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It Only Takes One Person to Derail Your Team’s Progress… Tips for Considerate Collaboration

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What does it take to be a considerate virtual collaborator? It’s a combination of soft skills, communications and collaboration technology, and an awareness of the new rules of etiquette. These five tips will ensure you’re the team player everyone will fight to work with.

  • Break down silos – A considerate collaborator sets up a virtual workspace that’s dedicated to each specific project. Every project contributor should have single-click access, be able to upload relevant documents and share feedback instantly in one place, using web chat.
  • Don’t waste team time – Use a virtual workspace to tag relevant team members, alerting them to project updates and basic information. In this way, you will use your meeting time more effectively, focusing instead on only the more complex issues you need to discuss as a group. Share the agenda ahead of time and include the time allotted for each item. Then stick to the schedule.
  • Respect the distance – One of the pitfalls of mobility is that collaborators aren’t always aware if a team member is traveling on business or at a resort on vacation. Collaboration tools make it easier for colleagues to check the status or presence of other team members – and know when it’s appropriate to contact them. A considerate collaborator checks presence first, and if their colleague is unavailable, they look for the next person in line who can help.
  • Sharing isn’t always caring – While team members always need access to the right information, they don’t need to be bothered with every little detail. Clean up your team’s inboxes by making use of your collaboration tool to engage relevant team members in one-to-one or group chats. Streamline the conversation further within a workspace with @ mentions, which let you tag just the person you need, or with @all for information that affects the whole group.
  • Stay on track with tasks – With task-oriented collaboration software, team leaders assign individual tasks while also getting a bird’s eye view of all assignments within a workspace. The considerate collaborator adjusts workloads when too many tasks overlap. This helps keep the overall project moving forward.

These etiquette tips, along with the right collaboration software, will help everyone on your team stay on track to perform tasks more efficiently and complete projects faster.

When it comes to the collaboration tools your teams need to be effective, we’re ready to help get them connected. Get started today… Contact us at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

What to Know About Communications Security in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

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Unified Communications enables your employees to communicate and collaborate more effectively through screen sharing, video meetings, mobile apps and more. But adding AI to the mix promises to send productivity through the roof, so it’s not surprising that over 40% of enterprises plan to incorporate AI into their UC systems by the end of 2019.

Still, even as AI transforms communications, it also raises new security concerns. Let’s take a deeper dive to understand how AI enhances UC and what you need to do to maintain a secure communications environment.

Artificial Intelligence – Emphasizing the Unified In UC

If you thought unified communications was great for efficiency and collaboration, just wait until you see how AI enhances it…

  • Improved collaboration – Integration of AI chatbots into UC apps opens new doors for collaboration by gathering status updates from team members and even alerting members via an app, email, SMS or push notification. When chatbots keep everyone and everything connected, your teams can more easily troubleshoot together, keep track of each other’s progress on projects and share ideas and information.
  • Easier access and use of data – AI virtual assistants improve access to documents and other information, automatically gathering and distributing data to your team’s devices — whether it be a PDF or a video. If questions on a prior discussion arise during a meeting, the assistant retrieves pertinent emails, messages or documents. Attendees stay focused and engaged in the conversation, with all information at their fingertips.
  • Increased productivity – Chatbots field straightforward calls and online chats with your customers, allowing your customer service team to focus on more complex calls and issues. In meetings, attendees concentrate on the content and discussion rather than on the communications tools. The AI assistant even initiates the conference automatically.
  • Better efficiencies – Wouldn’t it be great to have someone else send meeting notes, assign action items and schedule follow-up calls? The AI assistant handles all of it, allowing human attendees to spend their time on more complex and higher value activities. AI also simplifies scheduling by identifying times that work for everyone.

How To Mitigate AI Security Issues…

While the benefits of AI and UC are many, the security of your communications system will also require more attention. AI technology accesses vast amounts of data on products, processes and customers. If an attack occurs, all of that data becomes vulnerable.

  • New standards and protocols will emerge as AI plays a bigger role in communications systems, so you’ll need to remain vigilant to stay compliant with the latest requirements. You’ll also have an obligation to protect the data gathered about your customers.
  • In addition, there are likely to be security challenges with BYOD, as your employees’ AI-enhanced personal devices enter the workplace. Some organizations are already disabling voice assistants such as Siri in the workplace. But, as employees bring newer devices like the Amazon Echo to the office, organizations will need to assess emerging AI technologies for security threats and establish clear guidelines in a formal security policy.
  • A positive note here is that AI actually enhances data and communications security. It will scan for potential threats and alert IT and security teams when vulnerabilities or possible attacks occur. Security professionals can respond far more quickly with the help of these technologies.

As AI and UC blend, you’ll gain an extremely powerful set of communications and team collaboration tools – productivity will skyrocket and data will be more accessible than ever before. But this architecture must have a stable base, with security as a main priority.

Let’s talk about how your business can reap the benefits of AI and UC, while safeguarding your business from risk. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

MiVoice Customers: Mitel’s Complete Release 9 Platform Refresh Includes Improved Performance & Security

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TCI and Mitel are pleased to announce the arrival of MiVoice Business Release 9.0 – a suite of upgrades designed to facilitate a simplified process for the deployment of ongoing patches, security updates, and performance improvements. 9.0 also enables a retooled infrastructure ready to evolve your business to next-generation networks.

9.0 Highlights include…

  • A complete software refresh and move to native Linux, providing a common set of tools for software management, while enabling the integration of new services and enhanced security.
  • A new approach to updating individual software components rather than an entire software load. This will reduce maintenance time, allow faster response to potential future security issues, and provide added incentive for IT administrators to promptly implement updates.
  • Significantly enhanced system performance and serviceability.

Pre-Migration Audit

TCI’s local team of Mitel experts will be in touch to arrange time to discuss what a successful implementation can mean to the continued success of your business and answer any questions you may have. Our pre-migration audit has several objectives:

  • Discover any hardware that is unsupported
  • Identify any license changes that may be required
  • Prepare for a successful transition from VxWorks (the previous Operating System) to Linux
  • Review Mitel’s introduction of Server Manager to all platforms

Again, we’ll be in touch with our MiVoice clients to go over everything. If you’re ready to schedule your briefing now, please contact us at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

Unified Communications as a Service… 8 Ways it Makes Teamwork and Your Job Easier

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Collaboration doesn’t have to be a complex undertaking. With UCaaS, you get an end-to-end service that puts all your communications tools in one place. Here are 8 ways UCaaS simplifies collaboration – and will make your job easier…

  • Never lose your place with one-stop communication. UCaaS makes all your communications available from a single hub on your desktop. Keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.
  • Be as productive on the road as you are in the office. With a mobile app, employees can take the office everywhere and get the same experience on the road as they do at their desk. Whether in the office or on the road, they can join a meeting with a single click, without the need to enter those cumbersome participant codes.
  • Take the conversation smoothly from text to voice with ad-hoc meetings. UCaaS helps you connect with the one person who has the information you need – at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and follow through by assigning tasks.
  • Respond to important messages faster with visual voicemail. Nothing ushers in a greater sense of urgency – and stress – than checking your voicemail after a long morning of meetings. With visual voicemail, messages are transcribed and sent to email so you can scan and prioritize who to call back first.
  • Get to the right person at the right time. With presence, colleagues make their whereabouts known to everyone in the organization. So, when a customer calls asking the question only a subject matter expert can answer, everyone knows where and how to reach them.
  • Stay on-track by setting agendas up front. When you create a meeting invite, you have the option to create a timed agenda. Attendees know up front what will be discussed and how much time will be spent on each item. Your meetings stay on track and are more productive.
  • Live in your CRM. When you integrate your phone with your CRM application, salespeople never have to switch between the two. They stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.
  • Or live in Outlook or G Suite. Your UCaaS can also integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and G Suite, easing adoption of your new phone system throughout the organization.

With UCaaS supported by TCI, you can have seamless communications designed precisely for your collaboration needs. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

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

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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

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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.

5 Ways Mitel’s Seamless Teamwork App Enables More Wins and Project Success

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You may think that your team is successful enough with just phone and email. Maybe you think screen sharing’s the ultimate in cool. But true teamwork requires more advanced communications. Specifically, it needs seamless access to robust tools from a single app, one that can be accessed via web, desktop and mobile.

Mitel’s innovative Teamwork App can help you build a more effective and efficient team with the goal of helping you come out a winner on every project and customer engagement. Here’s how…

  • Stay organized with a truly virtual workspace – The Teamwork App’s virtual workspaces allow you to easily send messages and track conversations, keeping your conversations neatly collected by topic or project. Better yet, you can take a conversation from online to conference mode with the click of a button.
  • Roam freely with a mobile-first design – Working from home? Working in the field? Driving from one client’s office to the next? A mobile collaboration app for iOS and Android keeps you fully connected to teammates, no matter where you are or where you’re going. Plus, the app puts your safety first – Siri integration and Bluetooth support allow you to talk hands-free.
  • Stay in one place with an integrated user experience – Teamwork App users can automatically cross-launch features. Have a quick question for a colleague? Get the right answer fast with ad hoc conferencing. Need to switch between devices mid-meeting? Transition seamlessly between desktop and mobile. You’ll have a single experience across multiple devices.
  • Manage projects without interrupting the conversation – With Mitel Teamwork App, you can create and assign tasks, archive data and easily share files. A personal dashboard provides alerts specific to you.
  • Meet colleagues and customers where they need you to be – Whether you’re dealing with team members or customers, being able to respond to an email or answer a phone call is no longer enough. Messaging is easier and faster. In fact, many customers prefer text communication. Teamwork lets you send and receive Business SMS text messages that are linked to your business identity. Your team can respond promptly, using their preferred communications channel, even from a desktop application.

Enable more team wins and project success. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

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

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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 as a Service… How it Saves Time for Your CFO, Controller & Accounting Team Too

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Telecom services can be one of your top expenses, so keeping a close eye on these costs is essential for protecting your bottom line.

Unfortunately, accounting for telecom services can be a very time-consuming undertaking for many businesses, particularly if they manage multiple locations or their telecom arrangements haven’t changed in recent years.

This staff-intensive activity is a burden for CFOs and Controllers too because they have oversight responsibilities.

If your business is still using legacy phone services, every month your accounting team could be wading into service provider invoices – sometimes hundreds of pages long – combing through them for accuracy. Charges have to be assigned to department and project budgets. Never-before-seen line items reconciled.

Even with the aid of software-enabled Telecom Expense Management (TEM) systems, it takes specialized expertise and quite a lot of staff time to make sure a business is not paying more than it should.

Fortunately, times have changed and accounting for Telecom has been radically transformed for the better…

  • With Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), you can arrange affordable, flat-rate pricing – with no need for the internal line-by-line invoice reviews of yesteryear or for keeping TEM software updated to track, manage and report on telecom usage. And with flat-rate pricing, there’s no need to deal with variable LD billing and message units anymore.
  • With UCaaS you not only enjoy all the benefits of communications and collaboration delivered to any location from the cloud, you get consolidated, predictable billing for all the services used.
  • You also get easy-to-understand monthly reports and access to online tools that help you understand every facet of your telecom spend for better decision-making and hard-dollar savings.
  • There’s no need to keep TEM software updated with every service and rate change either… Every time you log into your private management portal in the cloud, you can access a dashboard or detailed view of your system expense.

Simplified accounting… Just one more reason to go with UCaaS implemented by TCI. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

7 Ways Cloud Voice & Collaboration Makes Your Job Easier

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Collaboration doesn’t have to be so complex… With TCI Cloud Voice Services all of your communications and collaboration tools are in one place, which means you can transition from one device or channel to another – and never lose a word in the process.

Here are 7 ways Cloud Voice simplifies collaboration – and makes your job easier:

  1. Never lose your place – All your communications are available from a single hub on your desktop, so you can keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.
  2. Work from anywhere, together – Everyone on the team can chat, share tasks and collaborate on documents within a single workspace, whether team members are at home, on the road, or in another country.
  3. Initiate ad-hoc meetings – Need information fast? Connect with the right people at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and assign tasks.
  4. Prioritize messages for fast response – With visual voicemail, messages are transcribed and sent to email so you can scan and prioritize who to call back first.
  5. Reach the right person at the right time – With presence, employees make their whereabouts known, so everyone knows where and how to reach them.
  6. Set agendas up front – Create a timed agenda so attendees know ahead of time what will be discussed and how much time will be spent on each item. Your meetings stay on track and are more productive.
  7. Live in your CRM – Salespeople never have to switch between their IP phone and CRM application. They can stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.

You can have seamless and reliable communications and collaboration without breaking the bank. Our service plans and pricing are flexible and designed to adjust to your business needs.

Let’s talk about how TCI Cloud Voice services can transform the way you do business. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.