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• Team chat applications face interoperability woes

  Team collaboration apps are booming among businesses. But a lack of interoperability is creating headaches for users who rely on multiple apps for internal and external collaboration. Continue Reading

• How do you prepare to manage a hybrid UC environment?

  Managing hybrid unified communications can be tricky. Follow these steps to prepare your organization and IT team for the challenges of managing a hybrid environment. Continue Reading

• What tools are necessary for UC network diagnostics?

  When UC apps -- such as voice and video -- create network disruptions, organizations should know what network diagnostic tools are needed to resolve issues. Continue Reading

• Do organizations need to manage communication APIs?

  While organizations are not heavily involved in managing APIs, they should note three important roles that emerge when deploying communication APIs across the enterprise. Continue Reading

• Do Skype for Business features and benefits outweigh its drawbacks?

  Skype for Business issues and drawbacks remain, but with a few expert tips and the proper deployment strategy the popular product can work in your company. Continue Reading

• Before deploying Skype for Business, follow these key steps

  Microsoft's Skype for Business has seen increased adoption in the enterprise, but there are crucial steps IT should take before deploying Skype for Business voice service.Continue Reading

• Network pros troubleshoot VoIP quality, reliability

  As the telephone itself disappears from the voice communication process, engineering VoIP quality becomes more critical. Network managers assess what they're hearing now.Continue Reading

• How to consolidate unified communications platforms

  Unified communications providers now offer several features across their platforms. Organizations that align with a single vendor could cut costs and simplify deployments.Continue Reading

• Unified communications platforms lack security scrutiny

  As UC platforms become more open to the outside world, IT leaders need to heed newer threats, including guest-access features, federation capabilities and cloud services.Continue Reading

• Messaging platforms flout traditional real-time telephony

  Business messaging defies traditional telephony-centric, real-time communications. The persistence and efficiency of web-based messaging offers a new way to collaborate.Continue Reading

• What effect does an API ecosystem have on the network?

  While an API deployment may seem like a small task, it can have a major effect on the network. IT groups should work with business units to monitor network traffic.Continue Reading

• What lesser-known WebRTC use cases can organizations leverage?

  While many organizations use WebRTC for voice and video calls, enterprises can take advantage of the technology in other ways. Learn about some lesser-known WebRTC use cases.Continue Reading

• Embedding video into apps streamlines communications

  By embedding video communications into business applications, CPaaS technology can help enterprises untangle collaboration complexities and boost user engagement.Continue Reading

• How UC channel partners can capitalize on communication APIs

  IT teams often lack developer resources to integrate communication APIs. But UC channel partners can step in to help customers embed communications into their workflows.Continue Reading

• How should enterprises conduct an API assessment?

  Before deploying a communications API, organizations must carefully assess their options. Learn about two red flags that could indicate poor API design.Continue Reading

• Enterprise mobile video calls fill collaboration gaps

  Mobile video conferencing can promote better meeting engagement. But enterprise users need to take steps to maintain an effective video collaboration session.Continue Reading

• Team messaging apps go mainstream, could have ripple effect

  As team messaging applications such as Slack and Cisco Spark grow in popularity, they could decrease reliance on email, 1-800 customer service numbers and even LinkedIn.Continue Reading

• Does your unified communications platform need an upgrade?

  When a unified communications platform lacks up-to-date functionalities or reaches its end of life, enterprises need to research other vendors and products to upgrade UC systems.Continue Reading

• Do SIP trunking services need disaster recovery planning?

  Don't forget about SIP trunking services during your disaster recovery planning process. Networking expert Michael Brandenburg explains SIP trunking setups for disaster recovery.Continue Reading

• How do you choose between public and private cloud video conferencing?

  Organizations looking to move video conferencing to the cloud should evaluate deployment options carefully. Learn the pros and cons of public and private cloud video.Continue Reading

• API planning for enterprises requires ample due diligence

  When integrating APIs into your business applications, be sure to forecast your communications traffic, rank your business performance metrics and try out potential vendors.Continue Reading

• How do you evaluate vendor API offerings?

  Evaluating the offerings of API vendors goes beyond the technology. Tsahi Levent-Levi offers some tips on taking a holistic approach toward vendor APIs.Continue Reading

• What's the best way to approach a hybrid UC rollout?

  Before launching hybrid services for UC, make sure your organization is prepared. Learn how to evaluate your organization's needs and potential providers.Continue Reading

• How to calculate video conferencing bandwidth requirements

  Image motion, frame rates and screen resolution often dictate video conferencing bandwidth requirements. The number of endpoints and concurrent calls are also key factors.Continue Reading

• Maintaining voice quality in Skype for Business telephony

  Managing and maintaining high call quality for Skype for Business telephony requires understanding the elements of PSTN quality requirements, including which metrics to watch and manage.Continue Reading

• What collaboration features are essential for my organization?

  When evaluating team collaboration apps, organizations must determine which features are required for their users. Expert Jon Arnold offers advice on evaluating collaboration features.Continue Reading

• How can organizations improve VoIP quality of service?

  While VoIP services are growing in popularity, issues with reliability and quality of calls remain. Learn what organizations can do to maintain and improve VoIP quality of service.Continue Reading

• How do I buy bandwidth for my organization?

  Learn about the various bandwidth services organizations can purchase to support their business apps and how they can effectively manage their bandwidth.Continue Reading

• How should mobile-first apps fit in our UC strategy?

  Mobile-first collaboration is a vital part of a UC strategy. Industry expert Jon Arnold explains why organizations must prioritize mobile collaboration for their employees.Continue Reading

• What are best practices for managing WebRTC services?

  Keep your WebRTC voice and video deployment up to date to make sure employees don't experience service disruptions. Tsahi Levent-Levi offers best practices to manage WebRTC.Continue Reading

• Three key questions for a successful hybrid deployment of UC

  Managing on-premises and cloud-based apps is quite the balancing act. Enterprises need to determine how important each application is to their overall UC vision.Continue Reading

• How can you support current and future video infrastructure needs?

  Organizations must ensure their networks can support employees' current and future video collaboration needs. Learn how to evaluate your network's ability to support video traffic.Continue Reading

• Update session border controllers routinely for secure SIP trunking

  Enterprises need to ensure session border controllers are up to date to combat the changing landscape of voice attacks. Here are seven questions to ask about SBC security.Continue Reading

• Land and expand: Collaboration apps gain ground, with or without IT's OK

  Workers unhappy with available collaboration platforms increasingly bypass IT and download apps such as Slack and Unify Circuit, then convert their colleagues into users too.Continue Reading

• Should our video strategy be built by lines of business?

  When enterprises make technology buying decisions, employees now wield more power. Learn how lines of business can play a central role in developing an enterprise video conferencing strategy.Continue Reading

• Streamline cloud traffic by extending WAN connections to providers

  Enterprises looking to improve cloud traffic should evaluate emerging technologies, such as WAN-CX and SD-WAN, to help the performance of UCaaS applications.Continue Reading

• Bolster voice security with these five critical tips

  Proper voice security in the network requires voice gateway isolation, patch protection, next-generation firewalls, traffic encryption and limiting certain VoIP features.Continue Reading

• Improve UC management with SDN and other 21st-century tech

  With all the new unified communications (UC) applications and services on the market, enterprise IT has to make sure they don't crash the network. UC applications such as voice and video tax network performance. These demanding traffic streams test ...Continue Reading

• Office 365 enterprise users need to juggle features with costs

  When evaluating Microsoft Office 365 enterprise plans, companies need to consider various prices and applications before committing to a migration.Continue Reading

• Which network monitoring software manages real-time UC traffic?

  Network monitoring software helps organizations manage the demanding real-time traffic of UC apps. Networking expert Carrie Higbie explains how to select the right software.Continue Reading

• Medical center deploys video integration in virtual doctor visits

  The Medical University of South Carolina expands its telehealth program with a video integration that allows doctors to connect with patients directly from health records.Continue Reading

• Immersive group collaboration breaks down conference room walls

  Meeting rooms are getting a makeover as visual workspace systems aim to enhance collaboration among distributed teams. But enterprises need to 'try before you buy.'Continue Reading

• Proper UC monitoring combines these four network strategies

  Endpoint metrics, along with certain network probes and protocols, can provide IT teams with a comprehensive, multipoint approach to managing UC applications.Continue Reading

• Is Skype for Business telephony compatible with my desk phones?

  Telephony expert Jon Arnold explains how large and small organizations can evaluate the compatibility of their desk phones with a Skype for Business telephony deployment.Continue Reading

• Employee consultation needed before deploying new UC tools

  Organizations that don't seek an employee consultation before deploying communications tools may struggle with adoption. Learn how to deploy tools that employees want to use.Continue Reading

• Voice gateways provide powerful connectivity options

  Voice gateways connect VoIP networks to telecom providers and analog phones, while also providing backup call support. But these sensitive devices need proper security.Continue Reading

• What is a WebRTC server and how does it connect calls?

  A WebRTC server usually refers to a few different types of back-end servers, like signaling and media servers, that help connect browser-based communications.Continue Reading

• CPaaS fuses communications apps with business workflows

  Communications platform as a service, or CPaaS, can fortify business processes. But IT leaders need to educate internal developers on the availability of these emerging tools.Continue Reading

• Are Microsoft collaboration tools starting to join forces?

  Microsoft's cross-suite strategy, or lack thereof, for Office 365 collaboration tools has felt disjointed. But after the vendor's recent moves, users should see more cohesion.Continue Reading

• Unified communications management before and after deployment

  Organizations can minimize operational costs and maximize user satisfaction with proactive unified communications management and testing before and after deployment.Continue Reading

• How can I use an online whiteboard in my business?

  Online whiteboards can be used for much more than basic note taking. UC expert Jon Arnold explains why whiteboard collaboration is vital to virtual meetings.Continue Reading

• UC management provides enterprises with cloud controls

  When migrating a unified communications system to the cloud, investigate providers' security practices, ensure redundant Internet connections and consider using proxy servers.Continue Reading

• Video conferencing systems help NATO keep the peace

  An extensive video conferencing deployment helps employees and partners at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) collaborate responding to world conflicts.Continue Reading

• How do you meet VoIP bandwidth requirements?

  Making sure VoIP bandwidth is sufficient can be difficult when the network is shared with non-mission critical apps. Expert Michael Brandenburg offers tips on how to support VoIP.Continue Reading

• Using APIs to integrate communication into business workflows

  APIs can help enterprises integrate communications into business workflows. This type of emerging UC integration is now more widely available and features rich capabilities.Continue Reading

• Preparing your organization to deploy Skype for Business

  To ensure a successful Skype for Business deployment, organizations must consider their end-user needs, infrastructure demands and the proper deployment model.Continue Reading

• Taking a top-down management approach to UC

  The complexity of a UC deployment requires a new way of looking at management practices. A top-down management approach to UC offers more benefits than traditional approaches.Continue Reading

• How can organizations leverage WebRTC support for mobility?

  WebRTC support can help organizations push mobility initiatives beyond smartphones and tablets. Expert Tsahi Levent-Levi explains how WebRTC can make employees truly mobile.Continue Reading

• Do enterprises need HD audio conferencing?

  Expert Jon Arnold explains the significance of high-definition audio conferencing services and the types of meetings that would benefit from high-quality audio.Continue Reading

• What 'hidden' BYOD costs should organizations consider?

  While a BYOD program may, at first, seem like an easy cost-savings initiative, an organization that hasn't set usage policies and prepared its network may face unexpected costs.Continue Reading

• SD-WAN boosts aggregate bandwidth for UC functions

  Software-defined WAN controllers can send data streams over multiple links, which helps boost aggregate bandwidth and network reliability, while also streamlining UC traffic.Continue Reading

• Enterprises taking control of SIP trunking services

  Self-service Web portals and APIs are empowering enterprises to reap the benefits of SIP trunking and take greater control of their IP-based voice services.Continue Reading

• ROI template helps calculate UCaaS costs, benefits

  When plotting an ROI template for UCaaS, companies need to go beyond measuring costs and consider the positive impact to business processes, such as faster application upgrades.Continue Reading

• How vital is VoIP training for users during a migration?

  When migrating to VoIP training must extend beyond the IT department. End users will need training on features such as voicemail and conference calls to avoid migration setbacks.Continue Reading

• Four technologies impacting enterprise communication

  Smartphones, video, messaging and freemium services are shaking up enterprise communications. Enterprises must prepare for the impact of these trends on employee communication and workflows.Continue Reading

• How SDN benefits real-time management of UC apps

  Software-defined networking, considered a significant improvement over current static networking models, could help mitigate real-time UC network challenges.Continue Reading

• Five video conferencing tools you didn't know you had

  Users may not realize they can do more with video conferencing tools than recording and document sharing. Learn about some video conferencing features that users may not know they have.Continue Reading

• How do you choose your SIP service deployment model?

  There is no one-size-fits-all approach to SIP. Networking expert Michael Brandenburg explains how to choose between a decentralized and centralized SIP trunking deployment.Continue Reading

• Enterprise networks need to address mobility trends

  In order to accommodate employees' mobility needs, network engineers need to tackle three key considerations: bandwidth capacity, data security and privacy protection.Continue Reading

• Measuring the business benefits of unified communications

  Workflow analytics, such as finding correlations between collaboration capabilities and product development efficiency, can pinpoint the business benefits of unified communications.Continue Reading

• UC vendors must focus on deliverance, not dominance

  In a shared economy, unified communications vendors need to embrace an open ecosystem of integrated services for long-term success. But with these changes, some challenges lurk.Continue Reading

• Game of Phones: Desk handsets still rule office phones

  The demise of desk phones has been predicted for years, but they stubbornly stick around. Why haven't alternatives to traditional office phones caught on?Continue Reading

• Mobile video conferencing enhances business processes

  Improved bandwidth, networks and mobile devices enhance companies' mobile video conferencing efforts as tablets and smartphones become commonplace.Continue Reading

• How should a single pane of glass for collaboration be approached?

  Experts weigh in on how enterprises should go about building single-pane-of-glass platforms based on collaboration tools.Continue Reading

• As iPads multiply, enterprises look to take UC mobile

  In UC, mobile features have always been one step behind -- and when BlackBerrys dominated, that was OK. But times, and requirements, have changed.Continue Reading

• UC blogs: Enterprise tablet market growing

  In UC blogs this week, analysts discuss the factors driving the enterprise tablet market, and how vendors are approaching WebRTC testing.Continue Reading

• What BYOD security policies should be set to protect UC apps?

  BYOD security policies enterprises should consider to keep their UC apps secure.Continue Reading

• Layered security approach can thwart VoIP attacks

  A strategically placed firewall within your network infrastructure can help mitigate VoIP attacks. But encryption and proxy services add enhanced security.Continue Reading

• SDN can help network, real-time UC apps communicate

  Software-defined networking can facilitate communications between the network and UC apps, including call management and packet forwarding.Continue Reading

• RingCentral acquires Glip for team collaboration capabilities

  RingCentral acquires Glip to strengthen its portfolio as enterprises put more focus on team collaboration applications.Continue Reading

• Microsoft pushes enterprise telephony to the cloud

  Microsoft wants to push Skype for Business to the cloud, but organizations that want to host enterprise telephony services need to talk to their partners.Continue Reading

• VoIP encryption urged outside and inside your network

  To maximize VoIP encryption methods, use Transport Layer Security in conjunction with Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol on all VoIP equipment.Continue Reading

• UC briefs: Plantronics UC headset reduces open workspace noise

  In UC news, Plantronics announces a UC headset aimed at reducing background noise in open workspaces, while Tango Networks debuts mobile messaging for Cisco Jabber users.Continue Reading

• Polycom RealPresence video platforms, cloud updates unveiled

  Polycom has introduced its first WebRTC-based videoconferencing platform. The company has also updated its video library and cloud-based video conferencing platform.Continue Reading

• UC blogs: Make shadow IT part of your collaboration strategy

  This week in UC blogs, analysts discuss how shadow IT can align with an enterprise's collaboration strategy, and what WebRTC practices can be seen in an Internet trends report.Continue Reading

• Collaboration apps lack integration, outside communication

  Email is here to stay, for now. But new collaboration apps could reposition email within a broader service for better communication outside your company.Continue Reading

• Do organizations need a BYOD reimbursement policy?

  UC expert Michael Finneran explains why organizations should consider a BYOD reimbursement policy for employee use of mobile devices.Continue Reading

• Cloud UC benefits extend to disaster recovery

  If a disaster knocks out on-premises UC systems, business grinds to a halt. But that's also when cloud UC's benefits around disaster recovery shine.Continue Reading

• How can you measure UC adoption success?

  Industry leaders discuss the different ways organizations can measure UC adoption and ensure employees are using the features they need.Continue Reading

• The VoIP basics every enterprise should know

  From migrating from the PSTN to security, learn the VoIP basics every network manager should know for a successful implementation.Continue Reading

• Enterprises must be proactive in DDoS mitigation

  DDoS attacks are more prevalent than ever and enterprises can't always rely on their service providers for protection. Learn what enterprises should do for effective DDoS mitigation.Continue Reading

• Cloud-based apps need to federate with other services

  Leverage native integration capabilities, third-party products and user account management in order to bridge cloud-based apps and on-premises services.Continue Reading

• Before deploying cloud telephony, inspect your networks

  A cloud telephony forecast: Before implementing a cloud IP telephony service, be sure to address your current infrastructure performance and needs.Continue Reading

• Cloud video conferencing demands well-designed network

  For high-quality cloud video conferencing, be sure your enterprise data network has sufficient bandwidth with low-latency and low-jitter performance.Continue Reading

• How do you effectively transition from PSTN to VoIP?

  Expert Chris Partsenidis offers guidelines for a smooth and successful PSTN to VoIP migration.Continue Reading

• WebRTC applications could disrupt UC market

  Convergence among WebRTC apps, enterprise messaging and project management vendors challenge established UC players.Continue Reading

• Video conferencing services break out of the boardroom

  Desktop, cloud and mobility capabilities spur enterprise adoption of video conferencing services. Low entry costs and greater availability help, too.Continue Reading

• Design redundancy into VoIP communication systems

  Implementing redundancy at the VoIP and network infrastructure levels is an integral part of VoIP communication, ensuring call and business continuity.Continue Reading

• Five techniques for getting a robust VoIP infrastructure

  A VoIP expert stresses the importance of a separate voice VLAN setup, quality-of-service enablement and edge routers for a robust VoIP infrastructure.Continue Reading

• New analytics tools help track video conferencing usage

  You’ve invested heavily in video conferencing. Was it worth it? New analytics tools try to answer that question by reporting on video conferencing usage.Continue Reading