Enterprises of all types and sizes these days are struggling with the difficulties of setting up functioning remote workforce networking and communications infrastructure. Given the speed at which the COVID-19 crisis prompted this transition, it’s no wonder that many solutions to date have been piecemeal, ad hoc, and have exhibited limited performance.

Now that it seems that this new working paradigm is not likely to be temporary, the time is quickly approaching when these rushed solutions take on a more permanent aura, but not so permanent that they become too rigid to accommodate another fast-moving crisis or simply the rapidly-evolving digital economy. Remote working solutions can’t compromise on security or connection quality. Therefore, each employee’s home office requires the same data integrity measures and networking capabilities utilized in traditional office environments.

Fortunately, we can look to one industry sector that has been forced by necessity to quickly ramp up remote data infrastructure at scale while still fostering the long-term data performance for the new working environment. This would be the healthcare industry, which was tasked with rapidly establishing field operations to treat COVID patients using much the same networking technology that knowledge workers across the board need for a productive work-at-home setup.

Recently, Jon Lloyd, Director of Cloud Networking, CBTS and Sanjay Uppal, SVP & GM VMware, VeloCloud BU sat down to discuss these topics:

• Parallel between IU Health remote testing sites and transforming each home office a fully functioning branch office
• How to deliver the same performance, security and network resiliency in non-traditional locations and across all devices
• Agility to stand-up remote office networks quickly, scale quickly and do so with a reliable connection

Networking in the field

A key example is Indiana University Health, which turned to CBTS and VeloCloud to establish a working SD-WAN solution capable of supporting the substantial data loads of field clinics that were quickly created in parking lots and other locations as a way to prevent the coronavirus from infiltrating existing hospital space. In addition to maintaining broad connectivity among healthcare workers and continuous data streams back to central facilities, IU Health needed to maintain high levels of security, resiliency, availability, and a host of other metrics needed to deal with an unfolding emergency situation.

IU Health’s network of “pop-up” testing centers required the same access to data and services that established hospitals receive, including ongoing patient monitoring through connected medical devices. Using VeloCloud’s VMware-based SD-WAN solution, the company was able to field a working network environment on extremely short notice (as little as 24 hours in some cases) while at the same time building in the necessary scalability, agility, and mobile accessibility needed to deliver top-notch care. Additionally, VeloCloud was able to provide a range of proprietary collaboration tools and cloud-based applications to enable such features as network prioritization and single-point-of-contact monitoring and maintenance dashboards.

The relevancy of this solution expands well beyond the unique needs of the healthcare industry and applies to many other industries. While the data and applications may be different, the networking needs of at-home workers and remote clinicians are very similar. One key requirement is the ability to extend existing networks to large numbers of people while maintaining strict security standards, which requires a bit more finesse than simply logging into central resources with a VPN. With a standard VPN appliance, the challenge is to connect all users independently via their own connections, which can quickly increase costs and degrade performance as more users tap in. Under VeloCloud’s gateway architecture, there is one connection that can scale to extreme numbers of users, all operating as if they were working from a fully functional remote office. A managed SD-WAN service from a trusted partner can make all the difference when attempting to stand up a large number of remote work spaces on a limited time frame.

Work-home data balance

Another issue is the way home offices blend personal and work-related data on the same network infrastructure. This can lead to performance and privacy concerns as organizations try to maintain high-quality applications without hampering home services like video streaming and gaming. Naturally, enterprises would like their applications to have priority over personal services, but making this happen without encroaching on the privacy of home workers and their families is a challenge. At the same time, organizations have a vested interest in maintaining security over their data and applications, but this can be difficult when these streams are combined with personal data and applications on the same network.

With VeloCloud’s network segmentation capabilities, however, workers are able to split their professional and personal data streams into distinct network tunnels. And since this is done through a cloud-based ERM tool, this capability is pushed out to the remote workforce with little to no provisioning or setup on their end.

This need for simplicity extends across the entire VeloCloud platform, which was designed around a “zero touch” architecture in which many of the manual processes required for installation and operations are entirely automated. In this way, non-technical users are not burdened with the intricacies of resource provisioning and network access (which sometimes stumps even experienced network engineers), allowing fully functional office environments to be implemented quickly and easily.

It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and the necessity brought on by a sudden and unexpected worldwide pandemic has forced virtually every business on the planet to invent remote work infrastructure from scratch. Going forward, however, these systems will have to adapt to the broader shifts in the nature of work that will likely to continue long after the virus has been neutralized.

A partner like CBTS, which can bring to bear multiple solutions to remote workforce networking like VeloCloud to craft truly unique environments for each and every client, will be crucial in the drive to embrace the new normal. Ultimately, only those companies that can successfully manage this transition will survive, and those that can do it quickly and effectively will find themselves at a distinct competitive advantage as the digitization of work and commerce unfolds.

For information on how CBTS can help you set up a remote workforce network, contact us.

One rule dominates the food service industry: keep your customers happy. This rule goes beyond simply providing high-quality cuisine—modern consumers expect to be able to contact and order from your restaurants without issue.

Donatos, a family-owned chain of pizza restaurants founded in Columbus, OH, understood this food industry rule. The company operates more than 200 locations in nine states and is still growing. Of these stores, 105 are company-owned, with more than 100 others operated by franchise partners. As part of its goal of steady, sustained growth, the Donatos corporation sought to double its customer service efforts, meaning an upgrade to its IT and telecom platform was in order.

The main priorities for this upgrade included systems to enable unrivaled customer satisfaction, enhanced security measures, and a comprehensive process to streamline the complex ordering system that Donatos had relied on for years. Each method of placing an order, whether over the phone, on the website, or via mobile app, was crucial to the customer experience and needed to be updated and empowered accordingly.

Re-thinking communications around the customer experience

For Donatos, dropped or disconnected calls, online and mobile orders that fail to go through, or even poor reception, can all translate to lost revenue, so strong and reliable connections were of paramount importance. Additionally, high-traffic periods such as holidays or major sporting events meant that individual restaurants could easily be overwhelmed by calls and orders.

Parallel Technologies, trusted advisor to Donatos, partnered with CBTS to provide a unified, cloud-based commercial platform that met the challenges that Donatos was facing. This solution would utilize an SD-WAN architecture to keep commerce applications and systems up to date through the use of several cost-effective internet transports, creating redundancy that ensures applications would remain supported in case the primary circuit failed for any reason. The increased reliability of this system would bode well for the company’s goal of delivering the best customer experience possible.

A cloud-based call queuing system was implemented to alleviate the difficulties of dealing with above-average call volume. This solution ensured that if a customer called to place an order during a period of peak activity, they would be placed on hold with a branded, automated message encouraging them to stay on the line.

Another point of improvement that the CBTS/Parallel Technologies partnership looked to address was the in-store guest Wi-Fi, which lacked consistency across retail locations. In order to provide a uniformly satisfying customer experience, each restaurant was outfitted with a new guest Wi-Fi environment complete with branded login pages and secure browsing measures to keep guest data safe.

Security was also a primary concern for Donatos corporate, which sought to protect its newly modernized and cloud-empowered restaurants from any potential intrusions. CBTS and Parallel worked in tandem to install a Unified Threat Management (UTM) platform in each location, granting total application control, web filtering and safe search tools, and much more at the store level.

When Donatos was in need of a truly modern network overhaul to continue serving its customers with exceptional quality, CBTS and Parallel answered the call. The proven performance of CBTS Hosted Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), SD-WAN, and telecom solutions, combined with Parallel’s extensive design overlay expertise, formed and implemented a personalized and comprehensive upgrade strategy suited for the entirety of the Donatos corporate structure.

Contact us for more information on how CBTS and Parallel Technologies can create a comprehensive, cloud-enabled networking solution for your organization.

Following work-from-home mandates issued in response to COVID-19, companies rushed to find ways to enable remote collaboration. Some businesses smoothly transitioned into this new normal, while others struggled to adapt.

To examine the best practices for remote team collaboration, CBTS recently hosted a panel discussion about the challenges facing companies during this period of instability.

Greg Samuels, senior director of the communications practice at CBTS, moderated the panel, which included Steve Harris, senior director of service delivery for OnX Enterprise Solutions; David Absalom, director of enterprise solution design for CBTS; Jon Lloyd, director of cloud networking for CBTS; and Christopher Pope, director of solution design for CBTS.

To highlight the most effective strategies for remote collaboration and communication, the panel experts shared the tools and technologies and best practices that companies have been used to keep employees connected while quickly transitioning.

Enabling existing technology

While no one could have predicted the rippling effects that COVID-19 have had on day-to-day business operations, many companies already had tools in place to support remote workers—but they weren’t leveraging them until now.

“For some companies, it really wasn’t until recently that they discovered the full potential of hosting their voice in the cloud and coupling that with a mobile phone,” Pope said. “It’s been our duty to inform customers of the work-from-home capabilities that they have…and get them using the tools that they didn’t know they already had.”

Pope said many companies were sitting on legacy private branch exchange (PBX) systems or hosted voice solutions, but not utilizing collaboration tools to integrate their system with their employees’ mobile phones. By enabling soft client capabilities and meeting tools, companies are leaving the comfort zone of traditional voice calls to facilitate work-from-home mobility. For those with legacy PBX systems, CBTS was able to enable features on the network to quickly support those temporary changes to their configuration.

Redefining contact centers

The contact centers of large enterprises—especially those in government and healthcare sectors—are pushed past capacity with increasing call volumes related to the pandemic. By rethinking traditional processes and channels, contact centers are developing more sustainable service models that equip remote agents to serve customers efficiently, Absalom said.

Setting up remote phone access for employees working at home is easy enough, “but then you also need to somehow give them their contact center agent desktop, and that requires a VPN infrastructure,” Absalom said. While some companies already had this infrastructure in place, others needed to build internet gateways to enable remote agents.

“Then, because of the massive growth in contact center use, we had to take a look at some other technologies, because the queues and IVRs [Interactive voice Responses] were getting hit so hard we had to find alternate ways to get those calls answered or redirected,” Absalom said, like courtesy call-back capabilities that allow customers to request a call back rather than waiting in queue.

CBTS quickly analyzed how customers wanted and expected their calls to be routed and used that data to find the most efficient way to handle customer calls. To handle the influx of service calls efficiently, contact centers should similarly examine their current workflows and streamline business processes. Absalom encouraged call centers to think beyond the phone and explore the potential of omni-channel contact centers, where agents can also leverage e-mail, chat, and text to provide comprehensive service.

Protecting the perimeter

To keep the remote workforce connected to the enterprise, companies are relying on VPNs to extend their network—which comes with certain limitations, Lloyd said.

“When we start looking at a client-based VPN, all of that traffic comes back to the data center, even if the application doesn’t live there,” Lloyd explained. “That is crippling customers’ bandwidth. It’s crippling data centers.”

Split tunneling can be one solution for alleviating some stress to the data center, “but it’s a pretty complex routing configuration,” Lloyd said. Instead, companies should focus on flexible connectivity to extend their networks. “Utilizing technology that is cloud-connected or software-defined is allowing us to build auto-networks and auto-scale very quickly,” he added.

With software-defined perimeters, security is a fabric that lives in the cloud, rather than a firewall that just lives in the data center. “We used to think we were protecting the network,” Lloyd said. “But now, we realize the network is all around us. It doesn’t matter what the device is or where the employee is working from.”

This software-defined model is what separates the companies that are excelling in this remote environment from those that are struggling. “The customers who have looked forward and leaned toward this software-defined world have had a much, much easier time adapting,” Harris said. “Customers who have struggled tend to be ones who have a very traditional network and infrastructure.” Follow this link to view the full webinar. Learn more about collaboration solutions from CBTS.

Contact the experts at CBTS

While the health impact of COVID-19 on the world has been devastating and tragic, the economic impact in the United States has also been profound. As businesses shuttered to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, revenues dropped and jobs were lost, leading to record high unemployment figures across the country.

In this particular state, layoffs and furloughs were occurring at staggeringly rapid rates over a matter of weeks. As a result, calls for assistance and applications for benefits began to flood and overwhelm the state’s Department of Jobs and Family Services (JFS). The JFS office’s contact center normally handles an average of 12,000 calls per day, but that number spiked to more than 1 million calls in a day and eventually settled on approximately 800,000 calls per day.

Additional issues included busy signals and dropped calls that callers often received when trying to contact the JFS office. End users were also not confident that their claims were being processed even in the event they managed to speak with a JFS agent, due to the lack of benefit status updates.

Fortunately, JFS personnel had anticipated the need to keep up with the drastically increased call volume. The JFS office engaged CBTS to help them manage the overwhelming number of calls to address the various service issues that constituents were facing. CBTS was able to design and implement a solution within a week’s time. The solution included scaling existing call paths, organizing remote call center operations, and designing and configuring a new IVR solution.

Sorting out the chaos

CBTS stepped in with a customized suite of telecommunications solutions to enable JFS agents to cope with the massive call volume they were facing while also improving the user experience for constituents seeking assistance during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the solutions implemented was a self-service system designed to allow JFS applicants to manually check the status of their claims. All of the JFS Unemployment directory numbers were sequestered into separate carrier trunks to increase available bandwidth and reduce strain on the rest of the state agencies. Additionally, the contact center capacity was optimized by 400% to allow for all callers to be answered by automation or an agent.

Remote access licenses for Jabber softphones were also increased and extended to hundreds of additional users, boosting the number of available call center agents. Cisco’s Unified IP Interactive Voice Response (IVR) was deployed at a large scale specifically to answer mass layoffs by major companies.

Another improvement implemented was the redirection of calls away from busy signals to holding messages, which engaged constituents and informed them that their calls would be answered momentarily or offer self-service options to every caller.

Lastly, an extensive effort was made to design and deploy an optimized IVR system to generate responses to benefit inquiry, simplify call tree structures, and create more efficient queue management programs. Moving forward, CBTS will be partnering with the state’s JFS to introduce new functionality that will provide tier one agents with basic caller benefits status info that will assist them in answering initial questions. Callback scheduling will also be used to address more advanced questions that can’t be answered by tier one agents at the time.

CBTS and the state’s JFS planned ahead and collaborated closely to prepare for a pressing issue that would prevent vulnerable citizens from accessing the assistance they needed. The standard reporting and dashboard programs built for this client are part of an ongoing process to optimize solutions in accordance to customer experiences.

Contact a CBTS specialist today for more information on what a customized Cisco collaboration solution can do for your enterprise or government organization

When a crisis strikes with little notice, business leaders and dedicated staff members must be ready to deliver vital information about the threats to keep people safe. Mass-notification technology gives staff the ability to broadcast information across networked devices and to interpret data coming in from sensors, locks, cameras, and other smart devices.  

More and more organizations rely on mass-notification tools to coordinate communications during an emergency, and that’s why CBTS builds these capabilities into our cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). By integrating InformaCast Fusion from Singlewire Software into UCaaS, CBTS delivers a portfolio of mass notification tools used for sending relevant and precise alerts to employees as a crisis unfolds.

How companies benefit from mass-alerting technologies 

Organizations have long relied on sophisticated messaging systems to conduct business, coordinate operations within and between departments, and communicate with clients and partners. Mass-alerting tools bring these capabilities up a level by unifying crisis communications under a single alerting platform during an emergency.

The advantages of mass-notification technology for crisis communications include:

• Centralized dashboard. As a hosted cloud communications technology, gives users a standard communications interface across all of their devices: PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Managers send specific messages and alerts directly to phones, conference rooms, digital signage, IP speakers, and even road signs and billboards, along with any other connected devices.
• Multiple media formats. Designated personnel can deliver live audio or recorded messages. Formats include e-mail, SMS text, VoIP and standard phone calls, push notifications, and updates via Facebook and Twitter.
• Delivery, reading, and responses. Managers can confirm messages are delivered and read, and individuals can respond to determine availability or direct what to do next. If individuals need help, the application can send rescuers directly to the scene.
• Escalation. First-round alerts often have low reading and response rates because the recipients aren’t aware of the severity of an emergency. In such cases, managers can escalate their alerts to clarify the level of the crisis. The escalation may include informing news media if necessary.
• Geographic location. Smartphones with built-in GPS help emergency communications managers determine the location of individuals. Managers can target alerts to people within specific areas or create a virtual perimeter by directing people away from a dangerous area.

Common events for mass notifications

Organizations must clearly communicate with appropriate teams during an emergency and coordinate activities. Emergency communications managers are required to address threats such as:

• Natural disasters. Any natural threat such as violent storms, tornados, earthquakes, sinkholes, or volcanic eruptions may require messaging or alerts with employees at all levels.
• Traffic issues. Multi-car accidents on area highways can cause massive delays. A train derailment, toxic gas leak, chemical spill, or other emergencies can endanger individuals across an expansive geographic area.
• Public unrest. Protests can turn violent. Scuffles can break out after a sporting event or music festival. Employees need to be informed about these issues so they can avoid specific areas and reduce their risk while in transit during work hours.

By integrating the right mass-messaging tools into your network, emergency communications managers can deliver the necessary information to protect employees when a crisis occurs.

Prioritizing safety

During uncertain times or when an unexpected crisis arises, it’s unfortunate some UCaaS providers don’t provide mass-notification technology as standard in their offering. Here at CBTS, we believe mass-notification capabilities are crucial to the security and safety of employees and critical to business resiliency. 

The mass-notification tools built into our UCaaS system ensure you can communicate effectively with team members throughout an emergency. Whether individuals use a PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or desktop phone, in a crisis—when seconds count—timely alerts can make all the difference.

To find out more about CBTS UCaaS and our mass notification capabilities, contact our experts.

Creating and enabling a versatile, remote workforce is a common goal for many modern organizations during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Others are seeking to modernize their networks, improve their digital employee experiences, and reshape their cloud strategies. Regardless of the factors driving your organization’s digital transformation agenda, choosing the right partner to leverage VMware solutions is the secret sauce to achieving success today while future-proofing your business. Tim Byers, Senior Sales Engineer at CBTS, highlights the top factors to consider when implementing SD-WAN.

1. Choosing an SD-WAN partner shouldn’t mean giving up control

Replacing legacy infrastructure can bring countless roadblocks when attempted without the right support. With increasing pressure on IT departments to enable business outcomes in real time, organizations often default to selecting an SD-WAN service provider who takes full control of the implementation and management of the project.

The result? Even while these clients may reap the benefits of reduced hardware-delivery expenditures, on a long-term basis these companies will face the frustrations of living with a ”black box” solution. In this scenario, there are few opportunities from which to learn and adapt your approach over time. The good news is that there is an option that marries both control and support. Choosing a managed service solution provider can help ease you into the new era of your business, while preserving your ability to optimize your own operations.

2. SD-WAN is the start of a larger innovation conversation

When it comes to networking, one of the most common use cases we see for adopting SD-WAN in Canada is in the retail environment, where organizations often depend on MPLS to manage network traffic flow between their retail locations and remote workers.

These clients are seeing their bandwidth costs rise higher and higher as employees and customers have become increasingly connected. Add the challenge of spanning Canada’s large geography, and the need for a solution that better connects teams and sites across the country at a lower cost becomes clear.

The potential to dramatically reduce bandwidth and transport costs can motivate the adoption of SD-WAN—but there’s more to the story. Switching from legacy infrastructure should be treated as an opportunity for innovating the business. For a retailer, that could mean simplifying the onboarding of a new location or offering on-site online ordering for customers who can’t find what they came in for. Bandwidth concerns have become more urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more employees than ever connecting to their work networks from home. An SD-WAN solution can stabilize and increase bandwidth across an entire enterprise, enabling remote work activities, and reducing friction during these trying times. SD-WAN can also be easily scaled to meet the ever-changing bandwidth needs of modern organizations.

3. Securing your network during the “new-normal”

With large numbers of employees working from home, many enterprises are finding their network security unsuited for keeping networks secure across a high volume of remote connections. An SD-WAN cloud security solution can consistently deliver protection from external threats, even for users accessing the network from offsite. This reduces strain on your organization’s data center while providing peace of mind for remote employees.

4. C-suite buy-in is key to success

Success for an SD-WAN deployment can be measured for both IT and the wider business. It’s important to bring the leadership team into the conversation early, especially the CIO, to help them drive innovation from the top and ensure the value of the project is understood at the most senior levels within the business.

One of the top rationales for adopting a new technology that resonates with CIOs and line-of-business leaders is saving time and increasing productivity. When it comes to SD-WAN, VeloCloud SD-WAN as a Service enables organizations to shift their time investment to categories that are the most critical to the organization and the most difficult for the organization to achieve.

Expanding visibility into your network, driving innovation with greater agility, and gaining support from leadership are just three ingredients to a successful implementation of SD-WAN. Learn more about how CBTS and OnX Canada have partnered with VMware to offer the industry-leading VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud solution to clients.

To help you navigate your network in today’s uncertainty, discover more about business continuity by checking out resources posted on VMware’s Business Continuity Solutions page, or visit https://www.cbts.com/coronavirus/.

For further reading on ways to adapt your remote work strategies and cloud capabilities to the COVID-19 pandemic, check out these recent blogs:

• Reacting with a Sense of Urgency in Times of Peril: How SD-WAN is Supporting Healthcare Use Cases
• Why SD-WAN is Critical to Your IT Strategy

Simplifying the various communication tools available to their company is a challenge many business leaders are seeking answers for. As a result, enterprise-level organizations around the globe and across a variety of industries are catching on to the benefits of unified communications as a service (UCaaS), which streamlines collaboration capabilities by combining voice, video, and text communications into a single cloud-empowered platform.

As a managed service, UCaaS also simplifies operations and allows users to focus less on maintaining multiple communications platforms and more on their bottom lines. It can also be easily scaled for growth as businesses expand their footprints, facilities, and teams.

UCaaS has become a common solution for organizations that wish to utilize the ever-growing power of cloud computing while also managing their communications platforms with ease and reliability. These applications have become even more crucial and are now in high demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many enterprises to adopt a more remote posture. However, these enterprises that have embraced UCaaS may be missing the full potential of their managed communications by not also taking advantage of software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN).

The potential of SD-WAN

While the business world works to adapt to and harness the computing power of the cloud and the many remote storage and connection capabilities it brings, SD-WAN is a network architecture purpose-built to enable all modern cloud-based applications, delivering greater levels of efficiency, scalability, and flexibility.

By implementing an SD-WAN solution that fits their situation, enterprise leaders can automate their network traffic, speed up their application deployments, and improve user experiences, all while driving down operational costs. With SD-WAN, even large-scale global operations can be given easy and reliable access to powerful cloud applications, from retail storefronts and industrial facilities to distant office environments. However, it truly shines when layered onto an existing UCaaS framework.

A powerful combination

For users of UCaaS solutions, SD-WAN acts as a natural complement that boosts the power and effectiveness of managed unified communications. When combined, the UCaaS platform connects distant team members and empowers them to collaborate smoothly—meanwhile, an SD-WAN solution brings high processing power, bandwidth and network stability to the table, creating a potent one-two punch that any modern organization can benefit from.

SD-WAN also adds powerful cloud computing functionality to the UCaaS platform, boosting communication applications such as video conferencing with fast and reliable cloud connections. Voice services also benefit from increased redundancy and signal strength, meaning fewer dropped calls and better call quality. This is especially beneficial for enterprises that rely heavily on voice functionality, including retail, call centers, healthcare, and more.

Complete the package

If your company has taken the step to streamline its communication and collaboration applications with a UCaaS solution, consider SD-WAN as a direct upgrade that can improve network performance, make connections more reliable, leverage the considerable power of the cloud, keep costs low, and help future-proof your enterprise for what comes next. Review the CBTS resource page to learn more about how adding SD-WAN to your UCaaS infrastructure can deliver better communication outcomes for your organization.

There’s no denying that the world has changed. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of Americans indoors and changed the landscape of the economy and workforce, large and small businesses alike were actively exploring the technology and processes needed to empower their staff to do their jobs remotely.

This process was accelerated when multiple state governors gave shelter-in-place orders, and companies began shutting down offices to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the risk of infection for personnel. A robust and detailed strategy to enable remote meeting, collaboration, and productivity is now a requirement, not simply a bonus.

However, there exists a wide variety of teleconferencing solutions and platforms, each with their own interfaces, support structures, and proprietary features. Finding the right remote meeting solution for your business can be a daunting task. The decision can be made easier by clearly defining what your organization is looking for.

Requirements of the new digital workplace

When adopting a teleconferencing and remote meeting solution, enterprise leaders tend to seek a technology platform that satisfies both the needs of individual team members and the expectations of high-level stakeholders. This can apply to several use cases, including employees meeting in virtual conference rooms to share working materials, connect via audio and video, and collaborate closely.

Organizations with a concentration on sales and marketing also require simple and engaging methods for connecting with external clients, leads, and partners as they develop opportunities for new business. Meanwhile, trainers and mentors need tools that can reach and be accessible to a wide variety of audiences—after all, people learn better when they’re able to connect and engage on their own terms.

Additionally, many professionals in corporate communication spaces are seeking to make internal messaging more direct and captivating. They need a technology solution that allows them to build a CEO town hall or similar virtual event that can simultaneously be delivered to an entire corporate structure in real-time.

Organization leaders are facing the challenge of crafting a remote meeting solution that meets the needs of all of these use cases, as well as the challenge of making this solution operate reliably on any device—from smartphones to workstations. What they need is a persistent virtual meeting space that all members of the team can benefit from.

Creating collaboration with the cloud

Many enterprise-level businesses already employ cloud office products with built-in conferencing functions throughout their organizations, but some find themselves requiring an internal collaboration solution that delivers a consistent experience across different platforms.

At the same time, professionals responsible for external presentations are in need of a high degree of control and flexibility in terms of transitioning, question and answer management, and more. They’re also seeking reliable security measures and reliable audio and video quality to make their presentations as functional and effective as possible.

Trainers, meanwhile, can also benefit from a simple meeting product that can enable testing and learning even in cases of limited budgets and smaller scales. Webinars and other larger-scale online events are also gaining relevance as scalability and audience engagement become more important in business environments.

These endpoints can all be served by a cloud-based meeting solution. 

“By 2023, 50% of meetings will be facilitated by virtual concierges and advanced analytics. Through 2023, the cloud conferencing market will be the fastest-growing segment (by spend) of the overall unified communications (UC) market, growing at a compound annual rate of 7%.”

Gartner, Critical Capabilites for Meeting Solutions, Tom Eagle, Adam Present, Mike Fasciani, 8 October 2019

Let the experts at CBTS help your organization prepare for the cloud conferencing future with our suite of Cisco remote meeting solutions. For more information on what CBTS and Cisco can do to modernize and empower your workforce.  Click here to learn more about the meeting solutions CBTS offers.

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Continue reading: How to train your organization to use Microsoft Teams

It seems when it comes to technology, enterprise organizations and SMBs alike find themselves in the same situation as consumers: the moment you purchase a device or solution, newer technology comes along with advantages that nearly render the previous technology obsolete.

Take traditional landlines, for instance, also known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). Over the past decade, businesses of all sorts have made the transition from POTS to a newer, better alternative: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The decision to move to VoIP is an easy one since businesses realize significant cost savings and gain access to advanced calling features, such as a virtual assistant and call routing to different departments. With that process nearly complete, and with the Internet established as its base, businesses can begin to look at their communications more holistically. Companies looking for the next level of collaboration are turning to a technology that can handle a customized suite of applications and communications services delivered on a single platform: Unified Communications as a Service, or UCaaS.

But should you transition?

Think VoIP and UCaaS technologies are mutually exclusive?

The fact is, they are not, but to make the right decision, it helps to have a clear understanding of what each technology is, what role they play in a modern communications ecosystem, and the differences in managing and monitoring each.

VoIP

VoIP is pretty much exactly as it sounds: spoken words on a call transmitted as data over the Internet. This technology requires some changes in the way data is handled in transit. The blocky, bursty nature of text delivery, for one, is replaced with a smoother, more continuous data stream that reduces interruptions. VoIP also incorporates a more dynamic, two-way data connection to accommodate the conversational style of the speech better.

VoIP benefits

• Centralized IP PBX architecture which reduces costs.
• 99.9% guaranteed uptime.
• Enhanced QoS & Core SLAs. 
• E911, caller ID, and directory listings.
• Automatic disaster recovery failover.
• Unlimited expanded local calling—no per-minute charges. 
• Web portal access and web-based administrative control available with bolt-ons.
• U.S. and Canada voice network availability.
• Reporting tools to manage network performance efficiently. 

One of the more compelling use-cases for VoIP is the cost-savings derived from switching voice communications from standard line service to more efficient digital communications. In most cases, this is done in conjunction with an existing Internet service provider and implemented with upgrades to an IP-PBX phone system. Most VoIP services provide call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, voicemail, and other functions. One of the most crucial aspects of VoIP, however, is that it places traditional desktop telephone service on the same digital foundation as data infrastructure, effectively reducing the recurring cost of separate voice and data circuits. These innovative voice services drive better collaboration and mobility for your business.

UCaaS

Unified Communications as a Service, or UCaaS, is a catchall term for bundling a wide range of communications services, including VoIP, under a common framework. In this way, organizations more closely integrate voice communications with file sharing, instant messaging, collaboration, phones, and other applications to streamline workflows and make better use of available information.

UCaaS benefits

• Offers greater flexibility when integrating applications, such as messaging, video meetings, whiteboarding, IVR, call recording, reporting, and screen sharing.
• Integrates with third-party solutions.
• Tailors app consumption toward actual usage rather than as fixed overhead costs.
• Provides exceptional ability to deliver a consistent experience across multiple devices.
• Allows for personalized customization of user settings to enable workers to engage and interact with others on their teams.

Because of its broader scope, UCaaS is slightly more complex in its setup and management than VoIP. Both are very different in their implementation model, so having an experienced vendor is critical.

While UCaaS is a broader solution, depending on the business model, legacy architecture, internal processes, and many other factors, some organizations may determine that standalone VoIP meets all their needs. Others may conclude that partial or full UCaaS is the way to go, particularly those involved in highly-collaborative, security-focused organizations, such as banking and finance, healthcare and education, professional services, retail, and others.

Adopting UCaaS as a complete cloud solution

For the most part, organizations are adopting UCaaS as a complete cloud solution. Still, there are some cases where on-premises infrastructure is required, usually under the auspices of a private cloud. The reasons for this vary, but in general, it comes from a desire to maintain tighter control over the environment, albeit at the expense of higher maintenance and monitoring costs.

The good thing for enterprise organizations is that VoIP and UCaaS are not mutually exclusive. For businesses starting with a traditional voice infrastructure, a logical upgrade path is to implement VoIP first. As the need arises, launch into UCaaS functionality later depending on the age of your equipment and what other features and functionality you plan to need in the future. Once all forms of communication have been elevated to the cloud, selecting the right systems becomes a matter of what your business needs at any point in time, not what your internal infrastructure can support.

Know your options

Several different types of Hosted Unified Communications solutions are available:

• Service Providers: Traditional telecom services that offer fully-featured Hosted UC as an integrated part of their offering to business customers.
• IT-centric cloud app providers: Software vendors with a background in productivity applications and have incorporated communications functionality into their IT suites.
• Over-the-top (OTT) service providers: Providers that offer communications solutions that operate over the Internet. 
• Traditional network Centrex providers: First generation of hosted telephony service providers, delivering PBX-type functionality as a hosted service.

Making the best choice for your business

The industry has drastically changed, and the options of providers are endless. While all Hosted Communications solutions generally perform the same essential functions, they do vary significantly in their cost, functionality, flexibility, scalability, and support. No matter if you are looking for private or public deployment, it’s critical to land on a solution that ensures the quality of experience for your voice traffic and meets the future business needs. The success of the new technology is entirely dependent on choosing a partner who offers design, implementation, training, and support.

At CBTS, we are capable of accommodating any request. The roots of our organization are deep with a rich history of delivering on-premises, hybrid, and cloud private or public unified communications solutions.

Critical Steps to Starting your Communication Journey

From cloud discovery, assessment, strategy, and design, to migration, implementation, and monitoring your environments, discover how CBTS has you covered.

Speak to a Communications Expert today

This article is a brief summary of how migrating to a cloud-based communication architecture transformed the Donatos Pizza franchise’s customer service experience while reducing costs. To learn more about this real-world cloud communications solution, download the full case study.

For modern businesses, success is tied to network performance and the ability to adapt quickly. Seamless collaboration between employees, partners, and customers is more important than ever before, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic forces customers indoors, reduces commercial activity, and makes every call for service that much more valuable.

As businesses struggle to adapt to new demands for remote capability and migrate their communication services to the cloud, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platforms are changing the digital landscape by combining voice, audio and video conferencing, instant messaging, screen sharing, and many other applications on one platform.

Organizations that still use legacy networks are feeling the pain handling increased call volumes, adjusting contact centers to work from home, and being able to make large scale changes to many locations. Customer patience is at all-time lows, and experience expectations are at all-time highs. In this environment, companies that don’t adjust suffer. Companies that stay ahead of the curve thrive. Donatos Pizza is a prime example. A franchise with more than 200 locations in nine states, it is considered to be one of the fastest-growing franchises in the U.S.

The Problem: Legacy network infrastructure was delivering a fragmented customer experience between mobile applications and brick-and-mortar locations.

Donatos’ legacy network infrastructure could not keep up with the rapidly expanding franchise and the company’s desire to offer a consistent and seamless customer experience across its 200-plus franchise locations.

The franchise was struggling with poor in-store Wi-Fi and control, reliability, redundancy, and continuity issues.

Coordinating with dozens of vendors in different regions was inefficient and costly and was stretching internal IT department resources.

Donatos Pizza wanted to build a future-proof franchise supported by a next-generation IT platform.

Solution: A single cloud-based platform to support unified commerce.

Donatos chose to partner with CBTS to implement a hosted UCaaS, Network as a Service, and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution.

CBTS provided all required hardware and software for the transition, provides ongoing technical and customer service from one support center, and bills Donatos one monthly fee on a single invoice.

Consistent quality of experience

Continuous connectivity is mission-critical for this client. Every dropped or disconnected phone call equals lost revenue. Some companies use patchwork VoIP solutions that treat voice traffic the same as any other data coming over the internet. As a result, the end user can experience communication lags and the call can eventually get dropped.

After partnering with CBTS, Donatos is now able to provide clients with a reliable and consistent quality of experience through the public internet connections at the individual stores.

Major benefits of SD-WAN and UCaaS

Since 2012, SD-WAN technology has quickly become an indispensable technology for businesses migrating to cloud-based services. SD-WAN in combination with UCaaS has transformed network scalability, management, and budgets like nothing in the past.

• Scalability – UCaaS easily scales up or down, making it a strong solution for enterprise-sized businesses operating in hundreds of locations.
• Manageability – UCaaS moves control to the cloud, making upgrades easier to configure, and providing one window for complete network management.
• Cost savings – When you consider the consolidation of multiple vendors and technologies, and factor in the ROI of freeing up your IT staff, UCaaS is the most cost-effective solution.

Conclusion

Working with an experienced and qualified SD-WAN and UCaaS provider is important. CBTS has helped numerous small businesses and franchises transform their networking and migrate to cloud architecture with great success and has also helped several entities adapt and expand their networks to meet the logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. CBTS and its 800 certified engineers can take on the burden of your IT management and maintenance by proactively managing and monitoring your network 24x7x365.

• Get streamlined services through a single vendor.
• Deliver exceptional voice/data service.
• Experience cost savings and enhanced security and control.
• Free your IT organization to focus on strategic initiatives.
• Enhance your customer experience.

To learn more about how SD-WAN and UCaaS transformed Donatos Pizza’s customer service experience, download the full case study.

Read more about how SD-WAN can transform the restaurant business.