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Tech Overload? 5 Ways to Streamline all those Apps & Communications Tools

The average employee uses 17 different cloud apps, 3 content-sharing services and 3 collaboration tools.

If this sounds familiar, it might be a good time to consider a unified communication system like Mitel-powered TCI Host, which includes collaborative tools that allow team members to assign tasks, share documents, schedule calls, chat and conduct audio and video conferences at the push of a button.

Are your current systems providing the productivity and customer experience you need for 2020? If not, consider these pointers for re-energizing and remaking your approach to collaboration and communications.

1. Identify the purpose and value of each communications tool

Start by identifying what frustrates people, where necessities fall through the cracks, or how customers could be better served. Then evaluate your current tools in terms of:

  • Does the technology help or hinder productivity?
  • Do your communications tools keep your team’s conversations seamless no matter what device is used – be it smartphone, desktop or laptop?
  • Do they create a common space where team members can easily communicate, share documents and set up meetings?
  • Can employees respond quickly and efficiently to customers?

2. Analyze the costs vs. benefits of your communications software

The goal of any communications system is to aid productivity and bring value to the business. The problem is technology – especially when it’s the newest thing. You have to ask yourself: Is the time spent using that latest app really achieving the outcomes you need?

Spend more time assessing the costs of your existing communications tools, from time wasted swapping between business apps to the monthly costs of separate collaboration tools. If you’re not getting results, use this as an opportunity to find more cost-effective, all-in-one communications tools.

3. Reduce distraction and optimize attention capital

Step back from the whirl of digital life by identifying what’s most important to you, then add / keep the technology that will support your priorities. In business, that means finding solutions to increase productivity by automating simple tasks like setting up meetings and improving workflows.

Start by automating and controlling who can reach you, and when. Need some time to tackle a major project? Use presence technology to tell coworkers you’re not available, or you’re only available via a specific channel, like text.

4. Focus on the customer experience

As you’re evaluating your communications tools, consider how your communications software impacts your customer’s experience with your business. Does your current solution enable seamless communications both internally and externally? Does it easily integrate with other essential systems, like CRMs? Can your contact center agents quickly access the information and internal resources they need, when they need it? The answers to these questions directly impact your responsiveness to customers.

5. Make it convenient to work anywhere

With more team members working remotely – on the road, from a home office or in the field – reach out to them and find out what headaches they’re experiencing. Do your collaboration tools enable them to easily communicate and respond quickly to customers? Can they access information and people easily from their smartphone? Look for a communications solution like TCI Host, TCI’s Cloud Voice Service that allows your staff to access everything they need via a web portal.

Now is a perfect time to take a fresh look at your communication solutions to ensure you’re offering the best customer experience.

Ring in the New Year right… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Top 7 Reasons Our Clients are Moving Voice & Collaboration to the Cloud

Business leaders move their communications to the cloud for better mobility, quality, simplicity and reliability. They find it easier to add offices, users and features so they can grow, and they appreciate being able to customize how they connect with customers.

Decision makers are also motivated by their bottom line – they get more and spend less with the latest technology.

Here are 7 practical business reasons to make the switch to TCI’s popular, all-in-one Cloud Voice services.

1. Easy migration

Cloud communications isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavor. There are several deployment models available – Public, Private and Hybrid – and you can migrate your people to the cloud over time or as your business needs change.

2. No hardware, no headaches

Say goodbye to capital expenses, maintenance and service fees with hosted business communications. You get great call quality, industry-leading reliability and an easy-to-manage system with no upfront costs – everything you need for one low monthly price.

3. Free up IT resources

Don’t waste valuable IT resources on aging telecom hardware – we manage the hardware hassles and put your IT people to work on the projects that matter most. With Cloud Voice, you enjoy new features faster, you can add or remove lines in minutes, and you always stay up to date with the newest upgrades automatically.

4. Pay as you grow

With premises-based systems, you pay the price for less-than-perfect call capacity planning by having too little or paying for too much. With Cloud services, you always have just the right amount of call connections to ensure you’re paying for what you need and not a penny more.

5. Enable teamwork and collaboration

Bring all of your team meeting tools into one application – Your people can easily manage video calls and conferences, screen sharing and messaging to connect with in-house teams, partner and customers.

6. Get more done – from anywhere

Your staff can access the same powerful phone and collaboration features from their office phones or seamlessly move with their mobile devices to meet at your clients or work from home offices.

7. Keep your business running

TCI’s cloud-based hosting platform delivers ultra-high reliability and seamless disaster recovery, so you always stay connected to colleagues and customers.

Give your business a competitive Advantage… Get the tools your people need to serve customers better and save some money while you do it. Contact us now to schedule your TCI Cloud Services demo: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Upgrade Your Old Mitel Phone System with the Latest Cloud Capabilities… TCI Can Make it Happen!

Whenever considering new technology, there is always concern about how previous investments will be impacted. Do you abandon infrastructure prematurely and break the IT budget, or do you stick with the old technology – and its limitations – as a cost-saving measure?

Fortunately, the cloud removes this “rock-and-a-hard-place” conundrum from your decision making. The cloud offers a way to take advantage of the latest technology incrementally as new needs arise, without feeling forced to stay locked into outdated infrastructure until you’ve wrung every last ROI dollar out of it.

With these issues in mind, TCI can enable new cloud capabilities in your current Mitel phone system. Starting with MiVoice Business Release 9, there is a simplified cloud-based process for the deployment of ongoing patches, security updates, and dramatic performance improvements.

TCI & Mitel facilitate the evolution of your business to next-generation networks.

A software refresh and move to native Linux provide a common set of tools for software management, while enabling the integration of new services and enhanced security. This also results in significantly enhanced system performance and serviceability.

Individual software components are now updated without requiring an entire software load. This reduces maintenance time and provides faster response to potential future security issues.

Schedule your Upgrade Consultation

Schedule time with TCI’s local team of Mitel experts to discuss what a successful implementation can mean to the continued success of your business and answer any questions you may have. Our meeting and assessment will have several objectives:

  • Discover any hardware that is unsupported and identify any license changes that may be required
  • Discuss an implementation plan for incorporating Mitel’s new cloud capabilities with your current MiVoice phone system
  • Prepare for a successful transition from VxWorks (the previous Operating System) to Linux
  • Review Mitel’s introduction of Server Manager to all platforms

Ready to schedule your briefing now? Please contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Using Contact Center Metrics to Boost Customer Experience in the Real World

No surprise… Your customers want personalized service and consistent answers when they speak with multiple reps in your business. Further, they don’t want to wait on hold or repeat themselves when transferred. Here’s how three organizations are leveraging the Cloud today to benefit their customers…

  • A Medical Supply Company, which serves its market with 45 agents, gains actionable insight into call center operations. By monitoring system performance in real time, managers can identify heavy call-volume periods, so staff can be allocated in ways that keep wait times to a minimum. Historical reporting reveals patterns so managers can determine if they need additional staff at certain locations or during specific days or times.
  • A Non-Profit that provides temporary assistance to those struggling to pay their energy bills can now move representatives from one queue to another based on call volume. That reduces wait times for customers during peak hours. Call monitoring allows managers to review calls for quality and service levels, improving training and accountability. Call recording comes in handy when a customer and agent have different recollections of a conversation, allowing any miscommunication to be resolved quickly.
  • A Government Contractor implements a nationwide energy efficiency program with a new always-on cloud contact center, allowing 24/7 support to be offered to customers. While remote access had been an issue with the old system, now remote agents have seamless access from satellite offices. Improved call quality translates into fewer dropped calls, which makes customers happy. Real-time call handling metrics let managers analyze the level of service customers receive. Issues can be identified immediately and lay the foundation for future training sessions.

New technology is providing the tools and insight you need to turn your call center into a well-oiled machine.

Let’s talk about more practical ways a cloud contact center solution can help your business serve and support demanding customers… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

How Data Center and Collocation Services Simplify Your IT… Offsite. Secure. Scalable.

At TCI we make IT easy. As your trusted technology partner, we can transform your data center from outdated onsite hardware to cyber-secure virtual storage in the cloud.

By offering the best in alternative third-party collocation facilities, we take away the headaches and risks associated with managing your own data center.

Imagine no more…

  • Crashes and unreliable backups
  • Viruses, hackers, and network intrusions
  • Unpredictable service outages
  • Costly equipment room expansions

Everything you need to support mission-critical business applications…

  • Reliability – All data centers are equipped with full UPS-protected power and system redundancy for continuous uptime.
  • Power Density – With robust heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, data centers exceed the requirements of even the most power-hungry deployments.
  • Security – Each data center utilizes an array of security equipment, techniques and procedures to control, monitor, and record access to the facility, including individual cages.
  • Recovery – There’s always room for system expansion and extra storage space when you need it. You get 24-hour access to qualified technical support, enabling you to maintain your mission-critical operations and systems under any circumstance.
  • Cost Savings – You get up-to-date infrastructure and access to cloud providers and carrier services, often at a lower cost than keeping your data center in-house.

Ethernet connectivity enables an off-site data center to function like a high-speed node on your company’s WAN. By leveraging end-to-end protocol uniformly and eliminating the variability of the Internet, your files and critical systems are always available when and where you need them – including remote offices, call centers, and teleworkers.

If managing your own data center is becoming too expensive and burdensome for your IT staff, let’s talk about our affordable managed services. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Mitel Delivers More Advantages with Expanding Google Cloud Partnership

Our strategic partner, Mitel has broadened its partnership with Google Cloud to provide greater security and reliability for businesses looking to move more of their collaboration tools and communications to the cloud in order to accelerate their Digital Transformation…

  • As part of the expanded partnership, Mitel will now leverage the Google Cloud Platform to support its public and private cloud solutions and deliver more innovative artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and reporting capabilities.
  • Google Cloud Platform supports Mitel customers with some of the highest levels of security and availability with dedicated operational practices and 24/7 data center monitoring.
  • Google Cloud Platform is also certified as meeting Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards and Service Organization Control Type II (SOC 2) compliance, addressing the stringent requirements of heavily regulated industries like healthcare, government, education and finance.
  • Google Cloud Platform will initially support new MiCloud Connect and MiCloud Flex customers. New MiVoice Business customers will also have the option of deploying on the platform.
  • With this latest announcement, Mitel gains further access to Google Cloud’s AI analytics, as well as integration with Google’s popular G Suite productivity and collaboration tools.

Check out this Mitel-Google Contact Center video [7:30]

Mitel’s decision to anchor their public and private solutions with Google Cloud Platform enables its customers to move forward with confidence, knowing their services are virtually bulletproof and that the latest communications and collaboration capabilities will be at their fingertips.

Let’s talk more about how Mitel solutions – coupled with Google’s Cloud Platform – can give your business a competitive edge. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Improving Customer Service… 8 Call Center Trends You Need to Watch

When it comes to improving the Customer Experience with better technology, 2019 is shaping up to be the year of strategic thinking with focus areas like better analytics, more social media conversations and innovative ways to involve artificial intelligence.

To keep you informed and help you stay on target with your plans, we’ve identified the most influential strategic trends affecting call centers this year.

  • 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. Early adopters continue to hone AI applications for call routing, and more connections are being forged between various media channels to improve the customer experience.
  • Better contact center analytics – Gone are the days of relying on supervisor skill and know-how to get the most out of contact center agents. 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. More businesses are displaying statistical dashboards on user interfaces, so call agents and managers can get real-time updates on customer experiences.
  • Omni-channel communications for all – Omni-channel communications continues to separate proactive businesses from their more reactive counterparts. This holistic view of the customer experience is helping businesses give customers a more personal feel to resolutions. Unifying customer communications across channels enables businesses to resolve issues faster and helps sales agents identify better opportunities for future sales.
  • Widespread adoption of cloud communications in call centers – Cloud communications has become particularly important for contact centers. With the steady increase in remote call agents, cloud communications are a necessity for businesses that want to take advantage of seamless team communications and collaboration. With the cloud, traditional office-based contact centers can take on new locations, grow and contract workforces as market needs demand.
  • More robust customer satisfaction measurements – Businesses approach customer satisfaction measurement in different ways, but slick all-in-one measuring tools seem to be holding steady. No matter which measurements businesses are using, 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.
  • More remote call center agents – Lower overhead, time zone flexibility, and flexible working hours have made remote contact center workers a stable trend for 2019. 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.
  • Continued emphasis on self-serve documentation – There is 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 contributes to customer satisfaction and reduces overall call times.
  • Two-way social media conversations – 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.

Ready to explore how these Contact Center trends can be applied in your business? Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Unified Communications… Telework Included to Empower High-performance Employees

With telework, your company’s business activities no longer need to be tied to specific times or locations. Your employees can work remotely and collaboratively – whenever they want – to access company data and expertise from their homes, across town, or around the world. The result is happier staff, lower overhead and improved efficiency for your business.

For many years these benefits were delivered through add-on telework packages that were tied to specific premises voice platforms. The cloud has changed all that…

Today when you adopt Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), you get a cloud-based enterprise-grade communication infrastructure with built-in telework capabilities to support your high-performance employees.

Successful decision making requires immediate access to the right information and the right people at the right time. With the consistent and responsive user experience offered by UCaaS your teleworkers can seamlessly communicate and collaborate as needed using their smartphones, iPads, laptops – whatever mobile device they prefer.

Your teleworkers will have instant access to the same productivity tools as their office colleagues. Automatic updates are performed in the cloud to ensure the latest features are always enabled for your users.

In fact, UCaaS simplifies everything for your IT staff too. They’ll be relieved of the daily hassle of system upgrades, maintenance and feature updates, or worrying about disaster recovery.

Let’s talk more about how telework can boost the performance of your business… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Getting More from Your Technology Investments

Staying competitive, taking advantage of opportunities, and saving money do not always require abandoning technologies you already have in favor of a single silver-bullet breakthrough.

TCI can help you optimize your business processes at incremental cost simply by extending your current technologies to achieve transformative results.

  • Take the Cloud, for example… This is now a mainstream technology that includes deployment options that easily combine the benefits of hosted solutions with your existing systems. The Cloud’s inherent flexibility allows you to meet different business needs without force-fitting all of your technology into a single approach that may fall short of expectations.
  • Add collaboration tools to your Cloud Voice and you have Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). It turns out that built-in disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities add even more value to UCaaS.
  • Most businesses rely heavily on wireless networks but tend to “set and forget” them. Our Managed Wireless service ensures your office Wi-Fi can easily adapt to keep up with growing demands.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly emerging technology that you can integrate into established business applications. It can be added to contact centers, for example, to significantly improve your Customer Experience.

Let’s talk about how you can leverage recent innovations with your existing technologies to transform your business. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Simplify & Secure Your Wi-Fi/Wireless Networks with Our Cloud Managed Service

Your business depends on having a reliable network infrastructure that is continuously monitored for proper operation. Wireless connections are a critical element of today’s network infrastructure and one that consumes a growing share of IT resources to secure and manage.

To support your wireless connections TCI has launched a cloud-managed solution – powered by Cisco Meraki – that enables you to streamline switching, routing, and security tasks via the web – all delivered in one comprehensive package.

When it comes to protecting your Wi-Fi networks, for example, you can arrange to dynamically grant or restrict network access to a device based on its security status, location, installed software and OS version, and more. And when a user fails to comply with a set security measure – such as disabling the antivirus program, jail-breaking a device, removing a pass code, or leaving a given territory – that person’s access to your Wi-Fi networks will be automatically revoked.

Combining Cisco Meraki’s cloud management and TCI’s certified network expertise, we optimize and manage hosting of your entire Wi-Fi infrastructure by offering:

  • Immediate implementation and expansion of Wi-Fi, switching, and security to new sites.
  • Upgrades, patches and maintenance, which become the responsibility of Meraki Cloud and TCI Managed Services Teams.
  • Support to allow mobile and remote workers to become as productive on the road as in the office.
  • Tiered services to suit the needs of any sized organization.

Our Managed Meraki Service relieves the 24×7 monitoring and management burden of Wi-Fi networks from your IT shop so it can focus on delivering greater value to your business.

Ready to open more doors to converse with your customers? Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.