The Avaya Fit-For-Purpose Network

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Reaching the Avaya vision of plug-and-play communications drives new requirements for the enterprise. It means changing the dynamics among people, applications, and the foundational network to achieve a context-aware collaboration that is always-on, simplified and virtualized.

The KEY concept for our vision is the fit-for-purpose network. As real-time communications continue evolving to IP telephony, the data network begins to facilitate communications-enabled business services, while transporting other critical business applications. Avaya delivers some of the most advanced technologies available, enabling enterprises to build dependable networks with a significant return on investment. The Avaya Networking portfolio offers:

  • Ethernet Switching: a range of core and access switches for entry-level Branch Office through premium high-performance Wiring Closet, to Campus Core and Data Center applications.
  • Unified Branch: a range of integrated routers, gateways and appliances that allow enterprises to reliably and securely connect their branch sites.
  • Wireless Networking: a cost-effective and scalable solution enabling enterprises to deploy wireless coverage.
  • Access Control: solutions that provide policy decision to enforce role-based access control to the network.
  • Unified Management: support for data and voice networks by simplifying the management requirements across functional areas.

The portfolio is available globally in all industries with particular strength in healthcare, education, hospitality, and financial services, as well as to local and state governments.

STL Communications Knows Small and Midsize Business – Does Your Vendor?

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STL Is Thumbs UpThe rules of engagement for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) are changing. Speed, flexibility, responsiveness, personal service—the traditional hallmarks of small and midsize business success—can no longer be taken for granted. Your customers are a click away. And so are your competitors, especially large, global companies who are making smart use of technology to become more responsive and customer-driven.
To remain competitive, small and midsize companies need to evolve their technology strategies and infrastructures to meet these new challenges. The stakes are high: the investments you make today absorb scarce resources and will set you on a path that will impact your business for years to come.

How can you be sure that you are investing in the right solution? Obviously there are no guarantees, but your best insurance against making a costly mistake is to choose a vendor that is truly focused on the small and midsize market and isn’t just trying to fill the sales funnel with a lot of smaller clients. Look for vendors with these characteristics:

  • Right-sized for SMEs: Small and midsize businesses are constantly adapting to rapid shifts in the market. The right technology for your business is one that is designed to adapt to the way you work, with plenty of capacity and a wide range of software options. Be wary of underpowered consumer solutions or systems that were designed for larger enterprises but now have been “dumb downed” for the needs of small and midsize companies.
  • SME leadership: What is the company’s track record in meeting the expectations of the SME market? Is it a market leader or an also ran? Has the company innovated when it comes to SME solutions or are its real breakthroughs reserved for the better paying, larger clients?
  • Cost control and investment protection: Look beyond the initial acquisition cost. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is as important, if not more important to SMEs, than the initial outlay. How does the offering stack up in terms of ongoing operating costs, administration or upgrades?

Embracing new technology shouldn’t necessarily mean getting rid of older solutions, particularly if you are staying with the same vendor.

  • Reliability and energy efficiency: Every vendor will tout claims for reliability and consistent performance. It’s important to vet these pronouncements either with existing clients or independent analysts. Also, look carefully at the investment you will still need to make in backup capabilities. Does the solution have proactive diagnostic capabilities that will make your job easier? Are there alternatives to acquiring redundant hardware? Finally, how does the solution stack up in energy consumption? Is it really green?

Who is STL Communications?  STL Communications sells, installs, and maintains all Avaya, and legacy (Lucent, AT&T, and Nortel) equipment. We have a staff of certified, highly decorated technicians, a consultative focused sales force, and the best design engineers in the industry. We are Avaya SME Experts and are rated “Best In Class” and “World Class” for our fast response times and dedication to our customers. STL Communications can help your small or midsize company discover and plan for the most efficient solution, driving more revenue, and providing better customer service. . Give us a call or send an email, we are happy to help. At STL Communications, we beleive that communication changes everything.

Thanks to All of STL for Delivering During This Critical Event

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When a site is down and out, STL Communications’ customers know they can count on us to deliver. When seconds count, our technicians are there. Arch Coal’s legacy phone system failed on a Thursday in February. Because of the age of the phone system the information on the hard-drive was not recoverable and license re-use was not available. STL mobilized, assessed the problem, defined a plan, and installed a new phone system on-site in two days. “When the Bat-Phone Rings, we put technicians on the pole”, said Greg Bell, VP of Operations and Technical Services for STL Communications. The following is an email excerpt from the Manager of Telecom and Mobility at Arch Coal, Inc – St. Louis, MO regarding STL Communications’ dedication and response.

“Thank you very much for your “above the call of duty” work this weekend to restore communications at our Flintridge operation. I appreciate everyone’s efforts at STL, but especially yours Bryan since you got the dirty work assignment of redirecting your Saturday on our behalf. Thanks to all of STL for delivering during this critical event.”
Don Staten, Manager of Telecom and Mobility

If you are asking what type of response times and performance your organization can expect from STL Communications, just ask our customers.

Communication-Enabled Business Solutions – a Game Changer

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In the last few years, communications systems have become much more than just secondary support for the day-to-day activities of a business. Not only are they more than just voice-based, but they are also an essential part of the overall business strategy, creating opportunities for significant improvements in efficiency, productivity, and cost-effectiveness. Integrating communications correctly into the business process provides a competitive edge that can be a real game changer for any business.

Integrating communications systems with business applications to create new value is called communication-enabled business processes (CEBP). CEBP essentially accelerates collaboration and decision-making by connecting people through their everyday business applications.

While CEBP is potentially valuable to everyone within an organization, it is important to identify where it will be most valuable. Avaya helps identify these “sweet spots” by suggesting five key considerations:
1. Improve and Expedite Business Processes:

Find the business processes that can be improved by expediting contact with a subject matter expert. Example: a brokerage sets up a system enabling employees to send an instant message to a tax specialist to get an immediate response while on the phone with customers who have tax questions.
1. Maximize Benefits with High Transactional Volume:

Focus on processes that happen often, in high volume, or for long periods of time.
1. Automate Communications to Ease Process Breakdown:

Identify processes that are often delayed, or even broken down, by human latency. Example: a factory sets up automatic reminders to order parts so that production doesn’t stall.
1. Impact the Bottom Line and Customer Satisfaction:

Examine processes directly affecting customers and their emotions, which will always impact the bottom line. Example: a hospital integrates a system for promptly contacting the appropriate physician in case of a patient emergency.
1. Improve Communications:

Look for communications processes – often a part of customer service – with a high failure rate. Example: a call center implements a call-back feature because waiting times are often long and customers hang up in frustration.

Once the processes that will benefit most from CEBP are identified, you need a strategy for implementation. Avaya recommends a broad approach – a four-fold strategy building on sustained product and services investment. Additionally, consider leveraging Avaya Agile Communication EnvironmentTM (ACE) software with an Avaya AuraTM environment to create an open framework for developers to work in their preferred environments and to integrate with other infrastructures – facilitating targeted, comprehensive solutions.

For more information on how Avaya can help an organization gain competitive advantage by integrating business processes with existing communications systems. Go to www.stlcom.com or www.avaya.com to learn more.

How to Develop a Successful UCC Business Plan and Roadmap

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How to Develop a Successful UCC Business Plan and Roadmap

Businesses should start by examining six key areas:
  • Voice: fixed, mobile, smartphone
  • Conferencing: audio, video, web
  • IM/Presence: IM, rich presence, persistent chat
  • Messaging: email, voicemail, unified messaging
  • Clients: thick- and thin-web, mobile
  • Applications: collaboration, contact center, CEBP
See what products and infrastructures you currently have in place, and then identify strategic vendors and partners for improvements.
Next, start developing ideas for projects. Some common projects include:
  • Voice: IP-PBX migration, fixed-mobile integration, MS Lync evaluation
  • Conferencing: audio and web integration, video migration
  • IM/Presence: IM/presence deployment, shared work space
  • Messaging: email migration, voicemail/UM migration
  • Clients: voice client evaluation, smartphone integration
  • Infrastructure: VoIP and video readiness tests, LAN & WAN upgrades.
We recommend deploying these projects incrementally. The more projects you run concurrently, the greater the risk.
These UCC projects provide a range of cost-saving opportunities. Here are a few examples:
  • Softphones eliminate the cost of physical phones and placing calls
  • Conferencing reduces travel costs
  • IM reduces phone calls and voicemail
  • Consolidated contact center platforms as well as email and voicemail servers reduce management costs
Many other harder-to-quantify benefits and opportunities also exist, including: untethered desks, click-to-call, workgroup productivity, and text-to-speech and speech-to-text email/voicemail capabilities.
For complete details, as well as some useful recommendations, watch the webinar here.
For more information on how unified communications can help your business, go to stlcom.com or call us at (800)993-4785

Trends Driving the UCC Market

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The Trends Driving the UCC Market Today

Unified Communications and Collaboration, UCC, has been evolving at a much quicker pace in the last few years, increasingly driving business value as it grows. New technological advances are the main driving factors:

  • Consumerization of technology as the average person becomes more tech-savvy
  • Increased multitasking as people grow accustomed to interacting with multiple devices at once
  • The rise of social networks and online communities
  • The movement into the cloud
  • The popularity of contextually relevant communications as technologies like geolocation becoming available
  • The desire for more mobile solutions as people are increasingly using devices while on the go

As new technologies change people’s behavior and expectations, businesses must rethink their UCC goals and come up with a new business strategy.

Attend Our Free AVAYA Communication Manager Administration Training

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AVAYA Communication Manager ADMINISTRATION CLASS

STL Communications Inc. would like to invite you to our AVAYA Communication Manager administration class. This is a free class designed to help both new and existing AVAYA CM administrators become more familiar with CM features, functions, and learn how to perform basic moves, adds and changes. This class is hands on; attendees will be able to program on a working system.

Topics include:

  • Current CM Feature Set
  • SIP Trunking and Session Manager
  • Basic management of the CM, including
    1. User Changes
    2. Hunt Groups
    3. Incoming Call Routes
    4. Extension to Cellular
  • Open forum to discuss system operation with other owners/users

We have one afternoon session scheduled for April 25th, 2012 @ 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM. If there is enough interest, we may add a morning session for the same day.

RSVP is required by April 20th. To reserve your spot please call Mary DeBrecht at (314)-205-7116 or email maryd@stlcom.com

We look forward to seeing you!

IP Office Administration Training

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Attend Our Free IP Office Administration Training

IP OFFICE ADMINISTRATION CLASS

STL Communications Inc. would like to invite you to our quarterly AVAYA IP Office administration class. This is a free class designed to help both new and existing IP Office users become more familiar with IP Office features, functions, and learn how to perform basic moves, adds and changes. This class is hands on; attendees will be able to program on a working system.

Topics include:

  • Current IP Office 8.0 Feature Set, with brief demos
  • Basic management of the IP Office, including
  • User Changes
  • Hunt Groups
  • Incoming Call Routes
  • Short Codes
  • Twinning Setup
  • Open forum to discuss system operation with other owners/users

We have one afternoon session scheduled for February 29th, 2012 @ 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM. If there is enough interest, we may add a morning session for the same day.

RSVP is required by February 24th. To reserve your spot please call Mary DeBrecht at (314)-205-7116 or email maryd@stlcom.com

We look forward to seeing you!

Avaya Phone System Seamlessly Integrate Communications With Your Desktop Apps

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Enabling office workers to be as productive and efficient as possible is challenging. Today’s small and midsize businesses are inundated with information, messages, requests and more. Having separate interfaces on the desktop – email clients, instant messaging, presence – impacts efficiency. With IP Office 8.0, office workers can take control of their destop experience to help improve productivity.

IP Office embeds productivity-enhancing capabilities into familiar and frequently-used PC interfaces (such as Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce.com). Now, users can see their colleagues’ status (who’s on the phone, away from their desk, on do not disturb), and send an instant message, dial their number, conference in a group of associates, or send an email with just a click of a mouse. http://www.stlcom.com/pics/db/document_library/33_avaya_ipoffice_desktop_flyer.pdf

 

Visit STL Communications on April 17th – 20th, In Denver @ the 35th NRHA Annual Rural Health Conference

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The NRHA’s Annual Rural Health Conference is the nation’s largest rural health conference, created for all of those with an interest in rural health care, including rural health practitioners, hospital administrators, clinic directors and lay health workers, social workers, state and federal health employees, academics, community members and more.

STL Communications is a gold sponsor focused on communications in rural health. Come by our exhibit and we will show you how Avaya phone systems and Polycom Healthcare wifi handsets as well as telehealth solutions can change the efficiency of patient care.