Everything You Need to Know about 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
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.
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:
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.
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.
Options for Avaya Customers: Do Nothing. Change Everything. Or Evolve. Confused? Read On…
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:
Be proactive. Plan an alternative strategy now. Inertia is not a risk worth taking for your business-critical communications.
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.
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.
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.
We saw a lot of changes to the call center and customer experience landscape in 2016. Cloud communications and virtual agents were on the forefront of everyone’s minds, and social media was more important than ever. 2017 is shaping up to be the year of strategic thinking: better analytics, more intentional social media conversations and innovative ways to involve artificial intelligence. To help you stay on target for 2017, we’ve identified eight of the most influential trends affecting centers so far.
1. Better contact center analytics
Gone are the days of relying on supervisor skill and know-how to get the most out of a contact center agent. Now, even smaller businesses are taking advantage of sophisticated analytics to turn data – like call and screen recordings, chats, SMS messages and more – into truly useful feedback for their agents.
It’s not enough to rely on manual observation and monitoring—there’s just too much information.
More omni-channel call centers are starting to rely heavily on analytics programs to build dashboards with the statistics that affect their businesses. We’re also seeing more and more businesses display this kind of statistical dashboards on user interfaces, so call agents and managers get real-time updates on customer experiences.
In general, we expect more advancements in analytics as companies continue implementing more unified communications platforms and strategies.
2. Omni-channel communications for all
A huge hot button in 2016, omni-channel communications continue to separate proactive businesses from their more reactive counterparts. A holistic view of the customer experience, factoring in an omni-channel approach, is helping businesses give customers a more personal feel to resolutions.
More businesses are recognizing that while a customer journey may begin on one channel, valuable insight and feedback from the customer is taking place on a completely different channel.
Unifying customer communications across channels gives businesses better context for their customers, helps resolve issues more quickly and helps sales agents identify better opportunities for future sales.
3. Widespread adoption of cloud communications in call centers
Many businesses have already adopted cloud communications as part of their communications strategies, but cloud communications has become particularly important for contact centers. With the steady increase in remote call agents, cloud communications are a necessity for businesses who want to take advantage of seamless team communications and collaboration. With cloud communications, traditional office-based contact centers can take on new locations, grow and contract workforces as market needs demand it.
4. More robust customer satisfaction measurements
Customer satisfaction sends huge signals to companies about where and how their businesses could improve. Businesses approach customer satisfaction measurement in different ways, but slick all-in-one measure seem to be holding steady.
Amazon’s cornerstone Negative Response Rate (NRR) strategy continues to be a major part in calculating contact center customer satisfaction in 2017. No matter which measurements businesses are using, however, special care needs to be taken when addressing the customer experience across digital channels.
Using effective reporting and analytics tools that are integrated with your communications systems makes this process automatic and valuable.
5. More remote call center agents
Lower overhead, time zone flexibility, and flexible working hours have made remote contact center workers a stable trend for 2017. With constantly improving and unified cloud communications, remote workers have become a permanent (and beneficial) part of the contact center environment. With collaboration tools, contact center agents can take their work mobile, with access to real-time analytics and customer context.
6. Continued emphasis on self-serve documentation
In 2017, so far we’ve seen a greater emphasis on self-service problem solving information on business websites. Giving customers information quickly helps reduce call volumes, and easy-to-navigate FAQs help narrow down calls to those with sufficiently complex issues. Quick access to self-serve solutions to problems also provides an emotional benefit to customers (that DIY fix high!), and reduces overall call times.
7. Two-way social media conversations
An effective social media presence is a necessity. Customers want a place they can go to give quick feedback, and learn about their favorite businesses. But the way businesses approach their social media conversations is changing.
It’s not enough to make witty posts or share images. Customers are looking for a two-way social media conversation, and when they interact with businesses online, they expect a personalized (and immediate) response.
Responsive businesses are using this trend to create a superb customer experience by unifying communications across channels into one stream. This helps their customers by connecting them with an agent who knows their purchase and service history, provides valuable context, and most importantly: the two-way conversation is public, on a social media platform, so that other customers can see how the business solved the problem.
Negative feedback can be a killer online, and unanswered negative comments make potential customers wary. If you positively resolve issues quickly and in a way that makes it clear the customer is central to the conversation, on the other hand, it leaves your business looking intelligent and caring, motivated by the customer experience.
8. Artificial intelligence integrated into customer interactions
Businesses are getting deeper into predictive analytics, using artificial intelligence (AI) applications to help streamline call center experiences for customers and agents.
We expect that as early adopters continue honing AI applications for call routing, they will become more widely applied. We also expect to see more connections forged between various media channels and streamlined call center response. It’s worth investigating what AI options might benefit your business.
Call center and customer experience trends to activate
These eight trends have already made an impact on the contact center landscape in 2017, and look to continue through the rest of the year. Need more help figuring out how to apply them to your business? Get on a more strategic footing with our contact center solutions.
5 Surprising Reasons For Low Video Conferencing Adaptation
You probably already know that businesses are adopting video conferencing technology at rapid pace. MarketsandMarkets recently projected that the enterprise video market, which includes video conferencing systems, will reach $36.8 billion by 2020.
In fact, more than 54 percent of employees regularly take part in work-related video conferences, but not all of them are eager participants, according to a recent report.
So why are roughly half of employees hesitant to turn on their cameras for work meetings? There are plenty of causes, but here are five of the most common reasons keeping employees from using videoconferencing software.
1. Multi-tasking
While meeting holders would prefer to think everyone on their call is giving the meeting their full attention, the reality is usually much different.
Meeting attendees are replying to emails, preparing presentations, eating lunch, and doing other work while (hopefully) muted on conference calls.
If the same people joined a video call or video conference, they would have to give the call their full attention. They wouldn’t be able to multi-task. And while plenty of research has shown that multi-tasking actually hurts productivity, many workers still operate under the illusion that they can get more done by multi-tasking.
Sometimes, these kinds of behaviors can happen in in-person meetings, too, but being on video makes multi-tasking much more obvious, hence a big reason many workers avoid video conferencing.
Want to try and cut down on this objection? Help people understand the real cost of multi-tasking and the productivity benefits of giving a task their attention.
People feel like they have to multi-task because they’re in too many meetings? Have workers take a hard look at whether all of their meeting attendees are critical to their call.
2. Making eye contact
Video calls are great, but a few of the details mean that they’re are not quite the same as in-person communications. One thing some people dislike about video calls is the disconnect in eye contact.
With most videoconferencing systems, you have to choose whether to look at the other participant on your screen or look at your camera.
If you look at the other participant on your screen, it doesn’t look like you’re making eye contact to them. And if you look at your camera to appear to make eye contact on their side, you can’t focus on the other participant’s face on your screen. Either way, someone gets left out with the way most videoconferencing cameras are set up.
For some, the difference is imperceptible, but to others, that slight disconnect in making eye contact – or trying to figure out to look at their screen or their camera – is enough to make them ditch video altogether.
3. Platform and network issues
Whenever I get a meeting invite, it’s always an adventure to see what I’ll have to do to get everything to work properly. Sometimes a video conference works perfectly, but in the real world, things rarely go off without a hitch.
For starters, with so many different videoconferencing software choice, I often have to download a new client onto my computer before I can join the meeting (though you can simplify this a little by standardizing on one videoconferencing software throughout your company).
Maybe my sound works and my video won’t come on. Maybe it’s the reverse. Maybe the presenter is having trouble sharing their screen. Whatever, the case, you can quickly lose five minutes or more just getting everyone’s settings correct. And that’s before you get to highly technical issues.
If your network does not have quality of service (QoS) rules in place, then you’re highly unlikely to have a good video collaboration experience.
More importantly, if your network does not have packet prioritization rules in place, then your video calls might get choppy or completely interrupted when other network users are doing something as simple as sending emails.
4. Worrying about personal appearance
On a typical phone call, it doesn’t matter if an employee calls in from a messy living room in their pajamas. But if meeting participants find out the same call is a videoconference, all of a sudden they have to scramble to get presentable.
Video calls add a whole new dimension to the meetings. Something about being on camera – even if it’s just for employees who see them in person every day – makes people more self-conscious.
And it goes beyond simply being bathed, clothed and offering a background that doesn’t look like a disaster area. People often feel they’re being put on the spot, as if they’re being filmed for a video.
Is my hair messed up? Is there food on my face from lunch? How does my makeup look? Is my collar crooked? These are things that people worry about during video calls that make many people abandon videoconferencing altogether.
One of the biggest culprits may be the little window where video conference participants can see themselves. While this is probably intended to help participants line up their camera or make sure they have decent lighting, it often acts like a mirror, and people can end up fixating on it, distracted by their appearances. There’s nothing like staring at yourself in a slight fisheye lens under fluorescent lighting to ruin a worker’s focus and keep them from turning on the camera at their next meeting.
5. Office interruptions
If you work in an open-plan office, jumping on a video call from your desk can be a risky proposition. People near you may be on other calls. There could be an impromptu standup nearby. Etiquette challenged coworkers may interrupt with no regard for what you’re doing. Or your coworkers may just enjoy making faces in the background. Whatever your coworkers are like, modern office arrangements can make it challenging to conduct video calls without interruption.
Conclusion
Why aren’t people using your company’s chosen videoconferencing software? Now you know. And knowing is the first step in how to raise videoconferencing adoption at your company—which is good because meeting via video has some great benefits. Making closer personal connections, reducing travel costs, having more productive online collaboration, and improved team cohesion are just a few.
Learn more about Towner Communications videoconferencing software >
Google “business collaboration tools” and you’ll get 58 million results. Suffice it to say, there’s a proliferation of collaboration tools out there, especially over-the-top (OTT) applications to help your business.
Some tools are for chatting, some for conferencing, some for screen sharing, some for file sharing, and so on (to the tune of 58 million results).
Most organizations use a large number of tools for communicating, collaborating, and sharing, so it’s easy to understand how workers can feel overwhelmed by the different collaboration tools used between departments and vendors.
The company might have an official collaboration tool. But your department uses the free version of another tool for convenience. Another department is running an inexpensive version of the latest, flashiest social/mobile group chat platform. Several people use screen share software from a new startup they just heard about while your vendors are using the old standbys, and somewhere, somebody is still trying to use AIM.
That means your users’ desktops and browsers are cluttered with collaboration tools. The minutes wasted just figuring out which tool to use and updating to the latest version at the beginning of meetings begin to add up to hours, days, weeks of lost productivity. And security is probably a distant pipe dream. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can tame the overload.
Here are eight steps you can take to get your company’s collaboration tool situation under control, pare down the number of applications in use, and start standardizing across your business to increase productivity.
Step 1: Identify current tools
When you run out of space on your smart phone, what’s the first thing you do? You identify the applications that are on your phone and take a hard, honest look at what you do and don’t use.
When employees run out of the capacity to handle the deluge of collaboration applications in use at your company, the first thing that needs to be done is similar—take an inventory of the tools users have on their systems.
You’ll probably find multiple applications for chat, video-conferencing, file storage, file sharing, etc.
Make a consolidated list of all the related applications you find and make notes about the primary functions of each.
Once you have a complete inventory, you’ll have laid the groundwork for step two.
Step 2: Identify your business needs
Now, it’s time to understand what exactly everyone is trying to accomplish with the different collaboration tools they’re using.
Ask yourself, your employees, your vendors, etc. what exactly they use each tool to accomplish, and why they prefer the tool that they use.
Some common functions include chat, group chat, file sharing, video calls, video conferencing, screen sharing, simultaneous file editing, approvals, and task/workflow management.
During this exercise, you’ll be able to see not only what collaboration tools different groups prefer, but why they use each tool. You might be surprised to learn that workers value one chat tool when you thought they preferred another. Or you might discover that they place more value on file sharing than they do on video calling. It may turn out that employees engaged in shadow IT are using a different tool simply because it offers a better user experience. Maybe the most important feature isn’t an application or communications channel in itself, but rather a capability—like a persistent experience across mobile as well as desktop.
The more data you gather, the clearer your company needs will be.
You may be able to gather a lot of this data by scanning employee devices, but some sort of direct employee engagement will be required. Employees are typically happy to fill out surveys to indicate their preferences, especially if the survey itself is intended to help make their lives easier.
If some employees are nervous about sharing, it may be important to assure them they won’t be disciplined (if you have company buy-in for this) for answering honestly. Some workers may be concerned that using things other than company purchased and/or approved collaboration tools will get them disciplined. But if you don’t create a safe enough environment to have an honest conversation about your company’s tools, you’ll never get a true view to help you get tool overload under control.
Step 3: Map needs to tools
Remember the application inventory you gathered? Now’s the time to bring it back.
Map the needs you’ve identified to the current tools you have. Which tools are offering the most collaboration capabilities based on the feedback you received? Which tools are under-utilized? Which tools are rarely utilized?
Take careful note of what you have, what you need, and be honest with your responses.
This step is for analysis only: don’t jump the gun and start cutting out applications. There are other consideration factors than the most popular applications for your employees (although that is absolutely important).
Step 4: Understand integrations
Here’s where your careful evaluation in step three will come in handy. Knowing the collaboration tools worth keeping depends on more than how certain tools map to certain needs: it’s also important to know how these applications interact with other applications, other collaboration tools, existing software—including, but not limited to—CRM, ERP, CMS, etc.
Is it necessary for your collaboration tools to be platform agnostic? Mobile-first? Easily scalable?
Different businesses have different needs, which is why so many collaboration tools exist in the first place. Different tools integrate with different vendors, software and APIs. Be picky—your employees will thank you for it.
Step 5: Consolidate tools
You’ve identified your current tools, specified your needs, mapped your needs to existing tools, and ran through your integration needs. Now’s the time to head to the chopping block.
See where you have overlap between tools. Look for opportunities to consolidate multiple functions into fewer tools if possible. Cut the applications that do not meet your needs or have insufficient integration capabilities.
It’s up to you if you wish to have multiple application tools to use if that works for you—otherwise cut the collaboration application dead weight.
But remember, it’s important to ensure that your final list of tools serves your workers’ needs.
If you cut critical capabilities when you cut out tools, you’ll find yourself right back where you started—with workers embracing shadow IT and unapproved tools to fulfill their needs.
If you’ve done your analysis thoroughly, your collaboration application list should shorten dramatically. If it hasn’t, it may be time to repeat steps one through five again to maximize the benefits of this exercise.
Step 6: Establish collaboration tool standards and policies
One of the reasons team collaboration tool overload exists in the first place is that companies haven’t established standards for preferred tools, that they fail to provide/approve tools that meet specific worker needs, or that they don’t enforce existing standards and policies. It’s never too late to lay down a concrete foundation for company-wide tools and applications.
If you don’t have standards and policies in place, this is the time to create them.
If you already have existing standards and policies in place, review them to make sure they’re up-to-date, especially with the company-wide collaboration applications now in place. Communicate your standards and policies far and wide within your company ad nauseum—it’s crucial to get your message across the multitude of messages your employees deal with every day.
Lastly, empower your IT staff to enforce these policies, whether it’s blocking certain applications from downloading, or performing daily/weekly/monthly scans for unapproved applications. If you find violators, be sure to understand why. They may help you uncover an important gap in your standards.
]Step 7: Provide adequate training
After you have the tools you need, and standards in place, make sure you provide training sessions so your employees know how to use your chosen tools and feel comfortable with them.
You can have the best collaboration tool out there, complete with chat, conferencing, calling, storage, and sharing features, with mobile-first design.
If your employees can’t figure out how to use it or access it from their devices, adoption and usage will suffer.
Then they’ll download the collaboration tools they are comfortable using, which will result in multiple applications across your company, and before you know it—you’re back to collaboration tool overload. Train your employees, provide support templates, enable your IT staff to answer any questions, or provide vendor contact information for product support.
When collaboration tools that meet your company’s needs are used effectively, productivity soars.
Step 8: Monitor and adjust
Keep an eye on usage to gauge what’s working and what’s not. When you catch something that isn’t working, make adjustments to tools, policies, standards, or workflows as necessary to get your employee collaboration back on track. There’s no reason to stick stubbornly to a standard or policy if it’s simply not working.
Kiss overload goodbye
Collaboration tool overload is more common than you think, but you can tame with this simple eight-step process. Making sure you understand the “why” that created the overload environment is key to getting it under control. And when you do, workers will benefit, your company communications will benefit, and overall company productivity and efficiency should benefit as well.
Unified Communications (UC) isn’t just about connecting calls—it’s about revolutionizing the way your business communicates. In fact, 75% of businesses have moved to cloud-based UC platforms in the past three years, signaling a major shift in how companies operate.
Ask around, and you’ll find countless definitions of UC. Gartner emphasizes integration across communication methods, while Webopedia talks about single-platform solutions. But no matter the definition, the goal is the same: making communication easier, more seamless, and ultimately, more effective for everyone involved.
Perspectives from the Experts on Unified Communications
Gartner: “UC products integrate communication channels (media), networks, and systems, as well as IT business applications and, in some cases, consumer applications and devices.”
Webopedia: “A single communications platform integrating data, video, and voice in one supported product.”
Local Expertise, Tailored Solutions
At Towner Communications, we understand the unique challenges that businesses in Mid-Missouri face. Whether you’re in Jefferson City, Lake Ozark, Columbia, or Kansas City, our UC solutions are designed to fit your specific needs, from cloud-based systems to integrated contact centers. Unified Communications isn’t one-size-fits-all, and we tailor our approach to ensure you get the most out of every feature.
Real-World Impact:
Take, for example, a local healthcare provider in Columbia that switched to our cloud-based UC platform. Not only did they streamline communication across departments, but they also reduced response times to patient inquiries by 30%. That’s the power of a unified solution.
Why It Matters in 2024:
In today’s business landscape, UC is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. With the rise of remote work and the increasing demand for seamless communication, having a reliable UC system in place is crucial. Our cloud-based solutions offer the flexibility, scalability, and security that modern businesses need to stay competitive.
A: UC enhances productivity by reducing the need to switch between different communication apps. It enables seamless collaboration, quicker response times, and better resource management, which ultimately leads to improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
A: Absolutely! UC solutions are scalable and can be tailored to fit the needs of small businesses. They offer the same benefits as they do for larger enterprises, such as improved communication and collaboration, but are adaptable to the specific requirements and budget constraints of smaller organizations.
A: Cloud-based UC solutions host communication tools on remote servers, accessible via the internet. This allows for greater flexibility, as users can access the system from any device, anywhere, without needing to maintain on-site hardware.
A: Towner Communications offers customized UC solutions designed to meet the unique needs of your business. Whether you’re in Jefferson City or Columbia, we provide consultation, setup, and ongoing support to ensure your communication systems are seamless and effective.
Ready to elevate your business communications?
Contact us today to learn how Towner can tailor a UC solution that fits your needs. Whether you’re looking to improve team collaboration or streamline customer interactions, we’re here to help.
Do you have a cloud provider? If you do, are you happy with them? It’s a question many business owners don’t ask themselves enough. Cloud communications is an investment of capital, time, and human resources—an investment that you should be thrilled with. Once we sign contracts, we tend to accept the level of service we receive without analyzing our satisfaction with what we actually get. Part of this resignation stems from the contracts signed up front: breaking contracts usually means serious financial detriment. In the business world, that’s highly frowned upon because you’re costing the company even more money. But if you weren’t bound by a contract, what would that mean to you?
When the honeymoon period is over
Business relationships are susceptible to the same characteristics of any personal relationship—sometimes entering into a contract with a vendor starts off flawlessly and everything is sunshine and rainbows. But far too often in business, once the dotted line is signed, things change: service levels drops off, promised features become elusive, and costs can skyrocket. Being stuck with a cloud communications provider who doesn’t put your business needs first is more than irritating—it can harm your customer service, internal productivity, and your bottom line.
When you want more features
Not every cloud communications provider is created equal. Once you choose your provider, you may initially be happy. You get the service level you expect, the features you wanted—all at a price you are comfortable paying. Technology is notorious for constantly evolving. And your provider may not offer the latest features you’re interested in for your business. While you may be happy with every other aspect of the business relationship, the bottom line is this: limited cloud features and offerings could jeopardize your business.
When the contract dictates your decision
I’d wager most businesses stay with their cloud communications provider because the contract is king. Why evaluate the level of service and feature offerings if both are satisfactory and you can’t go anywhere anyway? Evaluation is crucial to consider because the best-performing and most lucrative companies don’t just think about today, but think about their company’s future. Still, many companies are wary of breaking contracts. But what if the contract was removed from the equation? Right now, Towner Communications could remove the barrier for you and give your business the best cloud communications applications for today and tomorrow.
Questions to ask yourself
Now that we can remove your existing contract from the equation, there are some questions you should ask yourself to truly gauge your satisfaction with your current provider.
1. Am I happy with the level of service I receive from my current cloud provider?
2. Do I have the features I need to maximize my business productivity?
3. Is my cloud provider a leader in Gartner’s five magic quadrants?
4. Do I trust my cloud provider to offer the latest and greatest features?
5. Is my cloud communications platform easy to use?
6. Does my cloud communications platform enable team and project collaboration?
If you answered “yes” to all the above, congratulations! You have a cloud communications provider that works for you and your business needs.
If you answered “no” to one question, you might have the right cloud provider for you—but why not verify by checking just in case?
If you answered no to two or more questions, you should strongly consider looking into Towner Communications Cloud program. As partners with Mitel, a leader in Gartner’s five magic quadrants, Towner is uniquely positioned to provide the cloud communications your business or enterprise needs.
Nearly 2,000 cloud subscribers choose Mitel each day. Businesses across the world trust Mitel for their cloud communications solutions—see why you can, too.
The Phone lock feature is a setting which locks down the advanced features on your Mitel IP phone. Towner Communications usually advises that our clients lock their phone’s features if there special settings that are required and need to preserve.
Another great advantage to locking is that this feature stops unauthorised users from accessing certain features. Let say there’s a pre-programmed Page key on your phone, it’s possible that you may only want specific employees to have visibility to it.
This Mitel guide is for MiVoice Business (also known as Mitel 3300 ICP) users only. If you want to know how to use the Phone Lock Feature on your specific phone shoot us an email, and a Towner Communications Team Member will be happy to help!
What Phone Lock Can Do For You
You might think this feature stops your Mitel IP phone from getting calls in the usual way, but Phone Lock doesn’t. Nor does not stop anyone from placing emergency calls, or local calls to operators. All user can adjust the phone’s volume, use the numeric key pad, and log in to the phone using Hot Desk mode.
What DOES the feature do? It does restrict outgoing calls. It can also stops unauthorised users from using the Superkey, soft keys, feature access keys and codes, account codes and applications.
Pokémon GO is a hot topic. It seems you can’t escape it—in the news, on social media, or in your day-to-day life as you see people of all ages hunched over their phones, walking around outside. This wildly popular application has spurred discussions across a variety of topics—health, social interaction, marketing, gamification, pedestrian safety, and more.
There’s another lesson to learn from Pokémon GO: the value of a single, comprehensive application to enable team and project collaboration.
Observing strangers collaborate through this application can open your eyes to the potential potency (and potential shortcomings) of a business application that can foster teamwork in your business.
Setting the stage: the prologue
For those who aren’t sure how Pokémon GO works, it’s a real-time application in which you can catch Pokémon while walking around. With geo-tracking and real-time updates, players all experience the same interface—provided they’re in similar areas. The same creatures pop up on the screen, at the same time, at the same location. This accounts for many observations of increased social interaction, and also accounts for the parallel in team and project collaboration.
It begins with a quest
Parks are one of the best places to catch Pokémon. My husband and I frequent the park closest to us as a place to walk around and play Pokémon GO. We recently encountered a player who was on a quest for a specific Pokémon. He wasted no time in telling us he drove over 45 minutes to reach this park because he heard it was rich with a Pokémon he desperately wanted to add to his collection and asked us if we’d seen any.
We pointed him to an area where we found the creature he sought and we heard his triumph when he found it and added it to his collection. He proceeded to scour the park. Anytime we found the Pokémon he was looking for, we called out to him to help direct him to the right area to catch it. Strangers collaborating to chase invisible pocket monsters on a smartphone application—who’d have thought?
Teamwork makes the dream work
For this particular Pokémon GO player, he was able to complete his quest for catching Pokémon because all players experience the application in real time. By collaborating with other players, he identified the park as a place he needed to visit and he was able to add the necessary Pokémon to his collection. This story is a testament to the power of a real-time application and online collaboration capabilities accessible by all. If a player can accomplish so much from the application, what implications are there for businesses?
But could teamwork be easier?
The Pokémon GO collaboration experience could be better because it doesn’t offer the in-app ability to message another player or group, or share images of any kind. Although the application revealed the necessary Pokémon for this player, he relied on friends and external websites to provide the best possibility of completing his collection.
Maybe it’s because I’m a millennial but I honestly think the Pokemon Go collaboration experience could be both easier and improved: taking a seamless application operating in real-time and adding the ability to message others, post discussion threads, share images and insights, and work in other applications and links would enable any player to get the information needed to play effectively.
Relying on multiple applications to allow full collaboration creates a disjointed, less effective experience than if all of the capabilities were built-in.
Business collaboration in real time
It’s estimated that the average employee spends up to an hour every day trying to get in contact with people, find meeting rooms, and track projects and emails.
Helping employees easily contact each other can immediately boost productivity.
For a workforce on-the-go, uniting multiple channels of communications in a single mobile-first application—email, chat, phone calls, text, video—can drastically improve both productivity and output for a business. Top team collaboration tools make it a point to prioritize accessibility, visibility, and real-time tracking of various projects, documents, and presentations so workers get more out of every hour they put in.
If it works for Pokémon GO players, it will work for your business
Back to the zealous Pokémon GO player who traveled 45 minutes to get to the park that held the Pokémon he needed.
On the positive side, the synchronized application experience paired with real-time capabilities helped him to complete his. On the negative side, he had to lean on other applications to accomplish his mission, and was ultimately successful.
A comprehensive interface certainly would have helped him accomplish his goal more efficiently, just as a more complete collaboration tool helps workers get more done faster.
Unlike Pokémon Go, there are applications with a complete set of tools to help your employees collaborate. If you give your employees the opportunity to collaborate with a communications system that promotes project collaboration on a platform designed with mobile in mind, your employees will be able to work efficiently and effectively, at any time, in any location.
Many businesses today have one piece of the puzzle—like Pokémon GO—but choosing a truly integrated collaboration experience can really give you a competitive edge.
Team and project collaboration checklist
There are many communications vendors for businesses to choose from. In order to get the most effective solution for your business, make sure it is:
Mobile-enabled
Real-time
Inclusive of all communications channels
Ready for project collaboration
Able to share documents and track updates
Secure
CRM-compatible
Our MiCloud Office platform has all these features and more. To get an idea of what a first-class, comprehensive system looks like, watch the MiCloud Office Demo.
Pokémon GO is a hot topic. It seems you can’t escape it—in the news, on social media, or in your day-to-day life as you see people of all ages hunched over their phones, walking around outside. This wildly popular application has spurred discussions across a variety of topics—health, social interaction, marketing, gamification, pedestrian safety, and more.
