Top 15 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing a Work Anywhere Unified Communications and Collaboration Solution

Users expect to communicate as they do with consumer applications – anywhere, anytime, on any device, with a single click. According to Gartner, by 2022, 70% of businesses will rely primarily on business collaboration tools to get work done. This number is likely to increase given the current health crisis and the increasing number of remote workers.

While there are many video-conferencing / collaboration solutions out there, there are very few providers that are able to deliver true collaboration solutions. A true collaboration solution not only delivers world-class collaboration features such as video conferencing, persistent chat, desktop sharing, file sharing, group editing, multi-party audio-video calling, remote/mobile/guest conferencing, etc. but also seamlessly integrates with a voice solution to deliver enterprise-grade PBX features, business continuity, and high-availability (99.999% uptime) all while maintaining the team’s end-user experience.

Like most businesses, if your enterprise is looking for an all-in-one, secure, scalable, voice-enabled collaboration solution, then here are the top 15 questions that you need to consider before choosing a true business collaboration platform:

Strategic Questions to Consider

1. What is your Collaboration Strategy (meeting, video, mobile)? Do you have single/multiple communications & collaboration solutions in place? Have you considered transitioning to a single collaboration solution such as voice-enabled Microsoft Teams or Cisco UC?

2. What is your Hiring / Recruiting Strategy? Are you hiring a more mobile/younger workforce?

3. Do you have a Work From Home (WFH) Strategy in place for your employees? What kind of applications do your employees access while they are mobile? How will they access applications, hosted on-premises, or collaborate when remote?

4. What is your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy? If your employees don’t have a work laptop to bring home, this is a great time to investigate an ‘any device’ strategy.

5. Do you have a Business Continuity Plan in place to carry out business as usual during a health crisis, natural disaster, or geopolitical issue?

6. Does your enterprise need to meet any Compliance requirements? Can you host your solutions in HIPAA/HITRUST, PCI, SOC compliant datacenters? Have you considered an Identity & Access Management / Single Sign-On solution to easily secure, access, and manage your applications?

Technical Questions to Consider

7. What groups, other than IT, may have deployed a solution? How will you integrate their solutions and projects with other teams?

8. What are the ‘must-have’ requirements for your collaboration solution?

9. What are the core needs and features that you absolutely must have from your phone system?

10.  Do you want your phone system integrated with your collaboration software?

11. What kind of phones do you have? Does the current collaboration solution support your existing handsets?

12. Will you want your call center integrated with your collaboration solution?

13. Are you a Microsoft business? Are you already using Office365? How do your associates leverage O365 today? Have you deployed Microsoft Teams or plan to adopt Microsoft Teams in the next 12 months?

14. Are you using Cisco Webex? How important are video meetings for your organization? Do you need your meetings recorded? Do you have Cisco-specific hardware?

15. Does your existing collaboration, phone system, and contact center solution support a long-term collaboration strategy? How secure and scalable is your current collaboration solution?

Once you’ve had the above-mentioned discussion internally with your team, Evolve IP can help you with the next steps. With remote working becoming the new normal and business continuity becoming a necessity, Evolve IP has been consulting, supporting, and transitioning an increased number of organizations to a ‘work anywhere’ platform.

Evolve IP combines the world’s most stable voice platform, Cisco, with the world’s leading collaboration solution, Microsoft Teams, to deliver advanced PBX features, contact center functionalities, and 24x7x365 U.S.-based support that enables businesses to work securely, from anywhere, on any device. This powerful combination enables us to deploy flexible, purpose-built business collaboration experiences that are designed to meet the unique needs of your business’ environment and dramatically improve your associates’ productivity.

About Evolve IP

Evolve IP enables people to Work Anywhere™, more productively and more securely. We design Purpose-Built® solutions, tailored just for your business, that unify workspaces, collaboration and communications, and contact centers. Integrating blue-chip technology partners like Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix and VMware, with our intellectual property, Evolve IP’s analyst-acclaimed solutions have been deployed globally to 500,000+ users and into the world’s most well-known brands. All Evolve IP associates are focused on driving successful client outcomes and that has resulted in our scoring at the top of verified analyst and client satisfaction rankings.

Categories: Business Collaboration Work Anywhere

Source: https://www.evolveip.net/blog/top-15-questions-to-ask-yourself-before-choosing-a-work-anywhere-unified-communications-and-collaboration-solution

2023 Buyers Guide

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IVR

 

1.)

Premium Listing Call Center Studio Call Center Studio Call Center Studio is the world’s first call center built on Google and is one of the most secure and stable systems with some of the industry’s best reporting. It is one of the most full-featured enterprise grade systems (with the most calling features, one of the best call distribution, outbound dialing features and integrations—including IVR, AI Speech Recognition, blended inbound/outbound calling and includes Google’s new Dialogflow and Speech API. Call Center Studio is the absolute easiest to use (with a 10 minute setup), and is the price performance leader with lower equipment cost and less setup time.

2.)	Computer Data Services, LLC VIRTUAL PBX Get the benefits of an expensive, on-premise telephone system without the high price tag and annoying maintenance. - Never miss another phone call - No more busy signals - Feature rich - Answer your calls from anywhere

3.)	eGain Corporation eGain SmartIVR eGain SmartIVR is an over-the-top solution to modernize IVR systems. Businesses can offer smartphone callers an easy choice to resolve queries via digital messaging and intelligent self-service. And they can optimize the IVR experience with end-to-end analytics.

4.)

Megacall Virtual Switchboard Megacall provides a fully customised Virtual Switchboard software for all companies (including IVR service). No matter the size of your business, our services adapt to the needs of each client. Are you looking for a more effective way to communicate with your customers? Discover the advantages of using the IVR and how it can help in your communications.

5.)	MightyCall MightyCall's IVR that will increase your business’s efficiency at a fraction of the cost of a secretary. Your auto-attendant is designed to: - Greet callers - Deliver necessary information - Forward calls to the appropriate extension - Take human error out of the system

6.)

Nuxiba Technologies CenterWare Provide your customers with an effortless self-service experience. Easily create menus using predefined or custom prompts and data dips and route customers to live agents when needed. Enable your customers to make payments and access information 24/7 at their convenience. Request a quote or live demo today.

7.)

OpsTel Services SPEED The SPEED solution solves for service level issues while cost optimizing the environment with automation. Provides an enhanced way to speed up & optimize invoking temporary agent skills configuration changes into the contact center environment. Speed allows you to schedule both future changes & temporary changes that auto-revert back to the original state when scheduled time expires. Speed features: *Automated / Scheduled Temporary Agent Skills Configuration Management *Immediate Temporary or Reoccurring Schedule Skills Configuration Changes *Easy to Use/Operations Administration Focused *Descriptive Monitoring Activity Dashboard *Detailed “End to End’ Audit Trail and Performance Monitoring

8.)

PEC Telecom Virtual Phone Numbers (DID) and Business VoIP Phone Service Whether a customer is running a Call Center business, an IVR system to take phone orders or a voice mail service bureau, he still needs inbound lines and access numbers (DIDs). These lines and DIDs give customers the ability to call in and use the service. Traditionally, these lines and DIDs were obtained through the local telephone company (i.e. Verizon, AT&T or Time Warner) and a company could only purchase numbers with area codes in the region the system resided. With VoIP, this has changed. DID Live is an IP DID service that allows you to accept incoming calls via VoIP as an alternative to standard digital or analog lines. The service provides the same quality of sound you expect from... (read more)Whether a customer is running a Call Center business, an IVR system to take phone orders or a voice mail service bureau, he still needs inbound lines and access numbers (DIDs). These lines and DIDs give customers the ability to call in and use the service. Traditionally, these lines and DIDs were obtained through the local telephone company (i.e. Verizon, AT&T or Time Warner) and a company could only purchase numbers with area codes in the region the system resided. With VoIP, this has changed. DID Live is an IP DID service that allows you to accept incoming calls via VoIP as an alternative to standard digital or analog lines. The service provides the same quality of sound you expect from standard lines at a fraction of the price. In addition, it allows you to purchase DIDs all over the United States. A company in California can purchase access numbers in New York or Texas for the same price as access numbers in its local area. This feature gives the company the opportunity to provide local access numbers to its customers around the United States at a fraction of the cost of traditional phone lines and access numbers. Local phone companies often take weeks or months to install phone lines at a company's location; and in many cases they are unable to install more than a few lines do to physical limitations. The DID Live Virtual Number service only requires a company to have an Internet connection, therefore eliminating the limitations posed by local telephone lines. If the company has a solid Internet Connection, the DID Live service can be up and running within hours.

9.)

Pointel Voice self-service can reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction. As with every system implementation, it is not the software, but the implementation that will define the success of the project. This also holds true for self-service implementations. Pointel follows a unique and proven process to implement voice self service. This process has been fine-tuned through years of experience implementing contact center and self-service applications. Pointel can design and develop solutions that will meet and exceed our client’s voice application needs. With several years of experience in Genesys GVP(Genesys Voice Platform) implementation and integration, Pointel can provide an integrated voice... (read more)Voice self-service can reduce cost and improve customer satisfaction. As with every system implementation, it is not the software, but the implementation that will define the success of the project. This also holds true for self-service implementations. Pointel follows a unique and proven process to implement voice self service. This process has been fine-tuned through years of experience implementing contact center and self-service applications. Pointel can design and develop solutions that will meet and exceed our client’s voice application needs. With several years of experience in Genesys GVP(Genesys Voice Platform) implementation and integration, Pointel can provide an integrated voice self-service application to improve overall customer experience. Why Pointel? Extensive experience in implementing and integrating IVR and CTI/CRM applications Specialized in implementing contact center solutions using Genesys Genesys premier consulting partner Worked with Fortune 500 customers building voice self-service applications and integrating front office and back office applications including data retrieval from Mainframe-based systems Experience in building applications using VXML and custom self-service speech grammars Follows best practices in implementing voice self service applications Experience with self-service products such as Service Ware, Motive and Kanisa Developed products using Genesys GVP to provide voice self-service Reputation of 100% success in all implementations with a 100% reference-able customer base Partner with Nuance and Microsoft for developing speech applications

10.)

Teckinfo Solutions Pvt. Ltd. IVR Edge IVR Edge is a high performance, robust and scalable ivr system that works on various leading hardware such as Dialogic, Keygoe and Synway etc. It can handle the simplest of simple to the most complex of requirements to when it come to creating an IVR. Integration with any 3rd party database, be it for banking, telecom, insurance, travel, payment gateway etc can be handled with ease. Ideally suited to create Hosted IVR and virtual patching solutions with scalabilities that can range from 4 to 128 E1’s per setup with voice recording and CDR functionality. Integration with leading text to speech (TTS) and speech recognition ASR engines add to the flexibility and functionality.

 

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