How Lumen Enablement Services Make UC&C a Whole Lot Easier

Unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) has proven to be an essential tool for organizations today, especially given the shift to hybrid workforces in both the private and public sectors. UC&C is designed to increase operational efficiencies, improve resiliency and have a positive impact on employees and customers.

But switching from legacy voice and messaging services to UC&C, or streamlining a patchwork of disparate services into a single solution, can involve a degree of friction. Trying to plan and implement it on your own is not an easy effort. Although business leaders know that a new solution will bring needed capabilities and benefits, some are reluctant to make the switch.

Obstacles to UC&C implementation

Organizations face many challenges when transitioning to a UC&C solution. A lack of resources or in-house expertise could result in communications being disrupted during the transition, or beyond. Potential cost overruns, a failure to integrate mission-critical business apps with UC&C and questions about security are valid concerns.

A 2022 survey of enterprises conducted by IDC and sponsored by Lumen found that while 53% of organizations are currently using or considering a hybrid approach to UC&C, a hybrid on-premises and cloud-based deployment adds even more complexity.

A successful UC&C solution implementation requires thorough planning, coordination and testing, and all of that requires time and staffing resources. Organizations that fall short can look to managed service providers to fill in those gaps.

How a managed service provider streamlines UC&C

Whether you’re relying solely on legacy technology or have an existing UC&C solution in place that needs to be upgraded, engaging with a managed service provider makes good business sense and is cost effective.

If you ask nearly any organization that decided to handle UC&C fully in-house about the process, you’ll hear about decision paralysis (everyone talked about the need for UC&C but it never took off), projects that started then stopped because staff didn’t have the right skills or were needed on other projects, or a project timeline that ran over the initial plan by years, forcing the team to re-evaluate the latest technologies. Additionally, some organizations were forced into a hurried decision due to the pandemic, and are now taking a more organized approach to evaluating and course correction.

A managed service provider brings expertise you probably aren’t always aware of, or do not have on hand. That expertise is key to selecting the best solution, minimizing disruptions during implementation and deployment, and bringing a project to completion on time and within budget.

Many organizations are looking to managed service providers for assistance with aspects of UC&C or to manage an implementation from end to end. The 2022 IDC survey showed that, of the organizations considering adoption of a UC&C solution, about 76% are very or extremely interested in working with a managed services provider. That percentage increases to 96% for companies already using UC&C solutions.

An All-in-One Managed Solution for UC&C

Lumen Enablement Services (LES) for UC&C is a suite of services that assists customers through planning, design, implementation and management of their UC&C and voice platforms. The purpose of LES is to simplify UC&C processes for customers, from planning through post-deployment maintenance.

Customers can choose a bundled service offering (package) or choose individual services as needed. For example, you can use LES services for the initial implementation, and then add ongoing maintenance down the road to free your staff to work on new initiatives. Or your organization may be looking for guidance when choosing whether Cisco Webex, Zoom or Microsoft Teams will meet your current and future needs, or if a combination is best. LES can help you make the right decision, and then assist with implementation, integration and data transfers so employees have everything they need once the new solution is up and running.

LES is backed by Lumen’s wide-ranging experience in deploying and supporting enterprise UC&C solutions. We offer on-premises infrastructure with Lumen engineers who can configure your UC&C solution and perform necessary integrations with your existing infrastructure. Our technical staff can also manage your UC&C cloud services, including cloud Session Border Controller (which must be properly configured to route outgoing calls to regional carriers and incoming calls appropriately) and any tenant cloud collaboration instances.

As mentioned, many organizations find that using managed services UC&C planning, deployment and management is cost effective. The IDC survey results indicated that 8 out of 10 (84%) organizations that already use a cloud-based UC&C solution expect to continue their current spend or increase it over the next year or two.

At Lumen, we don’t want customers to be hit with unexpected costs. You can purchase services as a one-time offer or on a monthly subscription-type basis, giving you cost transparency and a way to budget realistically. You also get a single point of contact at Lumen, which helps save time and money.

Are you ready to start your journey to streamlined UC&C? Learn more about Lumen Enablement Services for UC&C and reach out to a Lumen representative.

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