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Top Four Considerations for Migrating to Office 365

Posted on September 16, 2020January 29, 2024 by Bluewave

Migrating to Microsoft Office 365 from an on-prem environment can deliver significant benefits for organizations. The transition to the cloud levels the playing field for companies of all sizes because it gives businesses the ability to leverage cloud versions of multiple Microsoft products, without the hassle and cost of buying, configuring and managing servers in-house. Instead, the administrative burden is shifted primarily to Microsoft and the cloud. Programs like Microsoft Exchange Server, SharePoint, Skype for Business and access to programs such as Word, Outlook, OneNote, Excel, Publisher, and PowerPoint are available to users anytime and from anywhere. With this capability, subscribers can synchronize documents working on different platforms. If users have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, a computer, laptop or mobile phone, and an internet connection, they have instant access to all the tools they need to do their jobs. These capabilities give organizations and users the extreme flexibility to access applications whenever and wherever they are working from, ultimately powering greater collaboration and productivity across the business. With so many different products in the Microsoft Office 365 suite, the challenge becomes successfully managing the migration process to the cloud while avoiding unexpected downtime, loss in productivity or extra stress on already-stretched internal IT teams. Communication and planning are keys to ensuring a smooth transition to Office 365. Business leaders and IT need to efficiently communicate with users about what to expect during the transition, prepare a detailed transition plan and have the right Microsoft support options in place before converting. Before taking the leap, keep these and other top considerations in mind before starting your journey to Office 365.

There are hybrid deployment prerequisites- The truth is that when considering Office 365, it’s rarely all or nothing proposition. Most organizations want the ability to host some Microsoft instances in the cloud for mobile workers, as well as have the ability to run some on-premise for those working on site. An example of this might include mixing on-premises Exchange mail use with Office 365. The good news? A hybrid solution is possible! The bad news is hybrid architectures can be challenging to set up, and there are hybrid configuration prerequisites. (Source: Microsoft). If a hybrid cloud option still sounds appealing, it’s also essential to consider things like identity management and security policies for both on-prem and cloud applications. Office 365 hybrid options generally make sense for large-scale organizations that have thousands of users or for companies that are working on a staged migration. For some companies, it’s also pertinent to integrate cloud platforms and services with existing on-premises infrastructure as part of the overall IT strategy.
Archiving email can be tricky- Just starting the conversation with Microsoft Outlook users about migrating to a new email platform can cause anxiety. People can’t afford to lose archived or non-archived emails. It’s simply not an option. The challenge is that most on-premises legacy archive solutions used for email migration efforts don’t work with Office 365. While there are exceptions, using exporting capabilities, for example, those applications can be extremely slow and tedious. When talking about terabytes of data, the process can be time-consuming and a daunting project.
Network speeds can significantly affect migration velocity- Before starting on an Office 365 transition plan, organizations should identify their maximum available network capacity. Because there are a myriad of factors that can affect network speeds and performance, this may take some digging. Microsoft suggests contacting your broadband provider to confirm allocated bandwidth and to get details about any restrictions. This could include the total amount of data that can be transferred in a specific period. They also suggest testing the flow of data from on-premises data source to the Microsoft datacenter gateway servers. Other activity happening on the network such as scheduled backups, data transfers, or archiving activities can also severely impact network capacity and as a result, the speed of transitioning to Office 365.
Paying more for support up-front could end up costing you less- Finally, companies looking to streamline their transition to Office 365 should have adequate support plans in place first. While many large organizations opt for bigger support packages, sometimes small and mid-size organizations select limited Microsoft support options, hoping to save money. This strategy can sometimes backfire if something goes wrong like importing data into Exchange Web Services (EWS), for instance. How much would an email account outage affect your business? What if it happened for 4 hours, or even 4 days? Some risks aren’t worth taking. For those working on a hybrid approach, most recommend an Office 365 support plan that includes Azure Active Directory synchronization. (Source: Microsoft).

If your organization would like help mapping out a successful migration plan or would like recommendations about hybrid options, talk to Bluewave today! We have extensive experience in Office 365 and can facilitate the planning, management, and execution of the entire migration from start to finish, or we can fill in the gaps during your staged migration effort.

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Failover Internet – Once Optional, Now Mission Critical

Posted on August 26, 2020January 29, 2024 by Bluewave

Network Availability – Now More important Than Ever

Even the most reliable networks have occasional outages. Whether it’s a core network failure (rare) or a misguided backhoe digging in the wrong place (unfortunately common) there’s no argument that it happens. We are operating in a connected world, 100% uptime is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a “must have.” Loss of connectivity affects point-of-sale, DaaS, accounting software, Salesforce, UCaaS, CCaaS and a whole myriad of mission critical applications which reside in the cloud.

Calculating the Real Cost of Internet Downtime

A very simple approach to determine the cost of downtime is to calculate what an hour’s worth of revenue looks like. If you assume your business is open 52 weeks a year and operates on a normal 40-hour work week, there are 2080 hours in a year. Simply take the annual revenue amount, divide it by 2080 and that will give you the revenue per hour. Annual Revenue = Revenue/hour (52 x 40)

Multiply that revenue per hour times the number of hours a primary circuit goes down and you have an approximation of what that downtime means in terms of productivity. In a joint study, Cisco and AppDynamics found that downtime cost small and medium-sized businesses between $8,580 and $74,000 per hour! That is a significant risk and one that can be easily mitigated with the right back-up solution.

Top 4 Business Benefits of Wireless Failover Internet

They are an inexpensive insurance policy against the hourly productivity cost of internet interruptions.
They are very fast to deploy; no waiting for cable or fiber to be installed.
When engineered well, today’s wireless technology can handle hosted applications like VoIP, IP VPN and other high-bandwidth/low-latency types of traffic.
Offer a completely diverse path into your locations. No shared conduit or network elements between their primary and backup connections means complete redundancy.

Fully-Managed Solutions Save Time and Money

Our leading wireless providers offer a complete array of failover and back-up wireless solutions. You don’t need to worry about managing multiple wireless contracts based on physical location. The wireless provider can pool all carrier data plans into a single pool for you that can be drawn against when and if the inevitable primary internet failure happens. Consider how much productivity is saved by implementing a reliable, secure and physically redundant connectivity solution.

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How UCaaS Integration Can Enhance Your Microsoft Teams Calling Experience

Posted on August 20, 2020January 29, 2024 by Bluewave

In light of the movement restrictions imposed by the ongoing pandemic, and the transformation of working practices that’s taking place as a result, organizations across the globe are turning to platforms like Microsoft Teams and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), for their collaboration, teamwork, and communication needs.

However, telephony still plays a central role in business communications and Microsoft Teams users often find navigating their way through the calling options and pricing structures a confusing affair. That’s where integrating Microsoft Teams with a comprehensive UCaaS solution can make the picture much clearer, while expanding your global reach.

What Microsoft Teams Voice Features Have To Offer

The Microsoft platform offers Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP calls from one Teams client to another, via its Phone System with Microsoft Calling Plans or Direct Routing for PSTN services. This incorporates features like call answering and initiating (by name and number) with integrated dial pad, call holding, history, forwarding, and simultaneous ringing.

How UCaaS Integration Expands Your Calling Options

Microsoft Teams Calling puts its main focus on compatibility with Office 365, and integrates with all the tools from that productivity suite that many businesses require.

For organizations at all levels, Microsoft Teams is typically employed as an internal communications tool. A UCaaS platform with cloud PBX can make those communications capabilities external, thereby extending the functionality of the platform.

At a basic level, while Microsoft Teams assembles Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive in a single place, more complex functions are not immediately available within the platform. For example, information shared during conferences can’t be easily archived, since call recording isn’t a standard feature, as it is with a VoIP-based UCaaS solution. The chat, video conferencing, and telephone capabilities of UCaaS also contribute to rounding out your communications and collaboration potential.

A Unified Communications as a Service platform with hosted PBX lets you use any phone that you choose — whether that be a desktop unit, softphone, or mobile device. This means that with a UCaaS solution, you can use Microsoft Teams as a softphone, across any device or platform, with your own business line.

Finally, since Microsoft takes a “hands off” approach to customer service, Teams users must rely on Microsoft’s online databases and their own initiative, for technical support. This is not the case with a reliable UCaaS provider, who will typically be available 24/7/365, with proactive support and assistance.

Seamless Integration Options Are Available

Several leading suppliers in our portfolio such as 8×8, CallTower, RingCentral and net2phone offer native integration into Microsoft Teams, which gives the Teams user added capabilities. These include a calling plan with International calls, which provides truly unlimited calling rather than a set allocation of minutes. Subscribers can unbundle the traditional 1:1 offerings and model after the call path seat / call path channel PRI / shared lines model to further reduce costs and scale capacity as needed.

A cloud PBX provides a comprehensive set of features such as auto attendants, ring groups, hunt groups, welcome greetings, call recording, eFax, SMS / MMS Messaging, Live Chat, video conferencing, and user analytics. All of these features can be automated and configured with a single click. Furthermore, it’s all backed by a Tier 1 global carrier with 24/7/365 support.

Reach out to us to learn about the options available to meet your company’s specific needs.

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How to Select the Right Cloud Contact Center Vendor

Posted on July 10, 2020January 29, 2024 by Bluewave

In today’s competitive business environment, customers’ expectations are higher than ever. They want 24/7 access to customer service help and they expect to be able to access all customer service channels at any time, day or night. Your company’s ability to respond to customer support calls rapidly while delivering a high-touch customer experience is a necessity. Positive customer support establishes brand loyalty and customer engagement, and it’s the lifeblood of your business.

To provide that golden standard of customer service, your contact center must rely on multiple tools and several layers of technology. These disparate systems and applications must also work together to deliver a complete view of the customer. Contact center software and integrated business tools should empower customer service agents to quickly access customer data as well as support protocols that help solve customer issues quickly.

Cloud-based contact centers take off

The added complexity and increasing demands placed on today’s contact centers could help explain the uptick in cloud-based contact centers over the past several years. In fact, the cloud-based contact center market is expected to grow some 24% from 2016 to 2021, per a December 2016 report from Research and Markets. That’s an increase in market size from $5.4 billion in 2016 to $15.7 billion. (Source: TMC News December 1, 2016.)

The benefits of a cloud-based contact center range from greater flexibility and scalability to lower startup costs. Other benefits include:

Greater agility
More complete and professional service offerings (i.e. multiple language support, high-tech chat functions, etc.)
SLAs ensuring consistent and reliable customer interactions
Shared resources in the cloud make startup costs lower
Ability to focus on key business initiatives

However, selecting the right vendor is critical in capturing the full benefits of a virtual contact center model. If you’re considering this route, it’s important to ask the following questions:

1) What reporting and analytics can you provide?

It used to be that the primary function of a call center was to take customer calls and to answer questions about products or services. Today, most contact centers need the ability to provide technical support, as well as check order status, process returns and orders and much more.

These touchpoints with customers are extremely valuable and may be one of the only one-on-one interactions customers have with your brand. Having KPIs in place, BI metrics and real visibility into what the customer experience is actually like are critical.

Dashboards and reporting- Ask your hosted contact provider if their cloud software has dashboards and reporting tools that will let you see how many calls are in the queue, how long customers are waiting, when and if customers jump ship, etc. Once the call center managers have that level of detail and analytics about customer interactions, they can better accommodate demand and improve service.

2) How will your technology integrate with mine?

Because contact center agents need to access many tools at once, it’s imperative that the contact center software plays well with other business applications. Ask the vendor:

Will your cloud application integrate with my CRM applications, chat app, e-commerce system, and social networking platforms? How much is automated? The smoother business tools integrate with call center software, the more efficient and productive your team will be. Imagine if when a note is created in your call center software, it also creates a note in your e-commerce platform? Or when a chat session is finished, the transcript is automatically saved to the CRM customer contact? These meaningful details captured and referenced can elevate your contact center to a more strategic function of your business.

3) How will your cloud platform make my life easier?

The right cloud-based contact center services improve business continuity because they ensure the same high-level of customer service is delivered across the organization. It also unifies multiple locations and remote agents on a single, integrated platform. That means when you make changes to your customer support strategy, such as launch new training on products or update procedures on handling support issues, you’ll be able to communicate plans once. By establishing a cloud-based contact center you can easily streamline operations and maximize productivity.

A unified platform can also help contact center managers perform lead generation, conduct surveys and obtain customer feedback using the same applications.

4) What support options are available?

Be sure to ask vendors what happens when something goes wrong. What are the service level agreements in place to ensure expectations are met? Make sure your potential providers offer consistent and reliable technical and customer support. A company that will stand by you when questions arise, integrations fail and glitches happen will pay dividends over the long run.

Companies looking to replace on-premise contact center solutions with integrated cloud-based models, stand to realize major improvements in business continuity. A cloud contact center strategy can also deliver cost savings and give companies the ability to offer more comprehensive and professional customer support options that help build customer loyalty. However, the key is to ask the right questions and find a provider that partners with you to meet your company’s needs.

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4 Questions to Ask When Choosing Public, Private or Hybrid Cloud

Posted on June 30, 2020November 19, 2024 by Bluewave

Companies need to ask themselves some questions before deciding on a cloud solutions model.

If you’re considering cloud solutions for your business, you’ve likely explored both public and private cloud options or even discovered the hybrid cloud, a blend of both cloud environments. Moreover, there’s an overwhelming amount of information online, leaving you puzzled over determining which model is right for you. The cloud model you choose depends on which features you find most important and how much you’re willing to invest.

While the more cost-effective public cloud is easy to manage and offers increased scalability, a private cloud provides greater control and heightened security for mission-critical data and applications. Hybrid cloud brings the best of both worlds, merging public and private cloud for lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with enhanced security, scalability and management features.

Ask yourself these questions to determine which solution will best serve your business needs:

Do you need full control over your data processing flow and privacy?
Do you have a need for specific regulatory or compliance requirements?
Do you have dedicated network engineers on staff?
Do you have the resources to invest in server infrastructure and data center management?

If you answered yes to all these questions, a fully private cloud suits your needs; it’s perfect for midsize or larger companies and enterprises with the resources to invest in server infrastructure and data center management, as well as dedicated IT personnel to manage it all. This comes with a higher initial cost, but benefits businesses with highly sensitive information or executives hoping to retain full control over their organization’s data.

Alternatively, if you answered no, a fully public cloud offers you an affordable solution that scales up or down as needed, leaving room for growth for your small or midsize company. With no server or infrastructure investment, a public cloud cuts costs associated with initial deployment, software licensing fees, and dedicated IT personnel.

Somewhere in between? Hybrid can provide a low-cost transition strategy for more cloud-based operations later, or act as a long-term solution that guarantees sensitive data stays on your premises while separately creating a resilient, scalable solution, giving your organization room to grow. Choosing a hybrid model allows you to benefit from lower TCO and quicker results, without compromising sensitive data availability or compliance needs.

Designing your hybrid cloud

Many organizations will decide a hybrid cloud is right for them, but that opens a more difficult question: Which applications should be hosted publicly vs. privately?

The questions above can help determine which applications to host where. The scale of your internal resources for management from both a staff and investment perspective will determine how many applications can be hosted privately or publicly.

From there, examine the needs for each application you’d like to host in the cloud. If you need more control over the data the application contains, a private cloud may work well. If you think a particular application is going to need to grow (or shrink) anytime in the future, the scalability of the public cloud meets these needs.

You’ll also want to consider your availability needs. Many public cloud providers offer service-level agreements that guarantee certain levels of uptime. A private, self-managed cloud may not ensure the same. If downtime for an application is problematic, public may be most suitable. While this leaves you entirely reliant on the provider to fix problems should services go down, a private cloud’s downtime would be your internal responsibility. Be sure to consider whether you have the resources to address downtime issues if you opt for the private option for crucial applications.

Security Needs in Your Cloud Solutions

Finally, be sure you understand each application’s security needs. Based on your risk of an attack, you must determine how the data you plan to store will be secured. Some applications may need to remain on-premises or in a private cloud due to security and regulatory requirements, while other data can be more easily stored in the cloud.

As you evaluate the options for your next deployment, make sure to take both your business’ continued evolution and overall readiness into consideration. Hybrid will make it easy to test the waters without fully migrating over, which makes it just as important to find a vendor that allows you to move freely between private, public and hybrid deployment models. Depending on your business requirements and goals, make sure you carefully weigh this decision with a well-established vendor capable of creating a solution tailored to your business.

Bluewave has the public, private and hybrid solutions available to fit any size business in any industry. We will work with you to create a truly customized solution, ensuring it grows and changes along with your business.

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A Winning IT Leader’s Digital Transformation Strategy: Compliance & Security in Managed Cloud

Posted on June 13, 2020May 2, 2024 by Bluewave

CIOs today are striving to modernize their IT environments and achieve seamless digital transformation while simultaneously executing on core business needs and meeting strict compliance requirements. At the same time, IT professionals must ensure that technology streamlines internal operations effectively and optimizes strategic benefits for their companies. Read about a winning IT strategy: compliance & security.

Today, companies are experiencing a paradigm shift in the IT landscape with more security threats than ever before. Compliance and security are influencing the way IT leaders make business decisions, and these market drivers are moving IT professionals to innovate their technology strategies for a more efficient, flexible, scalable and secure environment. If IT executives are not complying with internal and government regulations or staying ahead of potential security threats, they could be jeopardizing the company.

What Does Compliance Mean for Businesses?

For years, national legislation such as HIPPA, SOX, and others drove data security regulations. It motivated IT leaders to address security concerns around hardware and software according to these compliance policies. Today, there is a new wave of laws affecting businesses on a global level. One of those regulations is GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation, which require companies to govern and manage compliance for the data they produce, increasing the need for data protection and personal privacy.

Consumers must individually “opt-in” or consent to having their personal information ethically used by the company. Therefore, businesses need enterprise-wide data mapping, data inventory, management of vendors, regular auditing, and privacy compliance programs to ensure that they are respecting consumer privacy. Companies that are subject to this law must maintain a record of data processing activities to monitor their compliance. If the regulation is not abided by, GDPR fines can exceed up to 4% of annual company revenue.

Is Security Being Effectively Managed?

While IT leaders aim to meet complex regulatory or internal requirements, they also need to stay ahead of security threats. IT professionals need to keep up with today’s mobile workforce in today’s BYOD-enabled work environment. Effective monitoring is essential, as lost or stolen employee devices must be handled quickly and efficiently.

Also, IT administrators need to keep up with updates, patches, and troubleshooting. Without centralized management, break-fix problems can pile up and prevent IT leaders from focusing on more significant issues.

BYOD Concerns

A BYOD-enabled workplace is also susceptible to internal security vulnerabilities. Research shows that 90%+ of security breaches involve human error, which is why many companies are moving to awareness training or managed cloud partnerships. Employees are jeopardizing company information by just writing their login credentials on sticky notes. While security officers are looking externally for attacks, a company’s most significant security risk could come from internal forces as well.

IT leaders need an Identity Management solution to help properly permit or revoke access to the correct employees. In addition, IT professionals are now including multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a standard practice for security strategy to provide a higher degree of assurance. MFA generates a multi-layered technology that an unauthorized user would have to combat to gain access to a computing device, network, or database. An individual needs to have a minimum of two separate forms of authentication to grant access. This is especially crucial for PCI compliance as organizations are now evaluating to make MFA implementations a new standard for conformance.

Managed IT Cloud Solutions for Digital Transformation

Working with a managed cloud computing provider can deliver secure and reliable solutions to IT challenges that are keeping IT executives up at night. We partner with leading providers that offer a global cloud platform, a team of IT experts for both advanced engineering needs and basic IT support needs, project managers, and a dedicated account management team. Focused on delivering an exceptional client experience either as a standalone offering or partnered with an IT team.

Securing the IT perimeter and delivering a desktop-as-a-service strategy for security and compliance is gaining momentum in the IT space. Solutions are available that enable organizations to move all their applications to a more centralized and secure environment. Through a seamless desktop user experience accompanied with enterprise-grade security, employees can securely access their desktops from any device. A managed cloud desktop will keep your environment compliant and secure with the option to have third-party experts support it.

With a more secure and compliant IT environment, IT leaders won’t need to worry about manually placing policies in place, and they can focus more on initiatives and strategies that drive revenue.

Managed Cloud Providers for Security and Compliance

A top-tier managed cloud provider offers industry-leading network and host-based security tools that meet major government regulations. It addresses business vulnerabilities to mitigate risk, prevents data loss, and protects against attacks. Web-based administration, unified security management, and compliance reporting deliver clear visibility for effective monitoring of all the activities in an IT environment.

Email security, archiving, and automatically updated threat signatures protect against phishing attacks and security breaches. In addition, the network-based inspection firewall, anti-virus software, and anti-malware applications continue to defend the IT environment against malware and other security threats. It’s possible for IT executives to align their technology strategies with their organization’s business objectives. IT leaders don’t just need a managed cloud provider. They need a strategic partner to help them meet the needs and expectations of their businesses. True technology-driven companies are powering their organizations forward and leaving their competitors behind.

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