Menu

News

Que’d Marketing On Hold

, , ,

Towner told you it was coming, but the wait is just beginning. A better more creative way of marketing. A clever way to captivate your clients, keep them smiling, increase sales, strengthen your customer service like a boss. Que’d by Towner Communications. Our dynamic Marketing On Hold Solution . Because Good Things Come To Those Who Wait….

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Good Things Come To Towner

, ,

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Nov 15th Towner makes an their business announcement yet! We’re changing the why you’ll do business! 

Good things come to those who wait…

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Hackers had flooded Dyn

,

Internet outage swoops across the US

BY OCTOBER 22, 2016 8:58 AM PDT

Attacks against a core internet firm play havoc with some of the world’s most popular websites.

Across the US on Friday, people screamed at their phones and computers and went a little crazy trying to figure out which of their favorite websites were still working.

At 7 a.m. local time, folks on the East Coast discovered that sites like Twitter, Spotify, Etsy, Netflix and software code-management service GitHub were knocked for a loop. Hackers had flooded Dyn, one of the biggest internet management companies in the country, with junk traffic — effectively shutting down services and websites throughout the region.

The outages eased after two hours but returned with a vengeance at midday, affecting areas across the US and parts of Europe.

“The earlier issues have resurfaced & some people may still be having trouble accessing Twitter,” the company tweeted. “We’re working on it!” Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security said it was “investigating all potential causes.”

It wasn’t until late in the day that Dyn said the issue had been resolved.

Hackers had used what’s known as a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) — conscripting hordes of internet-connected devices like computers, routers and security cameras into a botnet — to cripple Dyn’s servers.

Based in New Hampshire, Dyn is both a DNS service provider — translating URLs into IP addresses — and an internet management company, helping website customers get the best-possible online performance. It also filters out bad traffic headed to the websites, and that’s where things fell apart Friday. By overwhelming Dyn, the attackers were able to overwhelm many of its customers.

WAIT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Last month, noted security expert Bruce Schneier said core internet companies were seeing people probing their networks to learn how well they could respond to DDoS attacks. The title of his blog post: “Someone is learning how to take down the internet.”

DDoS attacks have been around since the dawn of the modern internet, but they’ve been getting more powerful. Last month, the website of security expertBrian Krebs was hit with 620 gigabits per second of traffic.

Cybersecurity company Flashpoint said Friday the botnet attacking Dyn was built with the same malicious software that launched the attack against Krebs and French website OVH — the two most powerful DDoS attacks on record. Called Mirai, the malware works by “enslaving vast numbers of these devices into a botnet, which is then used to conduct DDoS attacks,” Flashpoint researchers said in a statement.

Until now, successful attacks on sites as large and popular as Twitter, Reddit and Netflix have been rare.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT

“Given the drastic increase lately in the size and scope of DDoS attacks, DNS providers [like Dyn] are scrambling to increase bandwidth capacity to withstand the latest attacks,” said Jeremiah Grossman, chief of security for cybersecurity company SentinelOne. “They are attractive targets for large-scale DDoS attacks.”

Having just about everything connected to the internet doesn’t help. Before, the bad guys had to rope in thousands of computers to launch their attacks. Now they have potentially millions of smart TVs, refrigerators, home routers, security cameras — even baby monitors — at their disposal.

Given how easy these devices tend to be for hackers to compromise, researchers like Shankar Somasundaram of Symantec think DDoS attacks will just get worse.

“There will be more of these attacks,” he said.

First published October 21 at 6:52 a.m. PT.
Most recently updated on October 22 at 8:58 a.m.: After updates throughout the day Friday, which included the addition of comments from Twitter and others, as well as various background information, this story was recast Saturday to reflect that the outage had been brought under control.

Towner Communications LLC is committed to being the number one provider of cutting edge telecommunication technology in the Kansas City area. With the ability to service multi-million dollar accounts as well as s mall business accounts, we strive to build and foster long lasting relationships with all of our clients

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

2017 NAWBO Women’s Business Conference

, , , ,

I literally just got back to my office after three days in Minneapolis attending the 2017 National Women’s Business Conference hosted by NAWBO, or as we NAWBO’ers call it “the NAWBOWBC”.   Yep. I am tired from three days of conferencing and all the fun that goes with it but I am also energized and excited to be back at work. I’m super inspired and equipped with innovative ideas on how to build a better business for me and a better NAWBO chapter for us all.

With over 700 attendees representing 50-plus chapters, it was exciting to see our Kansas City Chapter recognized for building a better chapter (ask me about Star 3) and for adding 17 new members during our Spring membership drive (How did a little chapter like Kansas City add so many when BIG chapters added only 20 or 21?).

Our member and board member, Kelly Wilson of Weave Gotcha Covered!, was honored as runner up for the Dr. Tererai Trent Award and another member, Kelly Scanlon of Thinking Bigger Business Media, Inc., moderated a panel discussion on Growing through this organization.

It was a great conference; see for yourself on Facebook. The only disappointing part was that you weren’t there. Don’t let this happen again! Put next year’s conference on your calendar RIGHT NOW and join the fun in Spokane, Washington on September 23-25, 2018.

 

Written By Dr. Valerie Vaughn
Certified Business Intermediary 
Certified Mergers & Acquisitions Professional
Apex Business Advisors / President of NAWBO KC

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Customer Engagements May Be Wasting Your Time and Money

, , , ,

If your idea of contact center technology involves rows of agents auto-dialing customers, think again. The truth is any business with customers (i.e., every business) can use contact center technology to better handle its customer engagements and serve its internal customers. The result? A seamless, omni-channel customer experience and increased internal productivity. Watch the video below to learn more about how your current strategy for customer engagements may be costing you time and money.

Mitel - Handling Customer Engagements

 

From the video:

My name is Christian Szpilfogel and I’m VP of strategy here at Mitel. When most people think of a contact center, they think of a room full of agents, tied to headsets, auto-dialing costumers or fielding an endless stream of inbound calls. The truth is any business with customers has a contact center requirement, whether it’s for the early part of sales engagement, whether it’s fulfillment, support, service, billing, or other matters through the entire customer journey. You’re engaging with your customers and they’re engaging with you. This goes beyond phone calls, to include email, SMS, social media, even web chat. Contact center technology is designed to make these communications as seamless as possible, by connecting your organization for a truly unified customer experience.

 

Not only that, they can create new efficiencies to save your business time and money. For example, a contact center doesn’t just have to be for serving external customers; it can also be for serving your internal customers. Let’s run through a situation where the contract management group is serving your salesforce. Your salesforce in turn is serving your external customers. They need to be able to respond back to customers and make necessary adjustments in a timely fashion while protecting the integrity of the contract itself. The contract management team then can be within contact center skills group that serves the sales people, such that the sales people then engage with the contract management specialists to be able to make the necessary changes. And, over a period of time in on omni-channel context, they also have the persistence of that conversation in context for the contract management specialists to be able to help the sales person.

 

In another context, unified communications and collaboration really does need to be tied to the contact center solution. The reason is, that in today’s world consumers are very intelligent by the time they reach a contact center. They’ve done their research, so when they talk to the contact center specialist they need that person to be up to speed and be able to answer the tougher questions. Fortunately, many contact centers have skilled their agents to be able to deal with these more intelligent conversations. However, still 10 to 20 percent of the questions that are coming from the customer may not be fully addressable by the contact center agent and they’ll need to be able to reach out to experts within your business in order to be able to leverage their expertise to get a first point resolution with a customer and therefore improving the overall customer engagement.

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Make the Most of Your Communications Investment

, ,

Technology is changing rapidly. But, when it comes to unified communications and collaboration (UCC), there are easy steps you can take to ensure your investments are primed for the long-run.  No matter what tomorrow brings, here are six steps to follow to make the most of your UCC investment and ensure a better path forward for your business.

1. Keep your communications seamless

The mobile workforce is not a trend you can expect to fade away anytime soon – in fact, prepare yourself for the opposite. By 2018, it’s expected that 70% of mobile professionals will do business on mobile devices. But mobility should never hinder productivity. Your communications and collaboration tools should be designed with mobile in mind so you can have an in-office experience that’s consistent across all your mobile devices, no matter where you are in the world.

2. Boost your bottom line with significant cost savings

Improving your mobile collaboration strategy now can save you big bucks year after year. In fact, the average cost a company faces for a bad or non-existent mobile strategy is $36 million per year! Working with a vendor with a mobile-first vision can transform your business into a mobile enterprise and improve your profit margin without a sales miracle.

3. Engage the best talent, anywhere in the world

Did you know 36% of employees would choose flexible working options over a pay raise? Not only can a mobile collaboration strategy improve employee morale, but it creates meaningful connections with employees on the road and in remote offices, creating a truly collaborative environment.

Download the CIO Playbook for more.

4. Build customer loyalty in a changing consumer market

Your workforce isn’t the only thing that’s mobile. Today’s customer is no longer content to wait in line or hang on hold for even a few minutes. Instead, your customers want to connect with you through their favorite media – SMS, web chat, social media and video – and they want to do so instantly. To gain a competitive edge, ask your technology partner about multimedia options for customer engagement.

5. Protect your investment as your business grows and needs change

Partnering with the right vendor provides the flexibility to grow at your own pace. Whether you’re on-premises today, diving into cloud or testing the waters with a hybrid model, your environment should easily scale as your business expands. And don’t let your vendor tie you down – choose from best of breed solutions by working with a partner that offers CRM, Microsoft and VMware integrations.

6. Trust a partner that delivers all this and more

From how your employees innovate to how you engage with your customers, your communications are critical. Take your team collaboration and customer experience to the next level by partnering with a vendor that can support you today and tomorrow, no matter what the future brings.

by the Experts at Mitel Aug 8, 2017

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Mitel Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire ShoreTel

, ,

Mitel Aquires ShorTel

  • Accelerates Mitel’s path to growth 
  • Delivers attractive shareholder value with $60 million in expected synergies
  • Moves Mitel into a #2 position in UCaaS market
  • Expected to be accretive in the first year

OTTAWA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL) (TSX:MNW) and ShoreTel (Nasdaq:SHOR) today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Mitel will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock in an all-cash transaction at a price of $7.50 per share, or a total equity value of approximately $530 million and a total enterprise value of approximately $430 million. The purchase price represents a 28% premium to ShoreTel’s closing share price on July 26, 2017.

Stronger together as a global market leader in the rapidly growing UCaaS market

Continuing to deliver its move-to-the-cloud strategy, with this transaction Mitel is accelerating on a growth path by investing further and faster into the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) market as digital transformation accelerates customer demand for cloud-based solutions globally. The combined company will be the #2 player in the UCaaS market, creating a supplier with the scale and technical capabilities to enable customers with new cloud-based solutions and applications.

The combined company will be headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and will operate as Mitel. Rich McBee, Mitel’s Chief Executive Officer, will lead the combined organization. Steve Spooner, Mitel’s Chief Financial Officer, will also continue in that role.

“This is a very natural combination that enables us to continue to consolidate the industry and take advantage of cost synergy opportunities while adding new technologies and significant cloud growth to our business,” said Mitel CEO, Rich McBee. “Together, Mitel and ShoreTel will be able to take customers to the cloud faster with full-featured, cloud-based communications and applications.”

Uniquely qualified to take customers and partners to the cloud

Together, the combined company will have approximately 3,200 channel partners and an industry-leading portfolio of communications and collaboration solutions. Mitel and ShoreTel are committed to providing continued support and an attractive path forward for all customers and partners – cloud and premise. On closing of the proposed transaction, the combined company will have a global workforce of approximately 4,200 employees.

“With the announcement today, this concludes our comprehensive review of strategic alternatives by delivering a significant cash premium for our shareholders,” said Don Joos, CEO of ShoreTel. “Customers are clearly moving to the cloud at a rapid pace. The combination of Mitel and ShoreTel creates a new UCaaS market leader with a differentiated strategy and solution, and a clear migration path so that no customer is left behind or will have to abandon what they already have to cloud-enable their organization.”

Once the transaction is complete, Mitel will be uniquely positioned to offer all customers the advantages of cloud-based communications. For enterprise customers, ShoreTel’s solutions will strengthen Mitel’s ability to cloud-enable customers with existing premise or mixed estate deployments, creating the technical foundation needed for delivery of next-generation cloud applications.

Size, scale and financial foundation to drive growth

Financial highlights of the transaction include:

  • Combined sales of $1.3 billion*
  • Increases Mitel’s total recurring revenue to 39% of total revenue*
  • More than doubles Mitel’s UCaaS revenue to $263 million*
  • Significant synergy opportunity targeted at $60M in annual run rate spend expected to be achieved over two years
  • Expected to be accretive to non-GAAP EPS in the first year

*based on trailing twelve months combined to March 31, 2017

Transaction Details

The transaction will be completed through a cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock, followed by a merger, which will not require approval of ShoreTel’s stockholders, in which remaining shares of ShoreTel common stock will be converted into the right to receive the same $7.50 cash per share price paid in the tender offer.  ShoreTel’s Board of Directors has recommended that ShoreTel stockholders tender their shares in the offer. In connection with the execution of the merger agreement, ShoreTel’s directors and executive officers, have entered into tender support agreements with Mitel pursuant to which they have agreed to tender their shares to Mitel’s offer.

Mitel intends to finance the consideration for the acquisition and associated transaction expenses using a combination of cash on hand from the combined business, drawings on its existing revolving credit facility and proceeds from a new fully underwritten $300 million term loan maturing in 2023.  The existing term loan and revolving credit facility will remain in place, with the Company having already obtained the requisite majority consent to certain amendments which accommodate the acquisition and the incremental financing. BMO Capital Markets is leading the new term loan facility with Citizens Bank, N.A., HSBC Bank Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce serving as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Bookrunners.  Citizens Bank, N.A., lead on the existing amended facilities, will act as administrative agent for these and the new term loan.  EA Markets LLC provided Mitel with independent advisory and transaction services in conjunction with the arrangement and structuring of the new financing.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017, subject to ShoreTel stockholders having tendered shares representing more than 50% of the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock, certain regulatory approvals having been obtained and other customary conditions to the tender offer having been satisfied.

Jefferies LLC is serving as financial advisor to Mitel, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is serving as legal advisor to Mitel and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is serving as legal advisor to Mitel in connection with the financing.  J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor to ShoreTel and Fenwick & West LLP is serving as legal advisor to ShoreTel.

Conference Call Information

Mitel is hosting an investor conference call and live webcast today, Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT) to discuss this announcement, as well as its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017. To access the conference call, dial 888-734-0328. Callers outside the U.S. and Canada should dial 678-894-3054. The live webcast will be accessible on Mitel’s investor relations website at www.mitel.com.  It will be archived and is expected to be available on this site for replay on or about Friday, July 28, 2017 after 12:00 p.m. ET. We have also provided a slide deck to supplement comments made specific to this transaction as well as to help illustrate our financial results.  It has been posted on www.mitel.com.  Our Form 10-Q is expected to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and Canadian securities regulatory authorities on July 27, 2017 and will include our complete financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Important Information for Investors

The tender offer for the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock referenced in this press release has not yet commenced. This press release is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of ShoreTel common stock, nor is it a substitute for the tender offer materials that Mitel and its acquisition subsidiary will file with the SEC upon commencement of the tender offer. At the time the offer is commenced, Mitel and its acquisition subsidiary will file tender offer materials on Schedule TO, and ShoreTel will thereafter file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with the SEC with respect to the tender offer. The tender offer materials (including an Offer to Purchase, a related Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents) and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement will contain important information. Holders of shares of ShoreTel common stock are urged to read these documents when they become available because they will contain important information that holders of ShoreTel common stock should consider before making any decision regarding tendering their shares. The Offer to Purchase, the related Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents, as well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, will be made available to all holders of shares of ShoreTel common stock at no expense to them. The tender offer materials and the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement will be made available for free at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov. Copies of these documents will also be made available free of charge on Mitel’s website at investor.Mitel.com or by contacting Mitel’s Investor Relations Department at 469-574-8134. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by ShoreTel will be available free of charge on ShoreTel’s website at ir.ShoreTel.com or by contacting ShoreTel’s Investor Relations Department at (408) 962-2573. In addition to the Offer to Purchase, the related Letter of Transmittal and certain other offer documents, as well as the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement, Mitel and ShoreTel file annual, quarterly and special reports and other information with the SEC. You may read and copy any reports or other information filed by Mitel or ShoreTel at the SEC public reference room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. Please call the Commission at 1-800-SEC-0330 for further information on the public reference room. Mitel’s and ShoreTel’s filings with the SEC are also available to the public from commercial document-retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In an effort to provide investors with additional information regarding Mitel’s results as determined by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Mitel also discusses, in its press releases and presentation materials, non-GAAP information which Mitel’s management believes provides useful information to investors, including Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP EPS (earnings per share) or non-GAAP net income per common share and Constant Currency. Non-GAAP financial measures do not have any standardized meaning and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. We use these non-GAAP financial measures to assist management and investors in understanding our past financial performance and prospects for the future, including changes in our operating results, trends and marketplace performance, exclusive of unusual events and other factors which do not directly affect what we consider to be our core operating performance. Non-GAAP measures are among the primary indicators management uses as a basis for our planning and forecasting of future periods. Investors are cautioned that non-GAAP financial measures should not be relied upon as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Mitel provides a reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP financial information in our quarterly results announcements and in the supplemental slides used in conjunction with Mitel’s quarterly calls. This information is available on our website at www.mitel.com under the “Investor Relations” section http://investor.mitel.com/events.cfm.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release are forward-looking statements (or forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable U.S. and Canadian securities laws. These include statements using the words believe, target, outlook, may, will, should, could, estimate, continue, expect, intend, plan, predict, potential, project and anticipate, and similar statements which do not describe the present or provide information about the past. There is no guarantee that the expected events or expected results will actually occur. Such statements reflect the current views of management of Mitel and ShoreTel and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on many assumptions and factors, including general economic and market conditions, industry conditions, operational and other factors. Any changes in these assumptions or other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. All forward-looking statements attributable to Mitel or ShoreTel, or persons acting on either of their behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth in this paragraph. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. In addition, material risks that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include: the inherent uncertainty associated with financial or other projections; the integration of Mitel and ShoreTel and the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits from the proposed acquisition of ShoreTel (the “transaction”); the ability to obtain required regulatory approvals for the transaction, the timing of obtaining such approvals and the risk that such approvals may result in the imposition of conditions that could adversely affect the expected benefits of the transaction; the risk that the conditions to the transaction are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all and the failure of the transaction to close for any other reason; the anticipated size of the markets and continued demand for Mitel and ShoreTel products and services; the impact of competitive products and pricing and disruption to Mitel’s and ShoreTel’s respective businesses that could result from the announcement of the transaction; access to available financing on a timely basis and on reasonable terms, including amending Mitel’s existing credit facilities to fund the cash portion of the consideration in connection with the transaction; the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits from the divestment of Mitel’s mobile division (“Mobile Division”); risks associated with the non-cash consideration received by Mitel in connection with the divestment of the Mobile Division; the impact to Mitel’s business that could result from the announcement of the divestment of the Mobile Division; Mitel’s ability to achieve or sustain profitability in the future; fluctuations in quarterly and annual revenues and operating results; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; current and ongoing global economic instability, political unrest and related sanctions; intense competition; reliance on channel partners for a significant component of sales; dependence upon a small number of outside contract manufacturers to manufacture products; and, Mitel’s ability to successfully implement and achieve its business strategies, including its growth of the company through acquisitions and the integration of recently acquired businesses and realization of synergies, including the proposed acquisition of ShoreTel. Additional risks are described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Mitel’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 filed with the SEC and Canadian securities regulatory authorities on March 1, 2017, in Mitel’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 to be filed with the SEC and Canadian securities regulatory authorities, and in ShoreTel’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2016 filed with the SEC on September 12, 2016. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by law, neither Mitel nor ShoreTel has any intention or obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements.

About Mitel
A global market leader in enterprise communications powering more than two billion business connections, Mitel (Nasdaq:MITL) (TSX:MNW) helps businesses and service providers connect, collaborate and provide innovative services to their customers. Our innovation and communications experts serve more than 60 million business users in more than 100 countries. For more information, go to www.mitel.com and follow us on Twitter @Mitel.

Mitel is the registered trademark of Mitel Networks Corporation.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

MITL-F

About ShoreTel

ShoreTel (NASDAQ:SHOR) provides businesses worldwide with communication solutions that make interactions simple. From business phone systems, unified communications and contact center solutions to a fully hosted voice and SMS development platform, ShoreTel delivers unmatched flexibility and ease for companies looking to increase productivity and drive innovation. ShoreTel offers solutions in thecloud, onsite or a hybrid of both, giving customers the freedom to choose the best fit for their business needs now and in the future. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., ShoreTel has offices and partners worldwide. For more information, visit shoretel.com.

Mitel Contact Information:

Media

Camille Beasley | 469-212-0433 | camille.beasley@mitel.com

Investors

Michael McCarthy | 469-574-8134 | michael.mccarthy@mitel.com

Industry Analysts

Denise Hogberg | 469-212-0434 | denise.hogberg@mitel.com

ShoreTel Contact Information:

Investors

Barry Hutton | (408) 962-2573 | bhutton@shoretel.com

Media

Katie Kregel | (512) 551-7065 | kkregel@shoretel.com

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Hospitality Technology Case Studies

,

There are few places that the customer experience (the guest experience) is more important than hotels and hospitality businesses and Hospitality Technology. We’re happy to present visions of the future, but today thought you’d like something a little more immediate and actionable. So here are six concrete examples of real-life hotels and hospitality businesses that have used communications and collaboration technology to make tangible improvements to their guest experiences and operations.

Hyatt Hotels

Hyatt Hotels was in a need of a way to communicate with that fit the speed and mobility required to be a world-class hospitality brand. The needed to make sure it was easy-to-use, highly reliable, enhanced employee mobility and reachability—and do it all while keeping costs in line.

Watch Hyatt explain how they enhanced operations across a continent >

Firmdale Hotels

Firmdale Hotels needed a management and monitoring tool that would assist the IT department in maintaining round the clock reliability to complement their existing Mitel communications infrastructure. Uptime is critically important in the hotel industry, and with devices and applications spread across multiple locations, Firmdale Hotels wanted greater control over this infrastructure.

Find out how Firmdale Hotels got greater insight and control >

Red Funnel Ferries (Video)

From a communication perspective, Red Funnel Ferries was looking to enhance their customers’ experience and move from being voice-only reactive to omni-channel proactive. They wanted to meet customers on the new communications channels they were using, like social media, and at the same time increase their employee productivity.

Watch Red Funnel Ferries explain how they transformed their customer experience >

Viking Line Cruises

Viking Line operations include passenger services, recreation and cargo carrier services. They were running 15 contact centers in three countries and 10 cities dealing with three different currencies and two time-zones that were previously on multiple disconnected systems. They also had disparate technologies for order taking and order processing. All of which made it tough and inefficient to meet their main goal of offering customers the best quality of service.

Discover how Viking Line consolidated systems to better serve their customers >

Château de Bonmont

The demands of the golf club on the Chateau’s communications system had grown considerably in recent years. Not only had the old telephone system aged, but it was no longer able to provide complete communications coverage. The management had clear expectations: “People should be able to contact us – any time they want,” says Philippe von Escher, General Manager of the club. “Being able to take and make phone calls at any time is essential for many of these staff members – and that means anywhere on our grounds.”

Check out how Chateau de Bonmont gave both customers and staff connectivity like never before >

Mint Hotels

Mint pushes the boundaries with pioneering concepts in technology and design. In 2007, the Mint hotel group received the “Technology Award” at the European Hotel Design Awards for its Manchester hotel, which set an industry benchmark. In order to remain at the forefront of the latest technology, it was essential that Mint Hotels had an advanced communications solution to enhance the guest experience, improve customer service and optimize productivity and costs.

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Indiana Pacers switch to Mitel

,

Indiana Pacers switch to high-performance tools to better serve fans

Pacers Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, has been around for 50 years and employs hundreds of full-time employees and thousands of part-time employees.

Indiana Pacers 50th anniversary

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Avaya May Stop Support of CS1000

,

What Does It Mean for Hospitals?

The desk phone continues to be a core part of many organizations. However, the demise of certain older PBX companies (Nortel), and the financial state of some current players, like Avaya, has brought the long-term viability of these systems into question. While some companies have decided to keep an unsupported platform for their telephone system and use either internal or external solutions to keep it running, for others this is not an option.

In hospitals, communications systems are a life or death concern

In the healthcare sphere, communications are more than just the phones; it is a critical part of delivering the care that facilities and organizations are chartered to do. In fact, communications failures are a large contributor to adverse clinical events and outcomes. In a retrospective review of 14,000 in-hospital deaths, communications errors were found to be the leading cause, twice as frequent as errors due to inadequate clinical skill.  Communications systems are critical for healthcare operations and are one of the factors that are tracked in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), part of the US Health and Human Services (HHS). For example, in the Medicare Contractor Beneficiary and Provider Communications Manual, systems are to be available 24/7 and not to return “soft busies”.

A communications failure can lead to decertification

In fact, a communications failure and the impact on a facility can be part of a CMS audit. If the system is not in current support, it can result in action leading to decertification. For healthcare facilities, CMS decertification can be disastrous whether it’s the cost of bringing the communications system back up to code and recertifying, the loss in business continuity, the impact on reputation or the sheer cost of losing revenue from CMS-based programs.
For healthcare facilities with systems from vendors that have either ceased to function or are in financial difficulties, this presents a significant issue. For example, Avaya has announced that support for its CS1000 PBX may be terminating in 2017. While this may be limited to the CS1000M models, the current Avaya bankruptcy and the uncertainty about the ongoing business are clear indicators that healthcare facilities with these systems need to begin thinking about their long-term future.

Learn about healthcare communications solutions >

How to replace the CS1000 platform

One readily available alternative to the CS1000 is the wide variety of Mitel communications platforms designed for healthcare facilities of all sizes. With Mitel’s ability to integrate easily with established systems, healthcare institutions can migrate with minimal impact and reasonable cost. HealthEast Care System, a healthcare organization with four hospitals, 14 clinics, homecare services and a medical transportation center, recently decided that its older Avaya system and service was no longer meeting its needs. After an exhaustive search, HealthEast narrowed down its options to continuing with Avaya or choosing a new communications system from Cisco or Mitel. In the end, Mitel’s total cost of ownership was less than half of Avaya’s or Cisco’s. Mitel’s offering presented a simpler architecture and the ability to integrate with HealthEast’s electronic healthcare record system, Epic. With the time and money it will save through ease of migration, HealthEast chose Mitel’s platform as the best path forward.

Whatever you do, do it soon

Clearly, time is running out on these older systems, and both for the good of the patient population and the ongoing business of the facilities themselves, considering alternatives is important. Mitel is an option that should be considered in the overall migration planning exercise.

Wanna get nerdy with us? Sign up for our emails! 

Load More

Back To Top
SBA Powered
Mitel Customer Champion
Goldman Sachs
Avaya May Stop Support of CS1000
Women Owned Business
Inc5000
Women Who Mean Business
Intermedia UCaas Provider
Intermedia Best Business Phone System A
Towner Logo

Taking the HELL out of Hello since a super long time ago

913.780.3166

*Users of this site agree to be bound by the Towner Communications  Service Agreement, Service Level Agreement and Acceptable Use Policies

Quick Links

Blog

Careers

Extended Warranties

Request Portal Access

Know More

Cloud Contract FAQs

Cloud Terms & Conditions

General Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Follow us

Copyright © Towner Communications, LLC. 2015 – 2025. All Rights Reserved.