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Entries by Richard Reiffer

What a UC Implementation Means for the IT Department

Your IT department is a valuable resource. They are responsible for ensuring you have the tools and resources that keep your business moving. From system security, software and application updates to new equipment set-up and repairs, they are the lifeblood of connectivity for a business. Because of this, when you are making the wise choice to move over to Unified Communications (UC), the IT department will play another extremely valuable role. But how exactly will the implementation change the way your IT department functions?

Here are a few IT changes you may experience:
Shifted Responsibilities:
There’s a long list of benefits of implementing a UC solution including enhanced user experience, mobile-friendly options, chat features, video conferencing and more. However, the downside is that it does take some time to switch over from a traditional phone system to a UC solution. Depending on the size of your business, this could mean weeks or months of transition time changing over equipment and processes. Additionally, even though your new systems will require less IT dependency on phone lines and additional servers, it will still require updates, monitoring, and scaling as business needs change.
Enhanced Security Policies:
A new UC implementation means you are likely implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) process as well. BYOD comes with a list of potential security risks for a business. With important business documentation and applications now being made available on a host of different devices and connections, your IT department will need to …

How to Track Savings for Unified Communications

You’ve made the decision to switch to unified communications (UC) for a number of reasons, one of the major points being that you know it will save your organization money over time. You’re in good company because thousands of companies today are installing UC solutions because they want to improve their collaboration efforts while keeping their costs under control. It’s a wise strategy because research suggests that replacing multiple vendors and a traditional phone system with a single-vendor option offers both significant cost savings as well as improved communication processes.

So you know all this to be true, but how do you know it’s actually producing these results for your business?
Ensure Your Plan is Actually Unified
At the core, unified communications is the process your workforce uses to seamlessly connect and communicate with each other regardless of location or device. This occurs through voice, instant messaging, email, video or conferencing. A truly unified solution should empower your staff to use each of these communications methods through a single interface. To do so, the UC solution should have an escalation process that can provide employees with the ability to easily transfer from using the phone to instant messaging, or they are easily able to pull in others to existing conference calls without having to transfer to another platform to do so.
Identify Your Cost-Savings Elements
Although robust and powerful, most UC solutions do not provide any reporting or analysis tools in order to track the …

Mitel Communicator: How User Interface Can Improve Productivity

When making a change in your phone system, there’s a lot that goes on. From hardware changes to technical adjustments to making sure all employees understand exactly how to use all the features and functionality, it can be a big undertaking. One thing you don’t want to be concerned about is not being able to understand how to navigate the user interface once you get it up and running. Nothing hinders employee productivity and communication than when they don’t know how to use their phone system. But when researching phone systems, how do you know if the design will be both easy-to-use AND powerful?

Here are a few things to look for:
Simplicity is Key
During your research process of phone systems, have a professional walk you through the main features of the user interface. With phone system solutions like Mitel Communicator, you are able to customize this interface to include the features that are important to your business. The interface should be simple and easy to navigate, but also highly intuitive and fully integrated for unified communications.
Simple, but Powerful too
One of the main reasons people are changing phone systems over to VOIP technology is to experience the many benefits of instant access from virtually anywhere. Because of this, a quality phone system should support both Windows and Mac users through a single interface with instant access from a smartphone, computer, tablet or desktop. It should also integrate with an email client like Outlook to ensure you have …

how technology can improve interpersonal communication in businesses

How Technology Can Improve Interpersonal Communication

As technology advances, we hear more and more about how disengaged people are becoming as they spend less time talking to each other and more time staring at device screens. But let’s think for a moment about taking advantage of all that staring and turning it into something positive!

How about using those screens to enhance employee collaboration and interpersonal communication? Perhaps instead of asking employees to stay off of social media, turn off their cell phones and disengage from the outside world, instead organizations should shift their focus to finding ways to take advantage of the use of these tools. Because maybe doing so will allow workers to incorporate the technology they love into the business operations, which can increase employee productivity and interpersonal communication.

But how can businesses today make this (sometimes drastic) transition effectively? Here are a few technology transition tips:
Tip #1: Encourage BYOD
Businesses can’t fight the mobile shift any longer, and they’re implementing policies and procedures that promote a ‘work from anywhere’ atmosphere. Allowing an employee to answer emails or conference into a meeting provides the flexibility they need to perhaps catch their daughter’s track meet that afternoon, while still remaining engaged and aware of what’s happening with the business. It’s a convenience that’s seen as a fair trade.

Creating a BYOD (bring your own device) environment keeps employees more deeply connected to the business, encouraging them to respond to emails faster, return phone calls and take care …

5 Tips to Help Improve IT Department Productivity

The task list of most IT departments is usually quite lengthy, from performing system updates, managing equipment, connections and information, it can feel like a non-stop job. Because of this, many IT Directors and CIOs are trying to find ways to help their staff increase their productivity levels while not overworking or micromanaging their teams at the same time.

If you are hoping to increase both employee morale and IT department productivity, consider these productivity tips:
Tip #1 Set Goals and Let Go
Encourage your teams to collaborate and document their goals for the year or the quarter, then allow them to divide and manage the workload. Highlight the strategic goals of the projects so the department feels engaged and motivated to accomplish them. This will also ensure the team understands who’s carrying responsibility for certain aspects of the project. Try not to micromanage the environments either, as that often discourages employees and hinders their ability to provide quality results.
Tip #2 Provide the Necessary Tools
The best IT department is only as good as the resources they have to use each day. It’s the responsibility of the organization to ensure their staff has the most secure and intuitive solutions that help improve productivity, eliminate unnecessary manual hours as well as accurately identify network problems. Today’s technical landscape requires the implement of a mobile workforce where the IT staff can securely access and manage systems from anywhere.
Tip #3 Communicate
I know, communication is always blamed as the problem, right? …

5 Tips for More Secured Unified Communications

Implementing a unified communications (UC) solution comes with some unique security concerns because it combines voice services (VoIP), chat services, email and video conferencing into one system. Because of this combination of elements and their dependence on the internet, the potential for security threats against the business increases. Today’s companies must be taking steps to ensure their communication tools are protected from these more advanced security threats.

Small businesses have a unique challenge because they are often limited by cost and available resources to dedicate to securing their systems. However, there are some effective and simple ways to manage security for small businesses that can help to protect the system from an outside attack.

Here are 5 tips to help better secure your UC solution:
Tip #1: Use a firewall
As a responsible business owner, you need to be able to understand the infrastructure of the security elements you are implementing, that means selecting a firewall that offers a simple configuration and is specifically designed for a small business. When setting up the firewall, block all the unknown traffic and allow traffic only from known sources. The firewall will work to sort through your traffic to ensure it’s safe to utilize.
Tip #2: Require strong passwords
Businesses should require all passwords are used with Session Initiation Protocol or SIP passwords. SIP is defined as, “the protocol defines the messages that are sent between endpoints, which govern establishment, termination and other essential elements of a call. It can be used for …

How Mitel Communicator Can Improve Team Communication

Team communication is critical to the success of any business, so it makes sense that you would want to give your team every advantage. The Mitel Communicator, call manager software that integrates with Mitel communication systems, may be just the advantage you need.
What is the Mitel Communicator?
Mitel Communicator is the unified communications interface that works with Mitel Premise systems to streamline all user communications across your company. Accessible from virtually any internet-enabled devices, for many users, Mitel communicator becomes their first stop for any type of communication.
How Does Mitel Communicator Improve Teams?
There are a few ways that this user-friendly interface can actually improve how teams communicate and collaborate effectively.
Works Across Devices & Platforms
Mitel Communicator is available as a web application via your favorite web browser, as a desktop application, and on a majority of mobile devices. Switching to a new phone system can often mean a learning curve towards full utilization, but because devices remain the same and the interface so simple, users are able to get up to speed almost immediately.
Intelligent Calling
One of the best ways to nurture great team communication is to allow team members to communicate on their own terms. Mitel Communicator allows users to decide how to route their calls based on who is calling them. That means they can send team calls directly to their cell phones when they’re away from the office while salespeople go to voicemail. That means less time returning important calls, and less time dealing with …

The IT Director’s Role in BYOD Security

We used to think of IT Directors as an independent part of an organization, operating in their own little world and fixing problems as they arise. Today, they are a key component to the strategic development and decision-making of the business. In this more modern IT world, some of those strategic decisions include the company’s BYOD security policies.
Developing a Security Policy
Threats like viruses, unsecured devices and theft all put private corporate data at risk. In order to prevent the unauthorized access of this information, an IT Director should implement a security policy that is monitored and enforced throughout the organization. This policy should include:

Corporate Data Protection Policy: Employees should keep all company data separate from their personal data. Additionally, all business data should be encrypted so an unauthorized user cannot access the company data in a readable form.
Restrictions for the Use of Compromised Devices: Mobile devices that have been “jailbroken” or “rooted” should not be permitted for company use. Additionally, all approved devices should have a screen-locked password.
Mobile Security Management Best Practices: Using a security management suite like Mitel Sky prevents unauthorized users from gaining access your company data without enrolling first.
Offline Accessibility Controls: For companies with high levels of security, sensitive documents and applications should be blocked from mobile accessibility. These documents should only be available if the user is directly connected to the corporate network.

Generating Executive Buy-in for BYOD Systems
An IT Director looking for executive approval should identify the …

What do You Really Know About Low Rate VOIP? And is it Right for You?

Believe it or not, Voice Over Internet Protocol (or, ‘VoIP’ as it is more commonly referred to) is now 20-years-old. However, despite it’s two-decade presence in the market, many business owners are still confused as to what it does and how it can save them money and increase productivity.

In a survey conducted by Hello Operator, they found that nearly 71% of consumers couldn’t define what VoIP is without getting a contextual cue. And surprisingly enough, even though younger users are thought to be more “tech-savvy” than older users, the report indicates they aren’t any more knowledgeable about VoIP than their older coworkers.

Since it’s clear more people need to understand the wide-spread benefits of wholesale VoIP for business, let’s point out some important facts about the service:
What exactly is VoIP?
According to dictionary.com, they define VoIP as:

A technology or set of standards for delivery of telephone calls and other voice communications over the Internet, involving the conversion of analog voice signals to digital form.

Because calls are made over the Internet rather than traditional analog phone lines, this provides a great deal of opportunity for a reduction in IT and phone company costs as well as the ability to provide more enhanced communication features that were costly additions for the traditional, analog services.
Is it reliable?
According to the same Hello Operator study, the main concerns with implementing a low rate VoIP solution are reliability during a power outage and call quality.

As for power outages, the …

Important Facts About Optical LAN Installation

Optical Local Area Networks are some of the new “buzz words” in the telecommunications industry. Commonly known as “OLAN” or “PON” (Passive Optical Network), these connections are gaining the attention (and sometimes even some raised eyebrows) from many IT professionals. Although extremely simplistic in their structure, these connections come with a list of benefits from their low costs, easy upgradability, as well as user-friendly standardization options.
What Makes an Optical LAN Different?
To deploy a more traditional infrastructure that could support video, voice, and data, it would require the installation and management of multiple networks with different cables, conduits, hardware and network support. This is not only time-consuming but costly as it requires a tremendous amount of energy and space to support the system.

PON allows you the ability to consolidate all your communications into a single network set up that’s easy to install and more cost-efficient to construct and maintain. It’s low maintenance, robust, fast, as well as highly secure. It does so by using optical fibers to support the entire permanent cable.
How Long Does Installation Take and Will it Impact the Office?
An OLAN installation is a less labor-intensive process, but the actual time frame will depend on the needs of your specific business. The good news is that a single optical fiber replaces about 8 other cables. The reduction in cables requires fewer racks and patch panels. Contractors generally report that installing an OLAN system is a relatively simplistic and …

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Millennia Technologies is a full-service voice and data solutions company for midsize to enterprise customers. Specializing in UCaaS , CCaaS , Cybersecurity , IoT , Voice , Cloud , and more. Our passion is firmly rooted in showing clients how well-designed data solutions can significantly accelerate business operations, and then celebrating their goal-shattering successes.