Cisco CEO says employees are tired of having to work from home and want to come back to the office
**
Jordan Novet
Parents work from home with their two sons due to the coronavirus outbreak in Paris in 2020. Xavier Laine | Getty Images News | Getty Images
People have changed their minds about working from home since the coronavirus prompted office closures last year, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said during an earnings conference call with analysts on Tuesday. At first people liked their new, distributed arrangements, but now some people are yearning to be back at work, he said.
Cisco, whose networking switches, phones and wi-fi access points are installed at corporate sites, is among the companies that can benefit from a widespread return to the office. The state of the pandemic remains in flux, and Robbins’ words communicate the lack of certainty around the aftermath and how that will affect business.
“I think we sort of moved into that phase where people actually struggle mentally, people are — they’re not enjoying it,” Robbins said.
Just as Robbins regularly talks with customers, he also communicates with Cisco’s own workers. On the call he brought up input he had received recently to make his point.
“One of our employees said to me the other day, ‘I don’t mind the option of working from home. I don’t like being forced to work from home,’” he said.
Cisco’s workers have other pressures to deal with. In August, after reporting three quarters of declining revenue brought on by business challenges, Cisco, once the most valuable company in the world, announced a cost-reduction program that included offering voluntary early retirements. Cisco employees can work from home through June 30, a spokesperson said.
Robbins has his own idea about the role of the office beyond Cisco.
“I really believe it’s going to be hybrid where people are going to work from home and everybody is sort of landing here where they’re going to work from home three days a week and work from the office two days a week and vice-versa,” he said. “The question is what accommodations does that lead to for customers based on employees’ concern over space issues, concern over future pandemics or other concerns. That’s what we just don’t know yet.”
Tech companies are increasingly promising more flexibility around remote work when the pandemic ends. On Tuesday, Salesforceannounced the majority of its employees would be working on a “flex” schedule with one to three days in the office per week, while Twitter and Dropbox have both told employees they can work from homepermanently.
Five Kansas City area women business owners have been recently chosen to receive a national “2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Award” by Enterprising Women Magazine. The publication is the nation’s only women-owned magazine publishing for female business owners.
The 2020 Enterprising Women Award winners are placed in categories based on 2019 gross revenues of their enterprises. They are as follows:
The honoree from the Kansas City area in the “over $10 million and up to $25 million in annual sales” category is Gail Worth, owner of Gail’s Harley-Davidson, Grandview, Missouri, and Shawnee Cycle Plaza, Shawnee, Kansas.
The honoree from the Kansas City area in the “over $3 million and up to $4 million in annual sales” category is Neelima Parasker, President and CEO of SnapIT Solutions, LLC, Overland Park, Kansas.
The honorees from the Kansas City area in the “over $2 million and up to $3 million in annual sales” category are Martina Derra, President of DiverseID, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri, and Julie Towner, President of Towner Communications, Mission, Kansas.
The honoree from the Kansas City area in the “up to $1 million in annual sales” category is Jy’ Juan Maze, President of Maze Freight Solutions, Overland Park, Kansas.
In a special honor this year, Enterprising Women Magazine is presenting a Top 20 in 2020 Award to Jeanette Prenger, President of ECCO Select, North Kansas City, Missouri. She is a prior “Enterprising Women of the Year Award” honoree and the recognition is for her outstanding record of success and leadership in business, and her continued support of women’s entrepreneurship.
The winners are pictured below, except for Neelima Parasker.
Everyone loves a good upgrade. Especially when it means quick new features, and slick and easy use. That’s why Effective April 1, 2020 the Atlas end-user dashboard is being retired and replaced by BOOMEA!
About Boomea
Boomea is a business-driven chat application, available across multiple platforms, built from the
ground up with Unified Communications in mind. Bringing people and teams together with the
ability to chat anytime, anywhere, Boomea provides that often missing chat integration to your
business. Ever had to work remotely and the only convenient way to talk to your team would be
to call them? Now, you can simply open the Boomea app to chat with your co-workers. With the
seamless, easy-to-use ability to send photos, videos, and any other file type, you can feel confident
that you’ll be prepared in any situation.
Features
Chat
Send chat messages to other users in your account. Emojis are included and file attachments are
supported. Public Channels
• Any user can create a public channel
• Any user within the account can join a public channel and read the entire chat history within the channel so keep it PG!
• Any user can invite any other user within the account to join the channel Private Channels
• Any user can create a private channel • Only the channel creator can invite other users within the account to join the channel
• Only the channel creator can eject other users from the channel Direct Messages
• These messages are between you and your coworkers! Direct messages include one-on-one messages as well as group messages
• Mentions
• Use the @ symbol followed by the user’s name to direct a chat to a singular person when in a group or channel. The user will receive a notification that they have an unread mention and the channel or chat will show a badge of the number of unread messages. Outside Messages
• With contacts integration, Boomea now allows you to chat directly with your contacts who also have the Boomea UC client! When a person outside your account initiates a chat with you, a chat access rule is presented as a question for you to answer regarding whether you want to accept their request to chat, ignore the request for a set period of time, or block the user. This chat access rule is per-person and can be changed at any time in your Boomea account settings. Imagine how this can help by chatting with support!
• When communicating with a contact in another Boomea account as an outside message, you may also define whether you wish to share your chat presence with that contact.
Call Routing
A user may manage their own call routing by defining which devices to ring, in which order, and for what duration of time. Other configurable options include: No Answer Route
• This is where to send the call if the user does not answer Busy Route
• This is where to send the call if the user rejects the call Outside Timeframe Route
• This is where to send the call if the caller at- tempts to call the user outside their defined time frame Time Frame Schedule
• This is how a user can set the time frames that callers may reach them
Voicemail
When the user gets a voicemail on the Atlas platform, the voicemail will be sent to the Boomea application and the record will appear
without the need to refresh anything. The user may then listen to the voicemail, download, and/or delete the voicemail. When a voicemail
is deleted, it removes it from the user’s voicemail in their phone as well for easy voicemail management!
Call History
Call records from the Atlas platform are pushed to the Boomea application in real time so a user can be up-to-date with their calls,
both missed and answered! No refresh is necessary as the records will appear as they are created.
Call Recording
When a user is recorded on the Atlas platform, the recording will be sent to the Boomea application and the record will appear without the need to refresh anything. If the user has access to other user’s recordings via management permissions, this user will be able to review, play, download, and/or delete all recordings they have access to. The user may only delete a recording if they are given the delete action specifically by management permissions. Call recordings are ordered by date and time and display the name of the user that was recorded.
Call Center Console
A user can access the Atlas platform call center console from the Boomea application. This enables a user to monitor the status of their queues and agents in real time. The interactive display allows the user to click on an agent and see their specific queue statistics. User can login, logout and set themselves away on the application. Admins can login, logout, and set agents away and ready in the application.
Agent and admin can also see callers waiting in the queue.
Contact Integration
Boomea Contacts the first milestone in our goal to provide the most robust UC product on the market. Contacts was the center point of all our communications, and this new feature integrates your contacts with Boomea. Current integrations are with the following providers:
o G-Suite (Google)
o Office365
This integration includes avatar images and contact sync between Boomea and your integration point. You may also choose not to integrate at all. In that situation, we provide the user the ability to upload a CSV file with their contacts and they may manage that list within the
Boomea interface. Integrating your contacts with Boomea provides a variety of new features and enhancements to Contact Management
o Click-2-Call your contacts
o Click-2-Email your contacts
o Outside Chat Messages
o Communication History
Contact Management
Boomea Contacts allows you to view and manage your contacts by syncing your contacts with your integration point. The integration includes avatar syncing. Any updates made to contacts in Boomea will be pushed up to your integration point. The converse also applies – any changes made to the contacts in your integration point will be pushed down to Boomea
Click-2-Call and Email
Using the contacts list, any contact that you have a telephone number assigned to, you can click the phone icon to initiate a call to that phone number. If the contact has more than one telephone associated to them, the contact information is expanded downwards to show you all their numbers and allow you to click on a specific number to call. Click-2-Email the contact’s email address. If the contact has more
than one email address associated to them, the contact information is expanded downwards to show you all their email addresses and
allow you to click on a specific email. The Boomea application will then automatically open your computer’s default email client and
pre-populate the ‘To’ field with their email address
Outside Messaging
With contacts integration, Boomea now allows you to chat directly with your contacts who also have the Boomea UC client! When a person outside your account initiates a chat with you, a chat access rule is presented as a question for you to answer regarding whether you want
to accept their request to chat, ignore the request for a set period of time, or block the user. This chat access rule is per-person and can be
changed at any time in your Boomea account settings. Imagine how this can help by chatting with support! When communicating with a
contact in another Boomea account as an outside message, you may also define whether you wish to share your chat presence with that contact
Meetings
Tasks
Boomea Tasks module is the first productivity tool created for the Boomea application. The tasks module allows a user to manage their personal and organizational tasks within the Boomea application. Features include:
• Personal and Organizational Task Management
• Task Delegation
• Task Sharing
• Task Activity Log
• Task Notifications
• Link UC Objects to Tasks for Quick Referencing and Centralization
For More information on Tasks please visit our website https://boomea.com/boomea-tasks
Mobile Tasks
The new tasks module wouldn’t be complete without a mobile app! Take your tasks on the road with Boomea Tasks Mobile available for iOS and Android platforms. Enjoy the same robust functionality on your mobile device as your desktop application.
What do you need to know?
If you’re currently using the Altas dashboard you need to contact us!!
Towner will ensure that we work together to make a smooth transition!
Cloud contact center isn’t just a clever buzz phrase for big businesses anymore. Small Business Trends reports that Seventy percent of businesses either are planning to migrate their contact center to the cloud within the next year, or already have a cloud based contact center in place. This isn’t just a fancy fad: Market watch predicts that by 2024, that the $8.9 billion cloud contact center market will grow to more than $33 billion.
As cloud contact centers continue to become the way to do business, critical trends are surfacing that are promising a strong year in 2020.
2020 Cloud Contact Center Trends
A Legitimate Omnichannel Experience Offers More Robust Ways To Communicate.
The omnichannel experience is old hat in the contact center world, however many times not utilized to its fullest capabilities. A legitimate omnichannel experience enables customers to navigate effortlessly from one method of communications to another. When fully integrated and utilized as designed, omnichannel offerings ensure organizations can meet hyper evolving customer expectations.
As an example, MiCloud Connect Contact Center, enables your clients to easily interact with your agents, no matter what their channel of choice, without having to repeat their troubles or lose their information.
Training And Assistance Performed By A.I.
Gartner survey recently came out that Fifty-nine percent of organizations have already deployed AI, with many more organizations planning to implement AI projects during 2020. Gartner also forecasts that by 2021, AI interactions will handle 15 percent of all customer interactions. We’re just scratching the surface of how AI will transform cloud contact centers, and the customer experience. Major planned investments will enable AI to have an even bigger and badder role in how we interact with our customers over the next year.
This will include real-time training and coaching through virtual agent assist, or chatbots.
MiCloud Connect CX already handles this type of training. Speech analytics transcribes recorded conversations and uses AI to analyze key moments for coaching so your team can deliver better interactions. AI virtual agents also monitor conversations and present agents with relevant information that help them resolve customer questions more quickly and effectively.
The result? A more pleasant customer experience and a more effective interaction that’s on-brand and on-message. New agents handle calls like seasoned veterans in no time, and supervisors spend less time on training.
Impactful Analytics.
AI ensures more impactful and meaningful data analytics. Contact centers have been collecting data on customers since their inception, but the information’s useless if it’s not accurate, or properly analyzed and applied.
Natural language processing (NLP) interpret data and provide analysis around the “why” of customers contacting your company, ways you can improve your products and services and how you make information available to customers. This data enables you to move beyond contact center efficiency and focus on improving the overall customer experience. Since these insights are created in real-time, you can respond and adapt to customers’ preferences quickly, increasing loyalty while staying ahead of the competition.
Self-Service Is A Big Deal.
Customers often prefer to help themselves. They don’t want to get stuck in a queue or wait for a human agent – especially when they have a simple question about a product or service. Chatbots are the primary means of self-service, so it should be no surprise that the global chatbot market is expected to hit $5.63 billion by 2023, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 34 percent over the 2018-2023 period.
Chatbots allow customers to get answers to basic questions and FAQs. They also free up human agents to focus on more complex queries and keep wait times down for those who really do need to speak to a live agent.
A key differentiator in 2020 will be the provision of chatbots that create a smooth transition when a customer needs live support. Smartbots route customers to an agent with the appropriate level of expertise and provide agents with a full history of the customer engagement. This saves customers from having to repeat themselves and enables agents to pick up exactly where the chatbot left off.
Expanded FAQs and video tutorials are other ways in which cloud contact centers will offer self-service in 2020, so businesses need to be sure they’re prepared to meet those demands, as well.
Contact Center Agents Move From Reactive To Proactive.
Integration with CRM systems provides cloud contact center agents with detailed customer data in real time. When customers call with an issue, agents have instant access to purchase histories and other relevant details. That allows them to take a more proactive role in addressing the customer’s issue.
MiCloud Connect CX is an example of a cloud contact center solution that integrates with your CRM so you can immediately assess customer information and create a more personalized interaction. Agents can even note the customer’s mood, which can trigger automated actions and help your business better prepare for future interactions. Personalization and customer sentiment help your business improve customer satisfaction levels and monitor them over time.
The Rise Of The Remote Contact Center Workforce.
The days of large rooms full of agents answering calls are disappearing. Cloud contact centers have ushered in the ability to maintain a remote contact center workforce, without the need to offshore calls to a third-party vendor. With a cloud contact center, agents can be dispersed throughout the country, putting them closer to your customers. The money saved on office space and other overhead can be applied toward hiring local talent that can provide localized service. “Homeshoring” improves customer satisfaction, and we expect this trend to continue in 2020.
There’s no doubt that 2020 will be an exciting time. Innovations in cloud contact center solutions will give your business the advantage it needs to remain competitive in a customer-driven world. And by putting these cloud trends at the center of your contact center plans, you’ll be sure to meet your customers’ expectations for a stellar experience.
Up until 2018, the City of Lansing was utilizing copper phone lines for its phone service. Copper phone lines have limited bandwidth and are mostly best for POTS, or plain old telephone service. The out-of-date government communication system resulted in many different de-centralized systems and ultimately a headache for City Staff to administer the phone system.
That just wasn’t going to cut it for the City of Lansing. With nearly 12,000 residents and steady growth year over year, the city needed a system that could grow and adapt right alongside it.
City Staff selected Towner as the consultant to install its new, modern, easily managed phone system utilizing fiber optic delivery of the phone lines.
The VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, phone system offers phone service over the internet. It turns traditional, analog phone signals into digital ones that can be sent via the web. Using fiber optic cables, VoIP offers a tremendously higher capacity than copper cables, meaning a greater return on investment and a maximized budget.
Towner’s implementation team took great strides to provide excellent attention to detail and informed logical decisions. For a project of this size, the planning phase was extensive and involved multiple rounds of discussions and changes. Towner worked diligently to make sure every single need was met and that the communication system would be able to efficiently scale at the pace the city needed it to.
And after implementation, onsite end-user training sessions were held for city employees so they could see first-hand how the new system worked directly from a Towner trainer. This part was crucial to the overall success and adoption of the new system.
Matthew R. Schmitz, Director, Community & Economic Development of the City of Lansing, says that working with Towner has made their communication strategy easy to modify and adapt and has resulted in many compliments from City Staff.
“We couldn’t be happier with the provided system, or with Towner themselves. Towner has been very responsive and a great asset to the City during the deployment of this major system upgrade.”
PRODUCTS USED
Towner installed a MiVoice Connect system for the City of Lansing providing them with a solution to meet their unique environment. To meet the needs of the city, the new system was installed in five separate locations networked together through VPN’s between each site and two Mitel ST100DA switches where installed at two main sites to provide failover and local survivability.
And to help users manage their status and see the presence of others in real-time without traversing the city, Towner fully integrated unified communications using the Mitel Connect Client integrated with Skype for Business. And to allow users to take full advantage of the increased WiFi and mobile calling capabilities of the new system, the city now utilizes a Mitel Mobility Router.
Benefits of upgrading your business phone system
The new system is centrally managed, easy to modify and adapt, and has resulted in many compliments from City Staff about the operation and ease of use of the phone system. Not only is the new system more streamlined in its functions, but its capabilities are also greater, which allows the city to be more productive and effective in its everyday job functions.
Improved communication
Towner’s business phone systems are built for making better connections with teams and customers. With innovative features and seamless communication options, teams can collaborate anytime, anywhere.
Simplified technology
Cloud phone systems and integrated communication tools simplify technology with more centralized, accessible, and easy-to-manage solutions that get the job done easier and more efficiently.
Business growth
Better communication creates more opportunities for growth. Towner Communications offers the most technology-forward business communication solutions that help businesses scale at faster speeds.
Increased savings
Towner’s cloud-based phone systems help businesses save money by cutting operating expenses for hardware, maintenance, and IT headcount, ultimately creating a better return on investment.
Learn more about our business communication solutions or contact us today for a complimentary consultation!
Inc. 5000, With 115 years of experience and 19 international offices, Towner Communications continues to grow and thrive as a privately-held company. And this week, Towner was nationally recognized by Inc. magazine—an award-winning publication with 20+ million monthly readers—through inclusion in its annual Inc. 5000 list.
This prestigious list ranks the 5,000 fastest-growing, independent companies in the nation by percentage revenue growth. The average three-year growth of Inc. 5000 companies is 454%. In the last year alone, Towner Communications grew its profit margin by 525.46%, well above the Inc. 5000 average.
“Our team is humbled and honored to be included on this year’s Inc. 5000 list,” Chief Operating Officer Julie Towner said. “Year over year, we have experienced tremendous growth that has allowed us to reach greater heights and better serve our customers. This recognition is proof of our dedication to innovation and exceptional service!”
With this recognition, Towner joins the ranks of world-renowned companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Yelp, and Pandora who first gained national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000 list. And with the nearly 30 million small businesses in the United States alone, inclusion in the Inc. 5000 list is a high honor.
For complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and a full database, visit this link.
When: March 19, 2019 4:00pm – 7:00pm Where: Tom’s Town Distilling Company, 1701 Main St., Kansas City, MO 6410
Mark your calendar to join Towner Communications and RingCentral for networking and thought-provoking conversation. You’ll also be entered in our raffle, with a chance to win a $200, $300 or $500 Amazon gift card!
Learn how your business communications can be improved with a comprehensive cloud phone system that integrates phone, video, meetings, and messaging in one reliable, easy-to-use solution.
Afterward, you’ll have the opportunity to go on a tour and see how Tom’s Town spirits are made, learn their history, and sample their award-winning spirits.
We look forward to seeing you there![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Positioned furthest in the Leaders Quadrant for completeness of vision and ability to execute
There seem to be plenty of choices for cloud phone solutions that improve business. But what do the experts really say about providers that are truly innovating and actually optimizing the capabilities of a cloud communications system?
Visit RingCentral’s report summary page to see the analysis you need to build a business case and create a vendor short list.
Review market data from the independent market research firm Synergy Research Group and vendor reports from three leading analysts—Gartner, IHS Markit, and Frost & Sullivan. Get objective insights into the top vendors of cloud phone solutions and see how they perform when compared to each other and against traditional on-premises systems.
Towner Communications is here when you’re ready to talk about taking that next oh-so-important step—moving to the cloud with the UCaaS market leader.
Towner Communications is excited to announce our partnership with RingCentral! Towner remains on the cutting edge of Cloud Communications which is why we’ve partnered with the best in the business! Fast, Best of Technology, Easy, and most important of all Bottom Line Impacting is what the partnership between Towner and RingCentral brings to the market.
+
We know it’s not all about slick platforms and fancy features (although no one ever hates sexy technology), what matters most is that your pain points will be solved swiftly and as headache free as possible! We’re confident that this new partnership will offer a value that’s headsets and handsets above anything you’re business has ever experienced.
Towner and RingCentral offer a complete cloud communications system. Simple to use, manage, and deploy—all at a significant savings.
Towner Communications and RingCentral Office® are the perfect fit for your business’ communications
needs. Your cloud-based service is easy to manage from anywhere, and all of
your users can work from computers, smartphones, tablets, or desk phones.
Our partnership offers all-inclusive plans with transparent billing and a wide
range of advanced features, including:
Audio and video conferencing, Auto attendant, Call park, Call routing, Fax, HD voice
Integrations: Google, Microsoft® Office, Salesforce®, and Box
