A unified communications system (UCaaS) in the cloud may seem like a daunting proposition. Companies have concerns about the maturity, reliability, and capabilities of the network and the features available.
As your company transitions to the cloud, the consideration is whether to adopt a hybrid cloud or a pure cloud solution.
This decision is mainly based on the requirements of your users, organization, and company telephony.
Some companies in complex environments will choose a hybrid solution over the next few years as they transition to cloud Unified Communications (UCaaS) gradually.
During Migration Planning
Determine the features you need:
- What features does a cloud solution need to achieve the same productivity for your employees? For example, how does your company use UC platforms today (such as instant messenger, calls between extensions, voice conferencing, video conferencing)?
- Which features are mandatory for your organization?
- What additional features are available from the cloud provider that you want to adopt to provide new communication and collaboration capabilities (for example a direct office phone number to a mobile phone, Desktop Video, etc.)
- Your reasons for migrating to the cloud, for example:
- To reduce costs in the organization
- To move from CapEx (Capital Expense) to OpEx (Operating Expense) spending
- To obtain a better SLA and better management capabilities.
- Will your company design a Hybrid solution (partly on-premises and partly in the cloud) or will you migrate fully to the cloud?
- Does your company have enough budget for the telephony system, including IVR, which will suit a hybrid environment better
- Is your company’s existing hardware investment (for example an SBC) compatible with your cloud solution, or do you need to buy new equipment?
- Will your company adopt a single communication and collaboration solution or a mix (such as Skype, Microsoft Teams, Zoom)
- Has your company obtained support from senior management, including the CEO and CFO, so that everyone understands the criteria for a successful migration
- To make sure the migration succeeds, has your company identified the internal UC team that will be involved in planning, or does your company have a partner, service provider, or system integrator that will help you with the transition?
- How does your company manage performance in new types of environments such as mobile phones or softphones using headsets? Have you researched softphone or headset options to make sure they are certified for use in your new environment?
- Have you discussed and confirmed the SLA for employees who do not perform
- Is your company’s internet network environment strong enough to support the transition to the cloud?
- Should you start the migration one department at a time, so that any negative impact will not hurt the whole business organization at first?
- Have you developed a training program to make sure the people in your company will accept the technology change and adopt the capabilities in your cloud solution?
- Have you met the security requirements for the cloud as well as other requirements?
During Deployment
- Have you defined your success criteria (for example: call quality)?
- Do you have a clear understanding of the features available in your region (for example: PSTN calling features and availability)
- Have all departments received training from your internal IT team?
- How do you track adoption and usage patterns in your environment?
- How do you calculate return on investment (ROI) when moving to the Cloud?
- Are you giving users more feature settings than they need?
During Operations
- Do you have a reliable and efficient method to identify and fix failures or enable features for users?
- Are users effectively adopting the new cloud features in your company’s environment?
- Do you keep improving the processes for monitoring and managing your environment?
- Do you evaluate the ability to extend the API so it can be integrated into business process applications?
- Can you solve problems reported by users effectively and easily?
- Do you compile reports that give an understanding of your call patterns to make sure you meet your SLA?
- Do you have a clear view of the success criteria when moving from on-premises services to cloud services?
- Are you managing costs successfully and effectively during the migration to the cloud?
