In a popular tune from the 1930s, legendary jazz artist Fats Waller sang, “find out what they like, and how they like it, and let ’em have it just that way.” Nearly a century later, that message is right on the mark for business communication providers.
According to a recent global survey from Techaisle, nearly half of organizations are either investing in or planning to invest in unified communications (UC) solutions. However, they aren’t looking for one-size-fits-all solutions — they need systems tailored to their specific requirements.
Organizations today need to support a dynamic mix of office, remote and mobile workers while also enabling customer communications across multiple channels, including phone, email, chat, text and mobile apps. More often than not, they need to optimize a unique mix of on-premises and cloud-based technologies in order to support new business processes and organizational structures while also accommodating legacy applications and infrastructure.
Options Abound
On-premises UC is the dominant business communications platform. In the Techaisle survey of 1,361 organizations in the U.S., U.K, Australia, France and Germany, 88 percent reported they are using some on-premises UC solutions. However, 44 percent said they are combining on-premises solutions with a cloud solution, and 47 percent are either evaluating or currently moving their on-premises communications to the cloud.
There’s just no simple, standard approach that fits everyone. On-premises solutions are better suited for companies that want to create custom integrations with business applications and contact center operations. However, moving to a hosted UC solution in the cloud makes sense for companies that want a user-friendly platform with fewer management responsibilities.
Of course, it’s not always a binary choice between cloud and on-prem. Even if you settle on a fully hosted solution, the cloud migration process doesn’t happen overnight. To prevent loss of functionality during the migration, you need to ensure integration of the two platforms.
Such a hybrid mix of cloud and on-prem will actually be the ideal model for some organizations. For example, one company might want to protect its on-prem telephony investment while adding enhanced communications such as team collaboration and video conferencing from the cloud. Another might want to maintain on-prem phone management at headquarters while extending cloud connectivity to branch offices.
Flexible and Future-Proof
Given all possible deployment and infrastructure options, organizations need to choose solutions that won’t become obsolete if their requirements change. That’s why it is important to work with a provider that has a broad and deep portfolio of interoperable and future-proof products.
Mitel addresses these requirements with solutions built for any deployment scenario. For example, it offers private cloud, public cloud and on-prem deployment options for its feature-rich MiVoice Business UC platform. In addition, the platform is available through a traditional CapEx perpetual license purchase or an OpEx subscription model.
Mitel’s software assurance program helps preserve functionality for the long haul. The program’s ongoing tune-up process ensures that all product enhancements are properly integrated into the UC platform in a timely manner at no additional cost. These continuous improvements help ensure a smooth transition should changing business requirements dictate a major system upgrade.
Modern communication solutions are essential for maintaining connections among customers, partners and highly distributed workforces. But “modern” can have a short shelf life. Technology changes rapidly, and today’s cutting-edge solutions can quickly become outmoded. Working with a provider who is committed to flexible products and continuous improvement can help ensure you always get what you want, when you want it. Contact Verteks to discuss the various Mitel options and assess which one is right for your business.
