Users expect to communicate as they do with consumer applications – anywhere, anytime, on any device, with a single click. According to Gartner, by 2022, 70% of businesses will rely primarily on business collaboration tools to get work done. This number is likely to increase given the current health crisis and the increasing number of remote workers.
While there are many video-conferencing / collaboration solutions out there, there are very few providers that are able to deliver true collaboration solutions. A true collaboration solution not only delivers world-class collaboration features such as video conferencing, persistent chat, desktop sharing, file sharing, group editing, multi-party audio-video calling, remote/mobile/guest conferencing, etc. but also seamlessly integrates with a voice solution to deliver enterprise-grade PBX features, business continuity, and high-availability (99.999% uptime) all while maintaining the team’s end-user experience.
Like most businesses, if your enterprise is looking for an all-in-one, secure, scalable, voice-enabled collaboration solution, then here are the top 15 questions that you need to consider before choosing a true business collaboration platform:
1. What is your Collaboration Strategy (meeting, video, mobile)? Do you have single/multiple communications & collaboration solutions in place? Have you considered transitioning to a single collaboration solution such as voice-enabled Microsoft Teams or Cisco UC?
2. What is your Hiring / Recruiting Strategy? Are you hiring a more mobile/younger workforce?
3. Do you have a Work From Home (WFH) Strategy in place for your employees? What kind of applications do your employees access while they are mobile? How will they access applications, hosted on-premises, or collaborate when remote?
4. What is your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy? If your employees don’t have a work laptop to bring home, this is a great time to investigate an ‘any device’ strategy.
5. Do you have a Business Continuity Plan in place to carry out business as usual during a health crisis, natural disaster, or geopolitical issue?
6. Does your enterprise need to meet any Compliance requirements? Can you host your solutions in HIPAA/HITRUST, PCI, SOC compliant datacenters? Have you considered an Identity & Access Management / Single Sign-On solution to easily secure, access, and manage your applications?
7. What groups, other than IT, may have deployed a solution? How will you integrate their solutions and projects with other teams?
8. What are the ‘must-have’ requirements for your collaboration solution?
9. What are the core needs and features that you absolutely must have from your phone system?
10. Do you want your phone system integrated with your collaboration software?
11. What kind of phones do you have? Does the current collaboration solution support your existing handsets?
12. Will you want your call center integrated with your collaboration solution?
13. Are you a Microsoft business? Are you already using Office365? How do your associates leverage O365 today? Have you deployed Microsoft Teams or plan to adopt Microsoft Teams in the next 12 months?
14. Are you using Cisco Webex? How important are video meetings for your organization? Do you need your meetings recorded? Do you have Cisco-specific hardware?
15. Does your existing collaboration, phone system, and contact center solution support a long-term collaboration strategy? How secure and scalable is your current collaboration solution?Once you’ve had the above-mentioned discussion internally with your team, Evolve IP can help you with the next steps. With remote working becoming the new normal and business continuity becoming a necessity, Evolve IP has been consulting, supporting, and transitioning an increased number of organizations to a ‘work anywhere’ platform.
Evolve IP combines the fastest growing collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams with Evolve IP global voice, to deliver advanced PBX features, contact center functionalities, and 24x7x365 U.S.-based support that enables businesses to work securely, from anywhere, on any device. This powerful combination enables us to deploy flexible, purpose-built business collaboration experiences that are designed to meet the unique needs of your business’ environment and dramatically improve your associates’ productivity.