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UCaaS Budget – Why you shouldn’t focus on price

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price of UCaaS

Building a UCaaS Budget using Total Cost of Ownership accounting

If you’re looking to move towards UCaaS you’re going to want to build a UCaaS budget that looks at things holistically. That isn’t always easy since the comparison isn’t apples to apples. The cost of a UC seat is usually somewhere around $40 per month but for larger businesses that’s not a static number. Smaller companies can get a UC system for the price of their dial tone which is a great deal but in larger applications that would add up pretty quickly.

For us, customers that are too focused on price are not a good fit. This isn’t because we want to charge some exorbitant amount but rather we want to ensure the right solution is in place from a functionality perspective that fits your UCaaS budget. Whether replacing a PBX or moving from another UCaaS provider, you won’t be comparing apples to apples. They all have nuances to their offering from support, to equipment, how faxing is handled, concurrent call paths, etc. To avoid mistakes we take a holistic approach to finding the right fit and implementing it properly for our clients. For more information on the most frequent mistakes we see in the IT decision making process, check out this blog post.

Total Cost of Ownership (defined here) is a holistic budgeting perspective that incorporates minute details that may be overlooked. There are more parts to a UCaaS budget than an apples to apples phone system replacement. For example, factoring in maintenance & power costs for an old PBX, equipment replacement requirements, conferencing & collaboration tools, etc. should be considered. Too many times we’ve seen folks say, “Here’s my phone bill. How much will the new system cost?” Our answer is typically, “Sorry Mr. Customer but it doesn’t work like that. We’ll need a bunch of other invoices around your voice ecosystem and to understand how it’s used on a day to day within your business environment.” We’ve seen companies totally retire LifeSize and TelePresence systems to save a load of cash. We’ve even taken mileage cost into account. These small details add up quickly.

New Functionality can improve performance and alter the way you do business, streamling processes and driving profits. Glip from RingCentral is a powerful tool for collaboration on projects. Contact us for a demo. There have been several major improvements that frequently makes clients question purchases like Microsoft Project and Slack. The ability to check voicemail on the go or implement a DR strategy for during a force majeure is absolutely priceless. It’s like insurance without having to submit a claim. Integration with platforms like Salesforce and other apps is simply something your old PBX can’t do. Furthermore, not every UCaaS provider’s platform integrates as seamlessly as others. Salesforce integration is key to many sales and support organizations that strive to provide a personal touch to clients calling in. The softphone opens up right in the Salesforce app. It’s really slick. Check out more here!

Look, at the end of the day we understand that you have to keep a budget in mind. Our advice is simply not to be hyper-focused on a dollar amount without taking all the factors into consideration. One of my biggest pet peeves is around faxing and it not being taken into account when building a UCaaS budget. Time and time again we here that folk need their fax machines until we pull a usage report and notice how many faxes are lunch menus. Hey that cost of toner and paper adds up. Typically, once an end-user experiences the capabilities and ease of faxing, texting, instant messaging, or conferencing can be done from the same phone number they’re amazed that they, or any company, is still doing things the old school way… That’s when the real focus on price begins.

Hey, we can’t be all things to all people and every client is not the ideal fit but if you like the vibe that we’re putting out, contact us here and let’s have a discussion on how to improve your communications ecosystem.

Three Most Frequent Mistakes Made in the IT Buying Process

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Don’t make the IT buying process more difficult than it has to be.

Today’s IT decision maker is faced with a number of issues from technical to political to financial which lead to mistakes in the IT buying process. These mistakes can cost your organization money, time, and productivity. More importantly these mistakes impact a leader’s credibility and employee morale. After all who wants to work for a boss that doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing.

The devil is in the details but time, our most valuable resource, keeps many from focusing on what’s most important. Unfortunately, a hastily made patch will just mean you’ll need more time in the future to fix things properly often leaving things to predecessors to address. If you want things done right you can contact us here or simply avoid these three mistakes made in the IT buying process that we see most frequently.

 

  1. Hyper-focus on the budget – If your budget was unlimited and you had carte blanche to make any decision, would your buying process be the same? Frequently, IT decision makers are forced to focus on the budget rather than the goal. I can’t tell you how many times we see environments with multiple carriers are no redundancy because decisions were made based on budget and not goal. You know the old saying… You buy cheap, you buy twice.
  2. Avoid learning the technology – Nowadays, technology and its capabilities are on the rise faster than most can keep up. In the as-a-service world solution providers have nuances to their offerings that make it hard to make exact comparisons. There’s always the end-user that doesn’t anything to change but catering to that will prove impossible as technology develops. You don’t need to become an expert but you should have a firm grip on the limitations and possibilities of the technology explored.
  3. Letting non-IT folks make IT decisions – Now more than ever, IT decisions should be made by IT experts. Input should always be accepted but failing to fight for the right technology can put an IT executive in a position in the future to defend a decision that was not made by them. With the increase in cyber security concerns and the need for technology improvements to gain a competitive advantage, the IT expert’s opinion should be weighed heavily as an expert. You wouldn’t go to the doctor to take the advice of the secretary about getting a flu shot so why take in advice from finance on updates to your security? These are our areas of expertise.

 

We see these mistakes made with great frequency in a plethora of organizations whether financial services, medical, higher education, or government. As mentioned earlier, the devil is in the details and we see folks overlook things like EIR:CIR, true redundancy, and mere reality. If you’d like to learn more about our process click here.

Having unrealistic expectations is never helpful but we see it all the time and often are forced to walk away from customers because of it. You’re not going to change AT&T, Comcast, Verizon or the telecommunications industry. It’s not Burger King so you won’t have it your way. That said, speak truth to power early and often without accepting status quo. Technology is not a discipline that can afford to be slighted as it provides a competitive advantage and leads us into the future. Don’t make these mistakes in your IT buying process.

5 Steps to Decommissioning your old PBX – Analyze and Implement

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Move your phones to the cloud

If you’ve been exploring a move to a cloud based phone system and decommissioning your old PBX then you know it’s not as simple as it seems. Below are five simple steps to analyze your voice environment and plan your implementation.

  1. Telephone count – You’ll need to analyze how many devices you have and where they’re located. This is the first step that can be improved if you also figure out and log how each phone is actually used by its rightful owner. Contact us to help perform your audit.
  2. Connectivity – The day of POTS lines and PRIs is done. It’s all SIP in the core. Each phone uses between 88kbps and 200kbps for HD calls. You’ll want to account for that on top of the bandwidth you’ll need for any other external applications. Don’t forget to block Netflix at your office!
  3. Decommissioning old equipment – A lot of top UCaaS providers are giving rebates for old telephone equipment so you should certainly take advantage. You’ll also want to either sell your old PBX for parts or have it destroyed by a third party.
  4. Training – Who are your end users? Now is where step one’s additional information will come I handy. You’ll want to plan your training for end-users around their use habits and learning style. Not everyone can just watch a YouTube video and get it. They may need additional hand holding, especially if they’re working the reception console. We can help your users get up to speed. Click here
  5. Save the date – You’ll want to pick a date after hours to install your new system, test, and rip out your old equipment. Weekends are ideal but you don’t always have that luxury, especially if you have a large call center environment.

Decommissioning your old PBX can save you tons on monthly telco and power charges. You can really reduce your data center footprint while improving the security and functionality of your voice ecosystem. It’s just so much easier to manage.

Shoretel’s dock is a great addition to a voice ecosystem, adding redundancy with cellular connectivity through your mobile carrier and allowing for a cool, distributed work force. It literally turns your iPad into a phone system!  Contact us for more information.

Five reasons to adopt a distributed work force

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distributed work force

distributed work force leads to a better work life balance and greater productivity

Today it’s common knowledge that a distributed work force leads to a happier and more productive work force and environment. Happier employees are more likely to be dedicated to their employers and less likely to quit. Employers with distributed work force programs in place are more productive. High quality employees are looking for employers that have a work from home policy for a better work life balance. It indicates a forward thinking organization that will be able to use technology to gain or sustain a competitive advantage.

 

Huffington Post Claims the following:

  • 20%–25% of the U.S. workforce now teleworks with some frequency
  • Regular work-at-home grew by 103% between 2005 and 2015 among those not self-employed

Here are five reasons we suggest adapting a work from home or distributed work force policy.

 

Productivity – People can do more when they work from home. It cuts down on water cooler conversations and unproductive, yet mandatory, staff meetings. Most importantly it cuts down on the need to commute, allowing employees to dedicate a portion of that time to work, further increasing productivity.

 

Liability – In today’s environment, it can be a liability to have personnel on site. Rising rates of terror attacks and force majeure make it less frustrating for employees to travel at work and feel safe. It is a shame we have to think this way but in today’s day it is a reality.

 

Cost – From a total cost of ownership perspective, cloud based technologies are less costly. For example, the price of a 50 seat telephone system from a manufacturer like Cisco, ShoreTel, Mitel, etc. is going to be north of $40-50k. You’ll also need a maintenance contract and PRIs or SIP trunks adding on another $30k at least, over three years. That’s $80k, not including any staff hours for configuration and implementation, as opposed to $45k for a brand new Gartner Magic Quadrant rated UCaaS system for three years.

We can make similar examples about hosted email vs. your own exchange, VDI vs. your own desktop environment, and DRaaS as opposed to running multiple data centers or a self-managed hybrid strategy.

 

Continuity – In the past, if you lost power to your office, your whole company was down. Then folks started using data centers which led to having those backed up in the cloud. This increased their redundancy and reliability.

Today many functions and applications are hosted and made available in this manner. This frees up employees to work from anywhere they have a solid internet connection. That means their data is sent, away from their device, to be stored, accessed, and later manipulated by themselves or others in the organization or new employees that may have to start from where a past employee left off.

 

Work Life Balance – We live in a very competitive, high paced environment. Balancing life may include children, school, or both, and more. Balancing it all requires the skills of a circus juggler, after all, there’s only 24 hors in a day. The key is, how can we be more efficient with our 24 hours? If you’re an employer, why make a great employee spend an extra two hours out of the day traveling to and from work. It must have an impact on performance and happiness. Don’t you want to work with happy people if you can?

 

In Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Ted Talk “Can we have it all?”, exploring work life balance she states:

“The companies that win awards for workplace flexibility in the United States include some of our most successful corporations, and a 2008 national study on the changing workforce showed that employees in flexible and effective workplaces are more engaged with their work, they’re more satisfied and more loyal, they have lower levels of stress and higher levels of mental health. And a 2012 study of employers showed that deep, flexible practices actually lowered operating costs and increased adaptability in a global service economy.”

Still unsure about distributed work force and its effect on your bottom line? Inc. Magazine’s Samuel Quicy quoted a study in his 2015 article Examining the Relationship Between Workplace Satisfaction and Productivity, “conducted by economists at the University of Warwick–found that happiness leads to a 12 percent increase in productivity. It also found that unhappy workers are 10 percent less productive than content employees.” That’s a 22% delta in productivity… for an organization of 100 that’s getting 22 more employees. Now that’s a bump in productivity any business can appreciate.

There is, however, a very good reason why you should not always work from home… Here’s a funny video that shows us why… Enjoy!

Interpreting Phone Bills – Telecom Audit and Expense Management

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Telecom expenses are difficult to understand

Don’t let your telecom expenses send your running

Telecom expense management, including interpreting telephone and cable bills, is infamously difficult. Even telecom veterans have trouble, often seeing services thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs appearing on bills. How much do these billing discrepancies actually end up costing the customer? You’ll need to perform a telecom audit to truly get accurate numbers.

For some telecom billing nightmares check out this blog post.

The question becomes, how do these billing discrepancies and management of telecom expenses inflate stock price and perceived value? Most never think that the frustration they encounter trying to cancel Comcast service or with any other provider has a greater macroscopic effect on the economy. It sucks when you’re just moving and have to deal with this but we see this on a much larger scale with companies that have many services at multiple locations.

The truth is, if your carrier doesn’t cancel your account it will remain an account receivable or an asset on their balance sheet. This makes the company look more powerful, profitable, and a better investment. Meanwhile you’re pulling your hair out to fix some billing issue created by a rogue sales agent that put your order in as new instead of a change. If you’ve run out of hair or would like to keep the hair you have remaining, allow our team to take on the headache by contacting us here to perform a telecom audit and telecom expense management.

Spectrum is providing a date for the merger of their systems which is August of 2017. This should make telecom expense management a little easier. Although I’m not confident they’ll make that date, they’re making more progress than other carriers in a similar situation, growing through acquisition. What makes them most effective is that they’re call center reps are trained differently and approach as a human first rather than a cog in the wheel. Where most companies will deny a problem exists Spectrum’s reps acknowledge the issue immediately and jump right into looking for a solution.

Communicating with telecommunications companies can be like speaking a foreign language that is constantly in flux. In fact, the folks within these companies typically speak different languages and have very defined roles with limited visibility into what other departments are doing or saying. To learn more about telecom expense management click here.

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