. It all happens in the background while you and your employees utilize advanced features and productivity tools like voice, web meetings, and internet fax to take up new goals and take down obstacles that stand in their way.

This information was taken from an article written for a leading hosted voice over IP provider. If you are interested in learning more, contact me and I will be sure to give you as much information as I can to assist in helping you make the right decision for your company

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Video Success Improved by Careful Planning

Target Key Business Processes to Maximize the ROI of Your Video Initiatives.

Simple is a powerful concept, in the right hands. Think of a pencil. A simple pencil in the hands of an artist can create breathtaking images that touch and inspire viewers. However, that same pencil in other hands might be lucky craft a credible stick figure.
In other words, success is more than choosing a great tool.

Simplicity does matter, of course—particularly when it comes to rolling out a video collaboration solution to a workforce that is not accustomed to connecting and communicating by video.

However, the real key to reaping the benefits of video collaboration is identifying the business processes you want to improve and then targeting the video solution to address those needs.

Lawrence Byrd, Director of Collaboration Solutions at Avaya recently sat down with industry Analyst Gary Audin, of Dephi Inc to discuss the current state of video collaboration technology, including several exciting new developments that are both simplifying and accelerating the introduction of video collaboration into the enterprise.

You can listen to the podcast here.

They also discussed the importance of identifying and targeting key business processes for improvement when selecting and deploying a video collaboration solution.

Where are the business bottlenecks? Could product development be accelerated with better collaboration solutions, including video? What about customer service. What would it mean to a business if service representatives could invite customers into a video conference to help solve tough issues? How about sales? Would bringing solutions experts into more sales meetings via video allow a company to close more deals, faster?

When companies are able to target specific business processes for improvement through video collaboration, they are able to make smarter decisions about product, implementation, rollout and support—and more importantly, achieve a faster, measurable ROI.

How to sell your management on a new IP based phone system

An Internet Protocol (IP)-based phone system is much more than a few new phones plugged into your network.
It transforms your phone system into a next-generation communications hub, complete with cutting-edge
technologies that let your organization deliver better customer service while cutting costs. An IP-based phone
system piggybacks on your IP-network, connecting to the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) via your
Internet connection. Use this checklist to sell management on a new IP-based phone system:
1. Reduce the cost of phone charges.
IP telephony can significantly reduce the cost of your long-distance charges. It also reduces the
number of circuits to the PSTN you must pay for; for companies with several branch offices, this can
be a significant savings.
2. Reduce the cost of network management.
Moving to an IP-based phone system lets you consolidate your data and voice networks onto one
network, which translates to less money and time spent on network management.
3. Provide better customer service.
An IP-based phone system can be integrated with other business applications you use to provide
customer service, particularly a customer relationship management (CRM) program.
4. Simplify phone system management.
An IP private branch exchange (PBX) has an easy-to-use, Web-based interface that can be used to
make changes to any extension on the network. Your IT team can even move and add users remotely.
5. Gain enterprise-scale features.
IP-based phone systems include sophisticated features that are otherwise out of reach for all but the
largest companies. You can add an auto-attendant, integrated conferencing, and even a call center to
your phone system.
6. Leverage new technologies.
IP telephony enables more than VoIP (Voice over IP) phone calls. It also enables advanced communications applications like unified messaging, which integrates voicemail, e-mail, and texts, and Unified
Communications (UC), which integrates real-time and non-real communication media with collaboration tools.