Prime is Coming out of the (Phone) Closet- Cloud Computing, Cloud Phones, Cloud Business Management

We went to a seminar this past week. We followed up with some pretty intensive vendor training from our partners- and there will be more on their offerings in the coming weeks. We learned a lot- and would love to share it with you.

Here are some reasons to give serious consideration to cloud-based business services.

BYOD

The “bring your own device” (BYOD) movement is rapidly altering the business landscape. Employees want to use the power and convenience of their smartphones to access data, sales reports, and other tools to enhance efficiency. Likewise, enterprises appreciate what improved productivity generated by the BYOD movement can do for the bottom line.

Immunity From Disaster

Another major benefit of the cloud is disaster management. Cloud-based communications systems include automatic redundancy. Voice, data, and all digital information are typically routed to multiple data centers. The days of a business losing business hour-by-hour when its phone system goes down is a thing of the past. Fires, super storms, equipment failures, and even cyber-attacks are no match for the built-in redundancy of IP-based telecommunications.

Those that had embraced VoIP phones and cloud-based computing on the East Coast prior to Superstorm Sandy were often able to continue operations when others with traditional systems were down for days.

Business Management “To Go”

For business managers and executives, cloud-based operations allow them to, in fact, be “two places at once.” One can head out to an impromptu but vital sales call without worrying about what will be missed while you’re gone. The advantages of a fully integrated system go well beyond the mere ability to stay in touch via smartphones. Full, seamless integration of all company operations is possible in the cloud, and it can be done securely.

OfficeSuite is one such platform that can integrate your office phones, mobile devices, and data networks into a single system. Over 100,000 business professionals nationwide already enjoy the ease and efficiency of cloud-based communications and business management. Companies like Broadview Networks has already helped many clients to realize productivity gains through OfficeSuite’s business phone systems.

No longer want to be tethered to your office phone? Move your operations to the cloud and you will feel liberated as you can conduct essential business from anywhere at any time – and on any device.

Scalability

Phones that work over the Internet can be set up without the need for telephone installers at your premises. Better yet, as soon as you add staff or new locations, the system is readily scalable. Grow as you need to without having to spend precious capital for new equipment. As you grow, simply add new licenses for your new employees and set them up on the system in minutes.

The number of businesses around the world that will be using Internet-based phone systems is expected to double in 2013, to over 100 million. There’s a reason for this communications revolution, so see how your productivity can soar with cloud phones and cloud-based business management.

The Big 2012 Communications Predictions: How Are They Faring

As a global leader inbusiness communications systems, Avaya takes its position seriously. That’s why at the beginning of the year, it gets its best thinkers together to make predictions about communications technology trends, service innovations and broad market drivers.

Now that we’re into 2013, Avaya decided to take stock and see which predictions have been on target and which have missed the mark. You can see the full report at http://www.avaya.com/usa/resource/assets/whitepapers/12CommunicationTrendsfor2012Update.pdf

Here’s a synopsis:

#1: Mobility raises the expectation of availability. There is no question about the accuracy of this prediction—but it probably didn’t go far enough. Mobility is no longer just about availability. In its mid-year update, Avaya notes that employees now expect the same features and functionality in mobile devices as they have in their office.

#2: Contact centers test the value of voice. This is true, but it’s turning out to be a bit more complicated. In its update, Avaya points out that in today’s customer service world, it’s not about pitting one mode (voice, e-mail, text, etc.) against another, but “offering the right channel at the right time.” This requires proactively determining what kind of experience the user wants. “Once you identify the preferred channels, you can focus energy and resources on making them — and the customer experience — great.”

#3Contextual data spans the last mile of personal productivity.  Contextual data is information about the communications, not the communications itself.  Having contextual data easily accessible, for example, lets you retrieve a dial-in number and passcode after being dropped from a conference call. Or lets you instantly see a list of participants with information about how you’ve interacted with them and the documents and other resources relevant to the interaction. Getting contextual data is happening, but perhaps not as fast as expected. “At this point, contextual capabilities remain in their infancy,” Avaya notes, “with promising prototypes surfacing in the marketplace.”

#4: Businesses advance from social media to social business. Despite Facebook’s troubled stock market debut, social media is still hot. In the update, Avaya points out that companies increasingly use social media not only as a listening post but as a springboard to action. Establishing a command center for monitoring and responding to social media is becoming commonplace.

#5: Social media and customer care enter into an arranged marriage. Not only that, but the marriage seems happy all around. Avaya notes that as organizations get their arms around social media/customer care alignment, it helps them put real legs on their social media strategy.

#6: The SIP bar is raised again. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the foundation for streamlining enterprise networks and extending advanced communications to small and medium-size businesses. As more SIP-enabled applications become available, Avaya sees more organizations abandoning a cautious, stepwise approach to deploying SIP.

#7: Social interactions expose customer care’s flaws. There is no hiding in the world of social media.  Avaya notes that companies are getting used to its rough and tumble dynamics and responding by creating a culture of openness that encourages employees to engage.

#8: IT support staffs converge, part 2. This prediction will never be NOT true. But Avaya notes that while the movement to bring voice and data staffs together continues unabated, challenges keep arising (e.g., how to deploy unified communications.) Facing these challenges, IT continues to proceed cautiously “perhaps too much so in the eyes of some users,” notes Avaya.

#9: Continuous connectivity drives communications support services. Raw connectivity is critical to support services, allowing vendor support teams to “swarm” a customer problem using real-time by video and other tools.  In its mid-year update, Avaya notes that some companies are also migrating to other approaches, such as managed services, total outsourcing or software as a service (SaaS).

#10: Clients take control of managed services. IT departments are becoming more discriminating in the managed services they purchase and asking tougher questions, such as “Are our IT operating costs predictable? Do we have the IT staff we need? Do we have the budget to invest in the infrastructure to meet organization expectations?”  Answering “no” to any of these questions can make a company a prime candidate for managed services.

#11: UC managed services/outsourcing facilitates alignment between IT and business units.  Yes IT and business units keep cozying up. More and more, they are conducting unbiased analyses to determine whether creating a solution internally or turning to a service provider offers better value.

#12: “True” UC apps proliferate. Expectations for UC continue to grow, especially as BYOD enables true UC applications on smartphones, tablets and other devices. But barriers remain, as conflicting technologies and approaches limit usability and adoption. At midyear, Avaya is counseling companies to “discount the hype and do the homework.”

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 

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.

Figuring out Total Cost of Ownership for an IP Phone solution

For more than a decade companies large and small have been taking advantage of the new IP-based communications solutions.  Being able to unify all your communications—voice, e-mail, Internet and more—delivers a wide range of advantages. But do those advantages really put dollars on your bottom line?  What is your true total cost of ownership (TCO)?

Using years of data to collect on thousands of IP implementations, the consulting firm Nemertes has come up with some answers.

Savings —IP telephony does produce some real hard dollar savings that you can take to the bank:

• Wiring: By making it possible to consolidate Ethernet connections, IP systems typically deliver savings of about 40% on cabling costs in new buildings. Smart use of WiFi phones can cut the costs even further.
• Administration: As a company grows and changes, the office communications system inevitably needs some TLC, e.g., moving, adding or changing extensions. IP-based systems are much less expensive when it comes to day-to-day administration. According to Nemertes, many companies have justified their entire IP telephony rollout on administrative savings alone.
• Conferencing: Because IP systems have the ability to route a single call to multiple destinations simultaneously, this can eliminate the need for third-party conference call services, delivering a significant savings.
• Centralizing servers:  By centralizing servers at the data center, organizations report savings in the number of servers they need to buy, along with reduced tools and resources to manage applications such as unified messaging, conferencing, and even the communications system itself.
• Connecting offices: If you have multiple offices, linking them via SIP trunks as opposed to traditional PRI lines can save about 40% off the monthly circuit costs, though this varies based on calling requirements and the existing architecture.
• Mobile costs: Companies with many mobile employees eliminate roaming charges by routing mobile calls through the IP system (typically this involves first calling a local number and routing the call from the IP PBX through the corporate WAN).
• Staff: Many companies see savings in support staff, (i.e., using the automated attendant to replace a receptionist.)

Costs—IP systems aren’t all a one way street to savings—there are some extra costs.  According to Nemertes:

• Getting started with IP telephony takes more effort—implementation costs during the first two years run higher than with traditional communications systems.
• LAN upgrades –If you don’t have Power-Over-Ethernet switches on your LAN, you will need to get them. IP phone deployments typically require Power-Over-Ethernet switches to function in the event of a power failure. This can be an extra cost
• Many companies don’t budget for voice quality management and monitoring tools, which Nemertes says is a mistake. These management and monitoring tools cost more upfront, but pay for themselves in efficiencies over the long run.

Softphones: A Killer App?
A key advantage of IP systems that is increasingly coming into focus is the ability to equip employees with a softphone. A softphone essentially duplicates the capabilities of a deskphone on the screen of a PC or laptop. You get a dialpad, buttons for Hold, Conference, Transfer, etc., plus you can easily see a directory of contacts. Add a USB headset and you have everything you need to handle all your calls—no need for a phone. In addition to being less expensive than a deskphone, the softphone/headset is ideal for employees who are on the move a lot and also makes it unnecessary to upgrade LAN switches for PoE. A big variable, however, is the cost of the headset. Some companies are fine with a $20 to $100 headset; others say they can only get by with a much more expensive model.

Which Vendor: 
The Nemertes report provided some vendor-specific cost data, primarily for Avaya and Cisco, the only two companies for which it had enough data. Based on several scenarios, Nemertes found Avaya’s annualized cost savings to be consistently higher than the competition. The Nemertes study is available at: https://bitly.com/Sa8Qn4+. We recommend trying both Allworx and SNET Hosted Solutions in calculating total cost of ownership. In case you’re interested, give us a call or send us an email – and we would be happy to work with you on your solution!

Awareness: Avaya Style

Mobile devices, the “Bring Your Own Device” phenomenon, remote and mobile workers, and the globalization of business are all trends that have made an impact on the work environment – but can lead to information overload.

With tens of thousands of emails and instant messages sent and received every year, the average worker must deal with assigning importance amid an increasingly complicated meeting schedule (both virtual and physical). In turn, meeting efficiency demands that the most up-to-date documents and other structured and unstructured content be available.

In the Avaya Labs, researchers have developed Avaya Awareness, an intelligent engine that tracks each worker’s collaboration activities and learns  who and what are relevant to each user over time.

While presence technology simply lets co-workers know whether you’ve moved your mouse or typed on your keyboard in the last five minutes, Avaya Awareness is a cornerstone of effective and efficient collaboration –  learning collaboration preferences and the contextual relationships between people, devices, applications and locations.

It’s as if every worker has a personal assistant; it’s highly aware of what’s needed, knows the relevant people needed for the meeting, the documents that need to be shared, the physical or virtual location of the meeting, and other activities, and relevant events and conversations that preceded the meeting.

Read more about how Avaya Awareness improves conferencing and collaboration in our white paper Awareness: Driving the Next Generation of Productivity by senior vice president and general manager of Avaya Applications and Emerging Technologies, Brett Shockley.

BYOD Security: Going Beyond 802.1x

Today, businesses of all kinds are being forced to take a hard look at how they manage access to their network. Employees want to use the latest mobile device. Temporary workers and/or consultants need access to certain resources. Guests want to go online.

Leaving the door wide open for anyone, using any device, is a recipe for disaster.  In certain industries, such as retail, where credit card and identity theft are rampant, it can expose you to major losses and penalties. But every business, regardless of the industry they are in, risks loss of information and disruption on the network if they do not put network access controls in place.

Many businesses mistakenly think it’s enough to simply use the user name and password that are part of the IEEE 802.1x standard. The problem is that 802.1x wasn’t designed for the world of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). In a BYOD environment, you need to identify characteristics about both the user and the device. Also, while most new devices are equipped for 802.1x, they may not be configured or configured properly. For all of these reasons, relying on 8021x is not enough.

That’s why more and more companies are implementing centralized network access control (NAC) solutions. These are available from a range of providers—for example the one from Avaya is called Identity Engines.

Using a NAC solution, you can pre-establish identities or roles for people and devices.  You can set up policies for guests, business partners, employees, the type of device being used, etc. Instead of manually checking the credentials and configuring each user or device one by one as they seek access to your network, the NAC does it for you.

For example, you might set a policy so that an employee in human resources with responsibility for sensitive personnel issues gets unrestricted access to any location on your network, but only if their laptop complies with the appropriate security policy.

Other non-HR employees may get broad access, except for personnel and finance records, but the requirement for security software on their device may be different.

Business partners may get a different level of access—for example only to specific projects.

You can set different policies to take effect based on where a person is working—outside or inside the enterprise

You can set the policy so that an employee using a device issued or managed by your enterprise can get access to your network directly.  However, if the employee is bringing in a new or unmanaged device (i.e., BYOD), they are redirected to a portal (much like the portal you often encounter when staying in a hotel). Their device gets vetted and a decision is made to allow or deny the connection.

Employees or business partners can also be presented with a dissolvable application. This is software that is accessed via a portal and automatically configures the device based on your rules. It then “dissolves”: it doesn’t remain on the client device.  This is a great way to easily configure a large number of devices, for example to bring all employee laptops in compliance with a new 802.1x security policy.

More and more NAC solutions are appearing on the market as the BYOD phenomenon keeps growing. When you pick one, make sure it can work with your existing network infrastructure (wired and wireless) and directories. Your goal is to combine flexibility and control: there are going to be lots of different people and devices seeking access to your network. You want to be able to easily accommodate the safe ones without driving yourself crazy trying to identify the problems.    For more information, check out this Avaya whitepaper https://www.avaya.com/usa/registration/byod-and-the-wireless-revolution/;

And this IT guide to BYOD  https://www.avaya.com/usa/registration/it-guide-to-mobile-collaboration-byod/

The Four Key Performance Indicators of Customer Experience

You know customer service is important. Yes, you can compete on price and offer more features than your competitors. But to really build business, it all comes down to service. That’s what keeps customers coming back. Customer service is expensive, but losing customers and being forced to always attract new ones is even more costly.

If you agree with this—and most smart people business do—then you have probably realized something else: when it comes to costs, customer service can be a major sinkhole. You keep investing in creating a better customer experience, but your level of investment does not seem to bear any relationship to your outcomes.

How can this be? Why does investment in most business processes drive improved outcomes, but not in customer service?

A big part of the problem is that most businesses—even very small ones—take a fragmented, silo’ed approach to customer service and engagement. In fact, it’s almost inevitable that this is the case. Yes, delivering great customer service is a simple, straightforward idea. But getting a holistic view of how to really make it happen in your company? Not so simple. Today, most businesses have:

Multiple ways of delivering service, i.e. a web site, e-mail, social media as well as a traditional customer service center.
Various applications: pricing, order processing, scheduling.
Different people with different job functions, all pitching in.
The result is that customers can contact your business and get a different, inconsistent experience each and every time. Also everyone in the business looks at the customer service problem differently. The contact center manager is concerned with hold times or repeat calls. The customer service department is worried about complaints. Top management is worried about sales. Also, it’s easy to fall into the trap of measuring activities that really don’t have an impact on your business.

Where do you start? Boil things down to four key performance indicators (KPIs):

The level of customer satisfaction, interaction-by-interaction: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are meeting customer needs simply by being “multichannel.” It’s not about the channel. It’s about creating a great experience on every interaction, regardless of the channel. Start by looking at the interaction level and work up, rather than the channel level and working down. Look at metrics for the different communication channels to identify discrepancies.
Cost of the interaction: it’s always amazing to discover how few companies really track the cost of their interactions. Overall data is not enough. To make judgments about what’s delivering value, and what’s not, you need to know your level of investment.
Revenue produced through the interaction: Service is a cost center. It also generates revenue, either indirectly by creating the basis for repeat business or directly through upselling and cross-selling. Find out what revenue you are getting.
How well does each interaction comply with company and (if appropriate) industry or governmental policies: You have standards and values as an organization. In addition to what your customers say and the actual dollars and cents of revenues and costs, establish some metrics of how each interaction measures up to the standards that you have set, or that are established for your industry.
Your overall goal is to compile a set of indicators that in effect make up a scorecard. It’s your starting point to reverse the trend of higher costs and declining customer satisfaction and profitability.

Interested in learning more about the challenge of delivering great customer experience without sacrificing profitability, get the Avaya Contact Center Consumer Preference eBook at https://www.avaya.com/usa/registration/contact-center-consumer-preference-ebook-solutions-for-balancing-business-objectives-against-customer-demands/

More on the Cost Benefits of SIP (Lots of TLA and FLA – all defined)

Let’s try to keep this simple. Regular telephone technology – plain ordinary telephone lines and dedicated circuits are passe. All new communications technologies involve SIP – standard initialization protocol- which is the default new standard for all applications being developed. You need your equipment to be SIP compatible in order to take advantage of it- or you need to have a provider that can host your communications and their equipment has to be compatible with it.

Why is it important? Because it will save you money. You can decrease your monthly spend and get more functionality from these services. I recently came across a blog post that spelled this out. However, the post used too many three letter and four letter acronyms (hence the TLA and FLA in the title of this post). I like to speak and write in English. Yes, it’s a pet peeve of mine- I admit it. I own it. The style should not detract from the message. The message can be summed up: Various vendors (providers, service integrators, value added resellers) have used lack of end user understanding to cast doubt on the benefits of migrating services to the SIP standard. The fact is, you can calculate out your saving easily. It’s all about the math- how much can you save, how much will it cost to implement and is it worth it.

Here is the original post by David Byrd, as it appeared in Channel Partners Online on October 4, 2012. I have edited it a little (to make sure that almost all of the three letter acronyms are defined)…

“Over the last few years, there have been detractors noting that certain estimates for savings when transitioning from TDM (traditional phone services technologies like regular telephone lines, PRI circuits) to SIP have been overblown. Consequently, some companies have delayed or abandoned the effort entirely. For most small and medium sized businesses, the transition is easily monetized. It is in the enterprise space where simple VoIP supports intra-company calling may provide enough savings and optimization to preclude the effort of adding additional equipment to support SIP trunking.

The major access savings are listed as follows:

• Per line cost: Per line cost can be reduced by 60-80%. Most SMBs purchase some type of phone line that includes a local calling area starting at $29.99 per month for a TDM line. While plans vary between different VoIP/SIP Trunk providers, this service can be as low as $10 per line per month. That is a savings of 66% with the additional 2-5% savings due to lower taxes and fees.
• Usage/metered services cost for local inbound/outbound calling: Savings can be up to 100% as most ITSPs (Internet Telecom Service Providers)do not charge for outbound or inbound local calling.
• Toll-free inbound calling: Toll-free calling can be as low as 2¢ per minute, depending upon volume. AT&T’s quotes a low of 5.9¢ per minute or 295% more.
• Domestic long-distance calling: Calling within the 48 contiguous United States and Canada is widely available and from an ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier e.g. THE PHONE COMPANY) purchased for $55 per month with Canada extra. Selected ITSPs include Canada for as low as $24.99 or a 55% savings.
• International calling: ILEC pricing is dependent upon the selected plan and the country called. In comparing certain country terminations the savings can be 90%. Given the number of countries and rates quoted an average number is difficult to determine.

Clearly, moving to a service provider that can reduce the cost of calling by using IP communications (read: VoIP or voice over Internet protocol)  is well worth the effort. And as most ILECs evolve their networks to IP more of their customers will benefit. It is difficult for the ILECs to compete with the ITSPs since they will experience a revenue drop per customer. However, at some point the revenue drop is preferred over the loss of the customer.”