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Convergence Is Cloud Computing

Beyond the Bill: Hidden Unified Communications Costs

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In an age when effective communications is a major key to business success, unified communications (UC) tools are taking those benefits to the next level. UC tools allow companies and employees to collaborate with clients and colleagues anywhere, using various devices and incorporating advanced services.

While a move to UC tools seems like an easy decision, there are costs to consider prior to deployment. The actual cash cost of purchasing hardware, software, and systems to facilitate UC is obvious. But there are other costs that are not as obvious or easy to spot during the deployment process.

Following are several examples of unexpected costs that might come up during a UC deployment or after a system has been implemented.

Employee Devices

Today’s business environment is increasingly mobile and less likely to be contained within the four walls of a physical office. Installing UC in an office environment where the endpoints are known and fixed is relatively simple. When remote or home-based employees are added to the equation, there may be increased costs associated with optimizing remote equipment to support collaboration.

In addition, employees are increasingly using their personal devices to conduct business in the office and in the field. Bring your own device (BYOD) situations can add to the number of endpoints that require UC tools and support, which can add complexity to a deployment and increase costs beyond expectations.

Network Optimization

UC tools bring a variety of cutting-edge services and capabilities that may be useless if the underlying network and infrastructure can’t support them. For example, many UC deployments focus on adding video capabilities that enhance collaboration. But videos require screens that can take up unanticipated space and demand bandwidth that may have to be reallocated.

Network management tools are typically needed to prioritize resources. UC tools have also caused an explosion in demand for storage and archiving resources, as companies often want to record UC sessions.

In some cases, the potential hidden costs associated with network upgrades and increased storage demands will prompt a company to explore the option of using a cloud-based service model for UC. This type of service model has its own set of costs to consider.

Analytics

There is hidden value in analyzing employee usage of UC tools to bolster productivity, but many companies fall short of capitalizing on these analytics benefits. Investment is needed in deploying the right analytics tools for those who can take the sometimes overwhelming volume of data and turn it into useful, actionable information.

Security

Protecting the company network and assets from cyber attacks keeps IT administrators up at night. The introduction of any new hardware, software, or tool to a network opens up new entry points for viruses and malware.

Home-based and remote employees often use public Internet, Wi-Fi, and mobile devices to access company networks. UC sessions also frequently extend to third party networks outside the company’s control. Many UC sessions involve Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which is considered vulnerable to cyber threats.

These vulnerabilities create costs, not only in the actual cost to fight cyber threats, but also those associated with potential data loss and system downtime that could occur with a cyber attack.

Balancing the Budget

UC tools generate actual and often unforeseen benefits, but come with the potential for unanticipated hard and soft costs. Understanding these potential hidden costs is key to absorbing them with minimal interruption to business process and less stress for IT departments. Contact Worldnet to learn how to avoid hidden UC costs.

Unified Communications: Making the Mobile Workforce Workable

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Millenials are now the single largest group in the American workforce – that’s more than 55 million working people who have never known a world without the Internet. As a group, they are ready and willing to work long, and even irregular, hours – but in exchange for that they expect a certain amount of freedom and mobility.

Employees want to be mobile, and companies can benefit from providing that ability. A robust and workable mobile workplace solution can be extremely complicated to set up and run, and there is great potential for less than stellar results. Unified communications (UC) is an integral piece of the mobile puzzle and can make all the difference in successful implementation.

Device Independence

One of the biggest weaknesses of non-UC mobile solutions is that they depend on devices that are often out of the control of IT. UC, by comparison, allows an employee on the go to securely access the communications system from almost any connected device.

Availability Indicators

One of the often under-appreciated features of a UC system is “presence” functionality. Ranging in complexity from simple, self-selected availability statuses to signals automatically calculated by the communications system itself, this function allows workers to determine the availability of anyone on the network and avoid interrupting them unnecessarily.

Seeing Is Believing

One of the major drawbacks of traditional telecommuting is that, no matter how much employees attempt to stay connected to the office, they tend to be left out of the loop from time to time. UC‘s robust video conferencing capabilities allow mobile employees to virtually present from any location.

Transparent Medium

With the ability to seamlessly switch between numerous communications channels at will, the medium no longer gets in the way of the message. Employees can jump from text, to voice, to video as the demands of the conversation dictate.

Find and Follow

Mobile employees tend not to follow the strict work/break schedules of their office-bound brethren. This can make it difficult to synchronize between mobile and non-mobile employees.

Find me/follow me functionality makes it possible for calls to a particular employee to be automatically routed to the device that employee is using, to bounce from device to device until a connection is made, or to be routed to another employee if the original recipient is unavailable.

The Internet made mobile work possible. UC is the missing puzzle piece that makes a mobile workforce workable.

4 Challenges Moving to Cloud-Based Unified Communications

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shutterstock_88034320Migrating a business’s communications system to the cloud isn’t as easy as simply switching over. There are four major challenges to making the switch:

 

  • Cost
  • Integration
  • Security
  • Training

When looking into making a move to cloud-based unified communications systems, businesses should first consider these challenges in order to make the switch–and the ongoing system–as clean and easy to use as possible.

Cost

Upfront costs are the big consideration when moving to a unified communications system in the cloud. While the switch will save most businesses money in the long run, they may first have to pay for upgraded bandwidth in order to maintain performance. Businesses should also be aware that added features may also drive up costs by taking up more bandwidth, so only adding needed features can help keep costs down.

Integration

It can be troublesome to integrate a cloud-based unified communications service with a legacy PBX system. Users will also have to take the time to learn and become familiar with the new cloud system, and some businesses may feel safer if they have both the cloud and the PBX. Businesses should also keep in mind that some data may be better hosted on site, such as personal data or some types of software.

Security

Because data moves through the Internet in a cloud-based system – instead of through dedicated lines or remaining within the building – there are security risks that businesses will need to take into consideration. The first step is to ensure that the vendor provides security and businesses should know what the vendor does to protect sensitive data. A business can also help improve their security by ensuring that data is encrypted, especially if they have a mobile workforce; employees who use public hotspots to connect may accidentally allow someone else access to their applications.

Training

Depending on how tech-savvy employees are, training may be a simple challenge to solve, or a complex one. Many employees, especially those who are older, have spent most of their working lives using physical desk phones and a PBX system. It may take nothing more than an information sheet to train employees on the new cloud-based unified communications system, or it may take more intensive training sessions for users who aren’t as proficient with computers. Having an expert available can help, as will remembering that most users will need to have the basic calling procedure taught to them as well as more advanced features.

Migrating to a unified communications system can be rewarding for a business, but the success of moving to the cloud will be improved by keeping in mind these four challenges. Planning for and dealing with the issues that arise from cost, integration, security and training will make for an easier switch for all users involved.

Top 6 Issues with Unified Communications and How to Solve Them

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shutterstock_122613448The communications field has had a rapid growth in the past few years, adding in wider solutions and new technologies to meet increased data needs. This can be confusing to companies in the beginning stages of purchasing Unified Communications (UC) systems.

Here are the six main issues to keep in mind when upgrading communications systems:

  • Initial research
  • Knowledgeable staff
  • Multiple global locations
  • Focusing on the long term
  • Necessary and unnecessary features
  • Effective security

Initial Research

The complex nature of UC infrastructure can lead to high initial costs. Smaller businesses and businesses with less capital may find that the up-front investment is too significant to work within their budget. Fortunately, by researching before committing to a solution, businesses can see what’s available, what will work for their company, and be affordable.

Knowledgeable Staff

Businesses should be aware that technology can change very rapidly, and IT professionals may not be able to keep up with the new demands. Retraining existing employees can be time-consuming and expensive, but a business can mitigate some of this cost by hiring flexible staff for the initial team. This means that the employees hired to support the UC solution should be capable of adjusting quickly to an increasingly mobile workforce, as well as be knowledgeable about video conferencing, instant messaging, and more.

Multiple Global Locations

Some industries, such as banking and hospitality, often have multiple locations on a global scale. This can lead to issues where the communications system at one location is incompatible with the system at a different location. Managing all communications under one vendor is preferable; having multiple vendors can not only be expensive, but also lead to a drop in quality of service.

Focus on the Long Term

It may seem easier to choose the least expensive solution, but businesses must keep future needs in mind when choosing a UC system. The goals that the business is working towards, in terms of growth and competitive advantage, should be kept in mind when choosing a vendor.

Necessary Features

Each business is unique and has different business and client needs. There is a wide array of offerings from vendors, but unnecessary features can distract the IT department and create customer confusion. Before choosing a vendor, businesses should discover and detail their unique needs. This will enable them to choose the vendor with the best-suited features and services.

Effective Security

Security is an extremely important part of a UC network. While an on-premise solution may seem like the most secure, this isn’t always true. Businesses looking to increase their security-especially smaller businesses-may find it easier to choose a hosted option where a vendor provides the security.

Hosted options as a whole are often a good way for a business to have the UC system that they need and want, without having to handle it all internally. A hosted solution can cut down on costs, increase security, consolidate communications networks across all locations, and support mobile employees.

Although a UC system may initially seem cost prohibitive and complex, businesses will be able to decide what works best for them if they do their research, know future goals, and work with knowledgeable professionals, both inside and outside the company.

Creating Business Efficiencies Using UCaaS and the Cloud

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shutterstock_175252811One of the most exciting technology advances for businesses today are unified communications services that facilitate communications among employees and clients. For companies that don’t have the capability or desire to operate UC services in house, third-party solutions are available that offer UC as a service, or UCaaS.

UC services offer dramatic benefits to enterprises in terms of creating efficiencies and simplifying communications throughout the operation. Services can include video conferencing, VoIP telephony, instant messaging, chat capabilities, and even data sharing. UC tools allow for a seamless and consistent experience despite potentially different access devices. In additional to operational efficiencies, UC tools can help reduce costs by eliminating travel for on-site meetings and can allow employees to work more easily in the field, or from a remote location.

But UC tools, like any new technology, can be challenging for companies to deploy, particularly if they don’t have the necessary personnel resources in house to deploy and support the technology. UCaaS offers a tidy alternative for companies that would prefer to outsource their UC platform to a third party that can manage and maintain the tools for them.

The growing popularity and availability of cloud services further simplifies UCaaS, as many UC tools and services can be hosted via the cloud. The benefits of delivering UC services via the cloud are numerous. This deployment model allows UC services to be accessed any time, anywhere, which creates significant efficiencies for enterprises.

As with most services hosted in the cloud, cost efficiencies are created by eliminating in-house infrastructure requirements while increasing the effectiveness of business processes. Updates and maintenance of UC tools hosted in the cloud can be undertaken remotely, which creates further efficiencies and cost savings.

An additional benefit of hosting any technology, including UCaaS, in the cloud is that a company can enter the service at a level they are comfortable with, but then scale larger or smaller to meet their changing business needs. Deploying UC tools in house requires a fixed investment and a level of commitment that many businesses and enterprises aren’t prepared to make.

In today’s fast-paced business market, some companies don’t have the time or resources in terms of capital and personnel to build technology systems, such as a UC platform, from the ground up. UCaaS providers have worked to become experts in providing such services to a variety of companies of various sizes and with different requirements.

Once the decision has been made to delve into UC services, companies should take a careful evaluation of their in-house capabilities to deploy and support the platform and also consider the alternative of a third-party deployment. For companies that have hesitated to deploy UC services because of the complexity of building the platform in house, UCaaS might be the open door they’ve been looking for to bring UC services to their operations.

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