We talk to Lesley McKibbon, lead project manager for Allstream’s UC operations, about how unified communication tools and managed IT services can keep businesses connected — and productive — during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The initial rush to enable work-from-home during a global pandemic had businesses flocking to cloud-based UCaaS—which has limitations when deployed over traditional WANs. A better long-term solution could be SD-WAN, which optimizes available residential bandwidth.
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Technology will continue to play a huge role in allowing contact centres to operate while adjusting to the new realities of COVID-19. We look at the IT tools that will help you walk the line between moving some agents back to the office while keeping some in WFH mode.
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This year’s Enterprise Connect conference—a gathering of the unified communications and collaboration industry—was well positioned to shift gears and go completely virtual. We sum up some of the key messages from industry experts, from WFH to cloudshifting.
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Since China is two or three months ahead of the rest of the world in dealing with COVID-19, a look at how the virus is affecting Chinese IT spending could be prescient for the rest of the global enterprise community.
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The evolution of unified communications offers a modular, cloud-based architecture that makes UC more mobile, flexible and scalable—and it uses APIs to bring levels of integration and convergence that we’ve never seen before. Here’s a look at what’s ahead.
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Collaboration services must always work, but also work with the highest level of quality to ensure a good customer experience. With Allstream IT CloudView powered by Cisco Meraki, it’s now possible to not only prioritize traffic, but also gain instant visibility into your network.
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While we’ve seen unified communications move from on-prem to the cloud, this year will see further consolidation of collaboration tools with platform plays, more APIs for customization and new tech like AI that will take UC to a whole new level.
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The disparate pieces of the UC puzzle are finally coming together as a more unified, cohesive entity for enterprise customers. Here’s what you need to know about the next evolution of unified communications.
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Channels that will transform the contact centre — and the customer experience — include virtual assistants, proactive automation, web chat, instant messaging and mobile applications. Here’s a preview of what’s to come in the next five years.
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Our expert guest blogger from Frost & Sullivan examines the evolution of traditional unified communications to a truly collaborative social business using the latest technological tools.
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As the technology matures beyond voice, messaging and conferencing, UC&C solutions will incorporate new technologies such as AI, IoT and SDN to offer entirely new capabilities. We talk to Robert Arnold, a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, about his latest research.
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Mobile phones are poised to become the go-to device for unified communications and collaboration in the next few years, according to a new survey. As we enter the era of 5G, there’s no better time to start planning for mobile UC&C.
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expertIP sits down with Robert Hamer, who leads Allstream’s Unified Communications Strategic Product Group (SPG), to talk about trends in UC, how Allstream is innovating in this space and what customers can expect in the months to come.
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But stumbling blocks can still crop up when organizations adopt any technology. Here are potential speed bumps to be aware of — and prepare for — on the road to UCaaS.
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If the thought of meeting with holographic colleagues in a virtual boardroom to collaborate on a project sounds like the stuff of sci-fi movies, that is, in fact, where we’re heading — and the technology isn’t light years away. Get ready for the emerging world of UC&C VR.
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Artificial intelligence is already changing the way UC&C contact centre applications work today. But industry experts say it has far greater potential to streamline collaboration, reduce unnecessary clutter and proactively find solutions to common employee problems.
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Unified communications-as-a-service is now a viable alternative for many enterprise deployments, according to the research firm — but not all. Here’s how to determine if an on-premise or cloud-based solution is best for your organization.
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IT analysts say speed is the key to survival in this digital age. A new kind of communications technology — workstream communications and collaboration — purportedly helps businesses facilitate agility and stay competitive. But is it for you?
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Email is inherently inefficient and insecure; there are better, more focused ways for teams to communicate. So why are so many organizations afraid to move away from email?
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More than 1,500 IT pros made their way to the Toronto Congress Centre last week for Cisco Connect — Cisco Canada’s flagship ICT event that offers in-depth education and training sessions, insight into the latest technologies and industry networking opportunities.
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There are few true enterprise-grade deployments of unified communications on mobile devices. Here’s why mobile UC hasn’t gained more traction, what challenges are being overcome and why it might be time to reconsider.
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Cloud, on-premise or hybrid? A new infographic can help IT decision-makers choose the right model for their organization’s collaboration requirements.
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More enterprises are buying into cloud for UC, according to a survey from Nemertes Research. But if you don’t sell it to staff, workers won’t get enough training on the technology, they won’t use it and you’ll end up with weak ROI numbers at your next IT budget review.
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A shift toward cloud services and the adoption of advanced analytics tools will help build a use-case for unified communications that hadn’t existed previously, according to one analyst.
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