This is an excerpt from the UC Optimization Guide for Pros available download here.
Q: How are your clients' performance objectives for UC different to other environments? How does that impact your client management strategy?
A: At the heart of any UC deployment are real time communication protocols. The key phrase here is “real time”. Whilst it may be acceptable for non-real-time traffic to take an extra second or two to traverse a network, with real time traffic milliseconds can make the difference between a good experience and a bad one. Tools used to manage a UC environment need to be able to identify real time traffic flow issues, overlaying data from multiple environments to give a true “single pane of glass” overview of what's really going on.
Q: How are IT/UC/Network/Ops teams getting it wrong in managing UC?
A: This is primarily an organizational question. Speed of adoption correlates with establishing specialist UC roles and teams. Assigning traditional specialist roles in telephony, VC etc. to a single manager is only a step towards this. Meanwhile, the world of IT continues to change. Many more services are being consumed from cloud providers than ever before. Services are no longer being provided from within the corporate firewall. With this shift, organizations need to take a fresh look at how their network is architected: How do you users get access to the internet (and ultimately SaaS offerings)? What devices do you have within your network that may impede this traffic (accelerators, proxies, etc.)? Are the network team actively involved in your move to SaaS offerings?
Q: What is the risk of a client not having thorough UC Management in place?
A: Many things need to come together and work in harmony for a UC deployment to be successful. Real time UC traffic behaves differently from conventional network traffic, so can fall outside the scope of conventional data network management tools. It's important that you have full end to end visibility of what's happening in your environment. If you don't have the right tools in place, you're not getting the full picture.
Q: What factors are most important to you when considering UC Management tools for your clients?
A: First and foremost, tools selected need to be Microsoft certified. This lets us know that the tool has been reviewed and fully ratified by Microsoft to add value to a UC deployment. Ease of procurement and deployment are also important factors, as is how much time it takes us to transfer key skills to clients to make them self-sufficient once we've finalized deployment.
Q: How do you compare Prognosis monitoring and troubleshooting capability with other providers?
A: Whilst we work with a range of UC vendors, Insync Technology is primarily a Microsoft shop, so it's important that the tools we use align closely with the Microsoft stack. In this environment, Prognosis provides more information, and in a more accessible format, than any alternative we are aware of. Right now, Microsoft UC is in a transitional state: Microsoft Teams will eventually be replacing Skype for Business Online. Using Prognosis ensures that the tools we use today for monitoring and troubleshooting Skype for Business will continue to be the tool we use in a Microsoft Teams centric world.
