For most large organizations, there is no single unified communications solution. Rather, companies manage a variety of platforms for calling, meetings, and messaging, both on-premises and in the cloud. In the absence of a unified approach, management is disjointed, resulting in high operating costs and poor user experience.
VOSS has recently published an eBook discussing this important topic.
Why Multi-vendor UC Management is Critical!
Today’s collaboration infrastructure is complex, especially for larger organizations. Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration: 2023-24 global study of 440 companies found that a significant number of participants currently operate more than one unified communications platform. Specifically, almost 18% manage at least two calling platforms while just over 38% support more than one meeting app provider. Often these consist of a mix of both on-premises and cloud platforms during transition to cloud or are the result of acquisition and merger that creates a heterogeneous environment. For those who still predominantly rely on on-premises platforms, almost half (47.2%) are moving toward, or evaluating a move to cloud-based Unified communications as a Service (UCaaS). Even for companies who may have unified on a single UC platform, it’s likely that they are relying on components, such as phones, headsets, and gateways, provided by third-party providers.
Managing multi-vendor environments is also complex. Without a unified management platform, those with day-to-day operational responsibility are often switching between isolated vendor-provided tools for administration and on-going performance management. IT’s ability to respond to problems is constrained by the need to first discover the user’s application, and then to move to the appropriate management interface. Tasks such as license and endpoint management, phone number provisioning, and supporting moves/adds/changes/deletions are complex and aren’t easily automated or distributed.
The need for integrated UC management in multi-vendor environments is increasingly critical in the age of hybrid work, where employees move between home and office, relying on applications such as video conferencing to do their jobs. Among Metrigy’s research participants, 82.8% see video conferencing as an important or business critical service, essentially to support day-to-day activities.
Requirements for Multi-vendor UC Management Success
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