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Customer Experience Mistakes to Avoid

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Digital transformation of the customer experience has changed the way customers expect to communicate with your business. Christian Szpilfogel, Vice President of Strategy for Mitel, addresses some of the customer experience pitfalls he’s seen in the industry, and what your business can do to avoid them.

Mitel - Top Customer Experience
From the video:

My name’s Christian Szpilfogel, and I’m VP of Strategy here at Mitel. The majority of today’s population has gone digital. Every one of us is a digital consumer. As we become increasingly dependent on our mobile devices, our expectations for customer service have completely changed.

Our quick access to information in a business’s web site, and our equally quick access to their competitors, has made customer experience the new battleground for businesses. In fact, a recent Dimension Data study on customer experience found 81 percent of companies recognized CX, or customer experience, as a competitive differentiator.

Unfortunately, only 13 percent self-rate their CX delivery at nine out of 10 or better. This presents a powerful opportunity for your business to transform its customer experience to leapfrog your competition.

Let’s look at the top CX pitfalls to avoid. First, lacking multimedia capabilities. Customers want the flexibility to choose the best channel for their particular situation. 52 percent of consumers will use three or four channels to connect with your business. It’s critical to offer communication options other than voice, such as social media, web chat, and SMS.

Second, leaving gaps in customer’s history. Nothing is more frustrating to your customers than initiating the conversation through one channel and having the history of that conversation completely lost when they engage through another channel, leaving them to explain their issue or request all over again. Today’s buyer journey is anything but linear, meaning your customer experience must be consistent and intelligent at every stage and through every channel. To avoid this pitfall, ensure every customer interaction is documented and follows the customer as they engage with any member of your business. Otherwise, you risk losing engaged prospects to your competitors that are doing it right. If you do this correctly, you’ll have all the information you need for a customer experience that’s predictive, proactive, and personable.

Third, missing the big picture. There’s nothing wrong with selecting different tools from multiple vendors to address different needs, but choosing from best of breed solutions this way can be a serious customer experience pitfall if you’re not choosing third-party solutions that integrate seamlessly. For example, using an over-the-top web chat client that doesn’t communicate with your CRM and other important applications can result in disjointed, inconsistent, and frustrating experiences for your customers. Recently, I spoke with a customer that discovered a 5 percent increase in efficiency through integrating its third-party tools into the contact center. The result was an astounding savings in the ballpark of about 1.5 to two million pounds sterling.

Stay tuned for the next video blog in our customer experience series, or subscribe to the blog using the box on the sidebar to have fresh content delivered straight to your inbox each week.

by the Experts at Mitel

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Mitel Product Security Advisory 18-0001

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Side-Channel Analysis Vulnerabilities

Advisory ID: 18-0001
Publish Date: 2018-01-08
Revision: 1.0

Summary

On January 3rd, 2018, researchers disclosed three vulnerabilities that leverage speculative execution capabilities of many modern processors. These vulnerabilities may allow unauthorized disclosure of information between different user processors and between user and kernel processes.

The vulnerabilities are referred to as Spectre (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715) and Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754), that differ in the specific type of speculative execution exploited.

To successfully exploit these vulnerabilities, the attack vector requires malicious code executing on the same processor. Many Mitel products do not support installing custom software and are not directly vulnerable when running on dedicated systems. When running as a virtual machine in a shared hosting environment, Mitel products may be impacted by malicious code on the host.

Speculative execution is a capability to improve the performance of processors. As such, security updates to mitigate these vulnerabilities are expected to have performance penalties, the extent depending on the specific processor, operating system and application workload. Early results indicate performance benchmark testing, designed to stress specific processor components, may see negative performance impacts of 10 – 30%. These results are generally not representative of typical application workloads where various system bottlenecks constrain performance. The performance penalty is not expected to have a significant impact for most Mitel systems which operate well within their performance limits. Mitel is continuing to investigate performance impacts and will provide further information as available.

Security updates are being released by processor, operating system and virtualization providers. Early guidance indicates that server updates support tuneable configuration to allow a trade-off between security and performance. Customers concerned about performance impacts are encouraged to review the available guidance and to assess the trade off between security exposure and performance impacts as applied to their own deployment environment.
Mitel recommends customers apply all available security updates as they become available. For Mitel products which include the underlying operating system, Mitel will be providing product updates.
Mitel is not aware of any active exploits of these vulnerabilities.

Mitel continues to investigate these vulnerabilities and information may change as the investigation continues. This advisory will be updated as information is available.

Products Under Investigation

All products are being evaluated for the impact of these vulnerabilities and the impact of released mitigations. This advisory will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Although Mitel application software is not directly affected, the underlying CPU vulnerability has the potential to increase the impact of other successful exploits that allow code execution. As such, as operating system providers release security updates, the relevant Mitel products will also be updated.

Risk Assessment

The risk of this vulnerability is rated as moderate to low for Mitel products.

Successful exploit requires an attacker to execute malicious code with user privileges, requiring an account with privileges to install code or a separate system compromise. Exploit of these vulnerabilities may expose confidential information but is not expected to directly impact the integrity or availability of the system.

Web browsers provide a vector for local code execution, such as JavaScript embedded in web pages. Such execution is normally contained by the browser but these vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited by this vector. Browser security updates have been or will soon be released for most common browsers.

Proof of concept code is publicly available. Mitel is not aware of active exploits.

Mitigation / Recommended Action

Customers are advised to follow good security practices including using caution when browsing to unknown and potentially malicious web sites. Specifically, customers are advised to avoid browsing to unknown sites on servers hosting Mitel products.

For software not provided by Mitel, Mitel recommends customers apply available security updates as they become available. Customers are advised to ensure operating system updates, including Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android, are applied to hosts and devices running Mitel software. Several vendors are providing guidance on potential performance impacts related to their security updates. Customers concerned about performance impacts are encouraged to review this vendor guidance.

Mitel continues to monitor for component updates and will be providing product updates. This advisory will be updated when Mitel product security updates are released.

External References

https://meltdownattack.com
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2018/01/03/Meltdown-and-Spectre-Side-Channel-Vulnerabilities

Related CVEs / CWEs / Advisories

CVE-2017-5715 (Branch target injection)
CVE-2017-5753 (Bounds check bypass)
CVE-2017-5754 (Rogue data cache load)

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Rich McBee gets Mitel back on track as industry consolidator

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It was a strange kind of quarter for Mitel, the telecommunications software company chaired by Terence Matthews. The Kanata firm on Thursday reported third-quarter revenues of $241.5 million, up three per cent year over year.  (All figures U.S.)

It also recorded a net loss of $26.8 million compared to profit of $25.1 million during the same period a year ago.

But the summary data told you very little about what’s really going on.

Mitel is undergoing an epic upheaval in markets, technology and corporate structure. Its industry, which involves the sale of telephone systems, is shifting rapidly from hardware to software-based technologies. In order to create a firm with the necessary heft to compete in this emerging market, Rich McBee — Mitel’s CEO since early 2011 — has acquired a series of rivals. Most recently it paid $430 million in late September to snap up California-based ShoreTel.

The net result has been the creation of a global enterprise with nearly 4,000 employees (including 550 in Kanata) and major operations throughout North America and Europe. With the purchase of ShoreTel, Mitel’s annual revenues are expected to jump to $1.3 billion from an estimated $1.05 billion in 2017.

Even that underestimates the activity taking place under the company’s hood. Mitel used to make most of its revenue selling telephone systems hardware, for which customers would pay upfront. Many of the latter are now paying for their telephone services a bit at a time through software-as-a-service. This is delivered through networks of computers known as the cloud. The net effect is to push some of the revenues Mitel would have earned through hardware sales into the future, thus depressing current revenues. But as the ratio of software sales increases — these now represent roughly one-third of revenues — the financial picture should improve.

That, at least, is Rich McBee and Mitel’s strategy.

Now, back to the third quarter.  The overall increase in revenues of just three per cent reflected a significant jump in cloud-based technology combined with a small decline in hardware sales. Further complicating things, the results also included five days’ worth of business from ShoreTel.

The earnings snapshot was even messier. The third quarter net loss included one-time restructuring costs of $35.7 million. And this compared to the previous year’s third quarter, which generated a strong profit on the strength of a $60-million termination fee Mitel earned because one of its earlier acquisition attempts fell through. Nothing to do with operations, in other words.

To help provide insight into the underlying business, Mitel stripped out the unusual items. This produced a $20.2-million third-quarter net profit compared to $15 million a year earlier. With Mitel still on the prowl for fresh acquisitions, don’t expect the company’s numbers to simplify anytime soon.

**POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON OTTAWA CITIZEN 

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How to Write an RFP: 11 Tips to Score the Best Bids

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Writing a request for proposal (RFP) can be time-consuming, and it can be difficult to know how much to include. While there are plenty of RFP templates available online, it’s not always clear what part of the RFP actually helps your organization achieve its long-term goals.

To help you answer this question, here are eleven tips for getting the best bid out of your RFP.

Be selective

It’s not worth your time to sift through a proposal from a vendor who doesn’t have the technical capacity to fulfill your needs. Likewise, you should only send an RFP to a vendor you know will be around to support you. Once you’ve identified the shortlist of vendors who have the capabilities you need, you can ask more interesting questions around creative solutions to the problem you’re fixing.

Look at the big picture

While this may seem simple at first, it’s actually quite complicated. When writing a business communications RFP, you may be tempted to think in terms of physical needs. For example, if you’re replacing your phone system, you’ll immediately think of the number of desk phones you’ll need. But your needs don’t actually stop there. What applications will you need to get the most out of your system? Are you open to learning about new technologies that could save you time and money later?

Need some guidance on finding the right system? Check out our seven-step guide to buying your enterprise phone system. >

 

Weight your goals

Whether you’re working with a consultant to handle your RFP or fielding proposals yourself, it’s important to establish (yes, actually write down) a weighting system for the pieces of your RFP that correspond to your organizational goals. Don’t just think of what your personal preferences are, either – if there are other stakeholders involved in your decision, include them in the weighting. For example, if you’re running a lean operation and price is your main concern, give pricing considerations a higher weight. If, however, your goal is long-term support or revenue maximization, you will want to weight things like support and opportunity for innovation more heavily.

Let your vendors know your evaluation criteria

This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s in everyone’s best interest for the bidding vendors to know exactly what you’re asking for. If you keep your evaluation criteria hidden, you may overlook a vendor who can serve your need in a creative way you may not have considered. Likewise, if you ensure all bidding vendors fully understand your evaluation criteria, you really can compare apples to apples, and identify the vendors who just don’t seem to understand your organization.

Use clear terminology, and include definitions

If there are certain questions or proof points you require in a certain level of detail, be up front with your vendors about it. There’s no reason to toss out a great vendor because of a misunderstanding regarding how detailed a response should be. Make your terms and intent clear in your RFP so you’ll have the best chance of working with the best quality vendor.

Use fresh eyes

If you’ve been with the same vendor for years, the RFP process is a great time to fully review your communications process as a whole. Take the RFP process seriously and look at your project from a fresh perspective. Different companies approach problems in different ways, and if you’ve been with the same vendor for years it might be worth considering a new approach. As you review your processes, consider vendors who can handle multiple deployment models and industries.

Ask for proof

To protect your investment, you want to find a stable vendor who can support you today and tomorrow. How can you measure your vendor stability? Ask for references from happy customers who have worked with your vendor. Case studies are a great way to judge both how well-established your vendor is, and how clearly they understand the industry you work in.

Services are important too

It may be tempting to focus on hardware and software as you write your RFP, but what about implementation, training and ongoing support? New products with no support or training, or a new product from a vendor who might not be around in future, are too risky for such a significant investment. Ask your vendors for a clear implementation and support action plan.

Get your pricing game together

This tip isn’t for the RFP itself, but rather, your mindset around the RFP process. With the RFP process you should have a general idea of the pricing you’re expecting to see. When your bids come back, if one or more vendors quote a price that’s much lower than the one you had in mind, or if it’s significantly lower than the other vendors, it’s likely that vendor didn’t understand the full scope of the project. Likewise if a vendor (or multiple vendors) comes back with a bid significantly higher than expected, something about the project isn’t translating well through your RFP.

Be flexible

If you’re in the type of organization that’s large enough to require an RFP, chances are your decision-makers have clear limits on what you can and cannot accept in an RFP. But there can be nuance, even in a clearly-written RFP. It’s important to be as explicit as possible in describing your needs to be sure you’re getting a realistic bid, but it’s also important to leave room for your vendors to show you they understand the way your organization operates from start to finish. A vendor who looks at your RFP as a stand-alone experience is not going to give you the same value as one who is able to connect the lines across your organization and help you toward your goals.

Don’t neglect a bidder’s executive summary

The executive summary is a vendor’s way of communicating with you about the way they work. Sure, a vendor may sell the specific product you need to fulfill your request. But does the vendor understand where your organization is going? Are you going to have to redo any of this work because your vendor is only focused on the specific task at hand? Or is the vendor showing you that they fully understand what’s causing you headaches and helping you solve problems? Take the executive summary seriously as a tool for getting to know the company at a high-level. Look for proof that a vendor is truly a partner for your organization.

Writing a good RFP and evaluating your bids can take a lot of time, but for the level of investment, it’s crucial to get it right. With these tips, you should feel confident that when your vendors submit proposals, you’ll be able to judge clearly who the best partner for your business is.

READY TO START TALKING VENDORS? Take a peek at Why Your Business Phone Vendor Matters, and let’s get started!

https://townerkc.com/2017/02/15/business-phone-vendor-matters/

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

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IHS: Mitel A North American UCaaS Leader

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In May 2017, we published our North American UCaaS Scorecard, where we evaluated the top ten UC as a service (UCaaS) providers. The purpose of the Scorecard is to determine which service providers currently lead the market for UCaaS and are best positioned to succeed in the long term based on a set of criteria.

The UCaaS market in North America is marked by a large and dynamic provider landscape. Mergers and acquisitions continue as providers look to gain scale, new capabilities, and long-term survivability. Despite the consolidation, there is still a large number of VoIP service providers in the region, including traditional premises-based PBX and UC vendors, pure-plays, incumbent operators, cable MSOs, CLECs, ISPs and system integrators.

Mitel, one of the top ten providers highlighted in the 2017 report, is the one traditional enterprise telephony and UC vendor that also shows up as a leading provider of UCaaS services. The company has steadily grown its installed base of users over the past two years. Mitel has a multi-pronged approach to the cloud UC market including offering a platform to service providers and operating and managing UCaaS services directly. The company’s hosted offerings have been standardized globally based on its own work and through acquisitions.

For this report we only focus on the services Mitel runs and manages directly as a provider, and there are 3 primary offerings, which include 3 main bundles—Essentials, Premier, and Elite within each offering. The Essentials bundle is perfect for common areas with common call control features. Premier is the best option for most users and includes mobile capabilities, internal collaboration, presence, and desktop client. The Elite bundle is for highly mobile employees with increased technical needs and includes unified messaging box, internal and external collaboration, and business application integration. Compared to most other UCaaS providers, Mitel has a more complex set of options for companies to choose from with 10 overall package options.

Learn more about Mitel’s unified communications as a service. >

One of Mitel’s important service developments has been its team collaboration solution, MiTeam. The service has the capabilities we have come to expect around team collaboration solutions in the market, providing collaborative workspaces for team meetings, conversations and multimedia content sharing. MiTeam is integrated with MiCloud services and provides free guest access for users to be invited into a collaboration stream or conferences.

Mitel’s direct cloud services are offered in North America, the UK, France, Germany and Australia. One important advantage Mitel has over the other providers in our Scorecard is a base of existing enterprise communications customers and channels that have been with Mitel for many years. This gives them a strong brand presence to capture cloud opportunities. Additionally, MiCloud is the same code base as Mitel’s premises-based PBX solutions, so it can address businesses that require hybrid—on-premises and cloud—deployments.

by Diane Myers – senior research director at IHS Markit
Tags: News & Trends, Cloud Communications, Collaboration

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Mitel Purchases Toshiba

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Transition from Toshiba to Mitel with Ease

Continue on your path towards future growth with your current communication system.

You have questions, we have answers.
Connect with a Toshiba transition expert today.
info@townerkc.com | 913-780-3166

Mitel-Purchases-Toshiba

Transition to Mitel Seamlessly

Change can be challenging for businesses. This is why Mitel is committed to ensuring our customers get the support and service they need during this period of transition. Our customers are our number one priority and we want to help you connect with a Toshiba transition expert anytime, anywhere. To help, we’ve created an FAQ to answer any questions you might have.

Choose a Better Path Forward

When you take your next steps, you need to be sure it is the right path so you don’t end up back where you started. That means working with a vendor that has a reputation for high performance and stability to ensure your business is supported today and in the future, no matter how your needs change and grow. With feature-rich and mobile-first solutions to support your communications from end to end, Mitel is the only brand in five Gartner Magic Quadrant reports for business communications.

Find your best path with Mitel

Find a business communications system that fits your unique needs whenever, wherever. When Michael Johnson Performance’s Nortel system was left unsupported, the team quickly realized that, in order to stay competitive, they had to re-evaluate their needs and choose a system they could depend on.

“As we began looking for a partner to support our business needs, we didn’t really know what was out there. When we actually began to research the capabilities that Mitel could provide us, we were blown away.” – Michael Johnson Performance

Common Customer Questions

  • How will Mitel’s purchase of Toshiba impact me and the company I serve?
    This purchase may provide continuity with added product and service offerings that will go beyond the publicly stated May 22 ‘last order’ date.
  • Are my current contracts with Toshiba still valid?
    Yes, contracts will remain valid. Mitel will be responsible for fulfilling all contracts immediately following the closing of the deal.
  • Will my warranties still be in effect?
    Yes. Mitel will be prepared to accept extended warranties.
  • Will any service quality/policies change?
    No. Mitel is as committed as Toshiba in delivering quality products and services to our partners and customers.
  • Will Toshiba inventory levels remain the same?
    Inventory levels fluctuate with all businesses; however, we are confident we can ensure continuity of supply.
  • Will quotes I received on Toshiba solutions still be honored?
    Yes, if they are backed by Toshiba or an accredited partner.
  • Will there be any staffing changes or facilities closures that might affect me?
    The Toshiba US business was planning to downsize & move from the existing Irvine facility. A plan to find an appropriate local office for the Mitel & former Toshiba teams is in process.
  • What new services, products or features will I be able to get through Mitel that I could not get through Toshiba?
    We will provide a detailed list to all customers, Partners, National Accounts with our Cloud, hybrid, and premise offerings in our roadmap update.

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Captive Touch Screens & Productivity?

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What Do Captive Touch Screens Have to do with Desk Phones & Productivity?

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When we picture the business desk phone, there’s a good chance a fairly traditional image comes to mind—a handset, to be sure, probably plenty of buttons and maybe even a paper sheet of quick-reference contact numbers behind a clear plastic protector. But the latest desk phones for business couldn’t be further from this with sleek Captive Touch Screens.

Today, you can get features like mobile integration, the latest Bluetooth and USB connectivity and HD audio sound quality, to name a few.

Consumer expectations are leaking into the business world

In addition to this, the design and ergonomics of the desk phone has changed for the better. This is partly due to the ‘consumerization of IT,’ where the devices and technologies people use in their homes start becoming forming their expectations of business devices and software as well.

Take the rapid adoption of the tablet in the home. Many households now reach for a tablet for basic computing needs rather than a PC or laptop. While the ‘instant-on,’ long battery life and attractive form factor play a part in the acceptance of tablets, the maturity of the touch screen is what really brings them to life.

Think back to when the first touch devices came out. Early smart phones, tablets and even PCs were hard to use. The software wasn’t intuitive to touch input and the sensitivity and calibration left most users frustrated at best. Fast forward to today, and we just expect all touch devices to work perfectly, to respond to the lightest of swipes and to be completely natural to use.

Read about how advances in Bluetooth are taking desk phones to new levels >

Resistive vs capacitive touch screens

Why wouldn’t we want the same for business desk phones? Early desk phones with touch screens used something called a ‘resistive touch screen,’ which relies on the mechanical pressure of a finger or stylus—you have to physically press the touch screen for it to respond.

By contrast, a ‘capacitive touch screen’ uses the electrical properties of the human body to change the properties of the screen’s electrical field. This allows for far more accurate responses to even the lightest touch, and can also support multi-touch gesturing.

Reduce training and improve productivity

It is the capacitive touch screen that is being built into most modern devices today and the latest desk phones are no exception. This means you can swipe through a list of contacts, press and hold to make an edit, make a light touch to signal an action.

As a result, you dramatically reduce training needs, since everything is as intuitive as using a modern smartphone or tablet. Productivity also improves as the touches are far more accurate and navigating menus can be done with confidence and greater speed. If avatars are also included in the design, then usability improves even further, as just tapping on a familiar image is easier than having to search through long lists of contacts.

This is another example of how the consumerization of IT is arriving in the workplace. And we’re harnessing this phenomenon for our latest desk phone series.

Get the full scoop on the new MiVoice 6900 IP Series desk phones >

Check out MiVoice Business, the call control platform best optimized to take full advantage of the MiVoice 6900 series phones’ capabilities >

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2017 I.T. Salaries! GET PAID

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Everything You Need to Know about 2017 IT Salaries

2017 IT Salaries

It’s that time of year. Budgets. Planning. Expanding. Hiring. Whether you’re looking to hire some new IT professionals or looking for a new IT job yourself, these resources from many of the authorities on IT salaries will give you a great foundation to start.

2017 Technology & I.T. Salary Guide from Robert Half

It covers

  • Salary data for more than 75 IT jobs
  • Current hiring trends
  • The hottest technology jobs and specialty areas
  • The skills now in demand

Get the IT salary guide >

Robert Half tells us which IT jobs are the ones to watch in 2017.

Which technology specialties will see the highest salary growth in 2017?

In the last piece from Robert Half, they cover major trends affecting IT hiring and pay.

IT Salaries: Eight Cold Hard Facts by InformationWeek

InformationWeek has broken down eight key trends from their 2017 compensation survey. Great for people who want some quick, broad insights.

Read the article >

The 10 U.S. Cities with the Highest IT Salaries by InfoWorld

Thinking about a move to a whole new city to bolster that salary? Infoworld’s article dives into where IT salaries are highest and where they’re trending up.

Read the article >

IT Salaries Increase Across 12 Tech Job Categories

What categories of IT jobs are seeing the biggest bump in the wallet? CIO’s report has not only the “which ones” but a little on the “why” behind each.

Check out the post >

Average Salary for the Information Technology (IT) Services Industry by Payscale

Payscale lets you slice and dice IT salary information in a dynamic digital format by a host of factors, including:

  • Job title
  • Years of experience
  • Employer
  • Location
  • Company size
  • And more

View the research >

IT Salary Watch by Computerworld

Looking for historical info to help inform your salary ranges? This set of reports by Computer world gives you a historical view by year going back to 2012, so you can see trends over time as well as the latest data.

See the reports >

Average Salary Ranges for IT by Salary.com

Have an incredibly specific job title and experience level you want to see I.T. salaries for? The folks at salary.com list salaries by job title—and they have what might be the most exhaustive and granular list of titles out there.

Visit the site >

The 10 Best Networking Tips for People Who Hate Networking by The Week

Now that you’ve got an idea of how to find an IT job with the salary you’re looking for, here’s a little extra info to help you land that job.

Get the tips >

Careers at Towner Communications

Of course, if you’re interested in a career at Towner, you can check out our careers page, which includes a lot more than IT jobs.

Visit our careers page >

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Options for Avaya Customers

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Options for Avaya Customers: Do Nothing. Change Everything. Or Evolve. Confused? Read On…

Avaya

Over a month has passed since Avaya filed for Chapter 11 protection on January 19 in the US bankruptcy courts.

This petition marked the next step in a long journey of uncertainty for Avaya that started in 2009 when it acquired Nortel. Burdened by a large debt ever since – one that ultimately reached nearly $6 billion – Avaya seemed destined to struggle financially as it battled the triple challenge of debt payments, legacy pension obligations and declining revenues.

Despite this, Avaya continued to innovate and compete with a well-regarded portfolio. Mitel respected Avaya as a strong rival; the two companies contended regularly, with both claiming their fair share of wins across the small business and enterprise segments, and the private and public sectors.

So, what’s next for Avaya? More to the point, what’s next for its customers and those who were considering Avaya?

Since January 19, Avaya customers have been targeted from all angles by other vendors keen to lay out their credentials. From long-established competitors like Mitel to relatively new market entrants like Ring Central, Avaya customers have been presented with a myriad of options, including staying put.

Here’s a look at the three primary options that competing vendors have been promoting to Avaya customers over the last few weeks:

The Avaya option: inertia

For many Avaya customers, uncertainty will result in inertia. Sit and wait. Wait and see.

Their Avaya equipment works fine at the moment, so why not pause and see what happens post Chapter 11? Avaya itself would endorse this approach; its recent communication to customers has, understandably, been to reassure, to dampen down concerns and to paint a positive picture that Chapter 11 will help it restructure and emerge leaner and fitter.

The reality is that no one knows what will happen. It may be fine. It may not be. It’s all speculation.

Avaya’s future lies in the hands of the bankruptcy court and a complex multi-party negotiation that will include first lien debt holders, second lien debt holders, the pension fund, the management team and of course the bankruptcy court. No one can confidently predict the outcome.

It’s this uncertainty that brings risk to Avaya customers.

In what form or structure will Avaya emerge from Chapter 11? Which products will be supported going forward? By whom? For how long will products be protected from the ongoing cyber-security threat? What future investment will be applied to the product roadmap? Will commercial terms remain the same?

So many questions. So few answers.

Is inertia a prudent strategy in the face of Chapter 11? Our message to Avaya customers—review your business communications strategy and ensure that you have a clear view of the potential paths forward.  Either make a move now or at minimum review the viable alternatives, shortlist them and be ready to implement.

For those that were considering buying an Avaya solution, Mitel’s view is simple. Don’t do it. In the face of an uncertain outcome, like the Chapter 11 process, why take an unnecessary risk when there are better paths forward?

The “pure cloud” provider option: On-premises is dead

One of the more zealous viewpoints put into the market lately is from “pure cloud” providers. Several, including Ring Central, have declared that “premises-based communications is dead, cloud has won.” This position should be no surprise, coming as it does from companies that offer only pure cloud solutions, are relatively recent market entrants and have no on-premises communications experience.

It’s a message that aims to frighten organizations into action and it’s disrespectful to the Avaya customers they are targeting—organizations that have made significant investment in on-premises communications based on reliability, scalability, performance and integration with other business applications.

Is there merit to a 100 percent cloud strategy? Yes, for those customers that are happy to move all of their communications to a cloud-based subscription model (Mitel can help with that; in fact, we are the #1 global provider of cloud communications*. Just saying.).

But for most mid-sized and large enterprise organizations, the reality is that on-premises systems are alive and kicking as part of an integrated hybrid unified communications and collaboration (UCC) strategy that blends the best of both on-premises and cloud, allowing organizations to leverage existing investments while adding cloud applications for particular users, departments or locations at the time and pace of their choosing.

Should Avaya customers be wary about provocative claims from smaller vendors?  Should they consider a more rational approach with vendors that can support both on-premises and cloud requirements? We think so.

The Mitel option: Choice

It’s critical that organizations insist on choice, flexibility and agility to successfully negotiate their way through a period of unprecedented industry and technology disruption. While several companies try to lock Avaya customers into a single path forward, we pledge maximum choice and flexibility.

Whether organizations need to reduce costs, increase team productivity, improve customer satisfaction, transition to the cloud or fully embrace the collision of voice and the Internet of Things (IoT), we can help them evolve, efficiently and pragmatically.

How? Via a balanced approach that combines both premises and cloud-based communications.

We call this hybrid unified communications & collaboration (hybrid UCC). And it’s the model we would strongly view as the best path forward for most organizations, especially mid-sized and large enterprises. Mitel’s approach to hybrid UCC is also recognised by Gartner, achieving its highest score in 2016 for satisfying hybrid UC requirements in a use case study**. (Mitel is also the only vendor in all five Gartner Magic Quadrants covering business communications.)

See how we rank in Gartner Magic Quadrants for business communications >

We live in interesting times in the business communications industry

For Avaya customers right now, interesting also means uncertainty and turbulence, neither of which are good stablemates for business-critical communications. To help cut through the noise and boisterous marketing from vendors seeking to step in, consider this simple three-step approach:

  1. Be proactive. Plan an alternative strategy now. Inertia is not a risk worth taking for your business-critical communications.
  2. View overly provocative or aggressive marketing from newer entrants with healthy skepticism. Avaya’s unfortunate situation does not justify dismissing an entire category of communications technology used by millions of businesses worldwide.
  3. Insist on choice. Don’t be forced down a single-track road. Consider hybrid UCC as a better, evolutionary path forward that uses the best of both premises and cloud communications.

Mitel can, of course, help Avaya customers with all of this. We also have exclusive time-limited offers for both premises and cloud communications for Avaya customers and organizations considering Avaya. Take a look. We’d be delighted to hear from you.

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5 Cloud Benefits You Should Know

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5 Valuable Cloud Benefits You Should Know

Cloud Benefits

1. How you can enable a mobile workforce with cloud communications

We’re all busy today. But we’re not always productive. For example, we spend several hours every week checking emails, schedules, text messages, and voicemails in multiple applications and on multiple devices just to make sure we’re not missing something. But ironically, managing multiple collaboration tools on multiple devices is a sure way to miss something.

Cloud communications opens up and unifies collaboration so businesses begin thinking outside their inboxes.

It brings employees, customers, and partners into the conversation from wherever they are, on whatever device they’re on. And it lets them pick up the conversation quickly, by organizing everything into a single cloud‐based application where voicemails, videos, chats, and more can be stored and easily accessed whenever they’re needed.

The key to better collaboration is through your mobile phone. If you’re like most of us, it’s the first thing you check in the morning, the last thing you see at night, and it goes wherever you go. That’s a far cry from where most legacy phone systems are today, which were designed well before the mobile era and handle mobile communications as an afterthought.

The rise of the mobile workforce has challenged modern perceptions of what a traditional office environment should be.

Gone are the large spaces filled with wall‐to‐wall cubicle farms. Instead, they’ve been replaced with functional work spaces where people collaborate and are more productive, and mobile working, once seen as a major hassle for organizations, is no longer considered a compromise for businesses trying to accommodate unique work situations like flexible working schedules and office closings due to severe weather. Today, everything is digital, and remote employees—equipped with the right communications tools—can be as productive outside the office as they are in the office.

Consider the following mobile workforce trends:

  • Nearly 70 percent of employees use their personal device for email
  • 26 percent of employees are productive while outside the office or home
  • 36 percent of employees use up to three mobile devices to do their work

Cloud communications also means no mobile app gets left behind. Your business apps are integrated into the communications fabric so you can share information, ideas, and images from a single screen without constantly opening and closing apps or worrying about interoperability.

Regardless of how your organization compares with other forward‐looking mobile organizations, your business is constantly moving. Work is done while eating breakfast at home, riding in a car, walking to lunch, sitting in a hotel lobby, or waiting in line at the airport. Your employees work remotely—blasting out emails and text messages, and answering calls from customers and clients (or prospective customers and clients) at all hours of the day and night, whenever and wherever they’re needed—regardless of whether they’re “at work.”

Life is mobile, and your communications system should be too. You should be able to be as productive on your mobile phone as you are at your desk.

2. Supporting multiple locations with cloud communications

In addition to supporting mobile workers from any location, modern business communications systems need to support remote workers from multiple locations. Unlike mobile workers, remote workers perform their work from a fixed location—it’s just not located at your main campus or headquarters. Perhaps it’s a branch office located in another city or country, or a temporary office setup to support a new project, or even a home office for a teleworker.

Regardless of the specific situation, remote workers all have unique communications requirements that are often similar to deskbound workers at your main office location, but without the same resources—equipment, connectivity, and support.

Legacy private branch exchange (PBX) systems are usually cost prohibitive for smaller remote locations consisting of fewer than ten users.

For this reason, remote workers at smaller locations are often equipped with Centrex phone systems, analog lines, or residential phone services that lack the features and functionality of a business communications system. They may also be required to connect to the main office over a virtual private network (VPN) connection, which can negatively impact voice quality.

Cloud communications effectively creates a virtual communications system across all remote locations for an organization, extending the solutions available for both mobile and remote workers, to include:

  • Mobile phones
  • Desk (hard) phones
  • PC (soft) phones
  • Contact center agents

Both on‐premises and cloud communications systems support mobile and remote workers. However, on‐premises systems treat these workers as the exception: Mobile/remote access has to be approved and set up, a VPN or other similar security measures need to be configured, and additional network bandwidth may need to be provisioned (for remote access).

Cloud communications treats office, mobile, and remote workers all the same.

It completely eliminates location from the equation and provides users with the same set of features that they have in the office, regardless of their location.

Learn how 62 local chapters and 27,000 Make-A-Wish volunteers rely on hybrid cloud communications from Mitel to make wishes come true >

3. Reducing costs with cloud communications

Not all dollars cost the same. A dollar invested in a technology project that has a low return on investment (ROI) has opportunity costs that may amount to far more than the initial investment itself. Similarly, many technology projects require ongoing commitments—sunk costs—that further erode profitability for a business: the proverbial “throwing good money after bad.”

Large investments involve risk.

Not only is there a heavy financial stake, but also the organization is essentially placing a series of bets on the investment:

  • Is this the right technology for our business? How will the technology change over the next three, five, and 10 years?
  • Is this the right vendor to partner with for our business? Will they be around in three, five, or 10 years?
  • How quickly will our business grow over the next three, five, and 10 years? Will this investment scale to support that growth?

Capital budgeting is always a very subjective process. A capital expenditure (CapEx) is usually defined by a minimum investment threshold, for example one thousand dollars, and the investment must have a valuable life of more than one year.

CapEx may, in some cases, include bundled equipment, installation and project management costs, implementation services, freight expenses, and initial training costs, among others. Businesses can depreciate a capital investment, typically over a five‐ or seven‐year period, but they must also pay property taxes and maintain fixed asset records on all capital investments throughout the useful life of the investments.

And of course, most technology today is obsolete well before its five‐ or seven‐year depreciation period.

It all gets extremely complicated, extremely quickly.

For these and many other reasons, most businesses prefer operating expenses (OpEx) instead of CapEx. OpEx costs—like utilities, rent, perpetual licensing fees, and software maintenance—are typically lower (in the short term) than CapEx costs. This is particularly true in terms of upfront costs required, which frees up cash for other projects that drive revenue and growth for the business.

OpEx costs are typically more stable and predictable than CapEx costs and provide more flexibility for a business should requirements change.

For example, a service provider will usually charge a known recurring rate for a given level of usage, a per‐user (or per‐seat) fee, or a monthly subscriber fee.

The original thought behind premises‐based communications systems was to keep costs down by owning the solution. But as those systems have aged, businesses find themselves owning the problem of maintaining, upgrading, and expanding those systems.

The cloud offers a better path for growth.

It not only saves you money through economy of scale, but also it scales cost-effectively as you grow. You never have to worry about adding more servers and switches as you add more employees. You simply add another seat in the cloud at a fixed monthly cost and have the assurance that new employees are connected into all of your business communications from day one.

If you’re looking to reduce communications costs, cloud communications can save you money:

  • No costly, upfront investments in servers, switches, and PBXs
  • No budget “surprises” with consistent or predictable calling plans
  • No costly, across‐the‐board software upgrades as new features and versions are released — you get the latest versions immediately, automatically
  • No wasted money on overprovisioned trunks or underutilized hardware
  • No high energy and cooling costs to run a roomful of equipment, and rent to store it all

As part of your ROI analysis, you should compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) of cloud‐based and premises‐based communications solutions.

Remember, a cloud‐based solution consists almost entirely of OpEx costs, whereas a premises-based solution requires both CapEx and OpEx (in the form of ongoing software assurance and upgrades).

Learn more about saving money with cloud communications >

4. Focusing on business, not infrastructure

Technology has the ability to transform your business and drive innovation. But it can also drive you crazy if all you’re doing is putting out fires to maintain the status quo. Think of it this way: Would you rather have your engineers fixing the phones or finding new ways to delight your customers?

Cloud‐based communications solutions are exactly that: solutions. Fixing bugs and repairing hardware are the cloud provider’s problems, and most of them make sure it never becomes a problem for their customers—even going so far as to guarantee systems uptime and availability in their service level agreements (SLAs).

While you never have to worry about losing dial tone, your IT department can focus on making sure you don’t lose your competitive edge in the market.

Innovation is the key to continued growth in today’s business environment. Cloud‐based communications ensure your business is on the leading edge and in tune with the millennial workforce that will drive your business into the future.

5. Staying current with evergreen cloud-based software

Keeping your communications systems current is important—not only to ensure your business leverages the full functionality and latest capabilities available in your communications system, but also to ensure security and stability.

However, software and firmware upgrades can be risky and challenging, particularly for an IT team that only occasionally performs system upgrades.

They require a lot of planning and coordination. Maintenance windows must be planned around business cycles and downtime is never acceptable—even when it’s planned!

Most premises‐based communications solutions offer software maintenance for an added cost. But the risk and hassle of actually performing the upgrade belongs to the customer—and there are costs associated with performing those upgrades. The current state of the system must be documented, the upgrade must be downloaded and tested, the maintenance window has to be scheduled and communicated, contingency and back out plans prepared, and extended support provided for “the morning after.”

A cloud communications solution also requires regular upgrades, but the risk belongs squarely with the service provider.

Of course, if the upgrade goes awry, your business may suffer, but your service provider should have the resources in place to minimize the likelihood, as well as service‐level agreements (SLAs) to mitigate the impact.

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