Switching communications vendors is a common practice in the business world. As companies evolve, their needs often change. Switching to a new vendor can allow businesses to consolidate tech, improve both employee and customer experiences, and reduce costs and maintenance.
But whether you are thinking about switching from an on-premises communication system to the cloud, or from one cloud platform to another, careful planning and preparation is paramount.
“Switching vendors is a strategic move that can drive innovation, efficiency, and cost savings. In the ever-evolving tech landscape, it’s essential to approach this journey with a well-defined strategy that includes evaluating how your business operates, communicates, and collaborates, opportunities for process improvement, setting clear goals, designing a precise migration plan, and choosing the right vendor partner,” noted Curt Mark, Vice President of Partner Account Management at Intermedia.
“Additionally, it’s critical when evaluating new vendors to ensure you understand their financial health, their NPS (Net Promoter Score) or customer satisfaction score, as well as their overall SLAs so that you can ensure a smooth transition that sets you up for greater success.”
While the complexity or simplicity of a migration will depend heavily on the support offered by the new vendor, there are various steps business leaders can take to streamline the process too. Here are some of the top tips companies can follow to make their migration as painless as possible.
Step 1: Evaluate the Existing System
The first step in transitioning to a new vendor for a cloud communications solution, often referred to as UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service), or any form of essential business software for that matter, is evaluating the existing system already in place. Auditing the current technology utilised by the team members within a company allows businesses to determine:
- Which new features are missing: Most of the time, when companies switch vendors, they’re looking for a way to access functionality their current vendor doesn’t offer. Business leaders might want to move to a UCaaS solution which offers more integration options, or access to workforce management and other complementary tools. They may choose to switch to a contact center solution with more advanced analytics or dashboards. Figuring out which new features are crucial will help to guide the migration journey.
- Which solutions are no longer needed: Over time, certain features and tools may become less crucial in the business, or even waste essential resources. When migrating to a new vendor, companies may choose to leave certain legacy systems behind, or replace them with new technologies which offer additional benefits.
- Which technologies need to be connected: Unless they’re building a brand-new ecosystem from scratch, most vendors will need to ensure their new technologies and platforms can integrate with the systems their staff members are already using. This could mean selecting a UCaaS or CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) platform which offers native integrations with common tools, or options to build customised workflows through APIs.
Step 2: Set Clear Goals for the Migration
Today’s business leaders shouldn’t just switch vendors on a whim, they need to ensure they’re investing in the right technology, platforms, and resources to achieve specific outcomes. Establishing goals early in the process serves several purposes.
First, it helps business leaders to determine what kind of features and functionality they should be prioritizing. For instance, if the goal of a UCaaS migration is to consolidate more of the tools teams use for collaboration and communication into one environment – such as combining voice, video conferencing, chat, SMS, file sharing, and data archiving, a business may focus on choosing a vendor with a flexible, integration-friendly platform.
If the goal of implementing a new CCaaS strategy is to reduce call volumes and increase call resolution rates, a company might concentrate on finding a platform with self-service tools, AI-powered assistants, and automated workflows for transferring data to teams.
Secondly, setting goals helps to ensure everyone invested in the new technology will be on the same page when it comes to assessing the value and ROI of the new solution.
Step 3: Design a Clear Migration Strategy
As mentioned above, a good strategy is crucial to any successful migration. Companies need to plan exactly how they’re going to deal with the migration process, which team members are going to be involved, and how data and technologies will be securely transferred from one environment to the next. There are various ways to approach a migration to a new vendor, such as:
- Lift and shift: The lift and shift approach involves replicating the existing technology or infrastructure in a business within another environment. This strategy is usually best for companies looking to access the exact same functionality from a new vendor, perhaps to save money on subscription costs.
- Clean and shift: Clean and shift strategies involve first cleaning or consolidating the technology ecosystem before moving to a new vendor. This results in fewer unnecessary tools and services being transferred over to the new environment. This method is usually common among businesses looking to simplify the technology stack.
- Transformational migration: A transformation migration involves implementing new technologies and strategies to achieve specific goals. For instance, a company switching to a new contact centre vendor might want to transform their existing call centre technology into something that supports omnichannel service, real-time analytics, and advanced solutions for workforce management and optimisation.
Step 4: Choose the Right Vendor
Probably the most important step a business leader can take to ensure a migration goes smoothly, is choosing the right vendor to work with. A cloud technology provider that can help with the migration process, from help with remote installation, to training and guidance, can eliminate a lot of the stresses associated with a significant business change.
When choosing the right vendor for a migration process, business leaders should think carefully not just about the features and tools the company can offer, but the customer service they can provide. The best vendors will offer tools and value-added services to assist with integrating crucial technology, setting up new systems, and minimising security risks.
They’ll be able to help companies navigate complicated interdependencies between tools, figure out what to do with legacy technology, and even address common problems during the migration strategy. Some companies go as far as to provide on-demand and video training to staff members, to help get everyone on the same page and ensure the rapid adoption of new technology.
Step 5: Test and Optimise
Finally, as tempting as it can be to dive into the migration process and start changing large parts of the tech stack at once, it often pays to take a more cautious, phased approach. Many business leaders benefit from asking beta testers or members of staff to evaluate the various features and functions of new tools before they’re rolled out to the rest of the workforce.
This initial testing stage can give companies an opportunity to spot any issues they may need to overcome to improve the adoption of new systems and platforms. It’s also a chance for business leaders to create champions and mentors, who can guide other employees through the process of setting up and using new technology.
Even after the new system has been fully deployed and the migration is complete, it’s worth performing regular tests to uncover new opportunities for optimisation. Monitoring employee engagement levels, usage reports, and efficiency levels among teams can provide insights into where technology might need to be tweaked or updated to improve business results in the future.
Intermedia Cloud Communications serves over 135,000 businesses globally with a comprehensive, tightly integrated suite of communications, collaboration, and productivity solutions. With 99.999% uptime SLAs, J.D. Power-certified technical support, and white glove migration and onboarding services, Intermedia provides organizations of all sizes a one-stop shop for the tools that help businesses connect and work better from wherever. To learn more, visit Intermedia.
