Cloud Source

The Changing Nature of Unified Communications Management

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Experts now predict that nearly half of all companies are using unified communications as a service (UCaaS), and another quarter plan to shift to the cloud by the end of the year. As a result, companies are also increasingly needing to invest in unified communications management.

This means not only managing users and performance, but also areas like administration and security. Shifting to the cloud comes with some labor reduction, but it doesn’t remove the responsibility that IT leaders have for management. Instead, unified communications management requires IT to create new approaches that ensure consistent performance for all employees in all locations as well as removing confusion between application and network service providers as far as where any performance concerns lie.

With the growing number of employees working in remote and hybrid settings, in addition to the increasing role of video communications as a part of UCaaS, the role of unified communications management becomes more complex.

The “Unified Communications and Management Endpoints: 2021-22” study, published by Metrigy, included responses from 400 companies. It designated 68 organizations as “successful” because of their achievement of higher return on investment in areas like cost savings and revenue increases associated with technology investments. Here are four strategies demonstrated by those high-performing companies:

The Integration of IT Service Management With Unified Communications Management: Among successful companies, 72% had an integrated IT service management with unified communications management tools, compared with only 53% of all respondents. The integration of the platforms allows for better insight into applications and configurations for faster problem isolation and resolution.

Deployment of Security Management: Nearly 58% of the highest-performing companies, in comparison with 36% of non-high-performing companies, had deployed a management platform dedicated to security for unified communications. The benefits of this type of platform include consistent policy application across apps, quick identification of threats, and automation in areas like response and restoration. It’s important to note that security platforms can vary, so it’s important to select one that matches well with your specific goals.

Choose the Right Tools: Among successful companies, 41% had invested in management tools developed for a move to UCaaS. Only 27% of overall respondents had invested in similar strategies. The tools covered performance, endpoint and security management, plus administration for end-to-end visibility across all locations, including in-office and remote workers.

Support Remote Workers: Successful companies extended IT support to include remote and work-from-home employees, from areas like guiding remote employees in choosing the right internet plan to assessment of home WiFi coverage and managing voice and video call quality. With the number of employees now working in remote or hybrid settings, IT departments can no longer deprioritize the importance of performance and consistent work experience for these team members.

Unified communications management, with the right tools, can elevate your UCaaS experience. Contact us at Cloud Source for assistance in getting started with your migration to cloud communications and integrating the right management tools into your existing technology.

How to Resolve SIP Trunk Problems

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Despite widespread use, it’s still common to encounter problems with a session initiation protocol (SIP) trunk, with both the equipment and the provider aspects of the technology. Resolving these issues begins with prevention, but in this article, you’ll also find ways to address issues with a current SIP trunk.

Prevention

Before implementation, it’s important that the parties involved are coordinated in the process. You’ll have at least three participants: your private branch exchange (PBX) or unified communications (UC) provider, the session border controller (SBC) provider, and the SIP trunk provider, and you may also have a reseller that’s handling the implementation.

Begin the process with a focus on configuration and management, because these are the most common areas where a problem with the SIP trunk occurs. The technology is mature; the issue generally resides with configuration errors.

Take time to test the configuration, the features you require and the number of simultaneous calls you expect. Don’t make assumptions about how the system will perform once you deploy it, because while functional tests add value, they don’t guarantee success when the system is operating with real traffic.

Use checklists from the providers that will help you validate the installation process, in addition to anticipating any potential problems. Look at surveys for SIP trunk performance to find out what issues are most likely to affect your enterprise, and address these in your preparation.

Resolution

Don’t tweak the SIP trunk: It’s a natural reaction to begin tweaking the configuration or the settings until you get the performance you want, but it’s easy to inadvertently turn off security features or other tools you need. You may produce a liability that reveals itself later.

If tweaking seems a necessary step, be careful to document each change so there is an audit trail. If problems occur in the future, you’ll know how to trace them. Otherwise, any future problems will cause the tweaking to resume and when there’s an outage or poor performance you won’t know where to start to resolve it.

There are several common places to evaluate when you experience a problem with the SIP trunk:

  • The configured timeouts are too short.
  • The provider’s IP connection, the SBC configuration settings and that the firewall is working properly and not blocking SIP signals.
  • Audio issues with compression before entering the network.

Bandwidth: Inadequate bandwidth can impact the voice quality and the number of calls or sessions that can be held simultaneously. You may have an issue of over-design, which demands more bandwidth, while under-design will block calls or negatively affect quality.

Licenses: You’ll need a SIP trunk license for each call or session for your IP PBX and SBC. A shortage of licenses will result in calls being blocked. You can generally install a range of between five and 50 licenses, and then add them in groups of five or ten. Check to find out what the limit is for licensing size on your particular IP PBX or your SBC to ensure you install a SIP trunk solution that is supported adequately for your call needs.

Whether you’re currently experiencing difficulties with a SIP trunk issue, or you’re considering applying this technology to your communications upgrade, contact usat Cloud Source. We can help you plan a deployment that is well coordinated and anticipates any challenges, reducing the need to tweak the system after implementation.

The Many Faces of UCaaS

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As cloud solutions have become more familiar in discussions about software solutions, both IT and line-of-business managers are becoming more informed about what the cloud is and what it is not. For instance, so many organizations have found the perfect balance in a hybrid or multi-cloud solution that a total either-or migration to the cloud or on-premise solution is no longer the center of the discussion. When it comes to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), those steps in between total cloud migration and on-premise legacy system are becoming common.

A large enterprise that is considering UCaaS doesn’t need to worry about the lost investment in hardware from a legacy private branch exchange (PBX), for instance. UCaaS can be integrated gradually, with a plan to use existing hardware to save on costs.

Reasons for keeping an on-site solution: There are a variety of reasons that a company may prefer to stick with a solution that’s housed on their premises, and it often has nothing to do with leadership that won’t embrace change or that resists new technology. In many cases, it makes sense to choose an on-site solution because expected adoption rates are better or because it seems like a safer or more secure option.

Often, the choice simply isn’t as black-and-white as choosing between cloud and on-premise. There are many steps along the way, and many companies don’t see the benefit of tossing their PBX systems and beginning from scratch with UCaaS if their current approach is working. They may see certain tools available through UCaaS that they’d like to implement while still utilizing PBX systems, so they choose a smaller step toward UCaaS:

  • Multi-Tenanted Public UCaaS
  • Hybrid Cloud (some on-premise, some cloud)
  • Dedicated Instance UCaaS
  • Virtualized options in VMware or Hyper-V

These options offer varying degrees of cloud involvement and give enterprises a high level of control over how quickly they move communications into the cloud. A startup may embrace a move to the cloud, and smaller companies in general may be interested in UCaaS features that allow them to handle phone calls like a big corporation with digital receptionists and call forwarding. For many bigger companies, the shift to a full cloud migration is not so simple.

There’s no need to embrace the big-bang approach if a larger organization is reluctant to make a full switch to UCaaS. Hybrid cloud systems and the easy integration between applications allow enterprises to create a customized path to cloud adoption for communications.

To begin on the path of a cloud migration to UCaaS designed specifically for your enterprise, contact us at Cloud Source. We can help you determine the benefits that a UCaaS system can deliver to your organization, while also keeping in mind the various stepping stones that deliver benefits while still meeting your needs for some on-site functionality.

UCaaS Makes Its Biggest Impact With Small- and Mid-Size Businesses

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The push to move technology to the cloud is being experienced all over the market and in every industry. While companies of all sizes are prioritizing digital transformation, the organizations that have the most to gain are small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs). In particular, the shift to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) levels the playing field and helps SMBs make significant gains in productivity and cost savings.

Until relatively recently, SMBs had only one viable option for communications: the private branch exchange (PBX). These systems required a sizable capital investment in addition to high monthly costs.

Enter UCaaS: Nearly every feature of UCaaS is a win for SMBs. The implementation of UCaaS doesn’t require a major capital investment, and the reduction of monthly charges helps control the costs of communication. In addition, cloud services’ subscription-based pay model is ideal for SMBs as they grow or experience seasonality in their markets.

Instead of new technology being only available to the biggest enterprises, UCaaS makes it possible for SMBs to access the same level of communication that bigger organizations use. When it comes to communications, SMBs can offer their customers a seamless experience, in which their entire history with the company is accessible through a single application. Whether customers call, email, instant message, or a combination of the three, the customer service representative can view the contact history in its entirety.

Equipping innovation: In an SMB environment, employees each wear a number of hats, with PBX system manager likely to be one of those in the past. There’s a need for the outsourcing of management for communications tools. UCaaS frees up employees from managing a PBX. It also creates the ability for remote and field employees to seamlessly collaborate through video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), and shared workspaces, allowing them to focus on bigger goals and objectives.

In addition, obsolescence is no longer a problem. UCaaS providers regularly roll out updates, and their focus is on innovation and performance improvement, passed along to customers without a big capital outlay.

Another benefit to SMBs is the business continuity inherent with cloud services. While bigger enterprises likely have some type of disaster recovery or business continuity plan in place as part of a bigger security strategy, many SMBs find themselves at a stop in the case of a power outage, natural weather event, or other problem. UCaaS providers have multiple data centers that limit downtime and keep the SMB communicating with customers.

Cloud Source provides synchronicity across phone, email, mobile devices, and other formats. Contact us to find out more information about the competitive advantage UCaaS can offer your SMB.

Organizations Increasing UC Cloud Services Adoption

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Cloud ServicesIn recent unified communications (UC) news, surveys have found many organizations increasing UC cloud services adoption. According to cloud industry monitors, more than half of organizations across a range of industries are slated to adopt cloud UC services by 2020. These services are also expected to:

  • surpass on-premises PBX deployments in favor of hosted PBX,
  • attract and engage businesses of all sizes looking to switch over to cloud-based services, and 
  • streamline and centralize communications protocols for team collaboration, contact center services, and client fulfillment.

Industry Shifts

Early adopters of UC cloud services tended to be small- to mid-size businesses. However, a dramatic shift in recent months has seen more medium to large enterprises adopting these vital services as well. Industry monitors predict the following scenarios based on current surveys and statistics:

  • Over 45% of customer contact centers will have sound cloud technologies by 2020.
  • Centers will also integrate UC and team collaboration services, resulting in smoother and more efficient client and in-house communications.
  • Legacy PBX systems will become as obsolete as traditional desktop and conventional laptop computers.

These changes reflect a myriad of current industry shifts and developments. In fact, more employees are demanding better mobility in their work – along with higher bandwidth to facilitate and support crucial cloud services and worker needs.

Changes Already Being Implemented

Cloud providers are seeing strong uptakes in UC adoptions for newer businesses. UC is also being heralded for providing timely communications solutions, particularly for companies that are struggling with old PBX systems. While PBX still plays an essential role in overall business communications, more organizations are integrating hosted services as opposed to on-site or premise-based systems. This is helping them to:

  • redistribute available bandwidth for other business services and protocols,
  • save time and money by having remote IT teams manage and monitor UC cloud services, platforms, and apps, and
  • secure constant online connections and presence with little to no service interruptions stemming from inclement weather or downtime maintenance.

UC cloud services will only continue to grow and expand. For businesses dealing with a lack of communications due to outdated hardware or systems, now is the right time to switch over to cloud and reap its many benefits.

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328 S. Jefferson St. Suite 603
Chicago, IL 60661
Ph: 312.753.7880
E: info@CloudSourceServices.com

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