Technology plays an essential role in how organizations communicate, so in this edition, we cover a range of issues that decision-makers are focused on as they continue their efforts to improve operational efficiency, network performance, and team productivity.

Contact me today to discuss how TCI’s products and services can help your organization get more out of its technology investments – now and in the future.

Tom Cornbrooks, President (703) 321-3030 cornbrookst@tcicomm.com.

If excellent customer service is your goal, Mitel has stepped up with the solution you need… their new Voice Assist solution.

Voice Assist is like having a virtual receptionist to help answer basic customer questions, route calls, and deliver personal service without tying up an employee on your team. Voice Assist is a simple application that’s added to your Mitel communication server solution.

If you’re spending too much time helping to route calls to the right person and answering simple questions, Voice Assist can help. If your customers are spending too much time navigating your voice system to find the right person, Voice Assist can help them, too.

Voice Assist features powerful text-to-speech and speech recognition capabilities for a natural, conversational experience - customers can choose the language and voice they want to hear. Instead of a busy signal or a generic voicemail message, your customers immediately get the assistance they need, and you get the help you need to focus on your primary job while ensuring your customers feel heard and served.

Although built to be simple and easy to deploy in the cloud, Mitel didn’t leave out sophisticated features like text-to-speech and speech recognition, multilingual support, and full integration with Google Places. That last feature is great for small businesses that use Google Places to advertise their business. It now means that your intelligent auto attendant and Google Places can be linked and synched for a better customer experience.

The communications applications of tomorrow won’t have complex interfaces that require heavy coding skills. They’ll be graphically based, intuitive to use, and require no or minimal coding for customization. This is the direction that system designers are moving in, and Voice Assist is Mitel’s first product to fully leverage this low-code, no-code design.

This means more freedom for small businesses to quickly build the digital customer front door they want. Creating call routes, voice menus, and pre-recorded messages can be easily accomplished through prebuilt templates and a drag-and-drop interface. If your organization is spread out across different geographic regions, Voice Assist’s user interface can be customized to support local languages with the click of a button.

Voice Assist is another example of more value for your money. If you’re not a TCI customer today, now is the perfect time to look at our innovative solutions for your business.

Learn about Mitel Voice Assist and how you can deliver a professional call experience for your customers. Contact TCI today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

Many businesses manage an IT environment that includes a complicated maze of technology services and equipment of varying ages, performance, and overall health.

Even for the most tech-savvy, it can be a challenge to identify potential problems before something fails and disaster strikes.

Fortunately, there are best practices you can employ now to minimize the risk...

1. Infrastructure updates – Many problems can be prevented with proactive hardware and software updates that help keep pace with security vulnerabilities and interoperability demands.

2. Monitoring – End-to-end network monitoring will provide vital insights into the health of the devices on your network. You can catch a misconfigured router or endpoint and deal with failing equipment to prevent voice quality or connection problems.

3. Go deeper with analytics – Usage data can tell you in advance when it's time to expand your network or add new licenses. Alarm analytics can direct you to the most important issues on your network faster.

4. Get a partner to help – Networks are not created equal. They all have quirks that 'out of the box' network management systems can miss. Remote monitoring and specialized enterprise-class tools can see more events on your network that could impact your communications.

(703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

Compliance regulations impose clear rules on which parts of your customer communication must be recorded, documented, and archived and which ones must be exempted. Not being compliant with these regulations can entail heavy fines up to the point of losing your license. At the same time, the approach to customer communication has changed - an increasing number of conversations and meetings occur online.

Now financial institutions must ensure compliant documentation of their communication platforms across all media, including voice, chat, and video, both on-premises and in the cloud. Leveraging an intelligent recording, archiving, and analytics solution is recommended to prevent a costly compliance gap.

Due to past financial scandals and increased cybercrime and money laundering cases, various directives and regulations have been passed in the last years, directly affecting the recording and archiving of customer interactions in the financial sector…

As you record and document your communications to comply with financial regulations, enormous amounts of data are amassed. This data is a precious resource because it enables comprehensive insights into your customers’ needs, your team’s communication, and potential business risks. This is where using analytics tools in combination with artificial intelligence offers excellent potential for financial service providers. Here are a few ways to get the most out of your data with automated and AI-based analytics processes.

The content of customer interactions is usually highly sensitive and strictly confidential in financial services. Therefore, recording, archiving, and analytics solutions that meet strict regulations and guarantee data integrity, availability, and data protection, in the long run, are a must.

Specialized communications and software solutions offer banks and other financial service firms a fail-safe means to cater to these requirements.

Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

It’s no secret that seamless communication is at the heart of efficient medical organizations. To deliver the highest possible standard of care in a high-pressure environment, healthcare staff must be able to think on their feet and exchange critical information quickly.

Highly efficient clinical facilities rely on communications platforms developed specifically for healthcare, with voice solutions advantages like integrated virtual phone systems, audio conferencing, and contact center capabilities. These tools allow real-time contact between hospital staff, even at different medical locations, for critical in-the-moment communications.

Effective communication leads to better teamwork and improved healthcare staff productivity for medical organizations in emergencies. This leads to elevated employee experiences, greater patient satisfaction, and better clinical outcomes.

Measuring staff productivity is essential to understanding the effectiveness of a healthcare practice, especially when it comes to maintaining high-quality patient care. Several key metrics exist in the complex medical environment for evaluating employee output and improving the patient experience.

There are significant benefits to implementing robust voice communications solutions in a healthcare setting. Ensuring a steady and reliable exchange of information can dramatically improve workflow and increase productivity. Consider following these tips to improve voice communications in your organization to maximize staff efficiency and ensure optimal patient outcomes.

1. Use integrated communications tools for easy access to important information - A unified communications platform with a readily available centralized cloud or on-site network provides seamless connectivity for rapid access to critical data. A communications system with API capabilities can integrate with a care center’s customer relationship management software. Using this interface, a caregiver can easily click to call a patient to go over symptoms with their records and medical history at their fingertips.

2. Leverage voice systems for stronger teamwork and collaboration - Real-time voice connections support the delivery of clear and accurate emergency instructions for life-saving efficiency. In the case of a critical hospital event, doctors and nurses need to be able to quickly pick up a phone to reach their team and plan a course of action. Discussing treatments and sharing documents can be pivotal for successful patient outcomes.

3. Provide better patient care with communications solutions - Too often, medical tech stacks are complicated and require time and training to use efficiently. Effective voice solutions are user-friendly and take the stress out of communication. When an emergency occurs, responders need to access contact information for the correct doctor and look up patient records. A unified platform brings together all this information in one easy-to-use interface for maximum efficiency.

4. Improve security and compliance for patients and providers - As healthcare communications tools become more sophisticated, security concerns become more critical. Essential hospital IT systems must remain online and can’t be vulnerable to attacks from hackers or malware. Secure messaging and calling are central to maintaining patient privacy. Modern voice solutions comply with regulatory standards and protect sensitive patient data with encryption and firewalls. High-quality healthcare communications preserve patient privacy by adhering to security, privacy, and anti-fraud measures like PCI DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, and call recording regulations.

TCI and Mitel offer a variety of unified communications and collaboration solutions tailor-made for healthcare organizations of all sizes. Our unified services provide the foundation for successful outcomes from small clinics to large-scale medical systems with voice, video, chat, messaging, and team collaboration tools.

Industry-leading hardware and software enhance healthcare employee productivity by creating reliable and secure connections. Team members can easily collaborate to share ideas and documents regarding patient care to improve outcomes and satisfaction.

Remote working solutions like softphones, apps, and virtual dashboards mean that even off-site staff can provide critical, omnichannel support anywhere.

As a local leader in business communications, TCI specializes in providing the best collaboration systems for medical professionals. Our intuitive technology is specifically built around the need for efficiency and time sensitivity in high-stakes environments.

Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

By definition, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a unified telecommunications system based in the cloud. But which cloud? Your own, or one you share with people and organizations you don’t know?

Public and private cloud environments are very different regarding security, flexibility, performance, control, and other essential factors. Today, organizations can experience the best of both worlds — with some due diligence.

In a public cloud environment, multiple organizations share space on a server or, more likely, a virtual server. This platform offers the benefits of simplicity, scale, and savings.

At the same time, a public cloud has limitations. Operating systems and software, for instance, are upgraded when the public cloud service provider — not the client organization — chooses. Users who want customization, such as other applications or additional security for their virtual machines, are generally out of luck.

Think of it as an apartment building filled with tenants. The building owner, not the tenants, decides when to shovel the snow off the steps and repave the parking lot. The tenants can request security cameras or electrical vehicle chargers, but the building owner ultimately decides whether to install them.

A private cloud system works like a public cloud, but as the name suggests, the resources are limited to a private network. These systems pair the efficiency of virtualization and a centralized infrastructure with the security of dedicated virtual servers. A private cloud gives organizations great flexibility, maximum control, and security.

However, adding and managing data centers, servers, and phone lines can get expensive and complicated and take engineering staff away from other duties. System maintenance can also require staff that may be difficult to find and expensive. In addition, modern communications requirements can mean significant liability.

Many services, including e911 and the calculation and remittance of regulatory fees and taxes, are required for cloud-based systems. Companies that maintain a private cloud must stay abreast of — and comply with — government regulations, such as STIR/SHAKEN compliance; Kari’s Law, which ensures the ability to dial 911 directly; and RAY BAUM’s Act, which requires that all 911 calls include dispatchable location information.

The expense and liability of managing data centers have driven many organizations to migrate their private cloud environments to a managed private cloud service. This third offering combines many of the benefits of a public cloud with the increased control and security of a private cloud.

For more than 40 years, we’ve served as a trusted partner to innovative DC region organizations that need intelligent communications solutions to engage with their clients and accelerate operations.

Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.