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3 Good Technology Decisions that will Fuel Business Growth in 2022

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Many businesses are finding they are weighed down by technology choices they had to make quickly during the pandemic.

With little time to assess communication platform pros and cons, they made quick purchase decisions that may have been awkward for employees to navigate, saddled businesses with unanticipated costs, and introduced performance problems that frustrated staff and customers.

The beginning of the new year is an ideal time to ensure you have a communications platform that’s designed — from the ground up — to deliver the reliability, agility, and efficiency you need to optimize productivity today and respond quickly to unanticipated changes tomorrow.

To take advantage of that opportunity, you’ll want to make 3 smart choices:

1 – Choose the Cloud to Streamline and Strengthen Your Technology

The cloud is the easiest way to simplify and supercharge your communications technology. By consolidating disjointed communications tools into an all-in-one, cloud-based solution that offers team and video collaboration, mobility, and voice capabilities, you can unleash greater productivity and performance, while eliminating the cost and resource burdens of managing your current systems.

2 – Choose a Proven UCaaS to Meet Your Needs Today and Tomorrow

Customer and employee expectations have permanently changed. Businesses have gained new confidence in their staffs’ ability to work from anywhere. Employees value the balance that hybrid working environments provide. And customers just want great service — and don’t care where the employee supporting them is working from. That’s why TCI is partnered with Mitel and RingCentral to empower our clients with the world’s leading UCaaS technology.

3 – Choose a Trusted, Local Partner to Customize Your Migration Path

Your business has already made investments in its communications platform. You’ll want a migration plan that takes that into consideration. Look for the guidance of a local partner with extensive expertise in the full range of VoIP deployments — including on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud systems. TCI has been serving the DC region’s businesses and public sector for 40+ years. That’s why you can trust our experts to ensure your transition to the cloud will be based on a customized migration plan and timeline.

Choose the Freedom to Focus on the Future

If the communications platform you put in place during the pandemic isn’t providing you with all the functionality you need to grow and meet new challenges ahead, now is an ideal time to press the reset button.

Contact TCI to help you make the right choices for your business. Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Better Collaboration… Integrate Microsoft Teams with Mitel-Powered Telephony, Contact Center & CRM

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Now you can improve the productivity of your Microsoft Teams users with Mitel’s advanced telephony, contact center and CRM integrations.

Check out the Video Overview

Give your users the calling features they need to be successful with Mitel’s end-to-end suite of communication tools. By pairing Mitel-powered service with Microsoft Teams, you can save time and improve your calling experience with integrated telephony, conferencing, and contact center.

Let Microsoft do what they do best and let TCI and Mitel do what we do best – delivering seamless connections. TCI has over 40 years of industry expertise and Mitel is a global leader in helping businesses connect, collaborate, and provide better experiences for their customers.

Get the Best of Mitel + Microsoft

  • Click-To-Call – Save time and reduce entry errors by simply clicking on any phone number to place a call.
  • Contact Center – Improve your customer experience with integrated options for simple or robust contact center capabilities.
  • CRM Integration – Increase agent efficiency with Mitel’s native CRM integrations including Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce.
  • Outlook Integration – Easily schedule meetings and automate your presence and call routing as your schedule changes.
  • Single Sign-On – Eliminate multiple logins with our Active Directory integration for a single password across systems.
  • Advanced Telephony – Enhance your collaboration experience with call routing, hunt groups, presence, call history, call merging, and more.

Make the most of your collaboration tools without sacrificing enterprise telephony features… Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Tips for Hosting Successful Virtual Events

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With the pandemic event planners, sponsors and attendees were forced to pivot quickly from in-person to virtual events. It soon became clear the traditional in-person event couldn’t simply be adapted to a virtual environment. It would have to be re-imagined  ̶  and even re-invented. Mitel User Group Liaison, Denise Desjardins, has been organizing events for years and shares some insights…

The Virtual Advantage
No one should fall into the trap of thinking virtual is simply a stopgap measure. In fact, virtual events offer several compelling advantages in any environment:

Positively Productive – Virtual events eliminate the stress, time, and cost of travel, of course. But what’s not often discussed is the tremendous amount of flexibility they offer attendees, who can work their daily schedules around the agenda. Focus on the sessions that matter most and skip the less relevant ones. When people can take care of what matters in their everyday lives, they’re more engaged at the event. It’s the best of both worlds.

Extra Days, Extra Value – Unlike an in-person event, which has a defined start and end, virtual events can (and should) be kept open for at least 30 days past the live component. This extended period offers benefits for hosts, sponsors, and attendees alike. By making the material available for a longer time, hosts can create an agenda packed full of compelling content and speakers. Attendees can return again and again to watch videos and download content.

Always-On Classroom – Training is usually not possible for attendees to complete during the live event. The advantage of going virtual is that all these resources can stay accessible long after the event ends.

Return On Investment – Virtual events provide tangible evidence of success. By measuring attendance, downloads and other web analytics, sponsors can calculate exactly how valuable the event was for them.

In-Person, Virtual, or Both?
There are pros and cons to each type of event, in-person and virtual. One of the most compelling reasons to consider doing both is the ability to reach more people.

That’s because each type of event attracts different people. An in-person event is a big draw for those who enjoy the entire travel experience, from getting on the plane and staying in the hotel to socializing during sessions and at the end of the day. Some people don’t have the budget for travel while others are constrained by work projects or family responsibilities. That means there’s a strong argument for doing both: it gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience.

Just like the workplace, expect to see the event industry adopt a hybrid approach. Virtual events are likely to dominate for a while longer. But as the world re-opens, events will become a mix of in-person and virtual.

Ensure your broadband and collaboration tools can support the virtual events in your future. Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

4 More Reasons We Built TCI Host on a Mitel-Powered Business Cloud Platform

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Mitel is #1 in Cloud Communications Worldwide… This is good for TCI-delivered Cloud services and better for you…

When it comes to communications and collaboration, the DC region’s fastest moving businesses choose solutions that give them choices.

TCI’s flexible, easy-to-use cloud service is powered by Mitel, making us the choice of public and private sector customers across the region. Supporting ‘anywhere’ connections, our TCI Host service supports their office-based, remote and hybrid workers across the country.

Industry experts and customers of all sizes are reinforcing our choice of a Mitel-powered platform over any other provider for our clients:

  • Synergy Research – Mitel is the #1 market leader in total cloud seats for the 7th consecutive year
  • Frost & Sullivan – Mitel named leader in UCaaS growth and innovation
  • Newsweek – Mitel named Best Business Communications Tool Provider
  • Tolly Report – Mitel was compared to 8×8 and RingCentral and emerged superior

Just 4 more reasons to choose TCI Host – powered by Mitel – for all your communications needs… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

Offer Extended! Move to TCI Host/Cloud Voice… Upgrade Your MiVoice, Toshiba, ShoreTel, or Inter-Tel system

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To get your communications up to speed, TCI Host’s Migration Program makes upgrading to the cloud easier and more affordable than ever.

Act Now… This is a Limited Time Offer!

TCI Host is our complete, locally supported Unified Communications service, powered by Mitel. Get everything you need to connect your business – all for a budget-friendly monthly subscription.

When you migrate to TCI Host service from your legacy MiVoice, Toshiba, ShoreTel and Inter-Tel equipment, you’ll get up to 25% off new user licenses and 50% off hardware.

Migrating a MiVoice Business system? Receive one free 6900 series phone (6920, 6930, 6940 models) for every three you buy of the same model.

TCI Host Makes Cloud Voice Easy 

TCI Host is designed for today’s connected workforce, and serves up voice, instant messaging, screen sharing, video and audio conferencing, file sharing, contact center, business app integration and other capabilities from a single interface.

TCI Host is Flexible

We customize every client’s service and our local team handles all the implementation details for you. Our flexible service supports a range of deployment options. Need tailored financing to meet budget requirements? We can support that too.

Time is running out on this offer… Let’s talk now about connecting your business with locally supported TCI Host. Contact our cloud experts today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Using Microsoft Teams? Mitel Has the Voice to Complete Your Experience

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Microsoft Teams is a popular productivity tool that encompasses chat, meetings, calling and collaboration. It is included with all Office 365 plans, replacing Skype for Business.

For organizations that are committed to Microsoft Teams, Mitel offers several integration options to enhance Teams with added voice capabilities, providing even more value to your existing Mitel investment:

  • Direct Routing – Allows organizations to connect their Mitel telephony infrastructure to make calls from within the Microsoft Teams environment.
  • MiCollab HotkeyDialing – Included with MiCollab, easily set up hotkeys to dial. Select a phone number in Microsoft Teams and click the MiCollab hotkey combination to initiate a MiCollab call to the phone number.
  • Call2Teams – This third-party solution integrates a Mitel phone system with Office 365, enabling softphone functionality on your laptop within the Microsoft Teams environment.
  • AppDialer – Click-to-dial within the Microsoft Teams environment by creating hotkeys to highlight a phone number and using hotkey strokes to dial.
  • Web Extension – Mitel’s Chrome extension gives you a softphone directly from your web browser. Users will benefit from call history, voicemail, click-to-dial, contacts and more so they can easily place calls from the Microsoft Teams web user interface.

By pairing Mitel with Microsoft Teams, you can save time, reduce costs and improve your calling experience with integrated telephony, conferencing and contact center.

When you need to collaborate, Mitel has the technology to help your teams succeed. TCI will get it all going for you! Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Move to the Cloud with TCI Host’s Migration Offer! Upgrade Your MiVoice, Toshiba, ShoreTel, or Inter-Tel System

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Legacy on-premises phone system providers like ShoreTel, Toshiba and Inter-Tel eventually came to market with cloud offerings, but for many businesses, their old phone system equipment continued to get the job done.

But like everything technology related, new advancements in the cloud and better online collaboration tools have put these older platforms at a disadvantage, especially with more employees spread out and working at home.

To get your communications up to speed, TCI Host’s Migration Program makes upgrading to the cloud easier and more affordable than ever.

TCI Host Migration Offer Highlights

  • TCI Host is our complete, locally supported Unified Communications service, powered by Mitel. Get everything you need to connect your business – all for a budget-friendly monthly subscription.
  • When you migrate to TCI Host service from your legacy MiVoice, Toshiba, ShoreTel and Inter-Tel equipment, you’ll get up to 25% off new user licenses and 50% off hardware.
  • Migrating a MiVoice Business system? Receive one free 6900 series phone (6920, 6930, 6940 models) for every three you buy of the same model.

TCI Host makes Cloud Voice easy

TCI Host is designed for today’s connected workforce, and serves up voice, instant messaging, screen sharing, video and audio conferencing, file sharing, contact center, business app integration and other capabilities from a single interface.

TCI Host is Flexible 

We customize every client’s service and our local team handles all the implementation details for you. Our flexible service supports a range of deployment options. Need tailored financing to meet budget requirements? We can support that too.

Let’s talk about connecting your business with locally supported TCI Host. Contact our cloud experts today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Home Office Upgrade… Get to Know Mitel’s MiVoice 6900 Premium Series

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Mitel’s MiVoice 6900 series family of desk phones enables office and home mobility with one-touch Bluetooth pairing and seamless integration with your mobile phone.

Not only can you stay productive by easily switching calls between your desk phone and your mobile phone, you can have mobile and desktop contacts automatically sync between your devices.

6900 Series Video Introduction [44 sec.]

Mobile phone users can leverage the exceptional HD audio and comfortable ergonomics of the 6900 series phones for both IP and cellphone calls. The 6900 phones deliver crystal clear audio through a unique corded or cordless voice-optimized handset and high performance hands-free speakerphone.

More MiVoice 6900 Series Phone Features…

  • High resolution color displays: 3.5” (320×240) LCD, 4.3” (480×272) LCD, and 7” (800×480) Touchscreen LCD
  • Support for Mitel Teleworker, ACD agent and supervisor, hot desking, MiCollab Client and more
  • Secure encrypted voice communication, IEEE 802.1x authentication support
  • Quality of Service support – IEEE 802.1 p/Q VLAN and priority tagging
  • Dual 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports (LAN/PC), powered USB 2.0 Host port, sidecar expansion port, dedicated 4-pin modular headset port convertible to DHSG/EHS capable
  • Bluetooth 4.1 wireless interface

The 6900 series also offer a broad array of add-on user installable accessories that enable the phones to be tailored to specific user needs.

Get the convenience and productivity that come from adding mobility to your desk phones…Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Re-Opening Reality Check… Getting to Know the Public’s Preferences for Getting Back to ‘Normal’

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The conversation about the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted from shutting down non-essential businesses to how we can get back to ‘business as usual.’ But until a viable vaccine or effective treatment is widely available, you should expect many customers to remain wary. Based on our conversations, many leaders are privately planning for the possibility of working from home for months or longer. Others will need to come back in some kind of Hybrid mode.

State of the Nation polling reflects a very cautious public [PDF]

We’re in this for the long haul 

The public and private sectors will, of course, continue to adapt to serve their customers and constituents, and how you approach your workforce infrastructure will play a big role in how well you can respond to challenges and opportunities in the months ahead.

TCI can help your business stay connected

We’ve been supporting the DC region with customized remote workforce and business continuity solutions for 40 years. When it comes to customizing technology for your business or non-profit, we can map out the best mix of cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployments to connect your customers and workforce at the office, in the field and at home.

Hosted Voice, Unified Communications & Teleworking 

MiCollab & MiTeam Meetings for remote workers

Customer Contact Center 

Google Cloud AI-powered Virtual Agent and Agent Assist

Let’s talk about the technology you need to keep your workforce and customers connected. Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Rapid Response Success Stories… DC Region Associations Act After Stay-at-Home Orders

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Northern Virginia Cloud Voice Customer

When the Governor’s order went into effect, our team had to act fast. Our client had 100+ users in the office. They called us on Tuesday, and they wanted everyone working from home by Friday.

Already subscribed to TCI Host, our flexible, all-in-one cloud voice service, the busy association had built-in telework capabilities, but had always conducted their work in a traditional office environment.

Without missing a beat, our outstanding support team ensured everyone’s endpoints were programmed, tested and ready to support incoming calls from the association’s membership.

By Friday, the association’s busy office was empty, and every user was connected at home using their preferred device – whether they opted for a laptop softphone, an app on their smartphone, or a desktop office phone.

Maryland Mitel On-Premises System Customer 

Another association just outside of DC in suburban Maryland, had 130+ users all connected in their office via an on-premises Mitel MiVoice platform. Most incoming calls came in on the main number and were distributed across multiple attendant consoles where calls were transferred across the organization.

When the stay-at-home order came down, the staff was able to quickly connect at home using a mix of plug-and-play Mitel Teleworker phones or MiCollab apps running on their laptops and smartphones.

Home-based attendants are still managing the high-volume flow of incoming calls using a completely PC-based call-handling setup with an intuitive graphical user interface that lets them know the ‘presence’ status of every user before they transfer the caller.

The association is delighted with their Mitel system and its teleworking capabilities – their employees are staying productive and their members are getting the support they need.

TCI is Ready to help

Whether your phone system is on-site or already in the cloud, when it comes to supporting your customers, our rapid response team can deploy and support the essential tools you need to work anywhere in these uncertain times.

Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.