Page 5 - Telecom Reseller August-September 2018

August/September 2018
Telecom Reseller 5
CHILCOTT
These kinds of disparate UC environments are not the exception—they’re the norm—and this diversity is often an obstacle to success.
It raises interoperability concerns and adds expense, time and complexity to the UC environment.
For UC to work at peak performance, many different elements must be in harmony. After all, the UC experience is only as strong as its weakest link. And there are a lot of links in the UC chain. A UC platform doesn’t only include multiple vendors, it also involves a variety of network connections, third-party headsets and speakerphones, mobile endpoints and much more. The slightest issue in any of one of these pieces can easily disrupt the chain, resulting in a suboptimal UC experience.
How do organizations arrive at this complex, multivendor state to begin with? It can come about in all sorts of ways. For example, let’s say your company launches an acquisition campaign and each new business you acquire runs a different UC system. Or you might open new international locations or branch offices, all with their own particular needs. Presto, you have a heterogeneous, multivendor environment.
Here are three ways to more effectively manage your complicated UC environment and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Transformation 2022: Creating Long-Term Sustainable Voice Business ...continued from page 3
1. GET BETTER MANAGEMENT BUY-IN
Whenever a performance issue crops up, such as dropped calls, a garbled voice conversation, or a jittery or frozen video connection, organizations immediately turn to the UC administrator or team to fix the problem. That’s understandable. But the cause of the problem might not have anything to do with the specific UC system itself.
Instead, the issue could be with the SBC, a networking device or configuration, or with a particular endpoint device. If so, resolving the problem quickly is complicated because the UC folks often don’t have the authority or budget to swap out networking gear, conference room hardware, or put UC-optimized devices in the hands of end users. Different groups within the company have responsibility for each piece of technology within the UC eco-system.
This sort of problem is usually worse in a multivendor environment because so many different technologies and vendors are in
play. But issues can be solved if the initiative comes from the top. UC folks need to have
an executive sponsor who will go to bat for them and empower them to identify and fix problems in any relevant technology to ensure that the UC environment is operating at peak performance.
pace of change in the market. They have the opportunity to maximize profits by finding new operational efficiencies. Fortunately, new technologies and approaches are enabling Service Providers to simplify operations in an otherwise very complex Voice market.
2. USE THE RIGHT TROUBLESHOOTING TOOL
When trouble does arise, many organizations struggle to identity the exact cause. Often they’re not sure where to start. Should they begin by looking at this particular UC system or that one? Is it a contact center application or an endpoint device?
In today’s multivendor environment, UC systems are interconnected and dependent upon each other. That means you need
the visibility into each of your systems to troubleshoot across the entire platform and UC solution. Of course, troubleshooting
can be a manual, time-consuming process. Yes, you might eventually discover the root cause of your problem by sifting through logs and command lines—but by that time it will probably be too late. The damage has already been done.
The good news is that the right troubleshooting tool can help you immediately figure out what’s wrong , identify the root- cause, and necessary fix for the the problem. The best tools can even proactively generate alerts before issues become critical. This is very important because you want to be notified as the problem is developing, not after, so you can resolve it before any serious damage is done.
By 2022, Carriers need to take these steps to create a sustainable Voice business. With optimized processes, they will be able to instantly react to a market that is changing. From 2022 onwards, they will be better placed to adapt and evolve with the industry. n
continued from page 1 3. MONITOR ACROSS ALL VENDORS
Most UC vendors offer monitoring tools that supervise their own platforms or specific elements such as an SBC or call management applications and servers. But that’s not good enough. Why? Because having multiple monitoring solutions for multiple systems
or elements is expensive and labor intensive. What’s more, for most vendors, monitoring tools are not a top priority; often far too basic without the necessary depth and breadth required to be valuable. The monitoring and management capabilities often takes a backseat in their overall product roadmap.
A better option is to have a single management solution that monitors all environments and provides broad, multivendor support. The ability to manage all UC
vendors from a single platform can ultimately drive down operational costs and help your organization deliver a better user experience.
When UC systems work well, they can
truly power your organization’s digital transformation. When they don’t, they can result in frustrated users, lost productivity and squandered opportunities. But with the right investment in people, processes and technology, you can seamlessly manage and optimize your multivendor UC environment. n
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