CallTower recently announced that it is now offering Cisco Webex, Cloud Calling, and UCM in the Cloud for their government customers requiring FedRAMP certification.

By receiving the certification, CallTower’s government customers can now benefit from the Cisco Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) products that the commercial sector has long had available for it, along with the security assurances that they require to operate.

With this announcement, CallTower adds a new tier of Cisco options to their existing Microsoft GCC High offerings for Direct Routing and Teams.

Why FedRAMP?

Buying products and services for government agencies is a Sisyphean art and science of its own.

Due to the extra security concerns, these agencies cannot simply buy software, products, or services off the shelf. They have to comply with a laundry list of regulations in an attempt to reduce their risk.

Going through this process for every purchase is exceedingly inefficient. So, in an effort to cut down on the workload for government agencies’ buyers, we have certifications like FedRAMP where the buyers can know that the offerings they are purchasing fit their requirements.

This is a good thing for both the vendors, once they are certified of course, as well as for the buyers. Attaining certification opens up a new market for the vendors and gives the government agencies additional options that are available to them.

To learn more about what this new offering means for their customer base, as well as the process of getting certified for FedRAMP as a Cisco partner, UC Today caught up with CallTower’s VP of Software and Product, Doug Larsen.

Getting Certified for Selling to the Government

They already do voice and Teams for Microsoft GCC High.

This is the first time that CallTower is doing a government level certified product for Cisco products, so even though CallTower has certifications for selling services for Microsoft GCC High, they still had to go through the certification process.

Describing the steps that it took to achieve certification, Larsen says that, “We had to do a course where we learned about all the different government programs, government acronyms, what it means to be certified, how you would sell equipment to a Cisco government customer.”

Thankfully, Larsen and his team were not alone in navigating the certification process.

“As a Cisco partner, I have access to a partner account manager who walked me through the process,” says Larsen. “The account manager helped me map out all the steps, explaining some of the basic yet critical details like which courses to take, where to find the information, and how to sign up.”

On the plus side, Larsen says that the course’s nine or ten modules are very well laid out, which helped to ease the process along.

Cisco’s team provided additional support after the course was completed, ensuring that as a partner, Larsen’s team uploaded the correct certifications, and then worked with the Cisco team to ensure that they were enrolled in the FedRAMP program correctly. “They helped us to make certain that our certifications are valid, and that they updated our status in the Cisco portal.”

You’ve got GCC High? Great, Here’s Why You Should Add Cisco

One question that comes up for government agencies when considering adding services to their existing UCaaS deployments is,” Why do I need ‘X’ if I’ve already got ‘Y’?”

Larsen tells UC Today that, “First and foremost, when it comes to government, Cisco has been doing it for a long time. They know the ins and outs of the rules, and they ensure that piece of it, you’re compliant.”

He notes that Cisco has their own cloud, where all of the FedRAMP services are deployed to ensure security.

“They can make it easy to bring the customer up on FedRAMP,” says Larsen, noting the ease of the provisioning process. “The SKUs that you use are very simply laid out and WebEx is an easy product to use. It is something that I believe is still the trusted name when it comes to the government.”

“I would say with Cisco, the reliability and the security are the reasons why so many of our customers go with Cisco for the government space.

Tips for Government Customers Interested in Cisco

Based on his recent experience in getting certified, Larsen shared a few tips for those who are looking to either get certified themselves or buy new FedRAMP approved services.

Know the Rules for Compliance

Make sure that your team is aware of all the different government rules and regulations to do FedRAMP. Building on their experience as FedRAMP certified vendors, CallTower can help walk customers through the dos and don’ts, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

Communicate the Importance of FedRAMP Internally

Make sure you explain to your team why buying a FedRAMP approved product is important.

“Explain to your people what FedRAMP is and why you would want to choose FedRAMP and why you can’t just go commercial,” says Larsen. It can involve extra effort so having folks on board can go a long way for easing the implementation process.

Remove Existing Cisco Products

“We’ve learned this, through experience, to ensure that you don’t have any other conflicting WebEx products out there today,” he explains, noting that, “Because it will add complications to your installs. And if you do, Cisco has a good process that we can follow to help migrate from commercial to FedRAMP.”

One of the things that Cisco does to ensure that for security reasons, you cannot have a user that exists on the commercial side and in the FedRAMP side at the same time or you will run into provisioning problems.

So, like many things in life, a clean start is always best.

Why Run All Your Government UCaaS through CallTower

CallTower has long made its name as a provider of solutions over products.

This is advantageous for their customers because it means that they can approach CallTower with their evolving needs and CallTower can help them to tailor a solution across vendors that will work for their organization.

Gold Partner with Microsoft and a long history of working with Cisco going back to 2002, so they have the in-house expertise to support their customers with everything from Cisco.

In practice, it means knowing that no two departments in an organization work the same way, and each will have its own demands for UCaaS.

By offering solutions from Microsoft, Cisco, and Zoom, all easily manageable under a single unified portal platform, organizations can increase efficiency while saving time and budget.

Organizational needs can change, so having the flexibility to mix and match between Microsoft and Cisco offerings can be critical. Especially when it comes to budgeting. For organizations that have made their shift to the cloud, scaling licenses up and down as needed is easy through the CallTower Connect portal.

Stay Tuned for More Government-focused Offerings

Looking towards the future, Larsen tells UC Today that they plan on rolling out Zoom calling for government customers, rounding out their offering to include the primary three vendors with the greatest demand from the market.



from UC Today https://ift.tt/tDbzX1F