CIO’s looking for ways to help employees stay connected and collaborate while working in different locations around the globe are faced with a complex variety of devices, applications, and collaboration technologies. While employees have access to many of these technologies on their personal devices, the traditional barriers of complexity and costs have limited deployment of business-class solutions to larger enterprises.

Enter unified cloud communications. A cloud communications solution offers businesses a unified telecommunications service that leverages newfound reliability and advanced technology, without the cost and complexity associated with larger enterprise solutions.

But not all unified communications solutions are created equal.

With a focus on providing maximum benefit with minimum impact on your company, 8×8 has built a single Cloud Communications and Contact Center platform that enhances the customer experience by harmonizing the employee experience. Here’s how the platform optimizes the communications experience:

Offloads complexities to the cloud

Bringing voice, collaboration tools, contact center and real-time analytics to the cloud removes the need to purchase, provision, manage and maintain on-premise equipment. It removes the expense of expert administrators, means fewer vendors, fewer bills and fewer apps, while connecting employees from across the street to around the globe, 8×8’s Cloud Communications and Contact Center platform makes it easier to meet customer needs and exceed their expectations.

One phone number, multiple devices

In today’s communications-drenched work environment, both customers and employees demand immediate access via their preferred communication device. Problem is, switching between different devices leaves data behind and requires different passwords, protocols and too many apps and configurations to manage.

With 8×8’s Cloud Communications and Contact Center solution, your employees and customers can continue to engage one another using their preferred devices, but on a single, unified platform that allows a streamlined, consistent experience. Chat, mobile phones, softphones, desktop phones, instant messages and video chat are integrated from the ground up on one platform, removing the siloes that many businesses are currently contending with as they struggle to keep up with the changing landscape of communications.

21st Century collaboration capabilities

With offices in multiple locations where employees can tap resources well beyond their physical locations, having a cloud-built unified communications platform that can integrate multiple devices into one number and offer advanced collaboration is critical. 8×8’s built-in collaboration allows for an extended reach to a broader pool of experts, improved decision making, and more engaged employees. This new dimension of business communications dials in productivity while creating a richer experience for employees and clients, allowing for more innovation and competitiveness, regardless of the size of business or the market you’re in.

In fact, that’s why 8×8 has spent the past half decade building and acquiring technology across two previously separate categories: unified communications and contact center solutions. It is by no stroke of coincidence that 8×8 offers products that specifically enable organizations to leverage their employees, experts and data to innovate and serve customers in ways that build true business value.

Better Call Quality

8×8’s communications-as-a-service model affords companies with enhanced call quality on a supremely stable and reliable communications platform. By including seamless failover capability that requires no additional capital, rack space or servers to maintain, they’re able to deliver maximum communications uptime for clients. Where traditional infrastructure and premise-based systems can be configured for disaster recovery, this process can be complex and riddled with missteps that mean when disaster strikes, the phone systems take hours or days to recover. 8×8’s Cloud Communications and Contact Center assures maximum availability and rapid disaster recovery without the bottlenecks and single-points of failure that weigh down premise-based legacy systems, so your business can stay connected no matter what happens.

Contact our specialists to learn how 8×8’s Cloud Communications and Contact Center Platform can enrich the employee experience and deliver an exceptionally positive customer experience.

UCaaS

Fear of Change in the Age of the Customer

By Jeff Becker on

March 27, 2018

- UCaaS

Sometimes, we need to destroy the status quo to create a new model of engagement. Sometimes, the market does that for us and that can be even scarier. Change is always scary and overwhelming, especially when it comes to technology. But it is inevitable.

The Cloud is changing the way businesses communicate. Businesses have a unique opportunity to capitalize on this major shift to offer a secure, seamless communications experience that is simpler to deploy and more intuitive to use. If you want to play the game, the siloed, broken communications of yesterday aren’t going to cut it any longer.

Regardless of what business you’re in, your customer’s experience is your top priority. Customers increasingly prefer human interaction over digital communications channels, positioning your communications systems as a key enabler for delivering superior customer experience. Cloud communications offers your company a unique opportunity to craft the ideal customer experience, creating a competitive advantage few companies have thought to seize upon. With shifting demands and perceptions, it comes down to the company that’s intrepid enough to pull the trigger first.

Here are a few mindsets that help your organization prioritize customer experience:

Every department is a service department

In today’s highly competitive market, customer loyalty is no longer entrenched as part of our social culture. In fact, 90% of customers today feel that businesses are too slow and unresponsive. 59% of those customers will try your competitor for a better experience, without hesitation. Legacy, premises-based phone systems offer siloed, fractured and inconsistent communications that reinforce breakdowns in employee and customer interactions and slow your ability to provide service. In short, they simply can’t compete with the cloud’s ability to seamlessly integrate communications systems with business applications and processes. The implication is businesses that more quickly adapt to this modern approach to communications will be the clear winner among customers.

Every conversation is an opportunity

Every conversation customers have with your employees provide an opportunity to deliver superior customer service. 20^th century PBX systems were never designed to support the remote, distributed workforce of the 21^st century. Employees increasingly demand the ability to work flexible schedules from the location of their choosing, across multiple devices. According to a 2015 Citrix and Forrester study in 2015, 85% of employees use a mobile device for work. And yet most traditional PBX systems, with their hardwired infrastructures, can’t easily accommodate needs of this increasingly wireless, mobile workforce. When employees use tools like personal laptops, mobile devices, Google Hangouts, Skype and Facetime to accomplish this, information leaves company networks to unsecure devices, and collaboration becomes more difficult.

Failure is not an option

Current business communications options, like traditional PBX phone systems, have many shortcomings. One of the most significant is the cost and complexity of ensuring your phones are one of the first services restored after any adverse event. While it is possible to develop an effective disaster recovery solution with a premises-based solution, it is not as seamless and cost-effective as a cloud solution. Moving to cloud-based business communications is a painless way to ensure a disaster doesn’t leave your phones down for hours or – worse yet – days.

New isn’t always better. However, when sweeping technology changes impact the expectations of customers, businesses must keep up. If the only thing holding you back is a fear of change, consider the risks and benefits. What would more accessible employees mean for your business? How could enhanced collaboration improve time to market? What would a 99.99% uptime mean for your profitability? The fact is you must leverage your communications effectively, if you want to remain competitive.

Don’t fear change. Embrace it. Contact ATI sales@aticti.com to find out how we can help you leverage better communications for the 21^st century.

Voice

Planning for Adversity Ensuring business communication continuity with the cloud

By Jeff Becker 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.

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.
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.
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?

Voice

The High Cost of Not Doing Anything About Your Phone System

By Jeff Becker on

June 13, 2016

- Voice

When was the last time you upgraded your phone system? 7 years ago? 10 years ago? Or was it so long ago you’re not quite sure? Your aging phone system may be costing more than you think. Not only do you have higher resource costs, higher maintenance costs, infrastructure costs – you also have outdated features, limited mobility capabilities, and fragmented applications and tools. The total costs of not having a unified communications solution to support your business and your customers is likely dragging your organization down.

Let’s start with having a leading phone solution to give your customers the best possible experience

The right cloud phone solution isn’t just ANY cloud phone, it’s one that gives your customers: A single, simplified way to manage their phones, contacts, instant messaging, conferencing, scheduling and video. Collaboration as easy as making a phone call. Your customers will also have the ability to check for presence, search for experts, send a quick instant message, turn it into a call, add participants, share their desktop, and get a problem solved pronto. A secure and reliable phone solution. Making sure a hacker doesn’t tap calls on a Wi-Fi hot spot, and a plethora of any other security concerns go out the window because of ShoreTel’s Secure-Real-time Transfer Protocol SRTP. Reliability with the highest call quality, phones that are always up and running, reliable service, and an optimally balanced network.

Next, let’s talk about your phone system costs

Maintenance

Once your warranty expires, your options are limited to a maintenance contract or paying for time and materials. When the manufacturer stops providing replacement parts, you’re stuck sourcing used parts on the internet. And, when you find the right part, you’re left wondering what condition it’s in and how long it might last – what a hassle…shopping eBay for parts.

Moving, adding, or changing lines

Scaling up and scaling down is part of doing business, and moving is also part of business. You need a provider that is not going to charge you additional fees for each configuration change. Costs of redundant equipment and trunks to ensure your phone system is always on can be significant. With ShoreTel Connect CLOUD you don’t have additional costs. It’s just always on. And, with Connect CLOUD, your phone can automatically route to a mobile location, adding another layer to your availability.

Voice and data fees for existing services

Being charged extra for more voice, data, or other services may be how your current phone solution works, but not with ShoreTel. A single, predictable, monthly fee allows you to know exactly what you’re paying, and makes budget planning a snap. Additionally, with ShoreTel, network status is available to anyone in real-time on shoreteltrust.com. Any service interruptions, outages, and operation information is viewable live – this is how confident ShoreTel is about its network.

Carrier contract auto-renewals that lock you in

When is the last time you audited your existing bills? Do you know when your current contract renews? Most business owners don’t realize their existing carrier contracts auto-renew 60 to 90 days before the contract anniversary, triggering early termination fees if you switch providers before the next renewal date.

Now let’s talk about these additional costs

Delays and missed deadlines

With all the other priorities and responsibilities in-house staff have on their plate, it can take longer than necessary to complete simple moves, additions, or changes. Adding new features, if they’re supported, can lead to significant delays and there may be unplanned expenses. Whether your in-house team needs a feature that wasn’t purchased, or requires additional training to implement the feature, you’re left with more surprises and delays.

Quality of service

Bad quality equates to a bad customer experience. Don’t have your customers experience poor connections, blocked calls, and other frustrating call issues that cause them to question the quality of your own offerings.

Finally, we need to talk about the biggest cost of all

Opportunity Costs

Putting off moving to the cloud because you’re focused on other things, such as core business? Why not focus on your core business priorities and let an expert move your phone system to the cloud? With ShoreTel Connect CLOUD, these costs are obsolete, and what becomes relevant is having modern technology to support your business and your customers. As a hosted managed VoIP phone service, you can choose a service plan that fits your needs and your budget, without all of the hard costs, soft cost and opportunity costs.

Voice

How SMBs Can Benefit from Cloud Communications

By Jeff Becker on

May 26, 2016

- Voice

Today’s business environment is much different from 20 or even 10 years ago. Employees are more productive and expect more from their business tools, while companies run a tighter, more streamlined work environment. As a result, every tool is utilized to its fullest capabilities, with little room for downtime. SMBs, in particular, are looking to get the most productivity out of their technology. Most don’t have an IT staff—and some don’t even have an IT budget, to speak of—so every technology purchase must have a direct impact on the SMB’s bottom line. That’s what makes cloud-based communications a smart investment for small businesses. Little to no upfront investment, low IT involvement and flexibility are a few of the benefits of cloud communications. Indeed, more companies have adopted cloud communications as a way to save money and keep their employees on task: According to research firm Transparency Market Research, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) is expected to become a $38 billion market by the year 2022, representing a 20 percent increase over seven years. Technavio, meanwhile, predicts 28 percent growth in the global UCaaS market between 2015 and 2019. Wondering how cloud communications might benefit your business? Cloud may be a good fit for you if:

Your IT staff is overloaded, or you don’t have an IT person at all —

A cloud-based communications system is hosted offsite, eliminating the need for a dedicated IT or telecom person to manage your communication needs.

Your IT budget doesn’t allow for anything more than a basic phone system —

For many businesses, communications consists of dial tone and voice mail. But customers want to be able to reach your company in multiple ways—over the phone, via web chat, click-to-call from your website—at any time. Cloud communications can give your customers the options they want at a price you need through a monthly subscription rather than a hardware upgrade.

Your employees work out of the office as much as they do in the office —

Today’s employees demand the flexibility to work from anywhere, and to have access to the same functionality as they would if they were sitting at their desks. Does your communications system currently offer that? A cloud-based system can, providing a feature-rich work experience using any device. Cloud communications offers many of the same phone system features as an onsite system, as well as collaboration features such as instant messaging and screen share. Small businesses must bridge the gap between limited budgets and equipping their employees with technology to keep them productive. The functionality and low cost of a cloud-based communications system makes it a smart investment.

Voice

3 Ways Cloud Communications can Improve Customer Relationships

By Jeff Becker on

May 26, 2016

- Voice

Your company prides itself on its stellar customer service. Whether its on-boarding new customers or addressing an issue a current customer may be having, your employees understand the importance of making—and keeping—customers satisfied. But the tools you use to interact with your customers are just as important as how you treat your customers. If they frequently experience dropped calls, clueless customer service reps or trouble connecting with your company, it won’t be long before those customers look to your competitors to conduct their business. That’s why your communications system is a critical component of your customer service strategy. Through a robust, full-featured communications system, your employees can provide the best possible customer interactions and enable your customers to communicate easily with your company anytime for any reason. Utilizing the benefits of the cloud for your communications can advance your customer service even further, enabling your employees to offer a high-quality customer experience from any location using virtually any device.

Here are three ways cloud communications can help improve customer relationships:

High Availability: Customers expect to be able to contact your company quickly and easily. Dropped dial tones and fuzzy connections don’t convey a professional image for your company. A cloud communications service can provide a reliable, high-quality communications experience, helping your company and your customers connect with little to no downtime should the unexpected occur.
Because cloud-based communications is a hosted service, it is located offsite in data centers with redundant technology. That means even in the event of a disaster, your company communications is still up and running—your employees can work from anywhere and communicate with customers using the full suite of capabilities available to them, and customers can reach your company to hear important messages or speak with an agent.
On-Demand Customer Data: When integrated with a customer relationship management or business intelligence system, your communications system can provide employees with a comprehensive view of customer information during a call. The information is brought up automatically when a customer calls in, reducing the chance customers have to wait on hold, which can lessen the customer experience. Instead, employees can provide the highest quality care with no delay and no gaps in customer service.
Contact center technologies such as workgroups, hunt groups and flexible call routing can help enhance the customer experience, reducing hold times and ensuring calls are answered in a timely fashion.
Ability to Connect Anytime: Employees today like work where they want, when they want. That shouldn’t impact the way they do their jobs. With a cloud communications system, your employees can work in a coffee shop, a hotel room, the airport — wherever they are — and have access to the same features they would if they were sitting at their desk in the office. They are not hamstrung by basic functionality or limited customer data.

Cloud communications is changing the way businesses today interact with their customers, optimizing the customer experience to mutual benefit. Is your company ready to explore the benefits cloud communications can offer?

Voice

4 Reasons Why Cloud Communications

By Jeff Becker on

May 24, 2016

- Voice

We all know disaster can strike anytime—a broken water pipe, fire, weather event … all can do damage and wreak havoc on your business. And when time is money, getting your business up and running after a disaster is paramount. Most businesses focus on being able to access their applications and files after a disaster, but don’t consider the impact of losing their communications system. In emergency situations, customers, employees and others need to be able to reach you. And you need to be able to reach them. If your communications system is offline, you—and your customers—are out of luck. A cloud-based communications system, however, can keep your business running post-disaster. No matter where your employees are located, a cloud communications system gives them the same functionality they have in the office. And when your system includes collaboration capabilities, your employees are capable of accomplishing even more. Here are four reasons why cloud communications should be a part of your disaster recovery strategy:

Business continuity:
Cloud-based communications services are hosted in data centers away from your business and safe from harm. Your customers are still able to reach your business for important post-disaster information, if necessary, or to continue their day-to-day business. And you can continue communicating with your customers and employees without skipping a beat.
Work anywhere:
Often in a disaster event, your employees may not be able to get to the office and instead could end up working from their homes, in libraries, at coffee shops—anyplace with an Internet connection. With cloud communications, they can use a softphone on their computer or their mobile device to access all the functions of the communications system, enabling them to conduct business as if they were in the office.
Collaboration means more productivity:
Having communications features available is one thing, but being able to collaborate with colleagues and customers presents a higher level of productivity that a cloud-based communications system affords. Unified communications, including instant messaging, audio conference calling, web collaboration, desktop sharing, point-to-point video calling and room-based video conferencing, are all available via cloud communications, helping your employees work at an optimal level no matter the circumstances.
Low cost:
The monthly subscription-based pricing model makes the move to the cloud a cost-effective option in disaster recovery planning. Plus, chances are you already have other apps and services in the cloud, so why not add communications to your list?

No one can be fully prepared when disaster strikes, but having a disaster recovery plan in place can help mitigate the impact to your company. Including cloud-based communications in your planning ensures not only that you can reach—and be reached by—your customer’s post-event, but also your employees can work productively no matter where they are.

Voice

Is Your Old PBX System Hindering Your Employees Productivity

By Jeff Becker on

May 10, 2016

- Voice

Most employees today eschew the traditional 9-to-5 workday in favor of work-life balance and the ability to work when they want (and often where they want). The result often is an increase in productivity and a more satisfied workforce—a win-win for companies and their employees alike.

Is your PBX system supporting your employees or hindering them? Are employees able to have the full functionality of their desktop phone wherever they are? Are they able to access customer information through the PBX to streamline customer interaction? Are they able to collaborate with colleagues on the fly by simply pressing a button?

Chances are, your current system offers basic calling functionality and not much else. Plus, you’re probably using a separate collaboration platform, which means employees must maneuver two systems to do their job effectively. The result is a slow, kludgy system that does anything but enhance productivity.

To truly be productive in and out of the office, your employees need more. They need a complete communications and collaboration system on one platform to help them work smarter, faster. They need:

The ability to have all of their desktop phone calling features on any device—PC, tablet, smartphone.
Collaboration capabilities—including audio and video conferencing, instant messaging and online meetings—no matter where they are.
Integrated customer information at the touch of a finger, to enable richer customer contact experiences.

Most legacy PBX systems lack mobility, flexibility and collaborative capabilities, keeping employees tethered to their desk or forcing them to use their mobile phones to conduct business while away from the office. Either way, they don’t have the power of an integrated communications and collaborations platform. A cloud-based communications system may be the answer for your company, providing a robust, full-featured, integrated communications and collaboration platform that’s accessible anywhere at any time. Not only do your employees get all the tools they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently, your business benefits from a system that’s scalable and flexible, and at a price that’s much less than the cost of upgrading your current PBX (which most likely doesn’t include collaboration capabilities).

Other benefits of a cloud-based communications system include:

The ability to get back online quickly should the unexpected happen, such as a natural disaster, fire or weather-related event.
Low or no hassle for the IT department, since a cloud communications system is a hosted system managed offsite.

In today’s business environment, your workforce must be productive no matter where they are. Take a look at the benefits of a cloud-based communications system and what it can do for your company.

Voice

Three Ways Cloud Communications Can Save Your Company Money

By Jeff Becker on

April 29, 2016

- Voice

These days, companies are demanding more from their technology. At the same time, IT budgets are decreasing, widening the gap between what employees want—and need to be more productive—and what IT can offer. The trick is to find technologies that make the most of the budget. Enter cloud communications, which delivers full-featured, enterprise-grade communications to companies of any size. A cloud-based communications solution answers the call of feature-rich functionality at a cost IT budgets can handle. In fact, a cloud communications solution can actually save your company money. Here are three of the biggest reasons cloud communications can help save money and make IT a hero to both employees and the finance department:

No Costly Infrastructure:
Why spend time and money maintaining an onsite communications system? With cloud communications, your communications system is located offsite in a hosted data center, so you don’t have to worry about upgrades, maintenance or oversight. It’s all done for you.

What’s more, cloud communications can be billed as a monthly subscription service, shifting the cost from a hardware/software-intensive CAPEX model to simple OPEX model. The need for capital outlays to upgrade servers, software and other infrastructure components is greatly reduced, freeing money for other things on your company’s technology wish list. For companies with multiple locations, the savings can be even greater with cloud communications. Instead of having separate hardware or a PBX system for each branch office, an Internet connection is all that’s needed.

Minimal Manpower:
Rather than paying for a separate telecom person, your IT department can manage a cloud communications system as it would any other cloud service. And they can do it without having to gain additional knowledge.

Your company’s remote workers can set up their own phones and take advantage of online training. IT doesn’t need to be involved in setting up remote locations, saving both the IT staff and the employees’ valuable time.

Reduced Risk of Downtime:
One of the many advantages of the cloud is redundancy, so downtime is minimal at best. Onsite PBX systems may be vulnerable to power outages, equipment failure or other issues impacting service. Cloud-based services, are protected by multiple layers of hardware and software to keep systems up and running should an outage or equipment failure occur.

Severe weather, distributed denial-of-service attacks or equipment failure all are factors contributing to downtime. But because a cloud solution is hosted in an offsite data center environment, the service automatically is routed to unaffected servers or locations, minimizing any lags in service. Plus, the data center environment is monitored constantly, so should a shutdown occur it can be addressed immediately and service restored. If your company is struggling to bridge the gap between the features employees need to do their jobs better and an ever-shrinking IT budget, cloud communications is one way to satisfy both sides.

IMPORTANT LINKS

CONTACT ASCENDA/ATI

Making Business Communications Easy Again

Fear of Change in the Age of the Customer

Here are a few mindsets that help your organization prioritize customer experience:

Every department is a service department

Every conversation is an opportunity

Failure is not an option

Network Services, UCaaS

Turn Office 365 into your RingCentral Communications Hub

Planning for Adversity Ensuring business communication continuity with the cloud

How to ensure business communication continuity with the cloud

What is your business communication continuity plan?

3 Essential Business Benefits of Switching to the Cloud

The High Cost of Not Doing Anything About Your Phone System

Let’s start with having a leading phone solution to give your customers the best possible experience

Next, let’s talk about your phone system costs

Maintenance

Moving, adding, or changing lines

Voice and data fees for existing services

Carrier contract auto-renewals that lock you in

Now let’s talk about these additional costs

Delays and missed deadlines

Quality of service

Finally, we need to talk about the biggest cost of all

Opportunity Costs

How SMBs Can Benefit from Cloud Communications

Your IT staff is overloaded, or you don’t have an IT person at all —

Your IT budget doesn’t allow for anything more than a basic phone system —

Your employees work out of the office as much as they do in the office —

3 Ways Cloud Communications can Improve Customer Relationships

Here are three ways cloud communications can help improve customer relationships:

4 Reasons Why Cloud Communications

Business continuity:

Work anywhere:

Collaboration means more productivity:

Low cost:

Is Your Old PBX System Hindering Your Employees Productivity

Three Ways Cloud Communications Can Save Your Company Money

No Costly Infrastructure:

Minimal Manpower:

Reduced Risk of Downtime: