Your Network is the Key to Cloud Communications Success

We look at the backbone of all cloud communication solutions, the network, with specialist provider West

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Unified Communications

Published: July 26, 2018

Ian Taylor Editor

Ian Taylor

Editor

The neglected facet of modern technology solutions is often the background network. Considered to be a standard component and expected to function flawlessly without the need for huge attention, the networking backbone of organisations is the unsung hero of technology solutions. In the age of cloud based communication, collaboration and business system solutions you might have thought the importance placed on networking solutions might diminish. You would be wrong.

All of the modern-day cloud solutions deployed in midsize or enterprise environments, whether that be in the field of UC or collaboration, require a fully capable, scalable and secure network solution. Achieving that might be harder than you think. Often the first stumbling block encountered when initialising a new technology platform will be within the networks’ components.

West Marcus Schmidt
Marcus Schmidt, West

Traditional networks had been designed to cater for the traditional on-premise applications and with the rapid growth in cloud communications and collaboration platforms the strain placed upon them can often be too much. Many providers of innovative technology solutions neglect the network and this can cause real issues for organisations looking to take their first steps into the unknown. One provider who never neglect the network and its critical function are West.

Marcus Schmidt, Senior Director of Product at West’s Unified Communications Services, told us why they think it is best to build from the ground up.

“For West it starts with the Network. We are very concerned about making sure that a customer’s network is resilient enough before we start building unified communications or contact centre on top of it.”

 

Unlike many of their competitors, West include a number of innovative networking solutions within their portfolio. As well as their unified communications offerings covering the core-hosted voice, SIP trunking, messaging and collaboration platforms, audio, web and video, webcasting, contact centre solutions, notification and sophisticated IVR, West start with their Maxxis Application Network.

“We want to make sure that customers start with a good solid network strategy. In a lot of cases your UC, video and contact centre is only as good as the network foundation that it is built on.”

Their Maxxis Application Network enables transformation within corporate networks, leveraging advanced intelligence based routing to reassure customers with core to edge visibility. It has been designed to align with the enterprise’s focus on cloud-based services, centrally managed applications and real-time communication methods. This allows Maxxis to enable a highly effective, flexible and secure network solution.

Composed of their MPLS offering, peering connections to cloud providers and connections to carriers for voice and data, as well as innovative SD-WAN solutions Maxxis provides much more than other solutions in this area. Fully managed through design, configuration and installation West are able to offer this as part of their broad portfolio.

“That’s one of the differentiators between us and some of the vendors in this space that are just focused on UC or Contact Centre. They tend to leave the network as a problem for the customer to solve separately. We try to be a one stop provider for our customers in that regard.”

The different approach West have taken to their portfolio is an indicator of their holistic approach to customer experience. With the fullness of their portfolio, offering cutting edge cloud communication solutions as well as their network specialisation, West are able to offer a more rounded option to their customers in terms of analytics.

“Having the network foundation, different applications that span across that really broad portfolio from core voice, to contact centre, to IVR, to the AI and machine learning (ML) area does allow us to compile a good set of data that we can use to ultimately get in to the area of predictive analytics.”

The benefits this can yield for their customers in feedback and efficiency savings can be huge and it all begins with their network expertise. West are also focusing on expanding their networking solutions to further enhance the remainder of their portfolio, which can further optimise business process and experiences for customers. SD-WAN has the potential to be disruptive force for good within enterprise networks and West realised this earlier than most.

“We are looking at the vendor offerings in the SD-WAN space, plus examining the research and development that we are conducting internally. Over time as connectivity improves further SD-WAN could be the default platform for organisations.”

West’s forward thinking, ground up approach to technology solutions makes them one of the most attractive vendors within the UC space. It’s important to heed their message, that the full benefits of even the most appealing UC and collaboration solutions can only be realised with a sound network foundation.

 

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