by Adam Clarke | Mar 8, 2017 | Apropos
You have moved your company to a centralised IP telephony system and should by now be benefiting with a much lower telco bill – well, perhaps. Maybe the savings are not looking quite as large as expected or not as good as they could be. But why? Call rates aside, the only way to maximise your savings is by getting rid of your legacy services. Sometimes it seems easier said than done! You may have upgraded the main lines and be using your WAN and relinquished the old lines. However there are still likely to be some lines left behind that seem a bit hard to remove. So let’s look at common types and the options you have. Miscellaneous Phone lines There always seems to be odd phone lines left behind and often staff have no idea what they are (or were) used for. Check them out. If not used, relinquish them. If you are still advertising a phone number, have it ported to a DDI and then relinquish the line. Broadband Some of the lines above may have been installed to allow a broadband connection. Quite often people access the internet another way and no longer use this service. If so relinquish. If they are still using it many of these broadband plans are out of date and need to be moved to more recent, cost effective plans. Fax Some fax machines will work over IP and some not. As you cannot control what fax machine a 3rd party uses, many will advise you to keep your existing analogue phone line to run a fax. For most businesses,...
by Adam Clarke | Feb 9, 2017 | Apropos
Since Avaya has filed for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11, there have been many articles about the future, and a number of services providers and vendors are offering to provide replacement solutions. One of the best articles we have seen is by Stephen Leaden on noJitter, January 31, 2017. http://www.nojitter.com/post/240172305/avaya-users-time-to-build-your-contingency-plans?pgno=2 It provides a balanced view of the situation and we do agree with him that “ all owners of Avaya equipment have some level of risk. Enterprise customers need to do their due diligence and, while hoping Avaya remains intact, plan for the worst. The goal is to minimize business disruption.” He advocates engaging “ the help of independent industry subject matter experts, leverage their knowledge, and secure their counsel in finding an approach that will minimize risk as you develop your contingency plan. The goal of the contingency plan is to: Minimize economic loss Reduce disruptions to operations Ensure organizational stability Provide an orderly recovery Minimize insurance premiums (contingency plans facilitate business “alarms” and therefore reduce the cost of doing business) Reduce reliance on certain key individuals, such as approval by a CxO to proceed — a contingency plan should accommodate budgeting and internal approvals Protect organizational assets Allay some concerns of personnel and customers with a formal plan Reduce IT exposure to making decisions if an unfavorable climate prevails; the plan can include several documented scenarios, and a solution and action within the contingency plan that’s been executed Minimize legal liability — contingency plans reduce the risk that your enterprise will face legal problems because of issues resulting from your vendor’s bankruptcy. Such legal problems could include an...
by Adam Clarke | Feb 9, 2017 | Apropos
As independent consultants we don’t generally focus our news articles on specific vendors, however we were lucky enough to be invited to attend the 2016 ShoreTelOne Global Partner Conference in December. They hosted a group of Analysts and Consultants that, in addition to the standard keynote speeches and breakout sessions, were lucky enough to have an interactive session with five of their Leadership Team. They were very open about the changes they have made and the plans they have for the company. One key differentiator from most global vendors that came across that should benefit NZ organisations is ShoreTel’s strength and focus on mid-market, medium enterprise solutions. This should make their solutions a good fit for the NZ market. ShoreTel is a developer of business communications solutions, including corporate IP telephony, UC, mobility and contact centre applications. Its solutions were created in the IP world with a strong understanding of legacy telephony solutions. ShoreTel entered the IP telephony market in 1996 and has grown to become a worldwide leader in IP-based business communications solutions with 20 years of experience and innovation and revenues over US$360 Million in the last financial year to June 2016. ShoreTel now has a single product offering, ShoreTel Connect, across Cloud, On-site and Hybrid and is not only offering Unified Communications and Contact Centre as a service (UCaaS and CCaaS) but their new Cloud platform offers Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). This new CPaaS, ShoreTel Summit, allow clients and application developers to build voice into their own processes and applications and will deliver a completely new eco-system. Don Joos says ShoreTel is about making...
by Adam Clarke | Nov 11, 2016 | Apropos
TeleConsultants desk calendars featuring spectacular views of New Zealand are always popular. We will be posting one to everyone on our calendar mailing list. We will have some spares so if you would like to receive one send us your mailing address.
by Adam Clarke | Nov 11, 2016 | Apropos
Gartner Says Global IT Spending to Reach $3.5 Trillion in 2017. Analysts Discuss Impact of Brexit and U.S. Presidential Election on IT Spending During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016, October 16-20, in Orlando Driven by growth in software and IT services revenue, worldwide IT spending is forecast to reach $3.5 trillion in 2017, up 2.9 percent from 2016 estimated spending of $3.4 trillion, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The bright spot for the IT industry has been the software and IT services segments. Software spending is projected to grow 6 percent in 2016, and it will grow another 7.2 percent in 2017 to total $357 billion (see Table 1). IT services spending is on pace to grow 3.9 percent in 2016 to reach $900 billion, and increase 4.8 percent in 2017 to reach $943 billion. Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars) 2016 Spending 2016 Growth (%) 2017 Spending 2017 Growth (%) Data Center Systems 173 1.3 177 2.0 Software 333 6.0 357 7.2 Devices 597 -7.5 600 0.4 IT Services 900 3.9 943 4.8 Communications Services 1,384 -1.1 1,410 1.9 Overall IT 3,387 -0.3 3,486 2.9 Source: Gartner (October 2016) For some time Gartner has shown Telecommunications Services, now Communications Services, are in slight decline, as shown for 2016 with growth of -1.1%. In 2017 they now forecast that this will be reversed with growth of 1.9%. Communication Services still represent 40% of total IT spend according to Gartner’s forecast for Worldwide IT Spend. This will be similar in New Zealand so ask yourself what you are doing to manage this part of your...
by Adam Clarke | Nov 11, 2016 | Apropos
As we reach the end of 2016 it has been another interesting year with more consolidation of some major players in the enterprise voice market. The announcement by Genesys that they will acquire Interactive Intelligence (ININ) will have a major impact on the overall market, both in Contact Centres as well as in the more general Unified Communications (UC). Over the last two years ININ has focused on moving from a CAPEX premises model to a cloud model. However whilst they have been relatively successful and the growth in cloud has significant long term value through ongoing annuity revenue, the short term impact has not been so beneficial. The Genesys acquisition broadens their opportunities to smaller contact centres as well as across UC rather than just their traditional top end contact centre users. It also combines channels to market increasing reach to end users and opportunities. This has raised some questions in the market about how Microsoft will react to this merger. In 2014 Microsoft was openly positioning ININ as the Contact Centre solution for Skype for Business (then Lync) adopters. In 2014, after ININ announced Pure Cloud that included a UC capability that is competitive with SfB, the relationship seemed to change. In fact, at Ignite in 2015 and Enterprise Connect in 2016, Microsoft had shifted their focus to Genesys as the mentioned Contact Centre vendor. How will Microsoft react to Genesys now owning and selling a competitive cloud UC solution to SfB? Will this cause Microsoft to reconsider its long held position that the Contact Centre is an ecosystem capability that is built on top of the...
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