Choosing the right Unified Communication (UC) provider can significantly impact your business operations. With the right provider, you can enhance collaboration, streamline communication, and ultimately boost productivity. Here are some key factors to consider while making this decision: 1. Cost And Pricing Models Cost is often a primary consideration when selecting a UC provider. It's essential to explore the different pricing models each provider offers: Subscription Plans: Many providers offer tiered pricing based on user count or features included, allowing you to choose a plan that fits your budget. Pay-as-you-go Options: This model can be more economical for businesses with fluctuating needs, enabling you to pay only for what you use. Bundled Services: Consider providers that offer bundled packages incorporating other necessary services at a reduced rate, potentially saving you money in the long run. 2. Scalability And Flexibility Scalability ensures that the unified communications solutions can grow with your business. Look for a provider that offers: Flexible Scalability: The ability to easily add or remove users or features as necessary is vital for accommodating growth or changes in your organisation. Customisable Solutions: Look for flexible packages that can be tailored to match your evolving business requirements, ensuring you have the right tools as your needs change. 3. Security And Compliance In today's digital age, security is crucial. Your chosen UC provider should adhere to strict security protocols: Data Encryption: Ensure the provider uses strong encryption techniques to protect communications, safeguarding sensitive information from unauthorised access. Compliance Certifications: Check for compliance with industry standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA, depending on your sector. This ensures that your communication practices meet legal requirements and industry best practices. 4. Integration Capabilities A good UC provider should easily integrate with your existing tools and platforms. Look for solutions that can connect with your email, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and other essential software. This integration can enhance efficiency and ensure a smooth workflow. 5. Reliability And Uptime Downtime can severely impact your business operations. Research the unified communications provider’s reliability and uptime history. A reputable provider should offer strong service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee uptime and quick recovery from outages, ensuring your communication remains uninterrupted. 6. User Experience The usability of the communication tools is essential for adoption across your company. Consider providers that offer intuitive interfaces and user-friendly features. A positive user experience will encourage employees to embrace the new system, leading to greater overall satisfaction. 7. Support And Training Effective support and training are vital for a successful UC implementation. Choose a provider that offers comprehensive onboarding resources, ongoing training, and readily available customer support. This ensures your team can maximise the benefits of the UC system and resolve issues quickly when they arise. 8. Feature Set Different UC providers offer varying features, from basic voice and video calls to advanced collaboration tools. Identify the specific features that are most important for your organisation—such as messaging, file sharing, or video conferencing—and ensure the provider can meet those needs effectively. Choosing the right unified communications solutions provider is a significant decision that can impact your organisation's efficiency and communication. By considering the points listed above you can make an informed choice that aligns with your business goals. Take the time to research and evaluate potential providers to find a solution that enhances your communication strategy and supports your team’s success. To discover how choosing the right unified communications provider can benefit your business, please check our case studies, or contact us! Image source: Canva
As your Unified Communication (UC) contract nears its expiration, you might feel overwhelmed by the many providers in the market. Choosing the right UC solution is critical for maintaining seamless communication and collaboration within your business, so making an informed decision is essential. This article will help you explore the best unified communications providers and give you a brief overview of the key factors to consider when selecting the top solution for your needs. Key Factors To Consider When Choosing A UC Provider Choosing the right unified communications provider can have a significant impact on your business operations. When evaluating potential providers, here are the key factors to keep in mind: Cost: Assess different pricing models (subscription, pay-as-you-go, bundled services) and ensure they fit your budget. Scalability: Look for providers that can grow with your business and offer flexible plans. Security: Ensure they have strong security protocols, including encryption and compliance with industry standards. These are just a few important aspects to consider. In a follow-up blog, we will explore each of the above factors in more depth, offering more detailed guidance to make your decision easier. Leading UC Providers In The Market Zoom Zoom stands out for its simplicity and user-friendly experience. It integrates phone, messaging, and video functions while utilising AI-powered features to enhance communication. Zoom is ideal for companies looking for simplicity, reliability and cutting-edge technology in their communications. RingCentral With over 20 years of experience in the UCaaS space, RingCentral offers robust solutions, including full UK & EU data residency and coverage in 46 countries. Its features fall under three categories: messaging, video, and telephony. Offering 99.9% uptime and integrations with Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace, RingCentral integrates effortlessly with platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Salesforce, enabling businesses to maintain existing workflows while enhancing their communication capabilities. RingCentral delivers flexibility and reliability, making it ideal for businesses with international operations. Dialpad Built on the Google Cloud Platform, Dialpad is a smart, secure, and scalable option, seamlessly integrating with key tools such as HubSpot and Microsoft Office 365. Endorsed by Google, Dialpad integrates with the Google ecosystem, making it a perfect solution for teams using Google tools like Gmail or Google Workspace. This is a great choice for businesses that prioritize security and smooth Google integrations. GoToConnect With over 20 years of experience, GoToConnect excels in scalability and IT management, making it perfect for businesses that need advanced IT management and collaboration tools. With the ability to support up to 250 participants and 50 webcams in a single session, GoToConnect provides robust analytics and scheduling tools for better decision-making during busy periods. This makes it a solid choice for larger teams and enterprises needing scalability and operational insights. Feature Comparison Here are some common features offered by UC providers, which you can evaluate based on your specific requirements: Voice and Video Conferencing Instant Messaging Collaboration Tools Mobile Support In an upcoming article, we will take a closer look at these features, discussing how each provider implements them and what additional functionalities they offer to enhance business communications. Making The Decision Choosing a UC provider requires evaluating features, support, and integration capabilities that align with your business needs. As your current UC contract approaches its end, take this opportunity to thoroughly assess options from providers like Zoom, RingCentral, Dialpad, and GoToConnect, each offering unique features to suit diverse business requirements. Start by identifying your priorities, conducting demos, and gathering team feedback to make an informed decision that not only meets current needs but also supports future growth. This careful approach will help you select a UC provider that enhances communication and collaboration within your business. This is a complicated and important process and decision. At Fortay Connect, we are experts in the procurement and implementation of UC solutions. We offer detailed requirements analysis, vendor selection and implementation. So, if you need help choosing the best-unified communications provider for your business, please get in touch. Image Source: Canva
Register for our 30 min TEAMS webinar Microsoft Teams offers integration capabilities with various Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) providers to enhance its communication and collaboration features. These integrations enable organizations to leverage the power of Teams for both internal and external communication, as well as customer support and engagement. Here are some key aspects of Microsoft Teams integrations with UCaaS and CCaaS providers: Get your free whitepaper about TEAMS here. 1. UCaaS Integrations Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) providers typically offer a range of communication and collaboration tools, including voice, video, messaging, and conferencing. Microsoft Teams can integrate with UCaaS platforms to enhance its telephony and voice capabilities. Here's how this integration works: - Calling Plans: Microsoft Teams can be used as a full-fledged phone system by integrating with UCaaS providers' calling plans. This allows users to make and receive calls, manage voicemail, and set up call routing within Teams. - Direct Routing: Organizations can use Direct Routing to connect Microsoft Teams to their preferred telephony providers. This integration allows for seamless PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) connectivity within Teams. - Voice Features: UCaaS integration enhances Teams with features like call recording, interactive voice response (IVR), call analytics, and call center functionality. - Single Interface: Users can access both UCaaS and Teams features within a single interface, streamlining communication and collaboration. 2. CCaaS Integrations Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) providers offer solutions for managing customer interactions and support. Integrating CCaaS with Teams can help organizations improve customer service and engagement. Here's how this integration works: - Omnichannel Communication: CCaaS integration allows customer support agents to handle customer inquiries via various channels, including voice, chat, email, and social media, all within the Teams interface. - Routing and Queues: Teams can be integrated with CCaaS routing and queuing systems to efficiently manage incoming customer requests and distribute them to available agents. - Access to Customer Data:Agents can access relevant customer data and information from CRM systems and databases directly within Teams, providing a more personalized customer experience. - Reporting and Analytics: CCaaS integrations provide insights and analytics on customer interactions, allowing organizations to make data-driven decisions. - Workflow Automation: Automate processes and workflows by integrating CCaaS and Teams, improving efficiency and reducing response times. - Scalability: Organizations can scale their customer support operations seamlessly by adding or removing agents as needed. Register for our 30 min TEAMS webinar UCaaS and CCaaS Providers Integrated with Teams - UCaaS Providers: Cisco Webex Calling, Zoom Phone, RingCentral, and 8x8. - CCaaS Providers: Five9, Genesys Cloud, and Twilio Flex. When integrating UCaaS and CCaaS services with Microsoft Teams, organizations should consider factors such as compatibility, scalability, and the specific communication and collaboration needs of their teams and customers. Additionally, they should consult with their chosen UCaaS and CCaaS providers for detailed integration instructions and support. Want to know more? Register here for our 30 min TEAMS lunch & learn.
RingCentral the only UC & CC Leader When - Tuesday 4th April, 12-12:30pm Where - Virtual As of January 2023 RingCentral is now the only outright market leader providing both Unified Communications and Contact Centre. Spending more than $300 million on R&D in 2022, their solutions are constantly being developed to remain best of breed. The RingCentral UcaaS platform now has over 3,500,000 paid users globally with many of them using the CCaaS solution in combination. Hardly surprising when RingCentral has been the UC & CC market leader for almost a decade. RingCentral can seamlessly replace legacy solutions such as Mitel and Avaya, and can introduce advanced capabilities to enhance the way you engage with customers and colleagues. Join this interactive session to learn how using RingCentral will be an enabler for increased flexibility and productivity of your colleagues, and a maximised customer journey.
3rd Feb, 2023: Fortay Connect is pleased to announce that they are recognised as a RingCentral Reach Gold Partner. As a Gold Partner, Fortay represents the Top 1% of RingCentral's Global channel partners and are best equipped to help European organisations use RingCentral to create an enterprise-grade communication platform. As a RingCentral ReachTM Gold Partner, Fortay Connect is recognised as one of the partners most familiar with RingCentral’s industry-leading UCaaS and CCaaS products.That means when it comes to helping move your communications to the cloud, our consultants and engineers have the expertise, experience, and relationships to ensure a seamless transition. With our long track record of success with RingCentral, we know how to design the perfect cloud solution for your needs. RingCentral Gold Partner Requirements Gold Partner status recognises the top 1% of RingCentral Partners globally, owed to the significance of their knowledge, expertise and impact on customers who want to move their communications to the cloud. Gold Partners have the experience to design the perfect solution for customer needs. Benefits of Selecting RingCentral RingCentral MVP is a full-featured cloud communications solution offering all of the integrated capabilities of team messaging, meetings, and contact center to address the challenges of today’s business environment. Some of the many benefits include; Unifies communications across your company Simplifies multi-location management Flexes when your business flexes Connects mobile and remote workers Instant access to the latest features Greater control RingCentral MVP offers the perfect way to move all of your communications and collaboration systems into the modern world. It unifies voice, fax, text, video conferencing, and audio conferencing into a single network. Our team is available immediately to help your organisation with any RingCentral queries or migrations.
6th Jan, 2023: Fortay Connect is pleased to announce that they are the first UK Zoom partner to receive certification the Zoom Phone Competency. Fortay's consultants are now equipped to help our clients use Zoom to create an enterprise-grade voice, video, and collaboration platform. With many enterprises today operating in a remote or hybrid work model, ensuring a seamless user collaboration experience is critical to user productivity and satisfaction. Fortay’s new Zoom credentials come in addition to the team’s expert-level certifications in RingCentral, Avaya, Mitel and Teams platforms. “Many enterprises are grappling with creating a collaboration architecture that meets the needs of a geographically-dispersed workforce,” says Mark Taylor, Co-founder and Director of Fortay Connect. “When you hire an outside consultant to help, you need an expert who can look across the leading platforms and help you build the best for your users and use cases. That’s what Fortay does. We are experts in mapping client requirements to platform architecture decisions.” Zoom Phone Competency Requirements Zoom Phone Competency enables trusted voice professionals to become certified in delivering Zoom Phone for a seamless customer experience, ensuring successful adoption and deployment of the platform. To gain entrance to this certification program, firms must have a minimum two years as a voice consultant and five customer testimonials on record. Benefits of Selecting Zoom Phone Zoom Phone is a “modern cloud phone system.” Together with their meetings platform, it provides an enterprise-grade collaboration hub for video, voice, chat, and meetings. The three biggest advantages of Zoom Phone are: The enterprise features: Zoom Phone includes traditional PBX features that enable employees to talk and interact in new ways to keep businesses moving. Centralised management: You can provision and manage users and intelligently monitor business interactions with an easy-to-use centralized administration portal. Security and reliability: The globally distributed Zoom cloud platform delivers secure HD audio with enterprise-class reliability and quality of service. For businesses interested in a cloud-first phone system to better accommodate a remote or hybrid employee geographic footprint, Zoom Phone is a leading option in the market. If you’re already using Zoom’s meeting, webinar, or room capabilities, there is even more reason to consider extending your platform to include Zoom Phone. Fortay's Professional Services Zoom Phone Competency Partner's are encouraged to develop value-added services to enhance the client platform experience. As a voice and collaboration consultant for nearly 25 years, Fortay has a deep understanding of the evolution of collaboration infrastructure in the enterprise. Today, our collaboration expertise includes architecting cloud-first unified communications platforms. Fortay's value-added services for the Zoom platform include: Platform selection and design Deployment, including integration with other platforms and systems End user training and adoption to ensure maximum system value Our team is available immediately to help your organisation with Zoom Phone or general platform integration help.
Maximise your IP Office investment with Avaya Cloud Office RingCentral and Avaya introduce Avaya Cloud Office, a Unified Communications (UCaaS) platform with Avaya phones, services and migration capabilities. Providing customers with next-gen, cloud communications capabilities including high reliability, security, functionality, and broad enterprise app integrations. Exciting news, but what does this really mean for your business and your IP Office investment? Join our 30 minute lunch to learn about; The most advanced features in the market, such as Video, Chat, Collaboration, along with Calling and more A seamless, stress-free migration path Existing Avaya phone integrations with zero touch provisioning Exclusive migration incentives for IP office customers 200+ ready-to-use integrations with business cloud apps, including Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk and Google Workspace. Register today and leave with an understanding of how to maximise your investments and mitigate technology depreciation while increasing end-user value and productivity. Lunch is on us - all attendees will receive a £15 JustEat voucher! Time; 12:30-1pm Date; Tuesday 15th November Location; Virtual
RingCentral became Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS partner, providing customers with a next-gen, cloud communications platform with high reliability and security, functionality, and broad enterprise app integrations. Exciting news, but what does this really mean for your business and your Mitel investment? Join our 30 minute lunch to learn about; A seamless, stress-free migration Mitel & RingCentral phone integrations with zero touch provisioning Advanced calling features Exclusive migration incentives forMiCloud Connect, SKY, MiCloud Flex, MiCloud Office, or MiCloud Business customers. Register today and leave with an understanding of how to maximise your investments and mitigate technology depreciation while increasing end-user value and productivity. Lunch is on us - all attendees will receive a £15 JustEat voucher! Time; 12:30-1pm Date; Thursday 22nd September Location; Virtual
