InterviewUC&C8 May 2024 · 20 min read

UC Round Table: UC Service Management

UC service management is getting harder as multi-vendor UC, security and migration complexity rise. Published on UC Today, with Nuwave, Vonage, GoTo, VOSS and 8

Kieran Devlin

As organisations rely more on integrated communication solutions, understanding UC service management nuances becomes vital. From optimising network performance to ensuring seamless user experiences, it's critical to navigate through the complexities of maintaining UC ecosystems.

With our latest Round Table subject, “UC Service Management”, we spoke with experts and executives from Nuwave, AudioCodes, VOSS Solutions, Vonage, GoTo and 8x8 to discuss emerging challenges IT managers and owners face in UC service management, successful strategies and best practices for effective service management, what to prioritise when facing growth and scale in the environment, and the role automation plays in UC service management.

What are some of the emerging challenges IT managers and owners are facing around UC service management?

[caption id="attachment_47342" align="alignleft" width="186"] David Spears[/caption]

David Spears, CPO at Nuwave

Spears underlines that IT managers and organisation stakeholders are grappling with a myriad of emerging challenges in UC service management but highlights that NUWAVE solves several of these its with its iPILOT offering.

Multi-UC management, for example. "With the proliferation of various UC platforms, managing multiple UC systems efficiently has become increasingly complex and cost prohibitive without a proper Multi-UC management platform," Spears said. "Coordinating between different vendors, ensuring compatibility, and optimising performance across platforms pose significant challenges."

Migrations is another challenge because, as technology evolves, businesses often need to migrate from legacy systems to newer UC platforms, Spears affirmed. "Migrations are traditionally time-consuming and require meticulous planning, seamless transition processes, and minimal disruption to ongoing operations."

Among the other challenges iPILOT addresses is second day support with MACD, when holistic solutions add-ons are needed, lower-cost solutions for SMBs, when CX is wanted to be included in the service offering, greater mobility, cost and resource reduction requirements, Go-to-Market (GTM) for OEM Onboarding Programs and Enablement Time-to-Market (TTM), and robust security.

"Addressing these challenges requires a robust, holistic solution that we at NUWAVE are focused on providing with UC and voice automation, AI integration, orchestration, and simplification of workflows through our iPILOT Platform," Spears added. "This platform is integrally aligned with the major UC vendors and provides NUWAVE’s Constellation services, which support compliance requirements using international standards."

[caption id="attachment_48178" align="alignright" width="152"] Sanjay Srinivasan[/caption]

Sanjay Srinivasan, Chief Architect, GM, SVP of Enterprise UCaaS/CCaaS/CPaaS Services at Vonage

For Srinivasan, managing integration complexity and security vulnerabilities while maintaining quality of service are two of the biggest challenges.

"As UC systems become increasingly integrated with various business tools, managing these integrations becomes exponentially complex and can sometimes result in compatibility or performance issues," he said. "Security is also an area of focus, especially given the rise in remote and hybrid work over the past few years and the need to protect data across a myriad of communications channels and devices. Companies also have to account for a breadth of new UC tools."

Srinivasan also pointed out that IT managers have to address problems like network latency and bandwidth limitations and enable consistent service across all user interactions. "Many companies are also looking for scalability, which can’t be an afterthought – it has to be planned in advance in order to avoid any type of service disruption."

Mike Day, VP of Partner Sales at GoTo

Day highlighted that the challenges faced by IT managers and owners remain the same—quality management, user proficiency, and security and compliance, to name a few—but what has changed is how employees access and interact with UC tools.

"When you’re talking about managing the communications workflows of thousands of people spread around the country or the world, there needs to be a serious discussion about which tools are imperative and which are redundant, which are secure and which are vulnerable, and so on," Day explained.

"Simultaneously, we’re seeing a squeeze on IT budgets nationwide—an edict to do more with less—and managers are faced with the challenge of figuring out how to best balance automation with human personnel, as well as areas to cut costs."

Bill Dellara, Chief Product Officer at VOSS Solutions

Dellara noted that hybrid, remote, and distributed working has changed the way we work. "Organisations now rely on a blend of multi-vendor UC, collaboration, and productivity tools to stay connected," he continued. "The way these tools are delivered, managed, and monitored is key to user experience, employee productivity, and, ultimately, their success."

To meet these demands, Dellara stressed that businesses require UC service management tools that are highly agile. These tools absorb the complexity of managing a multi-vendor UC stack and delivering it to a hybrid workforce, allowing them to focus on the user experience and productivity.

"It’s important to note that UC service management tools also enable the rapid adoption of disruptive technologies such as AI, allowing organisations to maximise the benefits of the latest business-enhancing tools," he said.

Chris Angus, VP, EMEA Contact Centre Engagement at 8x8

Angus outlined that one of the emerging challenges for IT managers and owners in UC service management is overseeing the growing complexity of UC environments as more organisations adopt solutions that incorporate multiple technologies and integrate across all forms of communication channels.

"Therefore, there is a need to consolidate the vendor profile for the customer by ensuring they have vendors in their portfolio that can sell everything in one package - from UC, CC and chat solutions to analytics, integrations and professional services," Angus expanded. "Gone are the days of piecing together five different vendors to create one solution for a customer. Managing these diverse systems can be overwhelming and time-consuming."

"Secondly, with the rise of remote and flexible working models, IT managers must ensure that their UC service management systems can support a remote workforce," Angus continued. "The rapid pace of technological change also necessitates constant updating of skills and knowledge to effectively manage UC environments. Prioritising the user experience is crucial for IT managers, ensuring that employees can easily communicate and collaborate using the tools provided."

Lastly, Angues mentioned that interoperability issues could be another challenge. It might not work well with your existing hardware; therefore, a hardware upgrade would be necessary to fully utilise the UC features.

Benny Matityahu, VP UCC at AudioCodes

Matityahu maintained that the growing popularity of UC solutions, especially cloud-based UCaaS offerings, poses some serious management challenges to IT managers and owners.

"Those challenges already start at the migration stage as companies begin to adopt these new UCaaS solutions," Matityahu said. "IT teams need to ensure that users have uninterrupted voice and UC services throughout the process. This is likely to involve the coexistence of legacy and new platforms from multiple service providers and vendors – not only during the migration process but also afterwards when certain legacy platforms need to be maintained for operational purposes."

Matityahu stressed this means that IT managers need to be able to identify and resolve bottlenecks in resource consumption and availability, continuously monitor voice and video quality across all platforms and have the tools to perform effective root cause analysis of performance and service issues in order to apply corrective measures in a timely manner.

"Furthermore, each platform may have its own dedicated management tools (e.g. PowerShell for Microsoft Teams), each of which requires specialised expertise," he said.

Can you share any successful strategies or best practices you'd recommend introducing for effective UC service management?

[caption id="attachment_67637" align="alignleft" width="156"] Benny Matityahu[/caption]

Benny Matityahu, VP UCC at AudioCodes

Matityahu noted that, in the increasingly complex UC network environments that exist in many organisations (especially when it comes to multi-site, multi-national organisations), the best approach is to adopt management tools that offer management, monitoring and configuration of infrastructure, users and devices via a single pane of glass.

"Companies can leverage these tools to monitor users’ QoE, define organisation-wide calling policies and handle routing of calls between multiple platforms (critical during the migration process)," Matityahu explained.

Matityahu underlined that the emerging use of AI and machine learning technologies also promises to increase the effectiveness of UC management systems. "Here, the possibilities are endless, but some examples of how AI can be utilised include using AI to predict resource consumption and potential bottle based on usage trends and detecting fraud, incoming spam and robocalls to contact centres and even deep fake voice or video attacks," he said.

Automation is also a critical factor in driving UC service management success, Matityahu emphasised.

[caption id="attachment_61946" align="alignright" width="169"] Chris Angus 8x8 Chris Angus[/caption]

Chris Angus, VP, EMEA Contact Centre Engagement at 8x8

Angus suggested one successful strategy for effective UC service management is to establish clear communication channels between IT teams and end users. This can help ensure that any issues or concerns are addressed in a timely manner, reducing downtime and improving overall user satisfaction.

"It is also important to regularly monitor and analyse performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions for optimising service delivery," Angus added. "Fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement can help drive success in UC service management."

"Our 2024 State of Business Communications research highlights that more than half (60 percent) of business leaders want a combined UC and CC platform," Angus continued. "Respondents who are leveraging a combined platform have experienced benefits, including increased productivity, improved employee experience, streamlined workflows, improved customer experience and consistent customer experience."

Bill Dellara, Chief Product Officer at VOSS Solutions

For Dellara, implementing a highly agile service management platform will accelerate a company’s ability to swiftly adapt to change.

"They will be able to introduce high levels of automation to streamline processes and introduce zero-touch workflows," Dellara expanded. "This will allow them to decentralise administration so that teams deliver services and solve problems more quickly."

Dellara noted it would also eliminate errors and reduce the burden of manual tasks. "In this way, and by prioritising the employee experience, organisations will fuel productivity and satisfaction," he added. "So, investing in service management not only enhances operational efficiency but also future-proofs the organisation against technological advancements - such as AI and other disruptive technologies."

Mike Day, VP of Partner Sales at GoTo

For Day, the answer can be simple; choosing tools that are attuned to your organisation will always give you the best chance of success.

"Small businesses have marked differences from Fortune 500 organisations, and their protocols and technologies for UC service management should reflect as such," Day said. "It’s imperative to find the tools that match your organisational needs rather than a vendor offering a one-size-fits-all approach."

Day observed that the best approach is to invest in a unified UC solution that allows teams to manage their various tools and integrations in one centralised location. That provides the ideal balance between flexibility, enabling teams to use the tools best suited to their needs while minimising complexity and costs for IT leaders who can more easily manage and oversee the tech stack.

"We have found a large amount of success in a new offering of managed services," Day continued. "This new offering allows us to supplement local IT staff with expertise on our UC platform offering in a 24x7 support model."

David Spears, CPO at Nuwave

Spears noted that effective UC service management involves implementing strategies and best practices that optimise the entire lifecycle of UC services, from planning and deployment to ongoing management and support and suggested some successful strategies and best practices provided by iPILOT, including synthesis and ascent by focusing on complete lifecycle offerings.

Comprehensive migrations could be a key strategy for Spears. "Start by conducting a thorough assessment of the organisation's current UC environment, including infrastructure, applications, and user needs," he said. "Utilise iPILOT's Migration modules to seamlessly integrate the customer's voice into the automation platform for legacy on-prem PBX or other cloud UC platforms, moving users individually, in bulk, or by department."

"Licensing can also be a barrier. With AI integrated into iPILOT, the platform will let you know if licenses need to be ordered. Then, you can use your own credentials to order directly in the platform, enabling users within minutes."

Another strategy might be streamlined deployment and provisioning. "Leverage iPILOT's deployment automation capabilities to streamline the provisioning of UC services, minimising manual effort, reducing the risk of errors, and accelerating time to deploy for a high-quality CX," Spears outlined.

"Utilise low-cost provisioning overhead to ensure smooth and efficient implementation, adhering to best practices and industry standards. Implement standardised templates and configurations to expedite deployment while maintaining consistency and reliability with the flexibility to customise policies."

Among other strategy suggestions are optimised monitoring and management, effective change and configuration management, and thorough user training and adoption.

"By incorporating these strategies and best practices into UC service management processes, organisations can ensure the successful implementation, operation, and optimisation of UC services and user adoption, thereby ultimately driving improved productivity, collaboration, and business outcomes," Spears said.

Sanjay Srinivasan, Chief Architect, GM, SVP of Enterprise UCaaS/CCaaS/CPaaS Services at Vonage

Srinivasan purported that for effective UC service management, adopting a holistic approach that takes into account security measures, comprehensive user training, and proactive performance monitoring is crucial.

"Selecting UC solutions that easily integrate with existing IT infrastructures and business applications will help minimise any compatibility issues from the beginning," he said.

"Implementing strong security protocols, like end-to-end encryption and multi-factor authentication, is also imperative as it will help prevent security risks. Finally, I’d recommend investing in training programs that empower all users at a company to leverage the entire UC environment and its tools confidently and to their full potential."

How should you prioritise and address issues related to scalability and growth in a unified communications environment?

[caption id="attachment_29952" align="alignleft" width="134"] Bill Dellara[/caption]

Bill Dellara, Chief Product Officer at VOSS Solutions

Dellara observed that, with the customers VOSS Solutions works with, the first priority is to get the basics right.

"By introducing UC automation management, their UC platform is able to operate optimally: Tools are seamlessly integrated, and they have a comprehensive view of the UC stack with real-time analytics visibility."

"Getting all of this right in the first instance is absolutely key," Dellara continued. "They can now respond quickly to change and make informed decisions based on actionable insights. They are able to prioritise, troubleshoot, and problem-solve issues before they result in a system outage. Importantly, they are able to scale and grow at a pace that suits them, as they are in full control of the UC stack."

Chris Angus, VP, EMEA Contact Centre Engagement at 8x8

Angus highlighted that scaling your business is a complicated endeavour, stressing that as businesses grow and evolve, IT managers must ensure that their UC service management systems are scalable and can accommodate the changing needs of their organisation.

"Collaboration between IT departments, stakeholders, and vendor partners is key here to ensure a unified approach to addressing scalability and growth challenges to effectively support the evolving needs of the organisation," Angus expanded.

"Scaling your business takes many different factors, from increasing internal efficiency to expanding reach to new customers. By choosing a UC solution that is scalable and can easily adapt to your changing business needs, UC can make it possible for businesses to scale up or down their communication capabilities and functionalities based on immediate needs."

David Spears, CPO at Nuwave

Spears observed that prioritising and addressing scalability and growth issues in a UC environment requires a strategic approach and outlined how admins might be able to tackle these issues through Nuwave's iPILOT platform.

"Leverage iPILOT's full lifecycle capabilities to streamline processes from migration to provisioning to ongoing support," Spears explained. "This ensures that all aspects of UC deployment and management are optimised for efficiency and effectiveness."

Another strategy might be reducing expensive headcount. To do this successfully, Spears advised admins to "identify areas where manual intervention and expensive human resources can be reallocated or minimised through automation and self-service features offered by iPILOT. This not only reduces costs but also enables scalability by removing bottlenecks associated with human intervention."

Among other strategies Spears recommended was taking advantage of multi-UC market demands, utilising other carriers for voice expansion and reach, automating the entire process, increasing margins through streamlining, solving holistic solutions and producing self-service for customers.

"By following these strategies and leveraging the capabilities of iPILOT, you can effectively address scalability and growth issues in a Multi-UC environment while maximising efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction," Spears summarised.

Sanjay Srinivasan, Chief Architect, GM, SVP of Enterprise UCaaS/CCaaS/CPaaS Services at Vonage

Srinivasan argued that companies can prioritise scalability and growth by adopting flexible solutions and by engaging in continuous planning and evaluation.

"To start, companies should select a UC platform that can seamlessly scale up to accommodate a growing user base and increased data volumes," Srinivasan said. "This platform should also support easy integration with other tools and services that might be adopted as a company evolves."

"It’s also important to regularly assess the current capabilities of the UC environment and take stock of what future needs might look like. Cloud-based solutions are ideal as they often simplify the ability to scale up or down and offer the flexibility many companies need."

Benny Matityahu, VP UCC at AudioCodes

Matityahu noted that organisations need to ensure regular assessment and forecasting of their UC capacity needs. Constant network monitoring and resource planning are critical to ensure that their network infrastructure is sized adequately to accommodate both current and future needs.

"This can be achieved using tools that constantly monitor UC network performance and utilisation at all levels," Matityahu said. "This is another area where AI can prove invaluable in identifying and analysing trends from the vast quantities of network traffic and call data collected by management tools."

In terms of the UC service management tools themselves, Matityahu highlighted that using cloud-based solutions provides more flexibility and agility in adapting to changing needs and demands, as well as offering improved security and reliability.

"The inherent scalability and elasticity of cloud platforms mean that the tools have the capacity to withstand all levels of UC and network activity."

Mike Day, VP of Partner Sales at GoTo

Day observed that scalability and growth are directly related to the needs of a business's workforce and organisational priorities. Traditionally, many companies had full-size IT teams managing their needs by implementing new technologies, securing existing workflows, and working on procurement.

"As mentioned, we’ve seen a reduction in these personnel in the post-pandemic world," Day expanded. "Now more than ever, we must work to balance the capacity of IT teams alongside worker productivity. This entails assessing whether a new tool will enable enhanced growth and collaboration or if it will encumber an already overburdened workforce."

"It’s a delicate balance, but staying in constant communication with your staff and utilising metrics to evaluate ROI are two methods that should always pay dividends."

What role does automation play in effective UC service management processes, and what benefits come from its implementation?

[caption id="attachment_67638" align="alignright" width="111"] Mike Day GoTo Mike Day[/caption]

Mike Day, VP of Partner Sales at GoTo

Day noted that automation gives us the ability to streamline tasks and delegate repetitive, manual processes that would otherwise take up valuable time and resources. "This can include provisioning devices and accounts across UC platforms when a new user joins a company, monitoring the performance of network traffic across UC services, and even analysing user behaviours and patterns to optimise resource allocations," Day explained.

Day underscored that moving these responsibilities away from IT leaders frees them up to focus their attention on higher-level, strategic tasks that will ultimately help elevate the business.

"We have also seen success in the role of AI to further enhance and expedite the service offerings of automation across business units."

Sanjay Srinivasan, Chief Architect, GM, SVP of Enterprise UCaaS/CCaaS/CPaaS Services at Vonage

Srinivasan stated that automation plays an important role when it comes to effective UC service management processes because it enables real-time monitoring and provisioning of users and features, as well as management of UC services.

"When companies automate routine tasks like network monitoring and issue diagnosis, they can significantly reduce the time and resources spent on manual interventions," Srinivasan said.

He also underlined that automation speeds up response times and ensures any performance bottlenecks or security vulnerabilities are addressed quickly while also improving overall system reliability and customer satisfaction.

"An additional benefit is improved data analytics and reporting, which allows IT managers to gain deeper insight into system usage and performance trends that can help further optimise UC environments," Srinivasan continued.

Benny Matityahu, VP UCC at AudioCodes

Matityahu emphasised that automation plays a critical role in streamlining and simplifying UC service management processes and tasks. Automated no-code/low-code applications can offload repeatable and time-consuming tasks from IT staff, allowing them to focus on more urgent or strategic activities.

"This can contribute to increased efficiency, fewer human errors, and improved service quality," Matityahu explained. "Automation is particularly critical for large organisations, largely eliminating the need for writing complex scripts for tasks such as batch provisioning of users and devices and applying cross-organisation or department rules and policies."

Automation also plays a crucial role in hosted UC service environments where service providers or channel partners manage the UCaaS solution on behalf of their own business customers, Matityahu affirmed. In this scenario, automation accelerates new customer onboarding, shortening the time to revenue.

"In the case of Microsoft Teams, automation can help providers simplify setting up the customer’s tenant, connecting it to the PSTN for inbound and outbound voice calling, defining and deploying users and UC devices, such as IP phones and meeting room devices, and assigning phone numbers," Matityahu concluded.

Chris Angus, VP, EMEA Contact Centre Engagement at 8x8

Angus highlighted 8x8 research that showed that 78 percent of UK IT decision-makers are already deploying AI and automation to future-proof their business.

"By automating routine tasks such as provisioning and configuration management, IT teams have much more time and resources to focus on more strategic initiatives," Angus added. "Additionally, by analysing large datasets and monitoring real-time insights, automation helps organisations quickly identify and address potential issues before they escalate."

However, to succeed in this digital journey, Angus argued that IT leaders shouldn’t race ahead to implement the latest AI advancements in every area of the organisation. As with any new technology adoption, the introduction of AI and automation will only be successful if it is done at the right pace and level.

"Therefore, it’s all about balance," Angus said. "Automation can’t be seen as a cost-cutting measure used to take over all interactions—instead, it should be seen as a tool empowering IT managers, enhancing their abilities, and streamlining operations to ensure increased efficiency, improved service quality, and better decision-making based on real-time data."

Bill Dellara, Chief Product Officer at VOSS Solutions

Dellara purported that automation plays a "hugely important" role in effective UC service management, particularly in overcoming rising costs and demands on your resources. By automating routine tasks in the UC environment, Dellara suggested, organisations can reduce reliance on traditional telephony services and expensive hardware investments, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

"Automation streamlines processes, eliminates manual labour, and reduces the risk of human error," Dellara said. "It also enhances overall operational effectiveness by offering role-based management control."

"This simplifies the management of multi-vendor UC stacks and improves cross-functional collaboration while unlocking self-service and devolved administration for less important tasks. As a result, you will speed time to resolution, resulting in a boost to productivity and experience."

David Spears, CPO at Nuwave

Spears noted that automation plays a crucial role in effective UC service management processes, including contributing towards efficiency and productivity.

"Automation eliminates manual tasks and streamlines processes, leading to increased efficiency and productivity," Spears continued. "Routine tasks such as provisioning, configuration management, and troubleshooting can be automated, maximising time and allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives."

Another key automation benefit Spears cited was cost reduction and overhead expertise. "By automating repetitive tasks, businesses can reduce the need for specialised expertise and minimise operational costs," Spears said. "Automation helps optimise resource utilisation and allows organisations to do more with fewer, lower-cost resources."

Among the other benefits Spears listed were streamlined quote-to-cash and customer lifecycle management, improved time-to-deploy, time-to-revenue and rapid response, boosted self-service and analytics, enhanced visibility and scalability, a broader range of third-party integrations and calling solutions, and a reduction in human errors through real-time intelligence.

"Incorporating AI into automation further enhances its capabilities, enabling advanced features such as predictive analytics, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning-based decision-making," Spears said. "By harnessing the power of automation and AI, businesses can streamline UC service management, drive operational efficiency, and deliver superior customer experiences in today's dynamic market landscape."

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