Connectivity as a Service Explained ~ MCaaS vs. SD-WAN

SD-WAN, or Software-Defined Wide Area Network, uses new SDN technology to connect organizations’ networks – everything from retail locations to data centers, and beyond. Its ability to provide active-active failover is a huge draw to many organizations, as it provides arguably the first true zero-downtime WAN solution. There is no doubt that SD-WAN will become a more prevalent solution in the years to come, but the question now: what is the best way to go about implementing it for your organization? 

Most of us have heard of SD-WAN and understand that it can have a huge impact on our networks and the way our businesses operate.  What is SD-WAN? SD-WAN is best defined as traffic monitoring and management from physical devices to the application itself, capitalizing on flexibility and agility. This intelligent routing is abstracted into a virtual overlay, enabling a secured pooling of both private and public connections allowing for automation, centralized network control and real-time management across multiple links. In other words, it is able to take multiple sources of internet, optimize them, control the network flow and provide seamless failover.  Sounds pretty great, right?

*as long as you have Office 365...

Alright Already! Skype for Business gives me all the tools I need to be productive at work while allowing me the flexibility to remain connected on the road; it truly is a great communication solution. There, I said it. I’m finally ready to admit it…

A lot of thought needs to go into your call flow configuration to ensure a smooth process for your clients as well as making sure the calls get to the right person within your organization. With this article I will focus mainly on the best practices for setting up your Workgroups.

There are right ways and wrong ways to use Unified Communications (UC). The vast majority of companies and employees underutilize their UC platform in terms of how it can increase productivity. UC platforms such as ShoreTel, RingCentral and 8x8 are designed to optimize business processes. Do you really feel more efficient since you installed that application on your computer or mobile device? To truly get your money’s worth out of your communications platform, and experience all the benefits that were promised pre-sale, you need some pointers on how to use UC to work smarter, work faster, and work together. The ideas below are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to functionality; they are written primarily to spark your creativity in bringing out the best in your UC platform.

Unified Communications has evolved rapidly over the last 15 years, redefined again and again.  Initially if voicemail was received in your email inbox and the system included a basic communicator client it was considered UC, but as technology evolved so did this definition.  This slow creep of features developed into a requirement for web/video collaboration, Instant Message, Fax, SMS, Calendar integration and much more.  The result is a confusing mess of different clients and tools inhibiting adoption and creating a blackhole of communication.  Intuitive integrations to your core tools are critical to gaining adoption and seeing value from a UC product set.

On March 21st of 2017 the Toshiba dealer channel received letters announcing the wind down of the Telecommunications System Division (TSD.)  In plain English, Toshiba Telecom (Toshiba IP Phone Systems) is shutting down their operations, leaving their customers and value added resellers in a tough spot. This is an important lesson to learn as the industry continues to evolve to cloud-based platforms. The common belief across industry insiders is this is just the first domino to fall in the legacy phone system market as the new platforms and offerings continue to disrupt. 

Cloud Phone systems, also known as Hosted Phone Systems, are the choice solution of enterprises large and small with 70% having made the move or planning to make the move per Information Week. The reasons for this vary dramatically based on the specific business and sector they belong to. Cost savings and productivity top the list.  

5 Common Misconceptions about Wi-Fi  

 Wireless internet has become a critical component for businesses of all types. Although the technology has improved dramatically over the last decade, there are many misconceptions about how to get best performance. This article is focused on giving you some simple tips for ensuring your wireless network is on the right path whether you are an Fortune 500 business or a Motel 6.

BrightMetrics is a reporting and analytics tool designed specifically to augment the ShoreTel phone system. At Matrix Networks we believe so much in this solution that we offer it as part of our Advantage+ ShoreTel Partner support, providing all the tools our clients need to gain insight and troubleshoot challenges. Although there are many reasons to use BrightMetrics and ShoreTel together here are three of our top reasons!

As I described in my previous post, it really sucks to work with carriers. A lesser known alternative solution, called “Connectivity as a Service” has started to evolve to replace direct carrier relationships, improve the support experience drastically, and introduce value-added services.

Dial Tone Carriers and Internet Service Providers (e.g. Comcast, CenturyLink, Frontier, Integra, etc.) are necessary evils in the world of IT Directors, CIO’s and Telecom Managers. Every business relies on connectivity, but at the same time they hate the people who provide their connectivity. On their list of “Vendors We Wish We Could Fire,” carriers are at the top. Too bad they can’t.

ShoreTel Support is the service provided to ShoreTel clients to support, upgrade, and maintain their existing on-premise ShoreTel solution. Whether you are in a blended environment or entirely on-premise, ShoreTel requires this support to ensure your system is current and well maintained. The support model is a well developed concept but can be complex to outsiders and clients. In this article we aim to give you a better understanding of what ShoreTel Support really is.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last 15 years you have watched the evolution of SMS text messaging from the days of pagers to iMessage and GIFs. The SMS world has brought smiley faces, acronyms, and text speak into our world at a rapid pace. Simple, straightforward, fun, and aimed almost exclusively at personal relationships. As users across the globe have adopted SMS, our businesses have fallen behind, unable to grasp how to implement, control, or even understand the scope of how to position it for business use.

Emergency calling is something every good phone administrator should be prepared for. All too often, however, it is overlooked. The reality is that 99.9% of the time you don't need it, but when someone has an emergency, this view changes dramatically. It is critical that emergency services are able to identify where the call originated so they can reach the emergency location as quickly as possible.

We all want the same thing - boatloads of cash, world peace, and of course, successful tech projects. Unfortunately, these can all seem like distant realities, but at least one of them is attainable. Planning and good decision making are critical to the success of IT projects, but without experience, it is difficult to know what to prepare for. I am no expert in the deployment of a new NAS solution or printers, but I do know a thing or about new phone systems. 

Have you ever called into a business and all you hear is ringing, wondering if anyone is going to answer your call? Working with your ShoreTel solution you have a couple of options to choose from so your callers aren't left wondering. 

Portland's very own Bigleaf Networks is a local company with a very bright future!

Joel Mulkey and Jeff Burchett founded Bigleaf Networks after gaining experience with SD-WAN and Internet Optimization as part of the Freewire team, based out of Portland, Oregon. The two make a dynamic duo with a strong tailwind in an industry ready to explode. I am excited to see what the next 3 years bring. 

An unsung hero walks among us. She wears a cape of connectivity and empowers every organization that chooses to embrace her amazing abilities. Yet the tales of her triumph go without praise or even the slightest acknowledgement. Dramatic entrance I know... so before I unveil who this mysterious hero is, let me first set the stage for why her tale must be told.

Contact Center Reporting tools defined. Everything you need to know about the tools you have as a Contact Center Manager.

Not everyone geeks out about reporting like I do. But even if you don’t get excited by schedule adherence, there is still a lot of cool stuff that reporting can tell you about your phone system and contact center staff.  Critical data like identifying top performers and clients, contact surges and when people give up on you.

Best Practices and Considerations when Performing a ShoreTel Upgrade.

Imagine buying a computer and knowing that whenever the manufacturer improves the software, you can ask for an upgrade. And imagine that the computer company only makes one kind of computer, so they are focused on making the best damn computer on the market. That’s the situation with ShoreTel on premise UC solutions. The hardware may stay the same, but the brain that runs the whole show? That is constantly getting improved. Running Office 2016? No problem. Using Gmail instead of Outlook? No problem. Using Windows 8.1? Ouch, sorry about that.  

Unified Communications (UC) Defined. Finally. Gen-X vs Millennials + UC.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the divide between the Millennials and Gen X'ers. Millennials are often criticized for their tendency to be dreamers and Gen X'ers are said to be directionless and disaffected but got their jobs done regardless. I have been following this season of Survivor where a cast of unlikable characters attempt to outwit, outlast, and outplay in tribes - Millennials vs. Gen X'ers. The Gen X'ers fault the Millennials for receiving participation trophies and tout their own life-long hard work. The Millennials give each other nicknames, struggle to construct a shelter, and excel in physical challenges. 

When it comes to managing your business over the Internet, it’s important to have connectivity and solutions in place that allow you to monitor your network and ensure performance and reliability to remote applications. To that end, SD-WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network) is fast becoming the go-to option for companies both large and small who want to integrate more cloud services for employees to use.

Communications is going through an unpredictable evolution. Ten years ago our businesses primarily communicated via a traditional desk phone and email. Today we use our cell phones and desktops to utilize SMS, LinkedIn, chat clients like Slack, face to face video, Facebook, Twitter, Email and much more to communicate with co-workers, family and clients. This has left many businesses struggling to keep the conversations going in the correct medium. The tools we deployed even 5 years ago are horribly out of date, meaning large swathes of your customer base are not connecting with your team, choosing a more modern competitor. This is clearly seen in companies like Amazon and ZOOM+ as they quickly gain market share, capturing their intended clients by embracing the new communications and technology shift. We must make this shift to meet our clients where they live, or risk losing the relationships we depend on.

As technology continues to evolve, a relatively new development is the move back to massive centralized infrastructure for application delivery to enterprises large and small. The trend brings with it incredible value but also new complexity that many firms haven't prepared for. The thought goes something like "if we move this to the cloud, all our technical needs are resolved!” Well now, someone is feeling a bit optimistic and definitely naive. Moving to the cloud requires a thoughtful approach for all aspects, from managing ever-increasing recurring costs, to how you plan to move data to and from cloud platforms.  The first place to begin your preparation has to be the network, now and always. 

IT administrators can generally always agree on one thing: dealing with carriers for their multi-site connectivity sucks! This connectivity normally comes in the form of a MPLS Private IP cloud, EPL, EVPL, VPLS, etc….  At this point in time it feels like so many carriers just make up new acronyms to try and make their service sound flashier. The industry consensus is that ordering new circuits takes forever and submitting trouble tickets is pretty much a “hurry up and wait” game. To receive SLA credits is near impossible, requiring you to use their own systems to prove they are incompetent. These are just the normal complaints about interacting with the carriers, when you start talking about how much money you send them every month...wow...just wow.

If you have ever reviewed a phone bill you know it is written in a language that resembles Elvish rather than English. As the world transitions to phone systems offered as a service in the cloud, these bills and the corresponding pricing models will only become more complex and convoluted. As we evaluate any cloud solution, we are considering committing to paying monthly for a term typically one to three years in length. Small misunderstandings or oversights on pricing can have drastic effects on the long term cost of the solution. 

SIP isn’t a four letter word, but for many years it might as well have been for most of us trying to use it. The results of a SIP deployment could be messy: poor voice calls, issues with phone features, and dropped connections only scratch the tip of the iceberg. Despite this our clients have often insisted they wanted to deploy SIP to save money. Along the way we have learned some valuable lessons. There is a right and a wrong way to deploy SIP, and I am sorry to say there are good and bad reasons to deploy it, too.

More and more companies are deploying UC, and most hated the process of getting there. They enjoy the end result of having a cloud-managed IP phone system; they like the flexibility of adding and removing user features on the fly, but I dare you to ask them what the deployment was like. How did the migration go from an on-premises UC solution to cloud? Was the cutover smooth as butter? Did the vendor communication make you feel butterflies and rainbows deep inside? Were the users singing your praises after the incredible training experience? Hell no!

Warning: Content is not for the easily offended. Enjoy!

ShoreTel initiative that unified over 450 users across multiple locations for the Portland Trail Blazers. To read the full Case Study, click here.

As business owners and IT administrators it is your job to provide tools that maximize productivity within your organization. Modern voice applications, such as the collaboration suite provided by ShoreTel is making the task of empowering your workforce easier than ever before. But is your team using the tools you have invested in? The following is a list of valuable resources to share with your end users as well as best practices for launching a service appliance within a ShoreTel environment.

There are several elements to consider and decisions to make before you launch your new collaboration solution.  The most important being: consider how your organization currently leverages collaboration software and set goals based on what you feel can be improved on. The following article will assist in this thought process and prove to be a valuable resource for new and experienced ShoreTel Administrators.

With respect to National Beer Day, 2016, this blog post focusses on the marriage of 2 economic giants of Oregon industry - Beer and Technology, and how Internet Protocol (IP) Communication has influenced the growth of one of the world’s most iconic craft beer economies.

Oregon is home to over 200 craft breweries, operated by 194 brewing companies. This ranks Oregon 4^th in the United States. In 2014, Oregon produced over 1,000,000 barrels of craft beer!

Portland, OR –March 8^th, 2016– The listing for 2016’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon, presented by Oregon Business Magazine, has come out and once again places Matrix Networks among those being honored.

SD-WAN Defined: SD-WAN stands for Software Defined Wide Area Networking. It’s a combination of Software Defined Networking (SDN), which was created for use in cloud datacenters, and Wide Area Networking (WAN) which is the network outside of your office (e.g. the Internet, or site-to-site networks like MPLS and Metro Ethernet).

In recent years, capital and operational expenses for IP telephone costs have dropped measurably. This decline is due to an increase in cost-effective options like ShoreTel provides, as well as market competition and shorter learning curves.

When making the switch over to VoIP technology, bandwidth must be a key factor you evaluate during the transition. Reason being, the amount of bandwidth determines how many phone lines you can have as well as the call quality you will experience on those lines. In order to evaluate effectively, you have to know the amount of bandwidth you have as well as what you may need to implement a ShoreTel phone system.

Promoting and encouraging diversity in the workplace is a key component in running a successful and inclusive organization. Simply adopting the attitude that “people don’t see color” or the thought that “gender bias never happens here” puts a company at risk for an increase in employee turnover, low morale, and distrust within the entire organization. In order to effectively embrace diversity among all employees, you must enhance the communication in the workplace in a way that promotes, recognizes and encourages a diverse environment. But how do you do this in a professional and respectful way?

Over the next year, E-Rate will fund an additional $1 billion in new K-12 Wi-Fi deployments.  This guaranteed money is in addition to the $2.4 billion initially budgeted, and the $1 billion added to the pot last year.  IT Directors and Network Managers of K-12 school districts need to have a solid grasp on the E-rate process and plan carefully to take advantage of these funds.  This article is written to address the following questions for K-12 IT professionals:

1. What is E-Rate?
2. What recent changes have been made to the E-Rate program?
3. How do I navigate the E-Rate process and avoid costly mistakes?
4. What is the E-Rate timeline?
5. How do I select the right wireless solution?

If you were to ask most tech-savvy business professionals 10 years ago if email would still be one of the primary business communication solutions, they would have probably said they had their doubts. However, as the years have gone on, email has established that it has some serious staying power. What we can expect to see going forward is not the demise of email altogether, but rather a shift of exactly how it gets used within business today.

With the number of technology companies in Portland and surrounding metropolitan areas, it is no surprise that we've been given the nickname of the "Silicon Forest". Matrix Networks is proud to be a part of the tech world here in Portland. We're continuously amazed and impressed by how many tech companies not only survive in Portland but truly thrive.

This round up of 5 top Portland tech companies is definitely not a complete list of all the companies we admire, but it's a great place to start if you want to know more about the tech industry here. 

Did you know that according to the National Business Research Institute, they estimate that an engaged employee will save their company 5% or more off the costs they’re responsible for? That kind of savings can add up quickly when more and more employees become engaged with the financial future of their organization. This statistic is powerful, and should motivate more CFO's to look into creative solutions as to how they can create a more financially engaged workforce at their organization. But how can they do it? Consider these employee motivation ideas: 

While small business owners definitely face a lot of challenges on a daily basis, one that can have a major impact on whether the business is able to thrive or not is communication. Between vendors, employees and customers, great communication can be a big hurdle. After all, great writing skills and perfect oration are hardly a prerequisite for the dream of owning your own company.

Following are five communication issues that are common among small business owners as well as the communication solutions that can help to ease this daily stressor.

According to the 2015 ECP Compensation Study, office managers who are responsible for multiple-location practices are earning, on average, 31.5% more than those managing single offices. The reason for this is likely due to the fact that multiple locations come with a great deal of work and responsibilities. Different time zones, environments, and personalities can create unique challenges for each business location. Managers need to find ways to encourage cohesiveness so everyone feels a part of the team no matter what location they work in. 

In today’s mobile world, it seems telecom directors are rarely at their desks anymore. With access to everything from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone it makes managing systems more mobile and convenient than ever. With this shift to IT and mobility, that means new application downloads are becoming available all the time for both Android and Apple devices.

Across all job titles, regions, and industries, the communication happening between IT and their non-IT coworkers is often described as insufficient. And according to a recent Executive Council benchmark survey, only four out of 100 IT leaders believe they are effectively communicating with their non-IT coworkers.

Every day technology gets easier to use. From adding a wireless network to your home office, to upgrading your companies smart phones to new cloud-based solutions like Cloud Phones, the interfaces have never been easier for an end user to navigate. But if you’re a DIYer (Do It Yourselfer), it’s easy to be seduced by the marketing hype around today’s cloud phone systems and therefore skimp on preparing for a successful deployment. With any technology there should always be room for error. However, when it comes time for your business to make an upgrade to your phone system, here are 5 tips to making sure your deployment goes smoothly as possible.

We established last time that guest wireless Internet is your most important amenity. You may not think so, but your guests certainly do! Consider that 94% of people cite WiFi as the most important amenity according to Hotel Chatter and a survey of travelers found that WiFi is the most important factor in selecting and rating your hotel. Somehow it even beats out location and a good night’s sleep.

The rate of change within the technology industry is astounding. The reality is that technology does not grow at a steady rate like my 5 year old son does but instead grows exponentially. Futurist Ray Kurzweil put it this way: “We won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21^st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).” One manifestation of this idea is Moore’s Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. In 1965 he wrote that computer processing speeds will double every 18 months. This was true for a while, but with Kurzweil’s “Law of Accelerating Returns,” the doubling of these processing speeds now happens much faster than that.

Sitting in an early 2015 Sales Meeting, the group of Account Executives at Matrix discussed what they would like to achieve as a group in 2015, a New Year’s resolution meeting in some ways. The group of 10 sales professionals collectively stumbled on the topic of giving back to the community and increasing community engagement.