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Voice

Text Messaging for Small Businesses

By on

October 11, 2018

- Voice

Team messaging apps are growing quickly in popularity as the preferred “home base” for business communications. While most small business owners and entrepreneurs understand the value of team communication apps for their internal teams, smart SMBs are extending their use of team messaging to include external stakeholders.  The results are small businesses that get – and give – more value in their relationships with suppliers, contractors, and customers.

Team messaging extends communications 

Your employees need to stay up-to-date and engaged on time-bound projects – but so do contractors, consultants, and other partners all critical to the on-time, on-budget success of any project. Team messaging apps streamline all of these communication channels, providing easy, convenient, real-time collaboration across all team members — even those who aren’t on your official org chart.

Available best-in-class solutions for team communication offer guest-user functions that make it easy for those outside the organization to communicate and collaborate, at no additional cost. When choosing a team messaging platform, easy and unlimited guest-user functionality should top your criteria list.

Below we spotlight how four very different small businesse use team messaging to manage their businesses, streamline processes, and serve their customers better.  

Fast coordination for fast food.

If you’re looking for inspiration on how team messaging can completely change the way you do business, look no further.

Managing multiple businesses and franchises including two popular fast-food franchises — Subway and Carl’s Jr. — keeps serial entrepreneur Alex Mercado very busy. His business success rests on his ability to delegate efficiently and keep track of tasks in real-time. Entrepreneurs don’t get to clock out at 6pm, so being able to communicate on his schedule, and follow up on his staff and vendors schedules, is invaluable.

“It’s great to create tasks for my team, even late at night. And by the next morning they already know what to do and what to work on without even speaking to me. The best thing is that I can keep track of every task. Everyone knows what they need to do, and nobody forgets anything.”

Alex has team messaging channels set up in Glip to talk directly to each of his store managers. He has individual store channels set up so staff can discuss shift changes and other business needs in real time – a traditionally fractured process with limited visibility that requires a high volume of emails, text messages, and phone calls. He communicates with contractors and vendors through Glip, and has even used Glip to communicate with architects in charge of new location build. Alex has reimagined the way entrepreneurs do business, and the way team communications apps are used by small businesses.

Increasing speed and accuracy to increase sales

With 5,000 cities at play and an endless stream of potential real-time clients entering the funnel, corporate housing provider Travel Haven relies on fast, accurate, and detailed communication across sales staff and vendors to secure and fulfill housing deals. Between leases, furniture, utilities, amenities requests, and guest move-in, numerous communications streams have to occur simultaneously,  often on-the-go and in less than one day. The sheer efficiency of team communications allows Travel Haven’s sales team to manage more projects, and this has led to a significant increase in sales.

“One of the things we track is the number of orders a territory manager can handle in a day. It’s eight now. A year ago, it was five or six.”

While scaling up in volume, quality of service has not suffered thanks to team communication. Vendors across the world are able to liaise in real-time with account leads about guest needs, requests, and issues, ensuring all of the perfect details are in place for each unique incoming guest.  

“They all have very specialized tasks, but they all have to work together. Glip is probably the number one way they communicate.”

The best work tool for the best recreational lake in the country

In the news business, storylines, tips, events, and advertising opportunities evolve constantly. Editorial teams are often scattered and on the go. Project management is crucial to the success of any news outlet, especially one that covers what USA Today called “the best recreational lake in the country.” The team at LakeExpo.com quickly outgrew the text, email, and phone calls and needed a centralized communications platform to manage editorial calendars, story ideas, breaking news and tips, and advertising opportunities,

“I wanted to put everything in a single place. Chats, file sharing, task management, editorial calendar planning. All of it.”

Team messaging revolutionized the way LakeExpo.com does business. By providing one unified workspace that his entire team of remote workers could use to collaborate and communicate efficiently,  Editor-in-Chief Nathan Bechtold is now able to plan his editorial calendar weeks in advance and project manage his entire team’s work from wherever they are.

“I can create a task—say, a story I’d like someone to write—and then drop in the relevant information, ask a writer if she’d like to take it on, and then communicate with her over Glip throughout the entire project. When we’re done and the story is ready for publication, I can mark that task complete.”

Team communication also benefits his direct customers – businesses who advertise on LakeExpo.com. The ability to advise his advertisers in real-time about the local comings-and-goings his reporters cover daily benefits the not only outlet but the entire community it serves.  

“If a writer learns a new business is setting up shop on the Lake, she can let our sales reps know so they can give a heads-up to one of our advertisers who might be able to serve that business. That type of valuable real-time communication is so much easier now.”

It takes a village to massage your stress away

Between you and your next relaxing day at the spa are literal teams of people – therapists, estheticians, front-desk staff, and management to name just a few. These teams, equaling over 100 staff members, need to work in perfect harmony to keep the relaxation flowing at two Florida Massage Envy locations.

The team enhanced their workplace zen by rolling out team messaging company-wide, moving the coordination of time off, shift-coverage, and even company news to one centralized platform that everyone could access anytime from anywhere, and one that allows management and coworkers to know that important messages have been received and read.

“Glip has been a game changer for us when it comes to efficiently communicating with all of our employees. It helps us make sure nothing important slips through the cracks.”

Keeping the public relaxed is hard work. Team messaging not only streamlines the business communications of these two Massage Envy locations, it fosters strong bonds between colleagues and provides a channel for some well-deserved accolades and levity.  

“People also have lots of fun using Glip to send funny or inspiring little animated images to each other. It’s a great way to cheer on your teammates and keep everyone’s spirits high.”

Ready to get started?

With the right team messaging solution, small businesses like yours can enhance communication, collaboration and teamwork — while also providing better customer service.

See how Glip, RingCentral’s free team messaging app that increases your work productivity by empowering your team to communicate and collaborate in real time, can work for you.

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Voice

3 Benefits of UCaaS

By on

September 20, 2018

- Voice

While most businesses have adopted some type of cloud-based technology, not all of them have implemented a unified multi-media communications platform that integrates phones, chat, email, web conferencing, and file sharing into a single cloud-based platform. UCaaS offers many benefits such as mobility, improved voice quality and exceptional reliability that Broadsoft predicts more than half of all organizations will adopt by 2020.

 

There are several ways that you can optimize your customer’s business savings by deploying UCaaS, outlined below are three considerations.

 

compass

 

Enable Global Collaboration. UCaaS allows businesses to take geography out of the equation when hiring talent. With unemployment rates low, it’s already difficult for organizations to fill vacant positions from limited talent pools. Out of necessity, some employers are using alternative methods to find talent by utilizing freelancers and contractors and actively recruiting non-traditional workers.

 

UCaaS enables employers to readily hire contract workers and employees alike that reside in different time zones—and even different countries—while retaining the ability to offer a collaborative, team environment. Some of the ways UCaaS can enable collaboration and communication include:

 

  • Intelligence-based productivity features. These features can include automated access to information and files team members need.
  • Mobile features like multimedia meetings that integrate features such as video conferencing, screen sharing and video chatting as well as click-to-call options.
  • Built-in project management capabilities that allows users to assign tasks, attach files or communications, or create projects.

As an illustration of this, a global manufacturing company with more than 300 locations around the world had separate voice and video infrastructures in place, which was hindering global collaboration between teams. They also had numerous third-party endpoints and gateways as well as complicated integration requirements.

 

The solution was to implement a single UC solution throughout the entire organization. Once the UC solution had been deployed, the company gained a unified global dial plan integrated with business video to support any-to-any collaboration. All of their existing third-party endpoints were integrated, and today full interoperability exists between Tier 1, Tier 2, internal, external, polycom, and desktop video endpoints and devices, thus enabling simple and robust means of immediate global communication and collaboration throughout the organization.

 

sociallock

 

Incorporate social media. Social media can be integrated with cloud UC functionalities, so that organizations can better understand the mindsets/needs/wants of their customers.

 

According to Jimmy Rohampton, Forbes contributor, millennials have a strong preference for social technology-based modes of work, including social tools for employee recognition, workplace learning, and collaboration. Employee engagement as well as customer happiness can be improved with a UCaaS solutions by encouraging:

 

  • Real-time feedback. Increase agility by leveraging social media’s real-time features to promote internal collaboration and engage with employees and customers immediately.
  • Improve customer service. By leveraging your CRM together with social tools, you can aggregate customer feedback from various social media networks, enabling your organization to more fully understand your customers’ needs and potentially be empowered to proactively address problems.

A mid-sized company, which helps its customers create custom photo books and gifts, realized the number of inquiries they were getting via their social media channels (primarily Facebook) was outpacing their “temporary” workflow, which involved their Social Media Specialist copying the messages and comments received, pasting them into an email which they then forwarded to the Customer Support department. Those emails were then put in a queue via their CRM with all the inquiries from the website and inbound calling center. Once Customer Support had responded to the Social Media Specialist’s email, they then had to go back into Facebook and post the appropriate response and/or direct them to reach out to Customer Support directly—every single time. If a conversation ensued, this could get very cumbersome, and the immediacy of the platform was completely negated.

 

By integrating the social media platform with the UCaaS solution, the Customer Support people were able to engage directly with their customers via Facebook, and there was a noticeable uptick in leads converted from social media in the months that followed. 

 

mobilesec

 

Improve the security of mobile technology. As BYOD (bring your own device) becomes more commonplace among organizations of all sizes, there is a corresponding increase in the security challenges being faced by IT departments. A cloud UC system allows access via a single app rather than juggling a variety of apps that haven’t been approved by IT. Companies can reduce or potentially eliminate risks associated with unapproved file-sharing software or employees who may download data directly to their personal devices by implementing cloud-based access to sensitive information.

 

Although BYOD security concerns aren’t eliminated with UCaaS, providing employees a central point for accessing work-related communications does decrease the risks associated with the BYOD movement. Additionally, by providing a convenient, centralized way to securely access information, it does encourage employees to behave in more secure ways.

 

Take for example a small midwestern school district who didn’t have enough computers for every student and wanted to enable a BYOD program to their schools. To do this, the district would need to make a variety of improvements to their network, including replacing multiple PBX systems at the various buildings.

 

The district began by deploying a UC solution in the district office and connecting schools one at a time. By implementing a UC system, they managed both the wired and wireless networks simultaneously and continually save money on technician visits, since the network administrator can manage various systems from a single platform.

 

UCaaS allows business of all sizes an incredible amount of flexibility and money-saving options to expand their communication and collaboration tools. UC can be scaled up or down in real-time while also having the ability to adopt new technologies, immediately. There is also a huge benefit from mobile-first, user-friendly tools that are designed to evolve alongside the evolution of a company’s collaboration habits.

 

We’ve highlighted only three of the many solutions and features that can be added to a UCaaS customer over time, based on ever-changing business and technology needs. Ensuring you are well-versed in the multiple ways UCaaS can help solve various challenges—alone or in conjunction with an integration—you are setting yourself (and your customer) up for success. Delivering a single, globally-accessible communications platform is setting the stage for you to play a starring role in your customers’ digital transformation journey.

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Voice

Voice and UCaaS Review

By on

September 18, 2018

- Voice

Time to review your voice initiatives?

 

  • Premise, Cloud, or Hybrid solution
  • Features that are vital to your business
  • Providers that would be a good fit
  • Contact Center analysis
  • Cloud migration strategies

Schedule a no obligation Voice & UCaaS Review with ATI today.


 

ATI Hosted Phone Systems

We’ve vetted hundreds of providers and have chosen the right ones for your unique considerations

 

  •  Voice & UCaaS
  •  Contact Centers
  •  Migration Strategies

Learn more about our cloud phones here.
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Voice

Business Communications Improved by the Cloud

By on

August 23, 2018

- Voice

How The Cloud Can Improve Business Communications

Article by ATI Partner Fernanda Elizalde, Marketing Communications Associate – Nextiva

Communication is a critical aspect of business operations, whether your customers are collaborating with fellow employees or seeking new clients. The cloud has changed the way businesses communicate, as an innovative solution which is transcending communications. Flexible cloud-based solutions enable employees to communicate regardless of their geographic location.

Technological advancements have improved productivity and lowered operational costs, allowing greater productivity in the workplace. The ability to access communication tools from anywhere in the world can be leveraged to great advantage, especially in a constantly evolving business landscape. By failing to capitalize on the proficiency of cloud technologies, customers run the risk of getting left behind. This underlines the importance of cloud-based solutions.

But how exactly can the cloud improve business communications? If you’re curious about the specifics, fortunately you’re in the right place.

Here are some of the top ways the cloud can improve business communications:

Master Remote Working

Work environments once relied on everyone being in the same location, which was restrictive in relation to expansive goals. In today’s business culture, it’s impossible to grow in this environment, especially when working across different time zones. With cloud computing, efficiency is enhanced because employees can work from anywhere in the world. This creates a level of convenience which makes for a happier, more productive staff. The ability to work remotely creates freedom and flexibility, while reducing the costs associated with buying fixed assets. Companies can also hire from a much larger talent pool. Cloud communication services also facilitate audio and video conferencing, essential for the growth of modern businesses.

It Costs Less Than Premise-Based Solutions

The cloud will change your customers approach to expense management, which will ultimately improve their bottom line. Companies conventionally needed to acquire phone systems upfront, but cloud systems are paid for on a month-to-month basis. What’s useful is they only pay for the services they need, meaning they won’t accrue costs on communication channels which are not used. By not needing to purchase hardware and other devices, they’ll reduce replacement costs significantly. Instead, they can focus on upgrading features which benefit their organization the most, with access to the latest and greatest software.

Employees Can Work On Multiple Devices

Information stored on the cloud can be accessed from any device that can connect to the internet. Organizations can consequently capitalize on the benefits of working from mobile devices, which include greater mobility, flexibility, and convenience. With mobile providers offering faster internet connections, employees are afforded the luxury of communicating on the go, enhancing access and efficiency tenfold. Key business processes can be executed with ease, with real-time communication that’s important in today’s fast-moving society. Employees are not required to use specific devices, allowing collaboration within a business network from tablets, smartphones, or desktops.

Gain a Competitive Edge

Small organizations can compete with bigger companies if they leverage cloud communication methods. They can scale up operations quicker than ever before, without being held back by costs. Small businesses can gradually increase their cloud usage over time, depending on budget and scale of growth. With a self-sufficient communication service like the cloud, small businesses don’t need to worry about the expenses associated with hiring IT staff, often a restrictive factor. In business climates which are dominated by the big dogs, the ability to engage cheaply and quickly, with quality in mind, offers small companies a competitive edge vital for success.

Less Outsourcing & More Decentralization

Though outsourcing has its advantages, businesses can suffer from less quality control, a lack of customer focus, and hidden costs. Fortunately, the cloud’s rise to prominence has eliminated reliance on outsourcing, where employers can hire full-time employees who are not in the same location as company headquarters. With business communications conducted globally, between diverse employees, companies can benefit from decentralization. More job opportunities have been generated, allowing people to apply their skillsets accordingly. This is facilitated by video conferencing, which has become an integral component of business communications.

Go Global

Organizations were once restricted by geographic location, where technological limitations made it difficult to extend beyond local communities. This impacted small companies the most, who didn’t have access to the cloud features which allow organizations to expand. Because smaller companies can now utilize cloud-based solutions, at reduced costs, everyone has the capacity to collaborate with global partners. This means you can go global if you are a small business, facilitated by the enhancement of business communications.

Business communication tools are rapidly changing as the cloud’s capabilities enhance. Small businesses have the opportunity to reach goals which would’ve seemed unlikely in years past, providing they’re willing to adapt. Enjoy the improved quality of business communications with cloud technologies, and remember, evolve or risk becoming extinct.


Article by ATI Partner Fernanda Elizalde, Marketing Communications Associate – Nextiva


Learn more about cloud communications with our no obligation Cloud Consultation. 

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Network Services, UCaaS, Voice

SD-WAN with MPLS and UCaaS

By on

July 19, 2018

- Network Services, UCaaS, Voice

The Power of SD-WAN with MPLS and UCaaS


THE STATE OF SD-WAN

Demand for SD-WAN continues to grow. Fueled by organizations need for greater bandwidth, increased usage of cloud-based applications and continued trend of remote workforces. End-users needs are changing network traffic patterns and, in turn, require a more efficient connectivity solution that offers a sophisticated foundation for productivity, voice, and data quality.

MPLS + SD-WAN

IT leaders are realizing that the technology doesn’t need to replace MPLS or other connectivity solutions. Instead, SD-WAN complements them and enhances network functionalities, providing transparency and a better end-user experience. When implementing SD-WAN, your existing network does not go away, but instead becomes the underlay technology. MPLS, for example, is still needed for guaranteed QoS end-to-end, particularly for verticals that require secure and compliant transmissions of data.

UCaaS + SD-WAN

SD-WAN is a perfect match for latency sensitive voice and video applications, such as UCaaS. SD-WAN can improve voice quality, reducing issues around packet loss, jitter, etc. that make for a poor user experience. For example, a voice application can run on one internet connection and be failed over to another in the event there’s an issue, maintaining the voice session, without the user being impacted.

No Cost. No Obligation. SD-WAN Assessment. Sign Up Today.


SD-WAN should be paired with MPLS when:

• You have an existing MPLS network with a diverse and growing portfolio of applications. SD-WAN would allow for traffic segmentation of critical applications to MPLS while offloading less important traffic such as web browsing to best effort cable circuits.
• You do not have auto-failover. SD-WAN architecture is inherently designed to support auto failover because it accepts multiple WAN links, drastically reducing failover time from MPLS to MPLS or public IP.
• You want visibility into the applications running across the network, as well as control of the paths they can/cannot take.
• You have remote branches with limited IT staff. SD-WAN enables IT staff to manage routing functionality and traffic prioritization at all sites from one web portal.
• You have less intelligent IT systems at the branch and do not want to pay for MPLS bandwidth for non-critical traffic.

SD-WAN should be paired with UCaaS when:

• You do not have a solution in place to route traffic and apply priority for voice solutions. SD-WAN routes traffic via business policies to enhance performance, reliability and customer/user experience.
• You are using two different providers for network and voice. SD-WAN encrypts users traffic, further protecting information transmitted.
• You have multiple locations using voice and growing. SD-WAN easily scales, so user can quickly add cloud-based services.
• You are looking for cost-effective, SD-WAN functionalities for its voice solutions. SD-WAN delivers voice and video apps using any cost-effective, readily available transport method (Cable, DSL, etc.)
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Voice

New 8×8 X Series

By on

June 15, 2018

- Voice

The New 8×8 X Series

The New 8×8 X Series transforms the customer experience by providing the enterprise with the ability to intelligently and quickly collaborate across any channel and easily access the company’s most critical data, analysis and experts.

With customer and employees interacting in one system of engagement, enterprises can now optimize valuable moments of engagement with one system of intelligence. X Series accelerates your company’s ability to innovate, respond and serve customers and results in an exceptional experience for both employees and customers.

8×8. The experience is everything. Learn more about 8×8 here.

The New 8×8 X Series also includes an all new Collaborative Contact Center, Transition from “I don’t know” and customers repeating information they’ve already provided to a collaborative contact center that drives speed to resolution through simple collaboration and complete context.
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Voice

The 3 Cs of an Effective Business Phone Offering Communication Collaboration Control

By on

July 7, 2016

- Voice

How to effectively communicate collaborate & control with your business phone system

Business phone systems traditionally haven’t been considered much beyond their ability to connect callers. For most businesses, telecom is a line item on an expense budget—no thought is given to how the technology actually can help improve your company’s bottom line. The truth is, your business phone system should be considered one of the most important assets in your company. It’s not just a tool for connecting calls; it’s a tool for creating and building relationships and for improving productivity. When choosing the ideal system for your company, look for the three Cs: communication, collaboration and control. Each are important elements and should be considered carefully in your purchasing decision.

Communication

It’s not just dial tone or voicemail. An effective system will have robust calling features that enhance the user experience, such as personalized call handling and presence, conferencing, voicemail to email, interactive voice response voicemail access and more. Integration with third-party business systems, such as integration with CRM systems, can further enhance the user experience and create a top-notch customer experience as well. Above all, the system must be simple to operate, so your employees can get the most out of their communications environment.

Collaboration

A good system also includes collaboration tools that are not only seamless to the communications experience but also easy to use. Instant messaging, web and audio conferencing, peer-to-peer video chat, desktop sharing and file transfer capabilities can increase your employees’ productivity by giving them the tools they need to communicate beyond voice, effectively and easily.

Control

For some businesses that don’t want to manage their business phone system, a cloud system is a good option. ShoreTel has the same robust functionality in one platform whether for cloud or for onsite, or even a combination of both.  Both the CLOUD and ONSITE solutions are end-to-end, as ShoreTel provides the phones, system software and applications. ONSITE is perfect for companies that like to control their apps in-house and have the IT resources to do it, while CLOUD is geared to companies that no longer want to manage their phone system or are light on IT resources. Your employees need more than just dial tone to communicate effectively. Discover what an onsite unified communications and collaboration environment can do to enhance their productivity. ShoreTel Connect ONSITE is a feature-rich yet cost-effective option that also provides a future path to the cloud while leveraging your onsite investment. If your current business phone system is missing one of the three C’s, it’s time to see how a new system can help improve your company’s bottom line.
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Voice

What a Hybrid Communications System Can Do for You

By on

July 5, 2016

- Voice

Does hybrid communications work best for your organization?

Communications today means so much more than dial tone—it spans a breadth of methods and tools including email, messaging, conferencing and more. Voice communications is merging with other forms of communications to create a converged environment that enables users to communicate how they want, when they want and with whatever device they want. Disparate communications and collaborations systems, however, can make the task of managing a streamlined communications environment difficult. Besides the fact that IT must maintain two separate systems, ensuring the systems work correctly and seamlessly can be a challenge. And adding users or features can be frustratingly complex. A hybrid communications system can simplify maintaining a full-featured communications and collaboration environment. With a hybrid system, you get the control and performance of an onsite system with the flexibility, scalability and features that come with a cloud-based service. Here are some benefits of a hybrid environment:

Leverage current infrastructure

A hybrid system uses your current onsite communications system, with new functionality delivered via the cloud. That means you maintain control while exploring the advantages of cloud and get the most out of your investment.

Scalability

Adding new users or features doesn’t necessarily mean adding new hardware or software. With a hybrid system, you have the ability to expand your system via the cloud, giving all users in the environment the same high-quality reliability and user experience. Plus, scalability delivered via the cloud requires no capital expenses.

Opportunity to try the cloud

Intrigued by what the cloud can offer but not ready to take the step of moving to an all-cloud solution? No problem. ShoreTel Connect HYBRID gives you the opportunity to try the cloud yet maintain control, as with an on-premises system. In a hybrid environment, services delivered via the cloud can be added and removed quickly and easily, giving your company the ability to explore services to ensure a perfect fit. Add collaboration and productivity tools without adding to your capital expense budget—with a hybrid environment, you pay only for what you need and on a subscription basis, like any other cloud-based service.

Enable productivity anywhere

A hybrid solution gives your users access to the same functionality, whether their branch location is served by a cloud system or has equipment onsite. Provisioning new or additional services is done via the cloud and is as easy as granting permission to users.

A clear migration path

A hybrid system can help pave the way to an eventual all-cloud solution—particularly for companies whose workforce is increasingly mobile. And as more of your communications move to the cloud—and the maintenance of the system to a hosted environment—your IT department can shift its focus to activities that enhance your company’s bottom line. If you’re looking for ways to increase your communications system’s functionality in a way that’s cost-effective, scalable and flexible, consider a hybrid communications environment. Give your employees the technology they need to stay productive anywhere, anytime, while leveraging your current communications investment.
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Voice

Planning for Adversity Ensuring business communication continuity with the cloud

By on

June 28, 2016

- Voice

How to ensure business communication continuity with the cloud

Your new marketing campaign was a huge success and your office is receiving the highest level of calls you’ve ever experienced in your growing business.  Your staff is taking live calls, checking voicemail and returning customer inquiries as fast as they can. Can you imagine the impact if your phone system goes down mid-morning – at the peak of the call volume? Who knows why disaster strikes? It could be a clumsy utility worker, a lightning storm or some other unpredictable problem.  Phone system issues are a reality with traditional telecommunications systems and can create enormous business headaches for you. If your business hasn’t planned for adversity with a disaster or redundancy plan, those kinds of communication failures can significantly disrupt your business from, well, doing business.

What is your business communication continuity plan?

In the past, developing a disaster recovery plan meant that your IT staff would need to re-engineer your business phone system so it could be recovered successfully. If you’re a growing business, you likely don’t have that kind of unlimited resources for equipment and infrastructure. This is where cloud communication can help. Cloud phone systems have greatly advanced system recovery and business continuity in the face of an outage. They’re hosted virtually, so there’s no need to worry about the types of disastrous scenarios that used to disrupt on-premise or landline phone services. If a phone line is cut, cloud-based systems are totally unaffected. If Internet service goes down, phone calls can be re-routed to backup cell phone numbers or other business offices.

3 Essential Business Benefits of Switching to the Cloud

As you think about a continuity plan for your phone system, there are several important benefits to the cloud that you want to consider.
  1. Your phones stay up and running – always. Even if a total outage strikes, wiping out your office’s power and Internet service, cloud-based phone systems allow employees to connect from anywhere — their home, a coffee shop, or wherever they can tap into power and a data connection.
  2. Redundancy is built into the architecture in all the applications. This means that the system isolates any issues and the redundancy allows you to troubleshoot during business hours rather than coming in after-hours.
  3. Cloud-based phone systems are completely scalable. If you need to re-direct call flow from one site to another, it’s very easy to do without any disruption in call quality or service.
Simply put, recovery and continuity is a non-issue. With these benefits in mind, the question, then, is why you wouldn’t switch to the cloud?
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Voice

3 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Cloud Communications Provider

By on

June 20, 2016

- Voice

3 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Cloud Communications Provider

June 20, 2016 – Smart businesses everywhere have embraced the cloud as a cost-effective alternative to capex spending with on-premises hardware and software. For SMBs in particular, the cloud enables enterprise-level functionality without the associated price tag. As with all technology, however, not all cloud offerings are the same. There are literally hundreds of cloud providers, all with varying levels of abilities. Choosing the right cloud services provider for your business can be an arduous, time-consuming task—if you don’t know how to simplify the search. Reliability, security and usability all are important considerations in determining which cloud provider to use. With that in mind, here are three key questions to ask when choosing a cloud communications provider:

  1. What features does your cloud communications service offer?

    At a minimum, a cloud communications service will include voice services—calling, voice mail and possibly auto attendant. But to get the most out of what the cloud has to offer, look for a communications system that offers additional robust functionality, such as voice mail to email capabilities, for example.
A feature-rich cloud communications system, such as ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, also includes features such as:
  • VoIP call control
  • Mobility apps
  • Instant messaging
  • Audio and web conferencing
  • Video calling
  • Online meeting collaboration with web share capabilities
  • A feature-rich client interface
Such additional functionality can help your employees achieve higher productivity while being able to work wherever they are, and help your company establish a deeper connection with its customers.

  1. What security controls does your cloud communications service have in place?

    Cloud communications, like any other cloud service, is only as secure as the security measures that surround it. At a minimum, a cloud communications service should have protection against malware, data breaches and service hijacking—all of which are very real threats.
ShoreTel Connect CLOUD combats cloud security issues in the following ways:
  • Session border controllers, which enforce security, quality of service and admission control mechanisms over the VoIP service and include firewall protection
  • End-to-end encryption protects IP voice against unauthorized recording, playback and other forms of electronic snooping.
  • Full API catalog, so users don’t have to rely on third-party APIs that might contain malicious code
  • Strong password policies to help prevent unauthorized access to the system
  • Fraud monitoring to detect and shut down potential fraud early
  • State-of-the-art data center to ensure the highest level of security

  1. What type of infrastructure is supporting the cloud communications service?

    Most cloud service providers have carrier-grade infrastructure that ensures minimal downtime even in the face of disaster. Be sure to ask the cloud service provider about its service level agreements and policies for ensuring uptime, as well as its backup services to protect against data loss.
Choosing the right cloud communications service for your company is easy when you know what to ask. Keep security, reliability and usability in mind when vetting cloud services providers and you’ll make short work of an otherwise arduous task.
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ABOUT US

Ascenda™ is a globally recognized total experience thought leader for organizations of all sizes. Our speed of innovation ensures that businesses can transform how they work together with customers and employees while also exceeding key business metrics.

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CONTACT ASCENDA/ATI

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