Benefits of Remote Work Infrographic

Microsoft Teams Reporting

by Purple Page

Microsoft Teams Reporting

Above and beyond a pure UC solution like Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams includes a vast array of features like persistent chat, file storage, and third-party applications. Ensuring end-users continue to use Teams after initial rollout is an ongoing battle. Ensuring peak-productivity is an even more difficult challenge, especially while implementing proper security. Microsoft Teams reporting is essential to measuring adoption, feature usage, and ultimately end-user success.

PowerSuite reporting and analytics solutions deliver the best tools to optimize Microsoft Teams deployments.

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Benefits of Remote Work Infrographic
Workplace Collaboration

Challenges with Microsoft Teams

With the move to cloud-based unified communications, many IT departments mistakenly believe that the issues they dealt with on-premises will magically resolve. However, not only must IT tackle similar problems with quality, they also face new challenges introduced by more advanced collaboration functionality.

Call Quality

While a move to the cloud reduces overall infrastructure, local network issues remain a major source of poor call quality. Microsoft Teams reporting identifies top problem areas so that IT can ensure positive call experiences.

Collaboration Security

With features like guest access and third-party applications, Microsoft Teams introduces significant new surface area of risk. It's up to IT to ensure secure collaboration, and that includes monitoring guest activity and managing third-party applications.

skype for business service 3

Microsoft Teams Reporting

Microsoft Teams Reporting can...

  • Increase adoption
  • Improve call quality
  • Uncover security blind spots

Microsoft Teams reporting offers the information necessary to achieve frictionless deployments and run state success. While adoption may increase at first, it hits a plateau as pockets within an organization continue their use of other technology. Identifying these hold-outs is key to a successful rollout. A hidden key to user adoption is call quality. End-users with poor calls rate the overall Microsoft Teams experience lower and are more likely to pursue unsanctioned alternatives. Beyond the security issues of Shadow IT, PowerSuite’s Microsoft Teams reporting surfaces key information on high-priority risks, like guest access and app store permissions.

PowerSuite’s reporting solutions proactively expose the right metrics, providing global visibility about the environment. Beyond basic reporting, advanced features like benchmarking allow IT to measure Microsoft Teams performance against other platforms, as well as against an anonymized industry average.

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Solutions for Microsoft Teams

PowerSuite presents a single pane of glass to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot multiple platforms. Resolve problems faster, accelerate adoption, and optimize costs.

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  • Ensure Call Quality
  • Troubleshoot Adoption
  • Secure Guest Access
PowerSuite is the leading specialty tool that helps IT visualize Teams' voice performance and health. The PowerSuite formula for collecting and analyzing data from multiple sources creates a unique voice quality map which can be used to proactively pinpoint and troubleshoot UC-related issues in Teams.

PowerSuite provides visibility into organizational usage & adoption of Teams. PowerSuite reports on details about workforce performance & app operations trends to help improve decision-making for IT, identify communication & training opportunities, increase organizational efficiency, facilitate culture change, and extend the value and productivity of employees.

External users are an essential part of the digital workplace, but where do you set the boundaries? It is critical to ensure that only the right people are accessing your teams, channels, and data. PowerSuite allows you to monitor and control guest access, surfacing important insights into the behavior of these external users.

Let PowerSuite help you!

Learn how PowerSuite, our industry-leading solution, can improve your Microsoft Teams performance

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See what PowerSuite can do for you

Your Microsoft Teams reporting tools can be found neatly packaged in PowerSuite. Improve productivity by reducing end-user issues today.

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Upgrading Skype for Business

by Purple Page

The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Skype for Business

Microsoft has officially announced the end of life for Skype for Business is July 31, 2021 and plans to start upgrading users of Skype for Business Online to Teams for chats, meetings, and calls, as soon as September 2019. 

Skype for Business Server 2015 support ends in 2020 and the 2019 edition ends support in 2023. This means IT tech leaders need to plan for the fact that Skype for Business is going away. Microsoft Teams might be the natural upgrade from Skype for Business but there are also other contenders. 

  • What is Skype for Business
  • End of LIfe
  • Skype for Business 2019
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Zoom
  • Teams vs Zoom
When will Skype for Business End
Upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2019
Upgrading to Microsoft Teams
Upgrading to Zoom

What is Skype for Business?

History

There’s a long history beginning in 2007 with the name Microsoft Office Communicator before changing to Lync, then finally Skype for Business in 2015.

Function

Its a unified communications platform that includes instant messaging, video & voice calls, conferencing, and more. Adopted by many, Microsoft has built to work at an enterprise scale.

Many organizations have adopted the platform company-wide and Microsoft built Skype for Business to work at an enterprise scale. We have worked with organizations that have a global footprint with multiple 100,000 employees all using Skype.   

When will Skype for Business be discontinued?

Microsoft announced that Skype for Business Online End of Life happens on July 31st, 2021, which is officially the end of life for the beloved service. This means organizations currently using the cloud-based version of Skype for Business need to start planning to upgrade to Teams or another platform as soon as possible.  

Upgrading Skype for Business is going to be hard for many companies, especially larger ones which makes this a significant and vital organizational shift. Unify Square’s PowerSuite is designed with features to help ease the transitions, like our Usage and Adoption dashboards that can monitor multiple platforms so that you can track the migration. Even better is our targeted Consulting Service designed specifically to help with upgrading Skype for Business to Teams. 

Looking at Skype for Business on-prem, the outlook isn’t terrible despite Microsoft’s focus on workstream collaboration with Teams. As long as you upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2019, customers will receive support until 2025 at the latest. At the time of writing, Microsoft hasn’t set an official end of life date, but you could argue that it wouldn’t be long until they do. While this doesn’t mean end of life for Skype for Business Server, it means its time to upgrade to the newest release and prepare for a potential end to Skype for Business as Microsoft starts favoring the cloud-based Teams platform. 

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Who are the Skype for Business upgrade contenders?

Hanging on to Skype for Business 2015 (or the older Lync 2013 platform) won’t be ideal as the mainstream support end date is October 13th, 2020, which is coming up. This means 3 choices: upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2019, the transition to Microsoft Teams, or move on to a new platform such as Zoom.  

Upgrading to Skype for Business 2019

While Microsoft is ending Skype for Business Online, they have released the updated Skype for Business 2019 for on-premise deployments. The benefits of upgrading current Skype for Business Server 2015, or the older Lync 2013 platform to the 2019 version includes a cloud voicemail and a call data connector. It also includes side by side migration for a smoother transition to Teams. 

This further cement Microsoft’s focus on getting organizations to switch to Teams as their preferred to communications and collaboration platform. In this sense, upgrading Skype for Business 2019 can act as the transitionary platform before initiating the full switch to Microsoft Teams.

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skype for business upgrade

5 Common Skype for Business Challenges

Skype for Business was the revolution from traditional PBX systems. Our eBook summarized the top 5 challenges for this unified communications platform that deals with migration to teams, call quality, how to monitor problems, and more.

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Upgrading Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams

Upgrading to Microsoft Teams is a smooth way to transition to a Workplace Collaboration platform while still staying within the Microsoft ecosystem. What makes Microsoft Teams different from Skype for Business is the collaborative aspect. Features like file sharing, persistent chat, in peer-to-peer communication and team channels, introduce all–new capabilities that Skype for Business lacked. The most notable addition is the team aspect is that groups can be created easily without IT’s help and communication can take place within these channels, along with sharing files and creating meetings in an instant.  

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Moving to Teams can be scary!

Making a move to Teams from Skype for Business can seem daunting, especially if you are running Server 2015 or the older Lync 2013.  There are many changes that both the IT admin and the end-user needs to be ready for: 

  • IM becomes Chat

  • Integrated with other Office 365 apps

  • Constant updates delivered automatically

  • Direct Routing is the new PSTN

  • Azure is the new server in the sky

  • Connect locally, globally

Microsoft has outlined five different migration methods. However, it’s much more complicated than that.  And, it’s arguably even more difficult than the traditional PBX move to Skype for Business.  That said, if you are planning to make the switch to Teams, our Unify Square consultants are here to assist in every step.  We can create a migration plan and detail all the steps in regards to Direct Routing, voice integration, DID porting, security, network readiness, and much more.  Learn more about our Migration service.

Also, because the move to Teams is not going to be overnight, you need to have a Skype for Business AND Teams interoperability plan.  Because our PowerSuite software can monitor, report and analyze both Skype and Teams at the same time, you have a way to track your progress and look for problems with adoption.  We wrote a guide on how to pivot your company from Skype to Teams and its worth a review.   

Adding voice to Teams

With Microsoft Teams replacing Skype one key consideration is adding Voice to Teams. Organizations need to work through the complexities of architecting, deploying and configuring their systems to enable seamless voice on Teams. In the new world of Teams, voice is enabled either via Microsoft’s Phone System along with its Calling Plans and Direct Routing.  

Direct routing is a set of tools that mediate between your on-premises PSTN or SIP trunk and Microsoft Phone System utilizing an SBC. Either physical or virtual, an SBC can be located on-premises or in a cloud data center.  If Direct Routing is new to you then we would recommend watching our latest Voice webinar that explains this in detail and how they work with Session Border Controllers (SBC’s).   To learn more, check this out.

skype for business upgrade

Part 1 of the Buyer's Guide

Key considerations & decision criteria for Teams deployment

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skype for business upgrade

Part 2 of the Buyer's Guide

The key steps to pilot, rollout, and operate at scale with Teams

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Migrating to Teams from Skype for Business?

Let our consultants help you through the right steps to have a smooth transition

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Upgrading Skype for Business to Zoom

Looking to move beyond Microsoft? Zoom is the most significant new contender for unified communications. It offers virtually the same features as Skype for Business and more. Most notably, Zoom Rooms is a game–changer by optimizing an entire room for Zoom meetings to take place. The simple user interface is a strong reason it‘s favored by many and an easy to adopt platform for users. It also offers video and audio conferencing, calls, screen sharing, and more.

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Zoom Phone

A straightforward solution for cloud-calling on Zoom. In order to maximize its utilization, PowerSuite offers a variety of tools to make sure users experience zero to minimal issues. Given the popularity of Skype’s telephony extension, this feature would not be lost in the transition to Zoom. Get more information on Zoom Phone!

Zoom Troubleshoots

As great as the platform is, similar to Skype or Business, Zoom runs into the same issues such as video connectivity problems or call and audio quality problems. These issues can get in the way of Zoom acting as the communication gateway for organizations. This blog post explains various Zoom troubleshoots.

Along with PowerSuite’s multiplatform support, Zoom and Slack are highly integrated for those wanting to have both a UC and WSC platform. This means organizations can adopt two platforms while having the ability to monitor both to track usage and adoption. This pairing of platforms can also be done with Teams, among others, but there are some best practices to follow.

Looking at just Zoom, it can also be compared to Cisco Webex based on the UC nature of their platforms and similar structure. Both have features like telephony extensions but the difference is in pricing where WebEx offers many different plans with inquire-only pricing. Zoom, on the other hand, offers a freemium version with plans capping at $20 per host per month for large enterprises.  Read more about it here.

UC room systems

UC Conference Rooms

Learn how to navigate the complexities of UC Room Systems, like Zoom

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skype for business upgrade

Navigating Zoom at Enterprise Scale

Explore the UC conference marketplace withthe Zoom eBook that provides an overview, as well as dive deeper into where Zoom may still need changes to enable it into the best service for enterprises

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View More Zoom Resources
skype for business upgrade

Microsoft Teams or Zoom? Maybe both together...

According to Nemertes, 54% of companies are using more than one provider for their communications and collaboration needs. In fact, companies use 3.8 providers on average. 

  • Multiplatform Usage

    This widespread usage by companies as they adopt platforms to support business function. It can be internal meetings on Teams and external calls via Zoom.

  • Increased Management Complexity

    Using multiple platforms makes managing the UC and WSC environment more complex. IT must make there there are clear policies and train end users on communication and collaboration security

  • Benchmark Performance and Adoption

    PowerSuite gives IT teams a single pane of glass to benchmark performance and adoption across several platforms. The resulting telemetry can uncover usage and adoption trends and help spotlight unmet needs.

Upgrading Skype for Business will not happen overnight

Moving form one platform to another takes a long time, especially deciding which platform to even choose. The choice takes careful planning as it affects the communication channels of an organization. Even when a choice is made, the migration also takes a while to move users to this new platform. This can take anywhere from 6 months to multiple years. Through all this, you will need a management tool that can manage multiple platforms at the same time.

PowerSuite offers this multiplatform solution to help during the transitionary period to help IT track usage and adoption across various platforms being used. Our solution offers actionable insights based on analytics, Gartner-recognized benchmarking technology, and PowerSuite even goes beyond just software to offer the option to have full, 24 x 7 Cloud-Managed Services (CMS). Learn more about CMS here.

Benefits of Remote Work Infrographic

Have PowerSuiteTM By Your Side

Regardless of which platform you choose, PowerSuite is your one tool to monitor, analyze, and secure collaboration & communications environments. PowerSuite is also cross-platform, making it your best tool for multi-platform management.

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monitoring

by Purple Page

Microsoft Teams Monitoring

Issues with your Microsoft Teams deployment lead to poor user experience, increased costs, and lower productivity. PowerSuite’s monitoring functionality provides you with enterprise-grade tools to track call quality on multiple collaboration and communications platforms, including Microsoft Teams.

Discover how PowerSuite can help you monitor, analyze, and secure your digital work environment.

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Microsoft Teams Problems​

User
Experience​ Issues

Poor user experience brings down a company's ROI and negatively affects end-user productivity.

Operational Deployment Failures​

While initial rollout may succeed, Microsoft Teams requires constant care to keep it running successfully throughout the enterprise.

Larger, Complex Deployments

Without appropriate tools for monitoring, management, and security, enterprises face numerous issues when operating Teams at scale.

Poor Conference Planning​

With IT so focused on Microsoft Teams' workstream collaboration capabilities, voice is often overlooked. Issues experienced during meetings negatively color user opinions of Teams.

Microsoft Teams Deployment Guide

Key Steps to Pilot, Rollout, and Operate Microsoft Teams
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A single pane of glass to manage, analyze and secure your communications

PowerSuite software allows you to analyze data from Microsoft Teams, and other platforms. This software brings you a full visibility of your UC and collaboration ecosystem that allows you to secure user and guest access, compare usage and call quality and solve problems before users notice them.

The unique PowerSuite technology secures your teamwork, increases productivity, and cuts down troubleshooting time. 

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Microsoft Teams Monitoring Solutions with PowerSuite

  • Problem
    Management
  • System
    Troubleshooting
  • Benchmarking
  • Executive
    Support


PowerSuite detects and prioritizes issues affecting Microsoft Teams, using advanced Anomaly Detection to discover problems before they affect end-user experience. This intuitive system allows IT to assign and track remediation efforts.

 

Identify the top problem areas, including: outdated Wi-Fi drivers or client versions, incorrect protocol usage, inconsistent wireless internals, and server communications. The resulting telemetry guides IT through the optimal set of steps to keep systems running strong.

 



PowerSuite's Gartner-recognized technology compares site to site, geo to geo, and platform to platform. This will ensure your system is at peak performance. It also allows you to see how user satisfaction, service availability, and poor call percentage change over time.

Proactively track the conferencing experiences of executives or other VIPs in a centralized dashboard. This allows IT to understand who on the call is creating the poor experience, and how best to address the issue. The dashboard enables a direct drill-down into the PowerSuite Help Desk for further troubleshooting.

Get our most downloaded Microsoft Teams assets

Learn how to properly deploy Microsoft Teams to improve your workstream collaboration

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PowerSuite software gives you a single management framework to monitor, analyze, and secure your collaboration and communications platforms. The software enables Microsoft Teams monitoring through simplified dashboards that allow you to proactively detect issues before end-users even notice. 

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PowerSuite software allows you to successfully monitor several communications and collaboration platforms. With PowerSuite, you can compare usage and call quality on platforms like Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack and Workplace from Facebook.

Ensure consistent security across multiple platforms, and troubleshoot end-user issues through a single pane of glass. Our industry-leading software takes the next step in enabling IT efficiency by prioritizing ongoing issues through a centralized problem management console.

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Workplace Collaboration

Cloud Managed Services

Do you need an easy button for Microsoft Teams monitoring? PowerSuite Cloud Managed Services (CMS) were made to mainline the Unify Square unified communications expertise and bandwidth directly to your IT team.

PowerSuite Cloud Managed Services not only deliver 24/7/365 support, they also feature proactive issue discovery and resolution by our expert operations engineers. Additional add-on services include Room System Management, SBC, SBA, or Server Management, Direct Routing for Teams, White Glove Services, eBonding, and custom reporting.

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Try PowerSuite’s Incredible Functionality Yourself

Improve your Microsoft Teams deployment, and secure your workstream collaboration with PowerSuite. Learn more about how PowerSuite helps top IT teams detect and troubleshoot service health issues.

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Zoom Video Monitoring

Zoom Video Communications Monitoring

by Purple Page

Zoom Video & Zoom
Phone Monitoring

Lack of availability and poor quality in your Zoom deployment leads to end user frustration and decreased productivity. PowerSuite’s Zoom video and Zoom phone monitoring provides the complete oversight needed to keep Zoom and other platforms running at peak performance.

Make it easier and more cost-effective to manage and secure Zoom room systems while improving and streamlining the way people are communicating and collaborating today.

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See Solutions
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Zoom Monitoring is Table Stakes

Zoom video and Zoom phone monitoring is more than just observing platform usage by end users and availability issues. The table stakes need is having the ability to proactively identify issues and then being able to jump to a system fix before users have a chance to even notice.

The tracking of quality and availability over time is the main purpose of Zoom video and Zoom phone monitoring, especially with Zoom Room systems. When organizations rely on these configurations to perform actions like meetings and calls, catching these problems quickly is crucial.

Identify Zoom Video & Zoom Phone Problems

PowerSuite makes IT Happy; Zoom makes the users happy

  • Complex deployments

    Organizations that don't take proper care in planning their rollout, without the right tools, may experience frustrated end users

  • New challenges

    Since Zoom is even younger than other mature platforms, challenges of running it at large scales are still emerging

  • Its not that simple

    Although Zoom is user-friendly, many issues can arise that interfere with call quality, meeting connectivity, and more

PowerSuite enables efficient Zoom video and Zoom phone monitoring through actionable insights. Zoom analytics is also simplified through dashboards that allow for quick issue detection and resolution, big data parsing, and measuring the overall success of the platform for your organization.

PowerSuite Shadow IT Scout for Zoom

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Our Zoom Video and Zoom Phone Monitoring Solutions

  • Zoom Room Support
  • Problem Management
  • Executive Support
  • Enterprise-Ready Usage and Adoption

From small huddle rooms to oversize conference rooms, proactive call quality management is essential. A problem with a room system affects more end-users than any other endpoint, so PowerSuite allows you to create custom views to proactively manage these experiences.

PowerSuite prioritizes issues affecting Zoom, using advanced Anomaly Detection to discover problems before they affect end-user experience. This intuitive system allows IT to assign and track remediation efforts.

Proactively track the conferencing experiences of executives or other VIPs in a centralized dashboard. This allows for preemptive troubleshooting to understand who on the call is creating the poor experience, and how best to address and resolve the issue. The dashboard also enables a direct drill-down into the PowerSuite Help Desk dashboard for further troubleshooting.

PowerSuite provides detailed analytics for Zoom. Track trends in usage over easily selectable time windows and determine the impact of adoption interventions.

The Complete Zoom Experience

Zoom Monitoring

Receive actionable insights as PowerSuite tracks Zoom quality and availability over time

Zoom Management

Proactively prioritize and quickly resolve critical issues affecting end-users.

Zoom Analytics

Get detailed analytics as PowerSuite tracks usage and adoption organization-wide

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Multi-platform Support

PowerSuite’s unique single pane of glass allows organizations to easily monitor hybrid platform scenarios. Directly compare your usage and call quality on Zoom across multiple platforms like Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams and Slack. This helps your organization see which is being used most and where to invest further.

The tool will show whether issues are affecting all platforms such as network performance or unoptimized device usage. It lets you see not just Zoom video and Zoom phone analytics, but analytics across the other collaboration and communications platforms in use by your organization.

Workplace Collaboration

Zoom Cloud Managed Services

PowerSuite Cloud Managed Services (CMS) were made to mainline the Unify Square unified communications expertise and bandwidth directly to your IT team. Working through the cloud, issues can be resolved quickly and remotely before end-users even notice.

PowerSuite, which includes industry-leading Zoom Monitoring software, already offers powerful tools like actionable insights, blind-spot visualization, and innovative benchmarking. However, having CMS complements these features by adding on 24/7 administration and maintenance as well as proactive issue management. CMS is your remote IT services team.

See what PowerSuite can do for you

Give Zoom the extra push it needs to meet your organization’s every need with ease.  Secure communication with PowerSuite for Room Systems and manage across all your platforms with the single pane view.

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Benefits of Remote Work Infrographic

Skype for Business Reporting

by Purple Page

Skype for Business Reporting

Deployment of Skype for Business on-premises include a complex mix of hardware, software, and third-party services working together continuously. IT begins deployment of the system by rolling out features like Instant Messaging (IM), Online Presence, and Meeting Room support. Everything may start off great with no hitches, but issues begin to arise with time. Skype for Business reporting will help IT quickly address problems.

PowerSuite solutions ensure the best Skype for Business on premise reporting tools to optimize end-user experience.

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Benefits of Remote Work Infrographic

80%

of problems are due to environment set up

50%

of total solution cost is Skype vs 20% for PBX

30%

of outages are caused by operator error

Workplace Collaboration

Skype for Business Problems

With deeper integration of Skype for Business, like Enterprise Voice, IT begins transitioning away from traditional PBX systems and the real problems arise from unpleased end users hounding the IT helpdesk. What appears as an easy-to-use platform now displays its weaknesses with system reporting.

 

Limited IT Staff

Without a system in place to assist IT with operational support, they'll be overwhelmed dealing with a new platform that has more requirements than traditional PBX systems. This can include issues like not enough personnel on hand to troubleshoot.

End User Struggles

Its important for IT to have continuous Skype for Business on premise reporting to prevent the negative impacts it would have on employee productivity. Skype for Business is an investment by organizations, so user experience should be optimized to yield the best Return on Investment (ROI).

skype for business service 3

Skype for Business Reporting

Skype for Business Reporting can...

  • Improve planning
  • Speed transformation
  • Pinpoint areas of improvement

Skype for Business on premise reporting can sometimes be the less glamorous side of the cost equation. However, to correctly drive accountability and track ROI benefits, reporting is invaluable. While they do provide a set of standard Skype for Business reports that gives information on usage, call diagnostic information, and media quality information, these are based on the expansive data collected. They often lack the option to filter, highlighting the need for optimized Skype for Business reporting.

PowerSuite’s reporting solutions expose the right metrics, providing global visibility about the environment, and bench-marking within and across the enterprise so that IT can best allocate responsibilities, resources, and personnel.

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Skype for Business Solutions with PowerSuite

  • System Troubleshooting
  • Benchmarking
  • Help Desk
  • Availability Monitoring

Identify the top problem areas, including: outdated Wi-Fi drivers or client versions, incorrect protocol usage, inconsistent wireless internals, and server communications. The resulting telemetry guides IT through the optimal set of steps to keep systems running strong.

skype for business operations dashboard

PowerSuite's Gartner-recognized technology compares site to site, geo to geo, and platform to platform. Ensure your system is at peak performance.

skype for business service health

PowerSuite's most popular app tracks Skype calls, even while they're still in progress. A SIP/email address is all that's needed to access a detailed drill-down of a single user's interactions and trouble spots in a given time period.

skype for business help desk

Proactively measure end-to-end Skype availability with PowerSuite's novel technology. This solution uses proven heuristics to provide actionable and operational workflows, approaching voice quality and performance from a different angle. skype for business monitoring

On-Premises vs. Online

Skype for Business on-premises allows for IT to have more direct access to servers for easier monitoring and reporting. On the other hand, Skype for Business online is hosted by Microsoft Azure and so its much more difficult for IT and 3rd part specialty providers to monitor service availability, call quality, and more. On-premise is much more complex and costly but easier access, whereas online is cloud-hosted and easier for organizations of any size.   Learn More. 

Let PowerSuite help you!

Learn how PowerSuite, our industry-leading solution, can improve your Skype for Business performance

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Skype for Business Reporting

Usage & Adoption

To achieve full platform ROI, you need to measure active versus plan usage and see how it is trending in your environment. PowerSuite Usage and Adoption compares usage between platforms and provides a unique and aggregated user experience visual angle. User behavior can also be broken down by group, custom tag, or even individual for optimal Skype for Business reporting.

PowerSuite collects and analyzes a wide variety of data points across any Skype for Business environment, whether it be on-prem or in the cloud. IT can strategically use this data to correlate with overall platform roll-out goals as well as service availability issues.

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Benchmarking

This crowd-sourced benchmarking functionality in PowerSuite is unique in the industry because it allows IT to compare key platform metrics against other departments, other PowerSuite organizations, or other collaboration platforms.

PowerSuite benchmarking helps you know what success looks like and quickly identifies areas that need improvement.

Don't go at it alone! See PowerSuite in Action

Learn how PowerSuite, our industry-leading solution, can improve your Skype for Business performance

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Call Reporting

PowerSuite’s Call Reporting offers both a set of pre-packaged Skype for Business call reporting (devices, conferences, voice, and video quality, call failures, sharing functionality, and more) as well as an easy UI for creating customized queries.

In addition to native platform data, call reporting also utilizes unique PowerSuite-generated datapoints. This enables troubleshooting assistance without having to write any complex, code-based queries.

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System Troubleshooting

The Operations Dashboard by PowerSuite simplifies the troubleshooting puzzle by leveraging our patented technology algorithms. This Skype for Business reporting tool identifies the top problem areas including outdated Wi-Fi drivers or client versions, incorrect protocol usage, inconsistent wireless internals, and server communications.

The resulting telemetry guides IT through the optimal set of steps to keep systems running strong. It also offers a detailed geo-heatmap drill-downs and global filtering visibility.

Let PowerSuite help you!

Learn how PowerSuite, our industry-leading solution, can improve your Skype for Business performance

Request a Demo

Problem Management

Even the most well-managed collaboration and communication environments will have regular issues that challenge IT’s ability to efficiently prioritize their troubleshooting process. PowerSuite’s Insights Center creates a centralized hub for IT to view a prioritized list of technical and system-related problems, along with a clear way to track progress towards resolution.

PowerSuite uses machine learning, a continuously evolving set of rules, and proprietary technology algorithms to detect system anomalies. Insights Center highlights the most critical issues in a ranked list and helps reduce TCO, letting IT choose when to fix these key issues, based on time and resource demands.

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Service Reviews

The Service Health dashboard gives your IT service manager the power to visualize key information. This can be done across the complete Skype for Business service. Service Health reveals core KPIs on overall system health to enable informed decisions and initiate problem resolution to provide key Skype for Business reporting.

Check Out More Skype for Business Resources

See what PowerSuite can do for you

Your Skype for Business on premise reporting tools can be found neatly packages in PowerSuite. Improve productivity by reducing end user issues today.

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Skype for Business Monitoring

Skype for Business Monitoring

by Purple Page

Skype for Business Monitoring

Skype for Business Monitoring is difficult. Both on premises and online deployments are a complex mix of hardware, software, and third-party services working in concert all day, every day. Deployments typically start with IT administrators rolling out Instant Messaging (IM), Online Presence and Meeting Room support.

PowerSuite offers the best solutions for monitoring Skype for Business. Improve organizational efficiency with better monitoring tools.

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meeting room management

80%

of problems are due to environment set up

50%

of total solution cost is Skype vs 20% for PBX

30%

of outages are caused by operator error

Skype for Business Problems

Initially, everything works great with no issues at all and users loving the new functionality.  However, as soon as Enterprise Voice is enabled and IT starts to move users away from traditional PBX systems major problems start to appear and the IT helpdesk starts to receive dozens of calls from unhappy end users. 

Difficulty Monitoring

Due to low tolerance to latency and packet loss, this makes monitoring and administering difficult.

User Experience

Issues related to user experience degrades organization's ROI and slow employee productivity and satisfaction

Run-State Issues

Related to "operational deployment" when forgets to look past infrastructure deployment

IT Staff Size Issues

PBX systems typically require less IT resources so Skype for Business configuration requirements are often overlooked

Skype for Business Monitoring

Due to the complex nature of Skype for Business systems issues will inevitably arise and when they do, IT needs to respond with lightning speed to prevent downtime and maintain system health.

  • Proactively monitor and diagnose uses in real-time to stay abreast of end-to-end uptime, availability, and performance
  • Get the deepest and fastest insights on UC performance issues before disrupting end users
  • Achieve business goals and protect brand loyalty of your investment

Request a Demo

Skype for Business On Prem vs. Online

Skype for Business Online provides organizations of any size with a cloud-hosted platform with integrated IM, voice, video, and screen sharing capabilities. All that minus the costs and complexities that come in Skype for Business On-Prem.

However, because of the Microsoft Azure hosted nature of Skype for Business Online the ability of 3rd-party specialty providers to monitor service availability as well as certain aspects of voice quality performance monitoring is made more difficult. IT doesn’t have the same direct-touch access to the servers and thus aren’t able to provide optimal Skype for Business monitoring.

Regardless of your Skype for Business hosting choice (on-prem or online) Unify Square’s PowerSuite offers the best monitoring and for Skype for Business designed to enhance your user experience by optimizing it to run at its highest potential.

Skype for Business Solutions with PowerSuite

  • System Troubleshooting
  • Benchmarking
  • Help Desk
  • Availability Monitoring

Identify the top problem areas, including: outdated Wi-Fi drivers or client versions, incorrect protocol usage, inconsistent wireless internals, and server communications. The resulting telemetry guides IT through the optimal set of steps to keep systems running strong.

skype for business operations dashboard

PowerSuite's Gartner-recognized technology compares site to site, geo to geo, and platform to platform. This will ensure your system is at peak performance.

skype for business service health

PowerSuite's most popular app tracks Skype calls, even while they're still in progress. A SIP/email address is all that's needed to access a detailed drill-down of a single user's interactions and trouble spots in a given time period.

skype for business help desk

Proactively measure end-to-end Skype availability with PowerSuite's novel technology. This solution uses proven heuristics to provide actionable and operational workflows, approaching voice quality and performance from a different angle. This is the Skype for Business monitoring tool IT has been looking for.

skype for business monitoring

Skype for Business Monitoring

The Monitoring Dashboard provides probe list service availability monitoring by mimicking typical end user scenarios 24/7 using custom synthetic transactions to strengthen performance of on-premise Skype for Business and cloud-based Microsoft Teams deployments. 

Availability

Skype for Business monitoring tools will often report as “healthy”, yet undetected issues can blindside you. PowerSuite Availability Monitoring uses an easy to deploy synthetic transaction system that regularly mimics typical end-user call behaviors around-the-clock and around-the-world, detecting and prioritizing incidents to help stop escalations before they occur. IT can instantly initiate availability tests from anywhere in your environment. This makes troubleshooting faster and simpler, as remote proves are not needed.

Our patented technology uses proven heuristics to give you actionable operational workflow. PowerSuite empowers you to troubleshoot voice quality as well as network performance, shorten resolution time, and deliver a world-class Skype for Business experience.

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Skype for Business Monitoring

User Behavior & Compliance

The demand for real-time telemetry on users and compliance risk exposure moves beyond just monitoring collaboration and communications platform availability. Our Skype for Business monitoring tools functionality extends to include complete, 24/7 oversight of various user behavior scenarios. Additionally, and more importantly, PowerSuite monitoring highlights corporate risk exposure based on various compliance scenarios related to enterprise collaboration security. This improves the Skype for Business monitoring experience.

As enterprise organizations continue to face new and complex operational challenges in the Skype for Business landscape, Unify Square is ready to deliver the optimal systems and end-user related metrics and troubleshooting advice and direction to enhance performance visibility and keep employees on the path to optimal productivity.

Check Out More Skype for Business Resources

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Your Skype for Business on premise reporting tools can be found neatly packages in PowerSuite. Improve productivity by reducing end user issues today.

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collaboration tools

Collaboration Tools for Business

by Purple Page

Next-gen collaboration tools for business

Email has been a steadfast method of communication in the workplace for more than a generation. Now, new collaboration tools for business aim to replace it entirely.

Slack in particular has boasted that users can say goodbye to email, and experts agree.

Gartner predicts that within 3 years, 70 percent of teams will use workstream collaboration as their primary form of communication.

The benefits are already starting to roll in: more connected teams, less task switching, and most importantly, studies showing a 21% gain in productivity coming out of Nemertes. These collaboration platforms include Slack, Microsoft Teams, and numerous others. 

As the technology is still young, Gartner advises trialing multiple platforms rather than fully committing to one.

Where Should You Start?

We’ve compiled a list of collaboration tools for business to help you out!

SLACK

MICROSOFT TEAMS

BROSIX

ZOHO CLIQ

TWIST

WORKPLACE FROM FACEBOOK

 Don’t go at it alone! If your organization needs help deploying workstream collaboration tools, Unify Square can help. Our expert consultants can work with you on platform selection and deployment plans to ensure a successful roll-out. 

CONTACT US TODAY

Slack: Text-based and app-rich collaboration tools

As the original workstream collaboration platform, Slack features a simple interface with seemingly infinite integrations. Slack is ever-popular, with more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies on paid plans. Slack’s structure is modular, with conversations sorted into channels by team or topic, and customizations easily accommodated through its app store. Users do face some issues with Slack, with the potential for notification fatigue or distraction caused by busy channels. Proper policies and user education can help Slack deployments stay on track.

Get Slack

Brosix: Where security matters

Brosix operates primarily in highly regulated industries and has customers that include medical and financial institutions. The biggest selling point of Brosix is its 256-bit end-to-end encryption of all messages and files sent using its peer to peer connections. The overall interface is lacking compared to other Slack competitors. It does, however, feature whiteboard, unlimited size file transfer, and video chat.

Get Brosix

Who Unify Square Is?

Software development company

  • About
  • PowerSuite Software

Unify Square’s software and services optimize and enhance the world’s largest collaboration and communication deployments, helping businesses manage and secure their meetings, chats & calls.

Our PowerSuite™ software creates a unified dashboard to surface actionable insights and help manage collaboration and communications platforms --- optimizing and transforming performance health and user effectiveness.

Learn More

Zoho Cliq: Monitor multiple channels at once

Zoho Cliq covers the standard set of features to be expected with collaboration tools for business. Its biggest difference is the look and feel. The interface shows full conversations side by side, so it’s easier for multitaskers to participate in multiple chat groups at the same time. If you find yourself in several simultaneous conversations that you’re constantly tabbing between, Zoho Cliq could be a real time saver. Zoho’s other apps integrate well within Cliq so if you’re already using these, Cliq may be a clear choice.

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Twist: Avoid overwhelming notifications

Twist hopes to offer a better organized, less chaotic version of Slack. The need arose because Twist’s own team was spread throughout the world and needed a better form of asynchronous communication. Twist’s conversation threads make catching up easier, and its “snooze” mode keeps notifications in check. Afraid you’ll miss an emergency? Settings allow customization of whether there are any notifications you’d like to receive while in snooze.

Get Twist

Featuring Our Collaboration
Security RightTrack™ Program

With the introduction of collaboration to your communications stack, there are many additional considerations IT needs to keep in mind. With increased collaboration and visibility, it’s important to reduce risk of security exposures from employees and guests.

Learn More

Workplace from Facebook: A familiar interface

Workplace feels very similar to the consumer version of Facebook, with some dressed-up differences to make it a better collaboration tool for business. With the announcement of an updated interface, Workplace promises a less cluttered digital workspace, with easy tabbing between conversations and files. Unique to Workplace is the news feed, which offers a big picture view of the happenings within a company. Beware of the infinite scroll, however, as it can be a major distraction.

Get Workplace

Microsoft Teams: A purpose-built collaboration tool for business

Microsoft designed Teams with an enterprise-first focus. This resulted in an increased emphasis on security and compliance, with native Office 365 tools built in and a more curated list of third party applications. Within Teams, you can use Word Online for real-time co-authoring, and you can see your meeting schedule and join easily with the in-built Outlook Calendar display. While Teams has some difficulties navigating between files and chat, overall it offers a truly centralized workspace.

Get Microsoft Teams

PowerSuite works with the most Popular Platforms

We Can Help To Decide!

There are a variety of interesting collaboration tools for business, with growing feature sets and integrations. While they may not be replacing email just yet, it’s best to get on board early, especially with those productivity benefits.

Unify Square can help you make the most of your workstream collaboration platforms! Our industry-leading PowerSuite Software gives you one tool to manage and secure multiple platforms, all through a single pane of glass. Learn more!

Connect with a Consultant

Read Our Latest Blog Posts

workstream collaboration

Workstream Collaboration

by Purple Page

Workstream Collaboration

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Get Started

What is Workstream Collaboration?

Long gone are the days of the traditional PBX telephone system. While we owe our debts to the mother of communication in the workplace, we are ever grateful for the emergence of the workstream collaboration era that we live in now. 

Gartner coined the term “workstream collaboration” to refer to platform software that offers a “persistent conversational workspace” segregated into discrete channels.  Slack is the pioneer example of a workstream collaboration (WSC) technology, while others like Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex Teams also come to mind. What makes workstream collaboration tools so novel are their integration of many different communication methods under one centralized platform, including chat messaging, video conferencing, cloud telephony, files & documents, and more.

If this sounds similar to Unified Communications (UC), you’re not wrong. WSC is an extension of UC capabilities to address the needs of an ever-changing business world.

The integrated interface between unified communications and digital workspaces into workstream collaboration has created a window of opportunity for applications optimized for user productivity. Every business requires efficient communication, however enterprises also need to maximize their collaboration efforts and leverage their digital workspaces for optimal success. Workstream collaboration permeates modern businesses, regardless of size, location, or industry.

Tip: Don’t go at it alone!

If your organization needs help deploying workstream collaboration tools, Unify Square can help. Our expert consultants can work with you on platform selection and deployment plans to ensure a successful roll-out.

Contact Us

Why Should You Use It?

Workstream Collaboration is touted for fostering better communication within teams, increased organizational engagement, and more connected remote workforces. The vast majority of companies are using or planning to deploy workstream collaboration tools. More than 70 percent of organizations expect to use WSC as their primary form of communication within 3 years. In fact, Slack cites that 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies are already paid Slack users. 

However, Slack is not the only WSC platform in use. Microsoft Teams has made tremendous gains in the space through its promise of increased security and easy connection to existing Office 365 products. Beyond the popularity of these platforms, independent research firm Nemertes found a 21% gain in productivity reported by companies using workstream collaboration tools. This type of boost should definitely get you excited about the potential of WSC.

21%

gain in Productivity for those using WSC

50%

of companies see WSC apps replacing IP desk phones

59%

of companies are using/planning to deploy WSC

93%

of WSC usage is cloud-based

57%

of companies that are using WSC have more than one team collaboration app in use

63%

of companies prefer the same vendor for all UC/WSC apps

71%

of those companies using WSC have at least one enterprise-wide WSC app

59%

of companies neglect to purchase and actively leverage WSC monitoring and management tools

Who Is Unify Square?

Software and managed services company

  • About
  • PowerSuite Software

Unify Square’s software and services optimize and enhance the world’s largest collaboration and communication deployments, helping businesses manage and secure their meetings, chats & calls.

Our PowerSuite™ software creates a unified dashboard to surface actionable insights and help manage collaboration and communications platforms --- optimizing and transforming performance health and user effectiveness.

Learn More

How Can Workstream Collaboration Help You?

The integration of real-time communication services such as cloud telephony, chat messaging, web & video conferencing, and the presence of information with non-real-time communication services like voicemail, email, fax, and collaboration services has helped create more dynamic enterprise platforms.

Now, in an environment where business practices have become increasingly global and remote, workstream collaboration allows work to happen from every point of the globe, in-office or out-of-office. This freedom of mobility brings on a new wave of real-time employee collaboration to transform your business for the most productive and secure experience.

PowerSuite works with the most Popular Platforms

Zoom Resources

Which of the Many Workstream Collaboration Platforms is Right for You?

SLACK

Workplace by Facebook

Microsoft Teams

Now that you’re familiar with the terminology and the benefits, how do you determine which WSC platform application is right for your business? There are numerous options available, each with different strengths. Although we’ve investigated a number of collaboration platforms for business, there are a few that distinguish themselves.  Also, before choosing the platforms to evaluate don’t forget there are a number of collaboration security issues to factor in. 

Slack

Originally designed as a workstream collaboration application for internal engineering teams, Slack now boasts a much wider audience. More than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies are now paid Slack users. The appeal of Slack is its simplicity and modularity. Channels sort conversations by topic or team, and an extensive app store allows teams to customize Slack to their unique needs.

Where organizations struggle with Slack is in its constant flow of information. Stepping away from a busy Slack channel can leave a pile-up of missed information that quickly becomes difficult to manage. Thankfully, Slack offers a robust search, with filters by channel or file type.

If you are considering Slack then you might be interested in our growing resource center for Slack.  Here we are gathering core resources that all Slack Implementors and  Slack Admins need.  

Visit Resource Center

Featuring Our Collaboration
Security RightTrack™ Program

With the introduction of collaboration to your communications stack, there are many additional considerations IT needs to keep in mind. With increased collaboration and visibility, it’s important to reduce risk of security exposures from employees and guests.

Learn More

Workplace from Facebook

If much of your organization is already familiar with the consumer version of Facebook, Workplace is an interesting option that requires little additional training. Just like Facebook, Workplace allows posts, groups, and messaging.

What makes Workplace unique as compared to other workstream collaboration tools is the news feed. It reads as a roughly prioritized list of all that has happened since last log-in, and is useful for maintaining awareness of what is happening within an organization. However, like the infinite scroll in the consumer version of Facebook, the news feed can be addictive. Also Workplace focuses on the mobile application of workstream collaboration, which shows consistency with their connection-oriented mission. 

Overall, Workplace feels like a social network for businesses.

Get Workplace
meeting room management

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft approached the design of Teams from an enterprise collaboration point of view. As such, there is an increased emphasis on security and compliance, some of which comes from native integrations rather than relying on third party applications. Teams does offer an application library, though buyer beware, as not all apps are created equal. Microsoft offers a basic version of Teams for free, but the full-featured Microsoft Teams is included with Office 365 subscriptions.

Teams stands out in its integration with Microsoft’s other products. You can collaborate within Teams using real-time co-authoring in Word Online, and Outlook Calendar displays your meeting schedule and allows you to remotely join via voice or video.  Although Teams has some eccentricities like difficulties navigating between files and chat, overall it presents a robust solution and a truly centralized workspace.

We have been involved with Teams from day 1 as one of Microsoft’s trusted  partners and because of that we have built out an extensive resource library.  

Visit Resource Library

Read Our Latest Blog Posts

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Gartner just Names Unify Square as Key UCaaS Monitoring Vendor

February 25, 2020

Top 9 Best Practices for Unified Communications Monitoring. Gartner just released its latest “Market Guide for UCaaS (unified communication as a service) Monitoring,” and Unify Square is thrilled to ...

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Seven Ways that User Hacks Increase Collaboration Security Risk

February 18, 2020

IT Risk Assessment Best Practices for Collaboration Success As an IT Professional, you’re continuously evaluating and assessing security risks. A large part of this security risk assessment focuses on dealing...

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Is Zoom Phone Ready For Cloud PBX Primetime?

February 11, 2020

Rating Zoom’s Cloud Phone System on Its First Birthday  In the fall of 2018, Zoom formally announced their intent to round out their product suite to include every business communications use case, including cloud...

Read More

We can help!

Unify Square has stepped up to meet this critical need with our PowerSuite software, managing your collaboration platforms. PowerSuite’s integrated dashboards help you manage your collaboration environment, optimizing and transforming performance health and user effectiveness.

User effectiveness remains key in ensuring the ‘final’ mile in user satisfaction and ongoing system effectiveness, boosting user productivity directly. We look at collaboration security as one of our main priorities, providing access and usage policies, AppStore management, user and channel management and workflow automation features to ensure lifecycle governance across multiple WSC platforms. While collaboration is an important factor in workplace productivity, we continue to focus on monitoring, measuring, and troubleshooting voice and call functionalities for fast-track feedback and actionable insights across WSC environments.

With a blend of purpose-built workstream collaboration management software, cloud managed services and consulting services for IT professionals, Unify Square’s tools help enable comprehensive workstream collaboration operational excellence.

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Latest Workstream Collaboration Blog Posts