Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

by Gary Audin

Managing phone number assignments is not exciting. This is especially true today as many enterprises migrate from a PBX to multiple IP PBXs and integrate Skype for Business. Even after the phone number assignments have been completed, there will be an ongoing need to manage the numbers when employees leave, new employees arrive, and others change location or assignments. Many do this with a non-standard format using Excel spreadsheets. You cannot audit the changes when multiple people make the changes.

Number management can consume time/labor, create errors, and duplication, and incomplete records because most enterprises use labor intensive procedures. They lack automation. In other words there are many pain points with little reward for getting it right.

Phil Moen, President, and CEO at Unimax www.unimax.com and Gary Audin discuss these issues and solutions in this podcast recorded at the International Avaya User Group conference in June.

Unimax believes that administering PBX and voice messaging systems can be far less complex and costly, while delivering much better service levels. Unimax has developed Self-Service Telecom Management and Automated Telecom Management solutions. Unimax also provides an advanced reporting dashboard for PBX, voicemail, and directory data called Spotlight as well as unified MAC administration software to replace the use of vendor provided administration interfaces for single and multi-vendor PBX and voicemail systems.

For more information, visit www.unimax.com.

Last week, Avaya announced its flagship networking operating system software is now available on industry standard hardware for specialized solutions providers. Avaya’s move enables managed service providers, cloud service providers, systems integrators, and data center hosting companies to apply their own brand to the Avaya network operating system software, which reinforces the quality that is expected within their own brand promise.

In this podcast, Liam Kiely, Vice President of Avaya Networking walks us through the announcement, the impact the move will have on managed service providers, cloud service providers, systems integrators, and data center hosting companies and a recent example of an application by a systems integrator. We also learn how some environments can benefit.

Visit www.avaya.com/usa/topics/avaya-disaggregated-software/

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by Gary Audin

Emergencies require prompt and accurate responses. It used to be simple. A 911 call would be routed to the nearest Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). With E911, the caller’s location would be displayed for the PSAP agent. Now that you can easily move IP phones and users have mobile phones, location information that is timely within seconds becomes important. Did you know that the majority of states do not have any E911 requirements? The few who do don’t always have strong enforcement or penalties. But if you don’t implement 911 and E911 for your employees, you are opening yourself up to liabilities that may cost you dearly.

There are two important elements to 911/E911 implementation. There is the ability to locate a caller. Many employees are working remotely, off the enterprise site. This requires a discovery mechanism to locate employees on a LAN and IP networks. The second part is routing the call to the appropriate PSAP.

Michael Andersen, National Sales Director from 911 ETC, and Gary Audin discuss issues surrounding 911/E911 implementation in this podcast recorded at the International Avaya User Conference (IAUG) in June. Michael mentions cases where enterprises look at a 911/E911 solutions but delay implementation, sometimes for years. He urges every organization to implement a solution. He has found that healthcare and financial institutions are looking at solutions more frequently. Higher education institutions seem to be bipolar, some want an immediate solution, and others look at solutions and do nothing.

For more information and access to valuable resources, visit www.911etc.com.

by Gary Audin

You sometimes have a poor VoIP call but not always. You cannot locate any failures. Wireshark can provide a snapshot of one element but not the end-to-end connection. Wireshark does not collect the performance history of the connection. You need a system that not only collects performance and operational data for the entire connection but also the history of that connection.

These and other issues are presented in this podcast with Tim Titus, CTO and Founder of Path Solutions recorded at the June International Avaya User Group (IAUG) conference. He delivered three presentations at the conference. Tim states that what may be acceptable performance for a data connection can be a disaster for a voice or video connection. 10% packet loss for a 1 minute download means an extra 6 seconds of download time, not very noticeable. 10 % packet loss for a voice call means a choppy and impossible to understand conversation where the caller and called parties hang up in frustration.

Tim recommends that a performance monitoring and troubleshooting system:

Continuously monitor the performance of entire VoIP network.

Tell when, where, and why VoIP problems occur and even recommends how to fix them – in plain-English.

Cover all corners of the network and beyond—isolating problems even when they occur on the carrier’s network or other third party networks.

PathSolutions delivers high performing networks at the lowest possible cost. Their VoIP and network performance management solutions install and deploy in less than twelve minutes, continuously monitor the performance of your entire network, tell you where, when, and why problems occur and even recommend fixes in plain-English. Their customers consistently state that they have found and fixed more network issues in the first days of deployment than they did the previous year.

For more information, visit www.pathsolutions.com.

by Gary Audin

It is time to do something with WebRTC. Beyond time to think about WebRTC. The standards are mature. But the challenges persist. How do you budget your WebRTC project? Should you go it alone or use existing tools? Can you compare the benefits and risks of employing a WebRTC tool set? What case studies can help justify a WebRTC project?

Sherwin Sim, Chief Technology Officer for Temasys Communications www.temasys.com.sg and Gary Audin discuss these and other WebRTC related topics in this EDUcast. Sherwin provides practical insights on the aforementioned topics, and speaks to how using a Platform as a Service (PaaS) can enhance your WebRTC implementation, lower business and technology risk, and accelerate your time-to-market.

What you will learn in this EDUcast:

Where are we with WebRTC?

Challenges ahead

Budgeting for implementation

DIY or DI with tools

Use cases

Using PaaS for implementation

WebRTC is supported by Google, Mozilla, and Opera browsers (today) but not Internet Explorer (IE) or Safari. You need a plug in for these two browsers. Temasys offers a free plug-in for IE and Safari that is available now http://temasys.com.sg/plugin/. The plug-in can broaden the applications and uses of WebRTC.

Temasys www.temasys.com.sg is leading the innovation in communications with full stack solutions for WebRTC, the new standard for peer-to-peer connectivity. Temasys makes it easy for developers and businesses to build and deploy communications features as part of any web and mobile application. The Temasys team is composed of business veterans from video & audio signal processing, telecom, e-commerce, digital media, and more.

For more information, visit www.temasys.com.sg.

by Gary Audin

Do you want to provide feedback to your vendor? Do you want to network with others that use the same products as you do? Wouldn’t be great if you could meet locally with like-minded professionals? These and other benefits could be yours if you joined the International Avaya User Group.

This year, the International Avaya User Group (IAUG) conference was held in Orlando, Florida from June 5 to 9. I interviewed Brenda Emerson, who is the President of the IAUG, about the Avaya ENGAGE conference and its accomplishments. This podcast was recorded at the recent IAUG conference. Brenda described the awards given at the conference. She went on to discuss the many national and international chapters and their meetings. She mentioned Insight magazine as another resource for Avaya users besides all the online information.

At 5,200 members strong, the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) combines the previous Avaya and heritage Nortel user groups into one of the world's largest international organizations for communications technology professionals. As the forum for the global Avaya customer community, IAUG provides a voice and resource for Avaya customers everywhere.

For more information, visit http://www.iaug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=4

by Gary Audin

User conferences are a reflection on the success and value of a vendor. When attendance increases, it is a reflection of the customer’s confidence in that vendor. Increased exhibitors are another reflection on the vendor’s position in the industry. A conference program that covers the topics like SIP and the cloud draws in the customers to attend conferences. So reviewing a conference is like reviewing the vendor’s place in the industry and the confidence of its customers.

This year, the International Avaya User Group (IAUG) conference was held in Orlando, Florida from June 5 to 9. I interviewed Victor Bohnert, who is the Executive Director of the IAUG, about the Avaya ENGAGE conference and its accomplishments. This podcast was recorded at the recent IAUG conference. There was a 20% net increase in attendees at the conference. The total worldwide membership has grown to the point the IAUG hosted a conference in Dubai. The number of chapter meetings and attendance has increased.

At 5,200 members strong, the International Avaya Users Group (IAUG) combines the previous Avaya and heritage Nortel user groups into one of the world's largest international organizations for communications technology professionals. As the forum for the global Avaya customer community, IAUG provides a voice and resource for Avaya customers everywhere.

For more information, visit http://www.iaug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=4.

by Gary Audin

Most failures are preventable. Our industry is evolving from a reactive break/fix process. Failure prediction, prevention, and proactive methods are now necessary. Did you know that 73% of outages are preventable? That if your hardware is over 10 years old, there is 36% chance it will fail and the longer you have it, the failure possibility rises exponentially. The old way of delivering smooth operation is giving way to expert systems that can automatically detect and fix problems without human intervention.

Joey Fister, Senior Director of Avaya Client services and Gary Audin discuss the dramatic shift from reactive to preventable failure system support in this podcast recorded at the International Avaya User Group conference. Joey presents five common problems. He goes on to provide recommendations for each of the five problems that will reduce or even eliminate the problems. He presents measures and statistics that justify the use of perpetually learning expert systems.

Avaya is a provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity, and enhanced financial performance. Its contact center and unified communications technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premises and cloud deployment options that integrate with non-Avaya applications. The Avaya Engagement Environment enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage. The Avaya fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services.

For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

by Gary Audin

It is all running well. Is that because there are no problems or are the problems being handled through remote services that continuously monitor your solution? When the support contract is up for renewal, are you tempted to not renew it? That could be a mistake if the exiting support contract has built-in remote support. This becomes ever more relevant as the communications industry moves to a software defined virtual world.

Sandra Thomson, Senior Marketing Manager at Avaya Client Services discusses the need for support services with Gary Audin in this podcast recorded at the International Avaya User Group conference. She points out that IT budget pressure forces IT management to look for ways to reduce costs. Avaya has reduced its break/fix support workload by becoming proactive and applying expert systems for remote monitoring and problem resolution. Sandra said that Avaya offers SLAMon™ https://downloads.avaya.com/css/P8/documents/100180192  which uses a patented technology to provide endpoint and network diagnostics features including end-to-end network monitoring, phone remote control, and packet capture.

Avaya is a provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement across multiple channels and devices for better customer experience, increased productivity, and enhanced financial performance. Its contact center and unified communications technologies and services are available in a wide variety of flexible on-premises and cloud deployment options that integrate with non-Avaya applications. The Avaya Engagement Environment enables third parties to create and customize business applications for competitive advantage. The Avaya fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment of business critical applications and services.

For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

by Gary Audin

The desk telephone is more than a survivor. It will be around for a long time. Whether you buy or sell desk telephones, this EDUcast will help grasp the continued use of desk telephones and the variety of types available. You still need desk telephones in retail, healthcare, K-12 and higher education, as well as government and military facilities. In some cases there will be a liability if you don’t have one available. Think of calling 911.

John Grubb, SVP of Marketing for Cetis, Inc. www.cetis.com and Gary Audin discuss the continued life of the desktop telephone in this EDUcast. John discusses the attributes and capabilities that differentiate telephones such as design, color, USB charging, Bluetooth support, and even single use phones. Different ways to improve 911 accesses are presented. You may want to view the previous EDUcast “The Case for Hotel Phones” https://telecomreseller.com/2015/12/23/the-case-for-hotel-phones-2/.

What You Will Learn:

The advantages of a single-source purchasing relationship.

How to identify new vertical market telephone sales opportunities.

Why a multi-market endpoint sales strategy is important.

How to leverage phone features to create new sales opportunities.

Cetis, Inc., www.cetis.com formed through the 2006 merger of Scitec and TeleMatrix, and the 2009 acquisition of Teledex assets, designs, and manufactures a broad range of analog and VoIP hotel phones. In 1982 they introduced Teledex Diamond Series, the first hotel phones with programmable guest service keys and a customizable faceplate area. Today, the Diamond Series continues to be recognized as the most popular hotel phones in the world. Since 1982, hundreds of Cetis channel partners have installed more than 30 million Cetis hotel phones at 100,000 locations globally.

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