There are moments in human history that define a generation. Tectonic shifts can happen in a flash. Then came COVID.

Welcome to the Pandemic Generation

Perhaps no other event in the past century had so suddenly appeared with a so sudden devastating impact. We all lived it, and it was no fun.

So, take solace in John Lennon’s verse, “There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”

Today, remote and hybrid work is a fixture of life. And Zoom, Webex and Microsoft Teams have become household names. And the legacy of the pandemic rolls on.

When COVID came, what might have been a gradual shift to cloud-based operations became a frantic scramble. Companies that were once in-house suddenly faced the complex tasks of how to move entire on-premise systems to the cloud.

The Legacy of The Pandemic Spawned More Legacy PBX

For many companies that leapt to the cloud, there remains a complex and thorny set of technical issues called on-premise PBX systems. Voice is one of the  most complex parts of a company network infrastructure.

Though it might be a small percentage of their entire infrastructure, on-premise PBX systems remain a befuddling set of problems for IT managers.

“The pandemic forced many enterprises to shift to Microsoft Teams in a big hurry,” said Jared Cullop, Director of Business Development at Continuant. “In the rush to get their employees to a remote setting, they left their PBX systems as something they’d deal with down the road,” he explained.

PBX Legacy Systems: Where Do We Go from Here?

The notion of complexity is hardly new, especially in the technology industry, where complexity is an almost natural evolution.

What’s complex can be a headache, something to be ignored – for a while – until it needs maintenance, repair or upgrading. And ignoring the complex doesn’t magically make it disappear – or transform it into something simple.

So, when an IT manager wants to upgrade the company PBX system to the cloud, she’s dealing with a legacy of complex voice systems.

“And it’s not simple. It’s never simple,” Cullop said . “Because there are a lot of seams and streams to consider when you’re going for a seamless and streamlined enterprise UC ecosystem. For example, deploying and managing Teams Phone Direct Routing is no small feat which is why many large organizations go the “as a service” route.”

Not all cloud companies are created equal. They excel at large-scale cloud migrations, but only a few can handle enterprise-grade migrations when it involves on-premise PBX.

“Discussing an on-prem PBX estate is no casual conversation,” Cullop . “A vendor must have the knowledge to understand the intricate parts of a specific legacy system. That’s what happens in the discovery phase, and it’s crucial to creating the roadmap,” he explained.

Every enterprise has unique requirements. Failing to understand those requirements can negatively affect an organization that relies on legacy phone systems.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all support service. It has to be highly specific to your needs,” Cullop pointed out.

It’s not uncommon for enterprises to initiate a program to shift their PBX systems to the cloud only to find themselves in a technical blind alley.

Contact Continuant – Because It Really Is Complex.

There’s a lot of buzz around the term ‘digital transformation’. Many vendors are leaders in UC technologies with impressive solutions.

But when it comes to the digital transformation of PBX, few companies can handle the tremendous complexity of the challenge.

So, consider Continuant, Inc., a systems integrator and managed services provider in the Unified Communication and Collaboration space.

For 27 years, Continuant has provided business communication services and support worldwide to more than 100 companies in the Fortune 500 in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, government, and financial services.

Its product line includes:

  • PBX Maintenance and Support (Avaya, Nortel, Siemens/Unify/Mitel, Cisco)
  • Microsoft Teams Phone
  • Teams Meeting Rooms
  • AV Managed Services and Solutions
  • UC Managed Services
  • Cisco UC

Click here to learn more about Continuant.



from UC Today https://ift.tt/SI8HmTY