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Expert Insights: 2023 Unified Communications Predictions

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Today, unified communications (UC) technology is more than just IP phones and simple features like live chat. You’ll want to partner with a local provider who can help guide you toward the right mix of today’s solutions and evolve with you in the future.

TCI has been supporting the DC Metro Region for 40 years and we’re here to help. As we look toward the new year, we know many organizations will be modernizing their communications systems to streamline operations and keep employees and customers connected.

Our strategic technology partner, Mitel has weighed in on what UC will look like in 2023. Here are their predictions.

Generative AI will take off.

Generative AI can create content automatically. It has the potential to revolutionize certain aspects of business, specifically when it comes to content marketing and contact center communications.

The technology can improve the chatbot experience on websites and provide personalized content to customers based on their history. In the contact center, Generative AI can produce content for agent coaching. It can also document and summarize interactions between agents and customers, creating content that can be used for training and development.

Organizations and UC providers need to stay on top of the role Generative AI will begin to play and be able to incorporate the content produced by it into their UC technology stacks.

CISOs will focus on recruiting employees to play a bigger role in preventing attacks and securing edge devices.  

Phishing attacks rose in 2022 and organizations are concerned about unauthorized access or leaks of their proprietary information. Business leaders need to raise employee education and vigilance in avoiding ransomware, phishing, and other threats coming in email, texts, and social media.

Another challenge is securing a rapidly expanding universe of edge devices, both professional and personal. Most employees work on multiple devices, and you can’t protect what you don’t know about, so auditing and securing a widely dispersed infrastructure will be essential.

Mitel and TCI offer a software assurance (SWA) subscription that keeps your UC up to date on the latest software, security fixes, and compliance requirements.

A one-size-fits-all approach to delivering UC will no longer work. Organizations are demanding customized solutions.  

Customers have many communication technology choices today, and many use a mix of infrastructures. In 2023, the world’s business communications will occur across a panorama of on-prem, private cloud, hybrid, and UCaaS systems.

Currently, deployed on-premises solutions lead the pack, but Mitel’s survey found that over 40% of enterprises are combining their on-premises solutions with a cloud solution, and almost half are either evaluating or currently moving their on-premises communications to the cloud.

UC providers need to fully embrace Customer Lifecycle Management as organizations look for the right communications solution to deliver long-term value for both the customer and employee experience.

With so many choices regarding technologies and deployment options, organizations need more than just a drop-ship phone provider. They need a local partner who can support them on-site and guide them toward solutions that support shared workspaces, file and screen sharing, and a mobile-first design. Businesses are looking for a quick and sustainable ROI that empowers their customers to collaborate and complete tasks from anywhere.

Our local team of experts is ready to advise you on the best path forward as you implement your 2023 plans. Contact us at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

 

7 Office Trends Redefining Online Team Collaboration

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The way people use technology continues to shift quickly, and consumer behaviors and expectations are bleeding into business environments, creating new requirements and methods of doing business.

Here are several important office trends redefining how businesses and people collaborate online.

1. Using More Outsourced Resources – Freelancers and consultants fill various roles depending on a company’s size, priorities, and policies. Whether enterprise or SMB, some companies use the expertise of outside resources to provide a necessary perspective, service, or advice to help businesses. Other companies use outsourced workers to quickly scale up and down, improving their agility and flexibility. Businesses using freelancers, consultants, or other types of remote support need robust online collaboration tools to connect these outsourced workers and the company’s staff to work effectively and efficiently.

2. The Rise of Solopreneurs – The trend of companies using more outsourced workers and the rise of solopreneurs go together. Solopreneurs run their single-person businesses, often relying on contracting or consulting work for employment. They’re usually experts in niche areas. As more workers become solopreneurs, companies will increasingly have to look outside of their walls to fill needs in those specialties. Your online collaboration tools should be user-friendly, so solopreneurs don’t need to become experts in obscure software to get on board and pitch in.

3. Cloud Enablement and the Rise of Mobility – With increased connectivity, the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, and a global economy, mobility changed the game for many companies. With today’s cloud-based technology, work is an activity, not a location. Files and other resources once chained to the office are now available from anywhere with a decent Internet connection. Online collaboration tools are more important than ever to connect those in the office, those traveling, those working remote or hybrid, or outsourced resources to keep work moving productively.

4. Real Estate Consolidation and Savings – Real estate can be pricey for businesses, with some urban areas commanding $100 or more per square foot of office space — a 10×10 office costs a staggering $10,000 per year in some places. Enabling remote workers can help keep real estate costs under control by reducing your need for space, avoiding relocation, and more. Without a good online collaboration tool designed for remote workers, it’s tough for workers to connect with their in-office counterparts to get work done.

5. Hyper Specialization – When you need an expert in a particular field, there’s a good chance they won’t live near your office. Some are willing to relocate. But many are not. If your much-needed expert feels like staying put, you may need to make concessions to bring them on board. Or you might have to offer them work-hour flexibility as a perk to seal the deal. Either way, it makes hyper-specialization another factor putting pressure on companies to use reliable online collaboration tools to stay competitive.

6. Wanderlust and the Rise of Ex-Pats – Have you seen House Hunters International? It’s not just showcasing ex-pat retirees settling into another country to spend their golden years with an exotic sea breeze tickling their noses. More people on the show are working professionals who want to travel or live abroad while continuing to work. This trend is growing, and innovative companies are leaning on online collaboration to help enable staff to work where they want to keep key talent on board.

7. Bring-Your-Own-Device – BYOD shouldn’t be a big surprise when it comes to identifying trends that are redefining online collaboration. Bottom line: companies that enable BYOD must find an online collaboration tool that works across various platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and computers. This trend points to the need for a user-friendly interface that’s intuitive and easy to use. If it’s not easy to use, workers will be quick to abandon it, hurting productivity or spawning pockets of shadow IT.

Adapt to Stay Competitive

The workplace is changing fast and leading to a revolution in how we collaborate online. Innovative companies and savvy tech providers adapt to stay competitive and ensure work gets done. Whether you’re affected by one of these trends or all of them, it pays to know the forces reshaping the landscape. Because the more you know, the better you can respond.

Let’s talk about your business and how you can exploit better Online Collaboration tools. Contact TCI today at: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

 

Act Fast… RingCentral Promotion for Mitel On-Premises Customers

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This offer expires December 31, 2022

Upgrade to the #1-rated cloud communications and collaboration solution – RingCentral MVP (Message. Video. Phone.) service – ranked as a market leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

For existing Mitel on-premises customers moving to the cloud, you’ll receive:

  • 20% discount off RingCentral MVP service
  • 2 months free for a 2-year term or 3 months free for a 3-year term
  • May be eligible for free phones (up to 50)

Why is RingCentral MVP So Popular?

  • Unmatched SLA-backed reliability – 12 quarters at 99.999% uptime
  • Class-leading security / Advanced analytics and insights
  • Advanced team messaging, video meetings, and telephony features
  • 275+ integrations with mainstream business applications
  • Global footprint with local and toll-free in more than 110 countries

For more details and to take advantage of this limited-time offer, contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

 

Get to Know TCI’s Latest Cloud Communications Service… RingCentral MVP

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Our solutions line-up expanded earlier this year with Mitel’s rollout of RingCentral MVP cloud service. It’s become a popular option for organizations that are ready to transition to the cloud from their Mitel on-premises systems.

And, if your current cloud provider is falling short, MVP is ideal for anyone looking to streamline internal collaboration and better connect with their customers.

With integrated Messaging, Video Meetings, and Cloud PBX, RingCentral MVP offers:

  • A unified, collaborative hub for team messaging, video meetings, and telephony
  • Enterprise-grade security and unmatched reliability with a 99.999% uptime SLA
  • A global footprint in 100+ countries and localized in 15+ languages
  • 250+ out-of-the-box integrations with business apps and open APIs for custom needs
  • Simple and centralized web-based user and system administration
  • Advanced analytics and insights
  • Access from anywhere on your device of choice — desktop, tablet, or mobile.

Here’s more on each element of MVP — Message. Video. Phone — and how the service integrates with the Business Apps your team uses every day:

Message

  • Message colleagues and clients from your PC or mobile device. Invite guest users to collaborate for free.
  • Set a custom status to indicate your availability.
  • Create teams around projects, specific topics, and departments.
  • Assign tasks to individuals or project teams.
  • Share links and files with no size or storage limits.

Video

  • Join meetings easily — no downloads or plugins needed.
  • Enjoy HD audio and video, and screen share with up to 200 interactive video participants.
  • Easily schedule meetings with calendar integrations with Office 365 and Google Calendar.
  • Switch a live meeting between devices with one click.
  • Get in-meeting chat, virtual backgrounds, closed captioning, cloud recordings, and powerful background noise reduction technology for a great participant experience.

Phone

  • Use one business phone number for calling, business SMS, MMS, and fax, so your personal number stays private.
  • Customize settings such as business hours and greetings, and route incoming calls efficiently to specific departments with a multi-level auto attendant.
  • Manage active calls efficiently with advanced call controls to transfer, record, flip, or park the call.
  • Flip live calls between your desktop and cell or switch a call to video in just one click.

Integrations

  • Bring advanced communications functions into the productivity apps you use every day like Microsoft and Google.
  • Automate your sales cycle and enhance delivery and customer support through integrations with Salesforce, Zendesk, and ServiceNow.
  • Back up your communications data with RingCentral Archiver to your preferred cloud storage provider like Smarsh, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more.
  • Build custom integrations with open APIs to meet your business’s specific needs.

Bring your teams and customers together on the industry’s #1 business communications platform. Let’s talk about your business and how we can connect you to achieve more success. Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Top 6 Benefits of RingCentral MVP for Mitel On-Prem Customers

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Cloud communications make it easier than ever to collaborate, connect, and work together effectively

To keep up in this new era of remote and hybrid work models, it’s imperative that organizations proactively adapt to this emergent way of communication and way of doing business.

Mitel and RingCentral have created a seamless cloud migration process specifically for Mitel on-prem customers, providing you with an effortless path to the cloud…

1. Easy Transition

RingCentral and Mitel worked together to ensure that your transition to RingCentral Message Video Phone (MVP) will be as smooth and hassle-free as possible. We’ve made the migration process simple for Mitel customers, with no disruptions at all to your business.

2. Improved Flexibility

RingCentral MVP’s integrated system allows you to seamlessly switch between various platforms, such as effortlessly going from your video call to your cell phone, without interrupting any communications. This makes remote work so much easier!

3. Superior Security and Privacy

Trust that your data is safe at every level with exceptional security, global reliability, and privacy. With dynamic end-to-end encryption, we empower our customers to do their best work – from anywhere and everywhere.

4. First-class Reliability

The importance of connectivity is at an all-time high during this age of remote and hybrid work environments. With reliability as a critical factor in productivity, RingCentral effectively shields you from ever having a dropped or poor connection.

5. Seamless Integrations

This cloud solution blends in smoothly with the business tools you already use every day. With its pre-built and custom integrations, MVP will make work significantly easier, boost productivity, automate workflows, and reduce the annoyances of daily tasks.

6. All-in-one Solution

By having a unified communications platform that does it all – message, video, and phone – on any device of your choice, RingCentral MVP’s single-solution approach eliminates the necessity of using multiple tools to get the job done.

Video: RingCentral MVP – Welcome to Simpler Communications [2:25 min.]

Better, Faster, Stronger

RingCentral MVP puts all your communication tools in a single hub on your desktop, making them effortlessly accessible, easy to manage, and enabling focused, effective collaboration for your teams – whether they work in the office, at home, or any place in between.

The TCI, RingCentral and Mitel partnership works harder so that you can work smarter.

NWEA – RingCentral Customer Success Story

It’s Time to Start Achieving Your Top Business Priorities

Take advantage of what RingCentral MVP has to offer and start seeing a difference in your quality of work today. With the simple transition from your current on-prem solution to RingCentral MVP, you will unleash the full potential of this easy, intuitive all-in-one tool with support from our dedicated teams, layered security, and a full force of advanced integrations.

Explore the possibilities of cloud communications… Contact TCI today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Strengthen Your Leadership & Management Team with Seamless Cloud Communication Tools

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The Great Resignation heightened managers’ concerns about recruitment and retention. The conversations around this phenomenon and the increase of workplace digitization often prioritize the needs of employees and customers. Customers drive revenue, and employees primarily drive output. Yet managers are the ones who make the decisions that shape both income and production, so your managers’ concerns should have equal weight.

A Seamless Transition

Thanks to ever-evolving technology, tools exist to support managers transitioning to hybrid and distributed work. TCI’s strategic partner, Mitel has taken steps to help this process by partnering with RingCentral.

This collaboration allows you to upgrade your existing cloud solution to the most robust platform available on the market: RingCentral Message Voice Phone (MVP service) – especially designed for today’s workforce.

With team members divided by state lines, national borders, and sometimes oceans, a vital communications tool is essential for managers to oversee employees. RingCentral MVP allows managers to lead more efficiently.

Integrate For Increased Benefits

RingCentral MVP integrates with existing collaboration and project management tools, which allows managers to adapt without adding to existing employee change fatigue.

Check out MVP’s latest Feature Updates

Some of the tools that can be combined with RingCentral MVP include:

  • Slack
  • Dropbox
  • Google Drive
  • Microsoft Teams

Customer Success… Supporting a Global Staff

RingCentral MVP is helping Phoenix Virtual Solutions, a virtual staffing company for healthcare providers, increase its staff with ease and convenience. Its assistants are spread across the globe, which makes onboarding cumbersome. The RingCentral platform simplified the process.

“We add them to the RingCentral directory, which takes about a minute, and they could immediately start taking and making business calls and SMS messages right from their computers. Many virtual assistants also added the RingCentral mobile app to their cell phones, so they could stay connected to their managers while away from their desks.”

– Rommel Ragasa, VP of Admin and Business Development at Phoenix.

Let’s talk about how to strengthen your leadership and management team with seamless Cloud Communication Tools. Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Contact Centers 101… Understanding the Basics So Your Business Won’t Miss Out

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The contact center world of 2022 is filled with business opportunities and the chance to better meet your diversifying customer needs. Worried you might be missing out? Don’t be. Below, we formally open the doors to the contact center world and invite you to confidently step inside.

Why Does Your Organization Need Contact Center Technology?

If your organization handles and manages daily phone calls, then you can benefit from new contact center technology that can quickly and efficiently route calls, spot calling trends, and build an effective overall team.

Call center technology can accelerate reaching customer experience goals set by the managers and decision-makers of your organization – from increasing first call resolution to honing your tracking and reporting intelligence.

What Kind of Call Center Technology is Out There?

There’s a wide spectrum of call center solutions available to help maximize your business operations. The first step in determining which technology is ideally suited for your business is determining the size and classification of your contact center.

For example, are you a small business and just getting started exploring your options, or do you already run a small but “full-fledged” contact center? Are you an enterprise-class contact center? Establishing your requirements leads to the end goal – investing in the right technology to take you there.

Today’s call center solutions can cover all of the bases – from driving productivity to streamlining operations, to simplifying tool management, to call bursting for handling sporadic high call volumes. A sampling of customized contact center solutions available include…

  • Contact Center Enterprise provides a powerful toolbox of applications to transform dated, voice-only call centers into an omnichannel customer experience.
  • Cloud-based Contact Center services offer a multi-channel interaction center for the way customers communicate today. 4 Minute Video Demo: MiContact Center Business – Customer & Agent Experience
  • Boosting your team’s performance with Workforce Optimization applications and tools. Learn more
  • Proactively reach your customers and prospects with Outbound contacts to improve loyalty and uncover new revenue opportunities.

The contact center world isn’t so scary once you take that first step inside. Take the next step with TCI. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Keeping Up with Data Security & Privacy Regulations… They’re Complex and Changing

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Because larger enterprises are highly visible, serve a large customer base, and typically have deep pockets, they need to adhere to the highest standards of compliance. But that becomes more challenging when policy and regulations are a moving target.

To avoid penalties for non-compliance, enterprises must thoroughly research the data privacy and security laws of each market they operate in before placing sensitive and critical data in the cloud. The more geographically distributed they are, the more research they need to do, and the more requirements they must comply with to avoid ending up on the wrong side of regulations.

The TCI and Mitel Solution

For example, TCI’s Mitel-powered solutions allow enterprises to deploy their unified collaboration and communication solutions in their data center, in a partner-managed data center, or via a dedicated instance private cloud environment that uses data center companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Azure – or any combination – to achieve compliance with local data privacy laws.

Selecting a serverless private cloud option using AWS, Google, or Azure enables the enterprise to keep control of its data without owning its hardware. This option also removes the complexity of maintaining hardware, simplifying management, and reducing costs. Finally, using the private cloud option increases flexibility to grow or reduce capacity, based on changing business needs.

Our customers can also leverage hybrid cloud scenarios, where the on-premises solution can be deployed using a private cloud in combination with cloud applications. This approach provides the ability to either remain on a current on-premises solution using dedicated hardware, use a private cloud while taking advantage of cloud applications, or migrate or expand a part of the business using a public cloud solution.

It’s All About Choices

When the stakes are high and complexity looms large, many enterprises are turning to TCI and Mitel. Talk with our experts about how to find the right communications solution deployment for each market and how to ensure they all work together.

Learn more about how TCI can help you successfully navigate the complex data security and privacy environment. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

8 Reasons to Upgrade to RingCentral MVP

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As of June 30, 2020 no new contracts were accepted onto the MiCloud Connect platform. However, if you are currently a Mitel cloud customer considering an upgrade, replacement, or realignment of your current infrastructure, here are 8 reasons why making the change to RingCentral MVP is going to be good for your business in the long run.

1. More Flexibility

The RingCentral MVP platform complements our leading UC on-premises, subscription, and private cloud solutions. With RingCentral MVP, Mitel cloud customers now have more choice and flexibility in how they evolve their current communication and collaboration infrastructure to enhance efficiency, improve productivity, and deliver better customer service experiences.

2. Full-Featured Phones

RingCentral MVP rounds out its communication and collaboration options with full-featured phone capabilities built on a global calling footprint in over 44 countries, local and toll-free numbers across more than 110 countries, and customization settings in 17 languages. Mitel’s 6900 IP Phones are now officially certified with RingCentral’s MVP platform, making it easier for existing Mitel cloud customers to scale operations quickly with employees who can work from anywhere.

3. Seamless Integration

RingCentral MVP streamlines all communication and collaboration into a single, unified, collaborative, cloud-based hub for team messaging, HD video meetings, and telephony. This intuitive solution makes it easier for employees to work efficiently on mobile or desktop clients, so they can interact with each other, partners, and customers whenever they need to and from wherever they are.

4. Higher Capacity Video Conferencing

RingCentral MVP optimizes the virtual meeting room and makes it easier for you and your team to stay connected. Enjoy HD audio and video, and screen share with up to 200 interactive video participants. Easily schedule meetings with calendar integrations with Office 365 and Google Calendar. Get in-meeting chat, virtual backgrounds, closed captioning, cloud recordings, and powerful background noise reduction technology for a great participant experience.

5. More Powerful Messaging

Messaging is still one of the best ways to stay connected with team members when a video meeting is not needed. RingCentral MVP’s integrated messaging features make messaging a more powerful tool for all instant interactions:

  • Set a custom status to indicate availability.
  • Create teams around projects, specific topics, and departments.
  • Assign tasks to individuals or project teams.
  • Share links and files with no size or storage limits.

6. One Place for All Your Tools

Too many independent tools keep employees bogged down with managing technology rather than doing their jobs. RingCentral MVP eliminates communications silos and technology gaps with over 275 pre-built integrations and more than 500 open APIs you can leverage to enhance business applications and workflows.

7. Reliability

RingCentral MVP has a proven record of providing service to small, medium, and large businesses in a variety of industries. It’s a secure and reliable platform with 99.999% call service uptime. This ensures your communication system is always running whenever your employees need it.

8. Simplified Management

With so much riding on the capabilities and performance of your communication and collaboration system, it’s important to keep tabs on how it’s performing and how it’s being used. RingCentral MVP is delivered with a simple, centralized web-based user and system administration feature that makes it easier to structure rich analytics and real-time reporting.

You now have an opportunity to leverage the market-leading UCaaS capabilities you need to prepare your business for whatever the future may bring.

Talk to TCI today to make your transition seamless and get the features you need with no hassle or disruption to your business: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.