“My job really … is the growth and development of the person — and not really in their career because that will come.” Julie Towner CEO Towner Communications
We’re beyond proud of our CEO Julie Towner, who was honored to be inducted into the Women Who Means Business Class of 2021. Please help us congratulate her and the other honorees.
Honorees
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HEY! What is the most important thing in a relationship? What is it about a partner that makes you want to DRT (determine the relationship talk)? Sure, flashy cars, fine dining, a million-dollar smile, and ridiculous good looks grab your attention. But what happens when life happens? When your dog dies, or you get awful food poisoning from that posh eatery they took you to, leaving you in the bathroom for no less than 24 hours. Are those pearly white teeth offering to hold back your hair? Gosh we hope so! Really when it comes down to brass tacks, what we really want is a partner we can TRUST. One we can lean on and grow with. A partner who understands our needs, who is there for the celebrations and holds our hands through the tough times. If trust is paramount in our personal relationships, wouldn’t just make sense that it should also be key in our business partnerships as well? You trust your accountant, you trust your attorney, you trust your mentor. You should trust your IT and Communications partner too!
Building trust takes time, and just like in your personal friendships and partnerships, sometimes you have to kiss A LOT of frogs before you find your perfect partner. Technology vendors hold the key to your company’s success in the palm of their hands. Their expertise, support, and reliability (especially in the post covid space) will make or break the trust of your staff, and your customers. Technology partners are literally the only business partner that can directly impact the success of your business and how it makes money. SO why are you still viewing technology and communications as a commodity? As an acquaintance or a one-night stand? There is a massive amount of fish in the technology sea, not all are keepers.
We’re going to let you in on all of the GREEN FLAGS that you need to watch for when searching for your IT/Communications Life Partner.
Let us fill you in on something you don’t know (sarcasm…) the pandemic has forever changed the workplace. Companies are transitioning to either permanent work from home or hybrid models. To support this new, scalable and flexible work model for all employees, companies will need a modern unified communications system, and IT environment. In the industry we refer to this as Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C). A solution that up until 2020 was only something that innovative, cutting edge companies bought into. Now it’s imperative for every businesses sustainability no matter size, location, or industry.
Discover The Next-Gen Workplace >
However, implementing this solution based on the lowest bid from any vendor is likely the biggest business killer of this era. Lowest price is fabulous until it’s not. Flashy promises of easy customer service is heartwarming until you’re on hold for 3 hours after being transferred 5 times only to have the call drop. Million-dollars are pretty until the only time you can reach the company is when you need to purchase new licenses or add to your contract.
So don’t find yourself in a messy breakup with all of your business pals saying “I told you so” Ask hard questions, take it slow, and never kiss on the first day.
Here are the green flags that mean go!
A vendor’s reputation in the marketplace is one of the best indicators of trustworthiness. How happy are their current customers with the quality of service and support? Do they have a good track record for building lasting relationships? How are they ranked in the marketplace among other providers? Case studies are another great resource for gaining deeper insight into how companies in your industry have benefitted from a specific unified communications solution. Ask potential vendors if they can share real-world examples including hard data and customer testimonials. Always ask for references!!!
Solutions are never cookie cutter; they are highly customizable and should be engineered to your company’s particular needs. What works for one organization won’t work for another. A partner should take the time to learn about your company’s communications needs. Is an on-site or cloud solution better? Or perhaps a hybrid model is the best place to start. Do you require integrations with third-party applications? A trusted partner won’t try to sell you more than you need in order to get started. They’ll even help you leverage your investment in existing technologies rather than rip everything out if that’s the right approach at the time. Then, as you’re ready to progress, they’ll support you as your needs change with a scalable and flexible solution. If a salesperson say’s “we’ll ship you the equipment and you just have to plug it in!” RUN…FAST
Implementation is always a bumpy road, no matter how organized or prepared you and your partner are. It’s technology folks! A great partner makes that bumpy road a little less stomach tossing, but keeping you in the loop. Anticipating hiccups, answering questions in a timely manner, and offering logistic solutions. Project management is a very strong sign the provider is a proven and reliable leader in the marketplace. When implementation is completed, is it easy to get ahold of an account manager, your project manager, and your service team? It should be, and it should be a quick response time!
A trusted partner does more than support your communications needs today—they stay ahead of the curve and prepare your business for the future. They know your company’s network environment, and help you prepare for new innovations. Great partners will also work with your other vendors to ensure that your business is holistically taken care of, and everything works in harmony. Outstanding partners ensure that your business can flex and remain agile. They’re just as concerned with the health and growth of your business as you are.
So, there you have it! In the world of technology, flashy cars are the equivalent to lowest bid, fine dining is cookie cutter, and million-dollar smile means that you’ve been sold either the wrong solution or way more than you need. Look for the green flags, and settle down with a partner for life!
And…Who Knows maybe Towner is the best Communications Partner for you!
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So our girl did a thing. Months of work, lots of life lessons, and mucho money raised for our favorites at Cristo Rey.
In normal times, students spend four days each week in class – pushing their boundaries – in rigorous college prep courses. From AP to dual enrollment for college credit, earning a diploma from Cristo Rey means completing 32 high school credits, eight more than their public school counterparts. This year, students attend class on a hybrid schedule of some in-person days and some distance-learning days.
Most importantly, to Cristo Rey graduates, a diploma means, “I’m Accepted.” CRKC proudly announces that colleges have accepted 100% of our graduates. That’s right, 100% college acceptances for the Classes of 2010 through 2021. With 12 years of graduates, our tracking confirms that 60% have graduated or are persisting to college graduation.
The Corporate Work Study Program is a hallmark of a Cristo Rey education. Our corporate partners make a tremendous investment in our students. They lead, guide and open doors to future employment possibilities previously unimagined.
Student internships complement the school’s academic program with one day of real-world, hands-on work experience per week. With the support of our corporate partners, each student is able to offset roughly half of the cost of education.
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Analog telephone lines that run devices like your fax machines, modems, credit card machines and more. The #1 reason to make changes to how these device connect to your network is COST SAVINGS. Carriers have been marking up these analog lines for years so if you still have them you likely paying too much. There are ways to move those types of services to more internet based or bandwidth driven solutions. Who isn’t interested in cutting costs?
Cat3 cables (wire) inside your business. For decades now most businesses have a wallplate by each desk labeled data and voice. They historically were separated, and many businesses that are Living On a Prayer until that old phone system dies you may still be using it. The 21st century would like to invite everyone to just move over and just use that data plug, and new phones can do that. You’re already “Halfway There, whoooaaa ohhhhhh….” There are cost savings to be had here in not having maintenance on two separate infrastructures. Again, who isn’t interested in cutting costs?
The biggest PRO in upgrading these is future proofing your technology BEFORE it dies or becomes obsolete.
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The current COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the way the majority of industries conduct their business. Governments reacted to the pandemic outbreak by implementing strict restrictions that include social distancing and complete lockdowns. Since the global situation is volatile and changes are inevitable, businesses gradually shifted to remote working models.
According to the FlexJobs survey, 51% of respondents reported they feel more productive while working at home. People slowly started to adjust to the new working environment, but more than 60% of employees expect to return to their offices in the first quarter of 2021.
Vaccine progress and restrictions control virus, allowing office return for employees. Leaders must create and implement a strategy for the safe returning of employees to the office.
Here are 5 effective ways technology can support a safe return of employees to the office.
It is unrealistic to expect full office occupancy overnight, so it’s crucial to gradually introduce employees with safety protocols. For instance, social distancing is a new reality of shared workplaces, and it may be tough to find an effective way to implement social distancing without losing resources.
Did you know that 69% of employees are concerned about job security, and 87% of companies changed the way they schedule working in shifts to avoid high space occupancy? Smart scheduling that allows employees to work in shifts reduces office occupancy while following social distancing policies. It requires strategic activity and task planning to understand optimal resource needs. On top of that, it reduces the number of people sharing the same area during the shift, reducing the chance of virus outbreak.
There is a growing trend in office apps that focus on providing a safe working environment by supporting basic administration tasks. Also, some apps focus on occupancy tracking, which shows which areas are packed with people in real time. That way, organizations can effectively plan area usage and cleaning activities.
Did you know that the demand for cleaners grew by 75% in March 2020 compared to the previous year?
Since COVID-19 spreads through direct transmission, a sterile working environment is more important than ever. Cleaning workers must ensure all the areas are disinfected and clean, especially common areas such as meeting rooms or cafeterias. Effective scheduling and cleaning go hand in hand since there must be breaks between group meetings that allow enough time for sterilizing the whole area.
There are various smart technological solutions for cleaning strategy planning that ensure the highest safety and sterilization of the office area. The basic principle of IoT utilizes intelligent sensors that report specific states, such as area occupancy, which gives a clear picture of how many employees used the specific office in a particular period.
For instance, implementing these sensors in common areas allows organizations to access real-time data and plan effective cleaning activities. If a room is occupied 50% of the time, compared to another occupied only 10% of the time, then it’s logical which one to prioritize.
The prioritization in cleaning allows better resource allocation, which ultimately reduces the costs of cleaning services―which grew astoundingly after the COVID-19 outbreak.
No one can expect the immediate return to normal that was before the COVID-19 outbreak. Videoconferencing and collaboration platforms experienced a surge in users during the pandemic, mainly because of the shift to remote working. The question is: will these platforms stay relevant in a post-COVID world?
Since the businesses most likely will adopt a hybrid model, which allows greater flexibility in scheduling and occupancy, there is a good indication that these platforms will only get more advanced. Even if a single employee gets infected, it disrupts business operations drastically, and everyone wants to avoid that. Social distancing restrictions forbid large gatherings, and physical meetings pose a risk for employee and organization safety.
Using online communication and collaboration platforms reduces the risk of spreading the virus internally, while effectively sharing information among teams. Businesses can also save on office space and cleaning services since there will be a reduced need for conference rooms.
Smart offices equipped with sensors and gadgets that support employees and organizations are the future of the workspace. It is resource-heavy for organizing and keeping track of office occupancy all the time, especially when social distancing is required. Many companies brainstorm creative solutions to keep office workers following the latest safety guidelines and keeping them healthy.
For instance, gadgets such as smart wearables are being developed, and they notify people once they breach social distancing policies. If two workers get too close in a shared space, the wearable will notify people to increase the distance.
On the other hand, temperature screening cameras became the new normal, since they are quite an effective way to measure someone’s temperature and notify officials. High body temperature is one of the most common symptoms of the virus, and identifying and denying access to someone with a high body temperature in real time can stop further virus spreading.
COVID-19 has shaken the world by disrupting global economies, health systems and taking human lives. However, the pandemic speeds up developing technologies and finding practical ways to use technology to control the spread of the virus.
Artificial intelligence is getting more advanced, and multiple effective solutions support the control of virus spreading:
After getting used to remote working, returning to the office is stressful for both organizations and employees. Organizations should ensure the safest working environment for the employees to avoid a further virus outbreak. Technology plays a crucial role in the transition as it can effectively mitigate the risks of spreading the virus, while keeping the key processes operational.
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Small businesses thrive when employees are exemplary at wearing many hats, it’s a necessity in that environment. Relocating a small business is a full-time job. Employees don the wizard hat, coordinating the move and embracing a new adventure.
We help our customers during this process to figure out their communications needs during this time and our piece of the puzzle, though one piece, really is tied so intricately to others. After witnessing numerous failures, we present our top 5 crucial steps to avoid skipping during this process.
Real talk here, no super technical jargon. These are the most common things customers say to me that are WRONG!
#5 – “We will just unplug the phone stuff, load it in my SUV and plug it back in the same way.”
Whoa there! Everyone knows this is NOT a great idea while relocating and it still happens all the time. We get calls where someone has attempted this and failed. Plan ahead to minimize phone downtime and avoid entering crisis mode.
#4 – “Our new office has cables everywhere, they will work.”
Some offices do still come with cabling in place from the last tenant. You may see jacks on the walls all over the place, and a room full of cables. None of this means that it’s ready for you to reuse. When you remove the wallplate, you find no cable attached. Sometimes, only a portion of the cables are terminated there, and it’s likely not the part you need. Sometimes, someone cuts that giant bunch of cables in the data room, but it remains unseen.
You should plan to provide a floorplan marked up with where your furniture will go so that your vendors can ensure there is a working cable that terminates back to the correct data location. This will help you avoid mistakes and costly add-ons while your relocating.
#3- “The electrician is running all new low voltage cables for us.”
No offense to electricians but often there are huge portions of a low voltage cable job that they are not including in their bid.
We often show up to move the phone system and find there are no cables ready for us, and the finger-pointing begins. For you, it means downtime, delays, no way to work on your computer or answer calls, and typically it’s for hours to days!
#2- “I just called to move my phone lines and they said it will take at minimum 30 days.”
Calling the vendor that you get the bills for your telephone lines from should be at the very top of your to-do list. They drive the bus when it comes to relocating. 30 days is pretty standard but depending on the carrier, type of service, and where you are moving to you could be looking at 60, 90 days, or even more.
The wizard hat cannot fix this situation if they have planned all other vendors to move on the 15th and your lines won’t be there until the 30th. Everyone else has to fall in line behind the carrier’s date.
#1 “Our old phones have worked for 15 years, we’ll just move them, now is not the time to make a change.”
That is a lie, this is the best time to evaluate your communications. Even if that old phone has worked for years, it will not work forever. When you are planning a move we have the opportunity to tightly schedule the implementation of new systems with your Go Live Date, and can often have the new equipment working in your office before your move, allowing for low to NO disruption of service.
Often that old equipment does not fully survive a relocation. Those old parts that have been running for years sometimes do not come back up after being off for long times. No business wants to have an outage that could have been prevented.
THE SOLUTION is smart planning. Get your vendor involved early when your planning on relocating, and if you don’t have one reach out to us! You hire movers for your stuff, you should do the same for your communications equipment.
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In both the physical and virtual realms, meetings constitute just one component of accomplishing work. This blog was originally posted on lauriemccabe.com.
There’s no question that COVID-19 has forever changed the way small and medium businesses (SMBs) think about the “workplace”, shifting the concept from the physical world to a virtual one.
Recently, Mona Abou-Sayed, Mitel’s VP of Collaboration and Applications, and I discussed this in a LinkedIn Live session, Building Culture and Collaboration for the Next Normal, hosted by Brent Leary. We talked about the implications for businesses as they move from early, reactive responses to remote working, and consider the longer-lasting impacts on the workplace.
In this post, I recap some of the key take-aways and make additional perspectives.
Providing employees with the option to work from home isn’t new. The trend had already been rising prior to COVID-19: According to Flexjobs, WFM jobs had risen 44% over the last 5 years before COVID-19 struck.
In addition, SMB Group’s 2019 SMB 360: Connecting the Dots Between Business and Technology survey indicated that about three-quarters of SMBs had options for employees to work from home prior to COVID-19. However, in the majority of these companies, only a small percentage of workers—typically 10% or less—were working from home on a regular basis.
COVID-19 has turned these numbers upside down. Confronted with stay-at-home mandates, SMBs with existing WFM programs dramatically expanded them, and over half of SMBs that lacked work-from-home options prior to the pandemic started putting them in place.
Seemingly overnight, millions of people transitioned to working from home, realizing the potential productivity and effectiveness of remote work.
As the threat of the virus subsides and mandates lift, employers will require some employees to return to the office full time. But others will continue to work at home full time, and another group will divide their time between the office and home, resulting in a hybrid workplace. The workplace is also likely to be more fluid, accommodating changing business and employee considerations.
Videoconferencing took off just as quickly as WFM. Companies that lacked or never used the video element of web conferencing started to do so. People who used to turn their cameras off for online meetings started turning them on.
Of course, there were also issues—ranging from Zoom bombing security breaches to time wasted due to slow connections to technical difficulties.
But people adapted to the glitches and successfully managed video meetings amidst distractions like dogs, kids, spouses, messy offices, and bad hair days. Video quickly humanized business meetings that had in the past been stodgy affairs. Instead of reading emails behind a darkened screen, more people were actually paying attention during videoconferencing sessions.
But videoconferencing is not the only online tool that has helped SMBs to sustain their businesses.
SMB Group’s Impact of COVID-19 Study on SMBs reveals that across the board, a majority of SMBs rate cloud-based applications as being extremely valuable in helping them to weather the COVID-19 crisis. Cloud-based business solutions topped the list, followed by videoconferencing. But for most SMBs all of these solutions—remote IT and access, real-time collaboration, file sharing, backup, security, and identity management— have proved their worth in supporting WFM and keeping businesses up and operational.
This isn’t surprising. From phone systems to business solutions, most companies use multiple solutions to collaborate and get their work done. And businesses need to secure these solutions to protect customer, financial, and other sensitive data that we share within our companies.
Many SMBs were forced to play defense when the pandemic hit. They turned to whatever they could quickly fill in the gaps for a new or greatly expanded remote workforce—often ending up with a hodge-podge of different, point solutions.
But as we transition from this initial, reactive phase, more SMBs are realizing that jumping from one application or system to another adds friction, frustration, and security risks into the collaboration process. As a result, many are starting to think about how they can develop a cohesive collaboration and communications strategy that can adapt to change today and tomorrow.
Integrating a mix of old phone systems, web and videoconferencing, SMS, file sharing and other tools after the fact often costs more—in terms of both time and money—than it does to move to a unified solution in which the applications are designed to work together in the first place.
Unified, cloud-based collaboration solutions pull all the things you need to do every day, such as phone calls, web and video meetings, messaging, notifications, and file sharing, into one place. They’re built from the ground up to work together. For instance, say you’re on a chat and realize that it would be easier to have the conversation via a video meeting. Ideally, you’d just want to be able to click a button and move the conversation to a video call.
Many offer integrations with key business applications, such as email, CRM, human resources, and other solutions to help streamline business workflows. For example, Mitel’s public cloud communications solution, MiCloud Connect, has native integrations with G Suite, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office. Their private cloud offering, MiCloud Flex, has additional integrations with Salesforce, SugarCRM, and Microsoft Dynamics. They’ve put together a slew of resources for SMBs to support the hybrid and remote worker thrive.
Unified collaboration solutions, designed to support millions of users, provide businesses with the necessary enterprise-grade security and reliability safeguards.
While no one has a crystal ball, it’s highly likely that many of the changes we’ve seen unfold during the pandemic will continue to reshape our views of work and the workplace even after the pandemic subsides.
As your business transitions from reacting to COVID-19 to longer-term planning, now is the time to evaluate your current collaboration strategy. Taking a more holistic approach can help you bring people, processes together, improve how work gets done, and put your business on track for sustainability and growth as the way we work evolves.
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Women owned businesses are the best, we know because we are one! During the month of March we are offering an amazing deal to our fellow women owned businesses to make moving their business communication solution to the cloud SUPER EASY. No install fees and no contract make this opportunity unbeatable.
For those who are on the fence about change to the cloud here are the top three reasons you should switch today:
To take advantage of this opportunity reach out to us today
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Often, I speak with customers that have signed a contract with one the big carrier services corporations and they have ZERO idea what they signed up for. Often carriers will reach out to you and say they can save you money on your current phone and internet bills asking for a copy of your current bill. They return typically with a 3-year contract that is less than what you pay now, so someone signs it.
Worse, I get a call from a customer who has that carrier onsite and they are doing a “TTU” or Test and Turn-Up of those services and didn’t know they need to have their telecom vendor on site.
Carrier services corporations use technical language and abbreviations that most people do not understand, and lure you in with the promise of saving you money without doing the leg work to see if the solution is even right for your business. Customers trust the brand name and just go along for the ride. “The ride” is often riddled with double billing scenarios or customers being locked into a 3-year contract for service they don’t even use.
This makes me ANGRY.
The brand name you should trust is Towner. We know what services will work for your business and your existing communication equipment. One phone call will get you in touch with a team that help you make educated decision on what is best for your business.
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It is essential for businesses to consider a Cloud Communication Strategy Upgrade in today’s fast-paced digital world.
‘s time to get strategic! You do it in every other aspect of your business, why aren’t you being strategic when it comes to managing your technology. And by the way a huge part of your technology is your phone and communication solutions.
Tons of people think they know technology, tons of people in reality DON’T! Wrap your brain around this… “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” We’re willing to bet when you stop and engage experts to analyze the technology you have in place, you’ll find that the equipment you already have could have the capabilities to do really cool things you want it to, but haven’t set it up for. Think about the fact that humans only use 10% or their brain’s capacity OR you know that your smart phone has way more features and capabilities than you know how to use. IT’S THE SAME THING HERE!
So in our first light bulb moment, we learned that before we let our current vendor or our new vendor talk us into a brand new system (a rip and replace as we call it) we should first completely vet what our current system can do. Would upgrades and or updates be the solution to our needs?
And here’s a hint, if you aren’t staying current on upgrades either because you want to save money or your vendor isn’t helping keep you current, you’re going to end up spending much more money in the long run.
You need to be aware of your Total Cost of Ownership. This one is huge. It’s the difference between an operating expense and a capital expense. Cloud systems do come with a smaller upfront costs by nature, however you might be really shocked when you sit down and do the math. There are indeed fees that will pop up and are unpredictable and unavoidable like usage tax, rental fees etc.
This Mitel MiVoice Business customer is configured for 100 employees. Take a look at the total cost comparison
Having already paid for the system, you’ve eliminated the cost for the hardware and software that runs it. You own it. But the simple addition of MiCollab to facilitate chat and collaboration, you’ve provided your team with features and functions you would get from switching to a new cloud vendor. Most importantly, the updates and upgrades needed to keep your system operating at peak efficiency at all times are covered by the Mitel Software Assurance plan. So, over a one-year period, the
TCO for your on-premises system would be $37,000 and over three years the TCO would be $81,000.
Eventually, all businesses will end up with some form of a cloud-based solution. However, your communications system requirements should be dictated by how the system is expected to contribute to your daily business operation and your communications strategy should evolve with your business needs
If you can address all your requirements by leveraging your existing on-premises equipment, then that’s probably what you should be thinking about before you consider cloud migration. But chances are, there are incremental updates and upgrades you should be making today that will keep your system as flexible as possible, ready to capture opportunities when they arise and enable you to better support the needs of today’s workforce.
Towner makes it easy for you to think strategically about how best to leverage your communications solutions.
Our warranty programs are build to keep your current and relevant. Through our ongoing system evaluations and health checks, we always know where you stand if you hold a warranty with us.
Then when it truly is time to move to the cloud, our team as well as your team know what features and functionality are needed to make the transition as smooth and cost effective as possible
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