Polycom and Unify have partnered to maximize your UC investment to provide seamless collaboration, from desktop voice and video to boardroom immersive telepresence for the OpenScape solutions.

The native integration of Polycom voice and video solution with the Unify’s platform offers:

• Seamless integration– Polycom solutions offer unmatched levels of operability, flexibility, and investment protection
• Scalability– Introduce a robust and scalable video and voice collaboration network under the Unify OpenScape platform
• Improved productivity— Full communication experiences through Polycom solutions equip organizations to make swifter and more informed decisions
• Completeness– Nexus IP is partner with both Unify and Polycom and we provide the first line of services and support

To meet up the conferencing needs from small businesses to large enterprises, Unify OpenScape have integrated Polycom voice solution into OpenScape Business and OpenScape Enterprise Express.

• Unify OpenScape Business is designed to meet the specific challenges faced by small to medium-sized businesses that accommodate up to 500 users.

OpenScape Business is a complete, unified communications solution that covers all your communication needs, from one-click web conferencing to visual voicemail and from instant messaging to a multimedia contact centre. (read what Comms Trader review on here)

• Unify Openscape Enterprise Express is designed for businesses with up to 100,000 users.

OpenScape Enterprise Express ends system integration complexity with pre-integrated applications like mobile collaboration, unified communications and Contact Easy collaboration means more efficient operations and more effective employees. (read what Comms Trader review on here)

• Polycom SoundStation conference phones deliver the legendary voice quality, expansive microphone pickup, and advanced audio processing that makes conference calls seem as natural as being in the same room. (read what Comms Trader review on here)

How many times have you happened to be in a big brand shop and you’ve felt completely lost, in the middle of a huge selection of products and you not finding what you are looking for?

Sometimes, the brand shops put you in a situation where you end up thinking that the Products that you need is not available elsewhere. So you force yourself to spend hours , pay huge amount and may have to even wait long if they are low in stock and last but not least you may also face lousy customer service.

This never happens in your habitual shop where they only advice you on the best. Everyone is ready to help and assist you, especially because you’ve built a relationship with them.

The similar situation can be applied when you want to find something in telecoms .

There may be instances, where you may have paid huge amounts of money for your big named telecom circuits and waited for hours on the phone to get lousy support, poor speed or quality in response and ancient technology in exchange.

Sometimes choosing a local telecoms company can help you to find the right telephony solution for your business.

There are five key criteria to keep in mind when choosing a telecom provider:

As part of Unify’s strategic focus on the Mid-Market, UK partner, Nexus IP have announced an ongoing investment in delivering Unify solutions to the 250 – 5,000 user space. This activity will include further enhancements to their sales personnel, professional services and product offerings alongside ongoing support from Unify’s High Touch and Inside Sales teams.

Mark Casey, MD Nexus IP commented:

“Nexus is delighted to be part of the Unify Mid-Market and Enterprise focus programme. We have been serving larger customers for many years as part of our strategy to drive quality telephony & UC solutions into the SMB marketplace, thus this next step into the 250-5,000 user space is a natural next stage for us.”

“Upskilling into more Enterprise level solutions will also benefit our SMB clients by providing them with the assurance that Nexus can help them make the transition into Mid-market, and into products and services that will help them achieve their strategic goals. Telecoms has always been an important part of a company’s overall communication plan, but Mid-market platforms that provide integrated services such voice, unified communications, collaboration, mobility and call centre are now more mission critical to organisation more than ever before.”

“We look forward to working closely with Unify in this area, and helping our customers move up to enterprise-level communications”

Barry Tuffs, Unify VP Channel Sales, UK & Ireland, added:

“As well as sharpening our channel focus throughout 2017, we also aim to strategically grow and train our partners to win more opportunities is the 250-5,000 user space. In order to do this successfully we have created a new and exclusive programme for the right partner profiles to invest in and commit to. We are delighted to announce that Nexus IP, are a dedicated member of this group. Nexus IP have been providing business telephony nationwide for over 30 years, and we know their team will succeed in securing incremental revenue and grow their business as part of this programme.”

Google Keyword Planner clearly shows the popularity of Skype for Business, with 27,100 searches on Google in September 2016; more than 6 times as many as the top end phone system vendors like Avaya and Mitel. So why the popularity, and what is the best way to buy?

Microsoft make their business grade communications platform very appealing, integrating Skype for Business into other key Microsoft business applications such as Outlook and Dynamics CRM. This interoperability is nothing new to the industry, existing vendors have been providing the same features for quite some time. The appeal with Skype for Business is to have one manufacturer provide the communications suite – voice, video, IM and email.

A word of caution though; many people assume Skype for Business comes with a suite of vendor-designed and approved plugins for interoperability with other vendor’s software suites, as is expected by today’s app-driven generation, but this is not the case. If you are considering Skype for Business, make sure you spend some time understanding what interconnects you need with your CRM, accounts and communications network; third party software solutions may stop working when Microsoft launch software updates.

There are four viable options, each with its own advantages and limitations:

Skype for Business certainly does seem appealing on face value. Traditional phone systems require installation services and project management, all adding considerable cost onto a phone system purchase. Skype for Business is made very accessible for businesses already using Microsoft Office 365 – just upgrade your Office 365 subscribers to E5 licence for internal voice, and then add further licencing for external telephone lines.

These easy-access licences do not configure your phone system though, and this is where we see many pain points for Skype for Business subscribers. The Microsoft phone system still needs call patterns and routing, class of service, ring groups, music on hold, auto attendant messages and many other features to be configured. Microsoft only provide licencing, so unless you have Skype for Business trained technicians in-house, you will still need to employ the services of a telecoms installer. If you are looking for a self-service system, there are better systems for that purpose.

To conclude; Skype for Business should be approached in the same regard to previous telco investments. Take the time and invest in enough professional services to ensure a smooth rollout; the cost of downtime is greater than the cost of planning ahead. The E5 licence + PSTN licence from Microsoft is the easy option, but also expensive and comes with alarming terms and conditions. 85% of our Skype for Business involvement is with clients choosing their own private system, not public cloud.

If you want a better understanding about which variant of Skype for Business is right for you, or if you wish to see other options side by side, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to guide you through.

Business continuity – the ability for a business to continue trading during and after a serious incident. Business continuity is significantly weighted towards the preservation of data and so has seen considerable improvements in speed and cost as the cloud becomes more prevalent in modern life. Here are five common causes we see from within the communications industry, to help you review your current business continuity plan.

The Town and Country Planning Order 2013 allows properties being used within Class B1(a) – offices – to be converted to Class C3 – dwelling houses – without the need for full planning application. The net result is a greater risk of your landlord changing their plans for your business space, and a greater demand for the reducing commercial properties available. What would the impact be if your landlord served notice on you tomorrow?

Our recommendation: consider if your business can relocate within the contractual notice your landlord is required to give you. Identify your businesses’ essential services (voice, data, video etc) that would need to move and ask the providers to talk you through the processes, risks and lead times. Consider facilitating remote working and outsourcing as a temporary solution if alternative office space cannot be found quickly.

Unbelievably, Openreach will not divert ISDN lines while there is an open order on the telephone line (a number relocation request is an open order). If the number relocation doesn’t happen on the day your business moves (which does happen) then your business is expected to stay at the former premises until Openreach rebook the event, usually a couple of weeks away. If you do move on the day you planned, which most companies will need to follow through with, you may have no incoming calls for as many weeks as Openreach take to relocate your lines.

Our recommendation: speak with a communications expert who has the experience to identify risks and the ability to explain prevention planning vs cost. Consider changing from ISDN trunks to SIP trunks, which do allow diverts, work on almost any internet connection, and are more appropriate for taking your published telephone numbers with you. The ISDN network will be switched off permanently in 2025, so the move to SIP trunks will need to be addressed at some point.

There may be insurance companies that cover tangible losses under the common risks, but replacement hardware can take weeks, even months, to arrange and configure. What happens to your clients during that time, and what happens to the data you have lost?

Our recommendation: cloud backup is the minimum recommendation, and is not price prohibitive (business grade cloud backup is less than 40p per GB per month). But this is not a complete solution; cloud backup may still need replacement hardware for data restoration. Hybrid backup solutions are the preferred option, offering on premise data backup for instant file recovery and sandbox testing; cloud backup for offsite storage; and virtual cloud servers. These virtual cloud servers are managed by the backup provider and spin up with your data to act as your missing hardware until you arrange replacement hardware. The typical virtual cloud server is up and running within 10 minutes of request and comes at no extra cost when used. Hybrid backup is popular in mid-market and enterprise, but less common within SMB as it only became affordable on smaller scales with the development in cloud.

We have helped clients through many scenarios where they simply cannot access their premises – landlord disputes, snow, and suspected gas leaks to name a few. Whatever the reason, your business and your clients should not be put on hold while site access is discussed and recovered, or long term reputation and revenue damage can occur.

Our recommendation: identify your skeleton staff and enable remote working for them. Remote working is common place these days and the tools to do so are available and secure. It is necessary to test the facility periodically; the time to find out it isn’t working is not when you need it to work. The option to work remotely part-time is increasing in popularity and is often considered as an alternative to an offer of a payrise.

Phreaking, identify theft and website fraud has made solvent companies collapse overnight; a devastating event that often has no insurance cover and no option to avoid financial liability, or recover lost funds. Phreaking is the hacking of a telephone system and calling overseas telephone numbers. Identify theft is the cloning of senior personnel in a business, in order to transfer money out of the business and into an overseas bank account. Website fraud is breaking into a website and installing an iframe that presents another website that appears to be yours, moving transactions away from your business and damaging brand on non-delivery.

Our recommendation: speak with your providers to ensure your voice network, IT network, and website are reviewed with the options provided to you. Some high security has high cost, but take time to understand the risk versus cost so you make an informed choice. Use checklists to reinforce your confidence in your provider.

If you would like to discuss any of the above points and not sure where to begin looking, we are able to discuss options and arrange introductions/demonstrations as necessary. Get in touch here to improve your business continuity plan.

As you may already be aware, 0500 are being withdrawn from service in 2017. If you are not already making plans to move your 0500 numbers to another number, you should start ahead of 3rd June 2017.

0500 numbers are Freephone numbers, similar as the 0800 number range. They are used by public and private sector to provide zero charge calls to the caller, with the cost of the call being charged to the company owning the Freephone number.

0500 numbers are not usually included in mobile phone call packages, even after the 2015 Ofcom review that brought 0800 numbers within mobile phone bundles. This was intentional; 0500 numbers have been heading toward permanent removal for a while. Largely sold by Cable and Wireless since launch in 1982, the number range was withdrawn from sale in 2001 due to poor market awareness on cost and availability. 0500 numbers that have ported away from Cable & Wireless, now managed by other billing providers, will still be withdrawn on 3rd June 2017.

We are able to provide owners of 0500 numbers the option of an 0808 5 number as a direct replacement; for example 0500 123 456 becomes 0808 5 123 456. 080 numbers are free to call from landlines and included in mobile phone call packages. If your 0500 number is published on business cards, websites or email signatures, talk to us and we will transfer your number for you.

You may opt to replace your 0500 number with an 03 number. 03 numbers are the same cost to call as local and national numbers and included in mobile call bundles; this reduces cost to the number owner whilst still providing an affordable, non-geographic number for clients.

The provision of SIP trunks will allow previously geographically-locked numbers (e.g. 0203) to now be available almost anywhere in the world. With an appropriately scoped internet connection, SIP trunks will provide a high definition, real-time voice connection, and retain their assigned telephone number no matter where the internet connection is. This not only helps promote a local presence (for local call rates), it can also reduce international calling costs with the call breaking out from a local/national number in the overseas country.

If you need support with updating your 0500 number, or want to find out how much you could save on your phone and data package, please get in touch.

If that title got your attention then it’s done its job. Phreaking is a very real occurrence in the UK, the worlds 3rd most targeted country, and yet most organisations are unaware that this form of fraud even exists.

The email in the image is genuine. The original receiver of this email had a typical call spend of £7.80 per day; this email advises their daily call spend increasing up to £8,681. In this case the end user was lucky; it was picked up within two days. Some phreaking occurrences are not alerted until the client opens their phone bill at the end of the month, up to 31 days later.

Trained risk assessors will tell you that to quantify risk you multiply the likelihood of the event occuring by the severity of the event if it occurs. If either likelihood or severity are high, the risk needs to be reviewed and considered. If both are high, the risk needs immediatew review. This form is a well established practice that many of you will already have adopted within your business to protect staff in their work activites, but have you condsidered protecting your business from risks in the same way?

Lets apply this risk management principle to Phreaking.

Likelihood

This varies depending on a number of factors, such as how old your system software level is. Because hackers continually create new ways to use your telephone system for fraudulent purposes, system manufacturers continually enhance security features which are rolled out within software updates. If your system is unmaintained, more than 5 years old, or not kept up to date, consider yourself in a higher risk group. If your staff use default passwords on their voicemail, again, consider yourself in a higher risk group.

Some organisations think that they are too small to be a target, however size of business is irrelevant; if you have telephone lines, they are valuable to hackers and need protecting. Furthermore, smaller businesses are recognised as less aware of the risks and less likely to have detection and prevention measures in place.

The UK is the worlds third most targeted country, and the fraud is increasing 15% year on year. Of new clients we take on board, 8 out of every 10 clients have been left exposed somewhere in their existing telephone system.

Severity

The average cost of Phreaking in the UK costs the business £10,000. The annual cost of Phreaking costs the UK £1.2bn; globally that extends to £25.5bn. The email image above shows just how far costs can extend in one day. The severity of Phreaking can, and does, make many financially stable businesses insolvent by presenting a phone bill that is too large to be paid.

Whilst no solution can be considered 100% effective at preventing fraud, there are measures you can take to reduce the risk. Our security checklist will run through the key items that should be considered. Top of the list should be a voice firewall, updated system software, and a sensible password policy to include voicemail passwords.

If you need advice on any points within this artilce, our team are always on hand to help.

Every one of us would like to work smarter, not harder, but it’s not always easy to step back and look at how to improve the way we work. Most of us are already surrounded by technology that can make our lives easier, but taking the time to learn how to use new tools is rarely given the nurture it needs. When facing the never-ending challenges in our personal and working lives, we all need to stop once in a while and evaluate the path we follow.

We should spend 20% of our time finding tools to do 80% of the work. If we don’t, our output per hour cannot increase. There is a risk to us as individuals and corporations if we don’t evolve processes and methods; we get left behind, because the competition will evolve. Every task we do needs to be reviewed and evaluated regularly.

Here are some ideas to help motivate you; tools we use to help our people manage the workload, rather than the other way around.

If you only have one email address, you are one of the lucky few, but you are also being held back. Google is a more powerful experience with a Gmail account; Microsoft Windows is designed around a Live account; your work email address; that old email address that you just can’t let go; and for the entrepreneurs – an email address for every business interest they have.

What you need is an email aggregator; a platform that collects all emails in separate folders, a summary screen for important folder activity, collective calendars & contacts, and the facility to send from any of the email addresses. Our inhouse choice – Microsoft Outlook 2016. It is well worth the time looking into what else Outlook can deliver back to you, such as the rules and alerts feature, and email aliases.

Voice is still the most significant connection between us, our organisation, and the outside world. If you keep your contacts on a paper print out, manually key in telephone numbers to your deskphone, or call people who aren’t there, you are suffering significant disruption to your day.

Move control away from the phone and onto the desktop; you are more capable with a mouse and keyboard than you are on a 3×4 number pad. Keep contacts where you can click to dial; use ‘presence’ companywide so you all know who is away and when they will be back; integrate with CRMs for recognisable incoming call pop-ups; drag and drop conference calls; and route your own incoming calls to voicemail/mobile/secretary at a click.

Our in-house platform of choice – Unify UC Suite. It’s business grade, easy to use and very capable.

A little known service from Google that alerts you by email when a new webpage, news article or blog appears on the internet that matches your pre-defined search criteria. This is more powerful than just a vanity search on your own name; you can find out when your company is mentioned, to follow your favourite sports, to track technology developments, or even just a sale announcement by your preferred brand.

Consider that the desktop handset’s core function is voice transmission; as control of voice moves onto the PC you will no longer need 90% of the handset features. The remaining 10% can be managed more effectively by a headset. Modern headsets are small, light, comfortable, connect to multiple devices, and with batteries that easily last all day. They are increasingly replacing the desk phone as a preferred method of connection.

The primary advantages of headsets are:

• Two hands free to operate PC
• No more shoulder cradling
• More engaging telephone calls when staff are able to walk around and animate with hands
• Connect to multiple devices – PC, mobile phone and desk phone – all day use and futureproof

Our headsets – a combination of Jabra Stealth (remote staff), Jabra Evolve (regular users) and Jabra PROs (knowledge workers). Wireless is the way to go, or you remain tethered to your desk.

Current technology makes remote working very accessible. All our staff have the facility to work from home as part of our DR plan, and many do work from home as a regular activity. Telephone systems with mobility set up allows mobile phones to become their company extension; VoIP telephone systems allow the handsets to work on almost any internet connection; virtual desktops allow a home PC to become a secure work PC; cloud file storage for secure off-site document libraries; and monitoring tools for peace of mind.

The benefits of homeworking are proven. Many offices are distracting; in such environments staff can actually get more done working from home. Less travelling means more time to deliver and increased focus on quality. Home working is motivating, encouraging, environmentally friendly, productive, and cheaper for the business. Everything in moderation of course; pure homeworking can be isolating and have the opposite effect.

The biggest barrier to home working, trust, is not difficult to overcome. To put it simply – businesses should measure employee output, not input. How many hours staff do is irrelevant; it’s what they deliver that counts. That comes from good management, identifying clear responsibilities and measurable targets. For example, a support desk engineer can work from home whilst being monitored on tickets completed, response time, closure time, and customer satisfaction ratings.

Device usage follows a trend – mobile phones are the weapon of choice prior to office hours, desktop/laptop within office hours, and tablet after office hours. For mobile workers, tablets are more convenient than laptops because of the smaller size and lighter weight – they can be taken everywhere without thought or planning. Tablets will provide a more productive mobile team in office hours and a more engaged management team out of office hours.

Our in-house choice of tablets – Microsoft Surface Pros. The full Windows operating system will run bespoke software, the light weight means mobile staff update work in real time, and USB/Bluetooth support allows headset connection for VoIP calls.

If you still ask people to remove you out of group email conversations, you should really be asking why you are still having conversations in email. Mail exchange platforms were never designed for real time communication, and group conversations need to be had in real time. Purpose built platforms like WhatsApp are proving their popularity, designed for real time written communication and collaboration.

The platform we use is Circuit; a business grade application from Unify. Designed in collaboration with frog, the same design team behind the Sony Walkman, Apple, and Windows XP; Circuit allows real time collaboration that keeps our business moving fast.

Very useful and very underrated; note-taking tools allow those million-dollar thoughts to be captured for follow-up. They are literally a pin board of type, handwriting, audio and visual attachments; stored in the cloud and updated in real time. Ideal for collecting personal and business notes, which can be shared with family, friends and work colleagues.

For our note-taking software, we have adopted Microsoft OneNote. It integrates well with the Microsoft software range and it is a business grade application. It’s most powerful when making notes in meetings and during that otherwise unproductive commutes. Perhaps the hardest feature to get used to is the lack of a save button, but when it’s saved into the cloud in real time, you can understand why it doesn’t need one.

Train yourself to look for an app or plugin whenever a re-occurring task starts taking up too much time. Successful apps are lightweight, innovative and designed for ease of use. Free apps come with caution; if it becomes something your business depends on, you will want to have assurance of a product lifecycle and support. If an app doesn’t exist for what you want then please let us know; it could be the next disruptive technology and we would all like to retire early.