Moving your organization’s unified communications to the cloud probably was not the top line priority for you this year. Especially if you are a multinational based outside of North America, migrating to the cloud was likely on the list, but much closer to the bottom than the top.
But then came 2020 and everyone’s best laid plans changed — quickly and drastically.
“We’re seeing what was a three year plan for large multinationals turn into a ‘in three months I want to be 100% cloud, so how do we make that happen?’ situation,” says Chad Elford, the Global AVP for UCaaS Cisco Powered Solutions at Tata Communications.
As more organizations are hunting for ways to quickly become far more flexible in the face of uncertainty and optimize their Cisco Flex licenses, Elford tells UC Today that his clients know that they have to make the transition to the cloud.
“Their top request is to help them determine what their end state should be and to help them strategize what that migration looks like,” he says, adding that the price incentives are helping to significantly encourage the move.
Organizations are now going through a process of questioning everything, including where they put their IT resources. Tata Communications’ customers want to know how moving to the cloud will impact their ability to scale, save costs, and of course address how to provide employees working from home with a secure and reliable connection that works as expected.
One key area where Tata Communications is receiving significant interest is in the roll out of Cisco’s Webex Calling cloud service.
The promise of bringing Cisco’s voice, video, and conferencing services on a single platform to their global customers has been years in the making. However, even for organizations that decide on adopting the platform, they lack the knowledge of how exactly to navigate their transition.
Every organization’s cloud migration and end state are going to look a little different. For some, the best path leads them from being on-prem to a hybrid cloud model, while another may be ripe for a full-on cloud-only arrangement. By auditing factors like the organization’s licenses and working hand-in-hand with them to understand their goals, Tata Communications’ team is able to help provide expert guidance and recommendations.
“Cisco talks about ‘the bridge to possible’, but you need a partner to walk you across it,” explains Elford. “That’s why service providers like us can come in with a trusted advisor approach and make recommendations based on where they are and how to reach that end state as quickly as possible.”
Simplifying Global Roll Out and Accountability
As a global leader in voice services, Elford tells UC Today that Tata Communications team believes that they have the infrastructure to fully support the roll out of Webex Calling for multinationals.
“Our strength is our global enablement capabilities and our focus on multinationals, specifically in APAC and India. Tata Communications is ready and able to provide full support for Cisco’s Webex Calling for global customers”
Outside of North America, the Webex Calling offering has been slow to reach customers. This is due in no small part to the complexity that multinational companies face in working through multiple PSTN providers for each location that lack the necessary infrastructure to offer a high standard of service.
This challenge can impact the consistency on pricing and accountability when it comes to support. However, Tata Communications’ singular point of contact for billing and support simplifies these processes, putting them all under one roof of responsibility.
“As a service provider, I’m responsible for the service from ear to ear,” Elford says, “A dial tone is a natural right. It doesn’t matter if you pick up the phone on your soft phone on your PC or the handset on your desk. You just expect it to work. So you have to work with a service provider that can deliver on that type of promise.”
