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Hosted UC, (Unified Communications)
Hosted UC: Beneath the Apps, It’s Your Lifeline
Most of today’s chatter about hosted unified communications (UC) centers on the menu of tools it serves up for communicating and collaborating easier and faster. And it should – UC rolls many valuable functions into a single app for both mobile and desktop use that can boost everything from employee and customer satisfaction to raw productivity. These integrations – conferencing, availability indication, chat, desktop sharing and file sharing, to name just a few – are so appealing that the core meat-and-potatoes functionality is often overlooked: The right hosted UC platform can deliver a powerful, flexible and incredibly reliable phone system.
A solid UC platform starts with high-definition (HD) voice for clarity and layers in a long list of PBX features, including auto attendant, custom music on hold, hunt groups, meet-me conferencing, call recording, voicemail transcription and CRM integration, among others.
Hosted UC does this at a fraction of the cost of an equivalent premises-based UC system and “auto-evolves” via updates in the background. That’s a huge advantage over on-premises systems that require annual maintenance fees or expensive upgrades to keep them current. And unlike the complex traditional phone systems that sit in a closet, hosted UC requires very little IT support or training to administer, freeing up your team to take on more strategic initiatives.
Of course, none of this matters if your phones go down. Reliability and redundancy are key to the success of any hosted UC deployment. TPx’s UCx platform leverages application servers running enterprise-grade UC software in SSAE 18 datacenters. This hosted environment integrates our customers’ traffic and performs PBX and other UC functions in the cloud. Since TPx engineers relied upon leading-edge technology throughout, we’re able to back our UCx offering with an industry-best, 100-percent network uptime guarantee.
So, if your building suffers from a flood or other disaster that knocks out power for miles around, the distributed nature of the UCx service means that your communications infrastructure can still be available. Since UCx resides on the TPx network and not on your premises, it’s easy to redirect calls to alternate locations or devices. Employees could even work from home in a pinch because they can communicate and access all the information they need from virtually anywhere.
Regardless of which UC system you use, it’s important to remember that your phones are your lifeline. Yes, apps and value-adds are important – at TPx we have loaded our offering with the latest-and-greatest of all of them – but the most important aspect of any UC deployment is reliability. And that’s especially true today. Forecasts tell us that more frequent floods, fires, hurricanes and other complications are part of our “new normal.” Make sure your UC system can stand up to the tests of these new realities. By Will Ng | 01.09.2018 -From Our Gang at KCCi, Thanks, Will NG!
TPx Blog
5 Hidden Costs of Business Relocation
For many businesses, relocation is an economic no-brainer. For example, the increased costs of logistics can make it worth relocating a facility closer to your main market. High energy prices or taxes in one state may be significantly lower in another. The need to attract a cost-efficient Millennial workforce could mean a move from the suburbs to downtown. Multiple offices may need to be consolidated in one location, or a business unit may have outgrown its headquarters and needs to be spun out into its own location.
But even if it’s a no-brainer, once you’ve made the decision to relocate you’ll still need to quickly get a handle on the costs. Some expenses, like moving trucks and new business cards, are simple line items in a spreadsheet and easy to account for. However, there are hidden costs to relocation that won’t show up on any checklist.
Your company’s on-premises network, information security, communications, data storage and collaboration tools all represent hidden risks and costs during the relocation process. TPx’s cloud-based data and communications solutions can help you mitigate the hidden risks and costs.
Here are five hidden costs you should be aware of, and how TPx’s cloud-based data and communications technology can help you mitigate them:
Lost Productivity
Moving day is the cumulative effect of your moving process, not the beginning. Months are spent in meetings planning the move, designing the new space, making a list of equipment needs, and packing, not to mention unpacking, getting phone and data systems online and getting back to business as usual. Not only will management be distracted with their relocation tasks, but the risk of disruption for staff is high. As a communications and data managed services provider (MSP), TPx can simplify your moving process greatly by storing your data in the cloud and using cloud-based unified communications services to enable your staff to use their smartphones and laptops for work anytime, anywhere.
Company Downtime
In today’s 24/7 business environment, your business can’t afford to be unavailable in the middle of a move. While some companies use a relocation as a good reason to switch to a cloud-based communications and data MSP, it might make more sense to switch to an MSP like TPx before you even move. That way employees will be able to keep working from the old office, the coffee shop or their living room while the move takes place, eliminating the risk of downtime or a customer unable to reach your staff. A managed backup will ensure that your data will be secure off-site before, during and after the move, while the MSP will be available 24/7 to ensure your system stays up and running.
Employee Stress
A move that makes sense for your company might not make sense for your employees, particularly your top performers. If an employee can’t relocate due to kids in school, a spouse’s job or personal preference, TPx’s cloud-based communications systems and productivity software like Microsoft Office 365 will make it simple for your staff to work remotely while still interacting with the rest of your team and your customers.
Equipment Upgrades
Remember your first apartment? You probably had an old couch, coffee table or BBQ that worked fine but wasn’t worth loading on the moving truck for your next place. In the corporate world, businesses often have the equivalent in phone systems, security or servers that are fine to use at their old location, but not worth the cost or hassle to move and reinstall. TPx’s managed services solutions can help you reduce up-front capital expenditures by hosting your communications and data systems off-site, turning those costs into a simple monthly fee while reducing your maintenance costs and enhancing your customer service.
Extra IT Time
A relocation is going to mean a lot more work for IT to set up systems in the new location, install new equipment, onboard new vendors and train everyone on new technology. In the meantime, they still have to get all their regular work done too. If you don’t carefully manage IT’s workload, a ball will eventually get dropped, significantly impacting your employees and your customers. With TPx’s managed services, you can have a single vendor install, support and manage your phone systems, productivity software, data storage and more, reducing complexity and freeing up your IT staff’s time for higher-value digital initiatives. Best of all, with a single vendor you will have only one monthly bill and one account manager to work with, reducing complexity even further.
By working with you to incorporate a cloud-based communications and data platform, a Managed Services Provider can help you navigate and mitigate the hidden risks and costs of relocation that can most impact your business. To learn more about the business benefits of taking your communications to the cloud, read TPx’s white paper “The Business Benefits of Hosted Unified Communications.”
About the Author
Stacey Kendall is a Product Marketing Manager at TPx Communications. Her role is focused on marketing for TPx’s suite of Communications & Collaboration offerings, including the UCx Hosted Unified Communications Service and SmartVoice SIP Trunking. Stacey holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing with a specialization in Information Technology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She resides in the greater Boston area. -From Our Gang at KCCi, Thanks, Stacey!
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KC Communications Inc. / KCCi
2715 Saturn Street, Brea, CA 92821
Local: (714) 577-7777 • Toll Free: (888) KC-4-NEXT or (888) 524-6398 • eMail: Jason@KC4Phones.com • Matt@KC4Phones.com
KC Communications Inc. / KCCi
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