Posts

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

/0 Comments/in /by

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.

 

Mitel & VMware Bring Voice, Data and Cloud Together

/0 Comments/in /by

Imagine being able to manage Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions like any other business application in your virtualized data center…

Working closely with VMware, Mitel unites Voice and Data applications on the same shared servers, enabling you to achieve:

  • Faster system deployment
  • A common management platform for voice and data
  • A single business continuity plan

Combining voice and data increases efficiencies and offers significant savings:

  • Minimizes server hardware
  • Lowers real estate needs
  • Reduces power consumption and server provisioning costs

Mitel Virtual Solutions for the data center shrinks IT resource requirements through:

  • Reduced complexity
  • Centralized administration
  • Fewer skill sets, less training

Call TCI for your Cloud and Virtualization solutions…  Our experts will design a cost effective public, hybrid or private communications cloud solution tailored specifically to the needs of your business.  Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or CustomerService@tcicomm.com.

 

Get to Know TCI Host and How You Can Add Cloud Power to Your On-site Phone System

/0 Comments/in /by

With the complex pricing models and cost of communications infrastructure today, it’s hard to know what the best solution for your organization may be… Stay on-site? Jump into the cloud? Or implement something in between?

While many businesses are already reaping the advantages of moving their voice communications to the cloud, for others replacing phone systems across all offices in favor of cloud technology may not be the best way to go.

With TCI Host, we can add the Unified Communication (UC) functionality you need by integrating your on-site hardware with cloud applications that will better connect your employees and customers.

Our experts enhance your on-site deployment with cloud services to provide what you’re looking for… collaboration tools, mobile connectivity, team meeting capabilities, call center with CRM integration, and much more.

The bottom line… You don’t have to move everything to the cloud to access its benefits. A hybrid, on-site UC solution can offer many of the cloud’s advantages – giving you the flexibility, scalability and control you want. Plus, a TCI Host hybrid architecture is more secure and more reliable than a standalone system, including built-in redundancies and backups.

When you are ready to move all of your voice services into the cloud, you’ll have much of the infrastructure in place with TCI Host. Best of all, we’ll be with you every step of the way. Your local TCI team handles all the details, sets up everything and gets your people up to speed on Day One.

Ready to get started? Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

Giving Machines a Voice… Overcome Field Service Delays with IoT and Cloud Communications

/0 Comments/in /by

Today’s service customers have zero patience for field service delays. They simply won’t tolerate missed or late service calls, or technicians who don’t have the necessary skills to get them back online, or the old standby, “I don’t have the right parts with me. I’ll have to go back to the shop.”

The Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud communications have the potential to minimize such situations. In a recent survey of field service executives, 55% said IoT was the “next big thing” related to technology that they felt would most help with increasing service demands.

In the not too distant past, field techs were limited to voice-only cell phones to communicate with their home office. But with today’s smartphones and web-based solutions, they can message and locate coworkers, conduct video calls, and make voice calls – all from a mobile app.

IoT devices are taking field service to the next level… Multiple sensors on IoT devices provide diagnostic data that help service techs and engineers pinpoint the cause of maintenance issues at customer locations.

With better data, there is faster analysis and identification of the best solution. A cloud-based management system can even allow your techs to correct many problems remotely. By giving machines a voice, you can head off service problems before your techs need to hit the road.

Download: A Better Customer Experience Through Giving Machines A Voice

Does your business depend on Field Service? Keep your business focused on delivering the best possible Customer Experience. Contact TCI today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Mitel Integrates with Google Cloud Contact Center AI to Deliver More Insightful Customer Experiences

/0 Comments/in /by

Mitel has announced an integration with Google Cloud’s new Contact Center AI that will improve your company’s customer service experience, as well as the productivity of your contact center.

Contact Center AI is a simple, secure, and flexible solution that allows enterprises with limited machine learning expertise to deploy AI in their contact centers.

Key features of Mitel’s integration with Contact Center AI include new capabilities you can use to offer smarter, more personalized agent/customer interactions.

  • AI-Powered Virtual Agent – Enables your customers to self-serve with the help of an intelligent chatbot equipped with product and service information.
  • AI-Powered Agent Assist – Enables a customer inquiry to be easily transferred to a live agent with full context of the virtual agent conversation and continuous AI support to provide the agent with real-time research and coaching.
  • AI-Powered Analytics – Provides another layer of intelligence and insight to enhance your offerings and further elevate your Customer Experience.

Let’s talk about upgrading your Mitel contact center with AI. Contact TCI today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Access Mitel’s Entire Pallet of Tools via TCI Host – Your Customized Cloud Voice Service

/0 Comments/in /by

TCI Host service is all about flexibility

Add new cloud-based tools to your existing business phone system, and when you’re ready, migrate your platform to the cloud and reduce your overall telecom costs.

Cloud communications isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavor

There are several deployment models you can choose from depending on your business’s unique situation, and you can shift from one approach to another over time. Managing a multi-site business? TCI Host brings offices closer together.

Powerful Capabilities

Explore some of the collaboration features your users can tap with their mobile or desktop phones. With access to these Mitel-powered tools, your work will no longer be a location but an activity that can be tackled from anywhere:

  • Persistent workspaces for team meetings, conversations, content review and project management
  • Point-to-point Video calling
  • Multi-point Video Conferencing
  • Scheduled and ad hoc conferencing and webinars
  • Participant management
  • Desktop application sharing
  • Public and private chat
  • Web based collaboration
  • Document management
  • Conference recording
  • Integration to other business applications such as: Outlook, Lotus Notes, IBM Sametime, and Google
  • Presence Tools
  • Mobile Softphone
  • Web Client
  • Unified Messaging, including fax via email
  • Remote control of desktops
  • Outlook client plug-in
  • Message retrieval from one synchronized message store

Deploy the tools your people need to serve your customers better.  For a single, low monthly price, upgrade to advanced mobile-enabled, desktop phones (like Mitel’s 6900 series) and access Mitel’s award-winning features to improve your Customer Experience.

Contact us today to schedule your TCI Host demo: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

How to Make the Most of Your Communication Investments

/0 Comments/in /by

Technology is constantly changing, and at an ever increasing pace. When it comes to unified communications and collaboration (UCC), your investments should be positioned for whatever the future brings. Here are some tips for making the most of your UCC investments that will ensure a better path forward for your business.

Keep communications seamless

The mobile workforce is not a trend that will go away anytime soon – in fact, it will accelerate. About 70% of mobile professionals will do their work on portable devices in 2018. This means communications and collaboration tools should be designed with mobility in mind so users can have a consistent in-office experience across all devices, no matter where they happen to be working.

Improve financial performance

A mobile collaboration strategy can continue to pay dividends year after year through significant cost savings. Working with TCI to develop a “mobile first” vision can transform your business and improve your profit margin without having to stake everything on a big sales win.

Engage and retain the best talent

A recent poll of 1,500 technology professionals revealed that 37% would take a pay cut of 10% if they could work from home. A mobile strategy can create a truly collaborative environment by improving employee morale, while enabling connections with colleagues on the road and in remote offices. It also permits your business to more easily tap into a global talent pool and should be part of your employee retention plan.

Improve customer engagement

Today’s customers will no longer wait in line or hang on hold. They want to connect with you through their preferred media – social networks, web chat, video and SMS – and they want to do it instantly. To gain a competitive edge, reach out to TCI for multimedia solutions that will improve customer engagement.

Protect your investment

Partnering with TCI provides the flexibility to change and grow at your own pace. Whether you have a premises system today, putting everything in the cloud or testing the waters with a hybrid arrangement, your communication infrastructure should easily scale as your business expands.

Trust a partner that delivers

From how your employees innovate to how you engage with customers, reliable communications in a rapidly changing environment is a critical business need. Take your team collaboration and customer experience to the next level by partnering with TCI for support you can count on today and tomorrow, no matter what the future brings.

Have questions about how to make your technology investments work for your business? Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Practical Business Realities Drive Adoption of Hybrid & Cloud Computing

/0 Comments/in /by

IT systems and data networks should move a business forward, not hold it back. That’s why companies in every industry are looking to the cloud. By using a network of remote servers to store, manage and process data, rather than the traditional local servers they might have on-site today, businesses can reap the advantages of high performance, reliability, affordable prices, easy collaboration, and secure data access.

And that’s not all… Hybrid and cloud arrangements offer a number of practical bottom-line benefits:

  • Deliver secure remote access to employees: Ensure your employees receive a consistent, high-quality user experience to rely on for secure access to the apps and data they need – no matter what type of network connection they use.
  • Provide employees with flexibility to work anytime, anywhere: Work is no longer a place – it’s something you enable with the greatest security and flexibility. Use app and desktop virtualization to embrace workforce mobility and empower your employees to work anywhere, anytime, on any device.
  • Empower mobile users without compromising security: Having sensitive business data stored on employee devices increases vulnerability. By virtualizing your apps and desktops to keep data secure in your datacenter or the cloud you don’t have to worry about lost or stolen devices.
  • Make managing desktops easier and more efficient: Implement app and desktop virtualization to automate and centralize management. You can stop patching and updating your employees’ desktops on an individual, manual basis – saving you time, money and frustration.
  • Get new employees up and running in minutes: Use any available devices – aging legacy PCs, thin clients, laptops or mobile devices – and reduce new employee time to productivity.
  • Keep employees productive during business disruptions: Empower your employees to work remotely during business disruptions – anywhere, anytime, on any device – with secure access to the apps and data they depend on.
  • Reduce IT costs: App and desktop virtualization significantly reduce your IT costs, management time, and complexity compared to traditional desktop management.

Many businesses are still under the impression that the Cloud is a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why having a trusted technology partner who can work with you to develop a cloud roadmap and strategy is so important.

Have questions about what IT platform and cloud deployment option is best for your business? Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

TCI Host – Powered by Mitel – 6 Reasons to Bring Your Communications & Collaboration into the Cloud

/0 Comments/in /by

Bring your communications and collaboration platform into the cloud for better mobility, quality, simplicity and reliability – all at a lower cost than a premises-based system.

Add offices, users and features easily to grow and customize your communications for a true competitive advantage. And there are more practical business reasons to make the move to TCI Host…

1. Be more productive
Bring all of your communications tools into one cloud and one application for a seamless experience on any device – anywhere in the world. Easily manage voice, email and IM from a single screen to reduce management complexity and boost productivity.

2. Get more done – from anywhere
Access the same rich phone and collaboration features you enjoy from your office anywhere. Seamlessly transition from the office to the airport, the golf course, or your kids’ football practice without missing a single interaction.

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

4. Free up IT resources
Don’t waste valuable IT resources on aging PBX hardware – let us manage the hardware hassles and put your people to work on the projects that matter most. With TCI Host, 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.

5. Pay as you grow
With premises-based PBX systems, you pay the price for less-than-perfect capacity planning by having too little or paying for too much. With TCI Host, you always have just the right amount of capacity at the right time to ensure you’re paying for what you need and not a penny more.

6. Keep your business running
TCI’s cloud-based hosting platform can deliver ultra-high reliability and seamless disaster recovery so you always stay connected to colleagues and customers.

Get the tools your people need to serve customers better. Contact us now to schedule your TCI Host demo: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Phone Systems in the Cloud vs. On-Premises vs. Hybrid Deployments

/0 Comments/in /by

Phone systems have traditionally been deployed on-site, but the lure of the Cloud is strong. Many multi-site businesses are now using a hybrid combination of both… deploying an on-premises system at headquarters and Cloud solutions for the branch offices – all interconnected and centrally managed in a hybrid arrangement.

Click here for Mitel’s helpful Decision Tree for deciding on Premises vs Cloud

There are many reasons why On-Premises phone systems remain popular…

  • The need to control technology in-house.
  • The need for customized features, integration with other applications, or advanced call center capabilities.
  • The need for uninterrupted communications or compliance with strict regulatory requirements.
  • The need to depreciate equipment costs over time.

The Cloud can be a good fit for small to mid-sized businesses or a larger enterprise with smaller, remote offices…

  • Eliminates need for upfront investment. Costs become operational expenses and are more predictable.
  • No need for in-house staff to purchase, configure and manage your system, servers and storage.
  • Maintenance and support are simplified and upgrades are automatic.
  • Whether your business is growing or needs to scale down in a pinch, a cloud service can easily adapt.

Let TCI step you through all your VoIP deployment options, recommend the best approach for your business model, and manage the roll out for you. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.