Hardly a day goes by without us noticing the profound change and impact that the drive to the cloud is having within many technology industries – including the Unified Communications market. One of the key drivers behind this change is Microsoft Office 365 (O365) which is generally agreed to be the most widely used cloud service by user account.
Many folks know that Skype for Business (SfB) is purchased and used with an O365 subscription plan and offers the potential to be a complete collaboration solution for businesses. And a complete collaboration solution is really important to IT departments, since they can consolidate all of their legacy point-UC-related systems such as IM, Voice, Conferencing, and Video onto a single platform – saving them time, money, and resources. Such a complete collaboration solution also enables employees to have a single, common experience to find and connect with co-workers across platforms and devices, anywhere and anytime – making them more productive.
But many customers appear to struggle with determining which direction to go with their voice capabilities as they plan deployment of O365 to their employee desktops. Sometimes this is because businesses may not be sure how to build a bridge from today to tomorrow and ultimately gets them to a fully hosted voice (and UC) solution. In other cases, businesses don’t want to – or can’t – get rid of their legacy phone (PBX) system in at least a few locations. Whatever the reason, customers who only use part of the functionality that Skype for Business (say IM) offers are leaving behind the full benefits – leaving real time, money, and effort on the table for IT and reduced productivity & engagement of employees.
Introducing Zones CloudDirect for Skype for Business
Zones CloudDirect℠ for Skype for Business is a fully hosted, geo-redundant, enterprise voice solution. Built from the ground up to provide enterprise voice services with Skype, CloudDirect for Skype for Business is a monthly service that includes hosted Cloud Connector Enterprise servers, gateway, and voice connectivity and is now available to Zones customers. Zones CloudDirect for Skype comes in a baseline package – and then businesses select the voice-related features they need to run their business, whether that is auto attendant, hunt groups, contact center, fax, overhead paging, or many more.
Zones CloudDirect for Skype for Business supports flexible deployment options including hybrid and full-hosted scenarios. Perhaps you want to retain investment in parts of your existing phone system and services or you have contracts that haven’t expired in some locations on the connectivity side – Zones has you covered. Or perhaps you’re looking to ‘rip-and-replace’ your existing phone system – Zones has you covered too. In any case, Zones CloudDirect enables you to realize the full benefits and savings of SfB as a complete UC solution.
Turn your company into a collaboration powerhouse
By using Zones CloudDirect with Skype for Business, you can turn your company into a true collaboration powerhouse. Some of the benefits you’ll get from this complete UC solution include:
- Enhance employee productivity & collaboration: Employees work and collaborate with a single, common experience for all of their communication needs, from anywhere, at any time, on any device.
- Consolidate IT Systems: Consolidates IT maintenance and support of separate legacy products such as IM, conferencing, video and PBX systems.
- Reduce Costs: Eliminates costs associate with purchase and ongoing maintenance of premise-based hardware and separate PSTN connections at each site.
- Ensure Business Continuity: Fully, geo-redundant hosted solution that incorporates carrier-grade hardware and software from top industry firms keeps your business up and running.
As an experienced and trusted advisor who works across leading UC vendors, Zones can help you enable your employees to communicate more effectively – anywhere, anytime, and from any device. To learn how Zones CloudDirect for Skype for Business can turn your business into a collaboration powerhouse, get in touch with your Zones account executive or call 800.408.ZONES and ask for the Advanced Solutions Group.
Zones
Zones : Apr 7, 2017 5:00:43 AM
