By taking an inventory of which subscription-based services your users actually use, and dropping the rest, you can gain significant cost savings.

Cost management of IT subscription services is much like a leaky faucet. It does not seem very significant until you put a bucket under it, and you quickly have a bucketful of water. So, let's discuss how to turn that bucket of water into gold -- by managing your cloud subscriptions.

Contact centers are in your enterprise future and will be for a long time to come.

For us in the communications industry, not a day goes that you do not hear about or read something related to contact centers or customer service organizations. Whether we're talking about providing exceptional customer experience (CX), following the customer journey, applying artificial intelligence (AI) for self-service and optimal routing, deploying chatbots and Web click-to-chat to round out multi-channel and omni-channel implementations, migrating to the cloud for agility, or applying analytics for deeper understanding of customer interactions and motivations, the business of contact centers has become one of the most dynamic and critical areas of the communications technology industry.

Exploring why the industry is moving toward intelligent edge computing

Transparency and innovation are the clear winners as government entities look to replace aging infrastructure and hardware, and take advantage of new services.

From mid-2017 to present, there has been a sharp increase in the level of activity that the government sector has been generating in the telecommunications space. From phone systems and telecom audits, to service contracting events, government telecom buying is quickening, and the private sector is only just beginning to reap the benefits.

From speech recognition to virtual assistants, there are numerous ways to enhance traditional IVR for a better experience.

Many firms are trying to determine the best ways to effectively implement self-service applications. Several have added Web-based tools and mobile apps to their customer- interaction portfolio. However, the IVR remains an important channel, and its effectiveness still has a significant impact on the customer experience. Therefore, it remains as important as ever to get the IVR right. The information contained in this article should be considered to facilitate the achievement of that goal.

An overview of necessary considerations and complications that can arise with E-911 configurations.

It seems safe to state that everyone is familiar with the basic concept of 911 services: A special number is called and a contact center mediates the emergency response. Many of us in the telecommunications field also are familiar with the basic challenges of 911 when dialing through a multi-user system in which dialing "9" is the common method for reaching an outside line.

Given opportunity for design errors when implementing SIP, extensive design planning and communication are critical to ensuring success.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is inherently simple. It is readable, meaning that with a probe you can follow the session initiation by simply reading the messages as they travel between two devices. The protocol does not establish the route the content will traverse, nor its quality. After the session is established, SIP, as a protocol, is only responsible for ending the session.

Successful SIP trunking implementations start with organizational planning and effective communication.

The promise of SIP trunking has been touted for years: You'll save money! It's easy to manage! It's flexible! It offers better business continuity! While this all may be true in theory, the reality is that an integrated approach and careful planning are required to achieve these results. It's not as simple as order it and call it a day.

Organizations need to get out in front of new data protection legislation like GDPR, giving special consideration to communications technology.

2018 will usher in a new era of data protection as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on May 25. How does this impact a business based in North America?

From desk phones to softphones, mobile UC clients, and headsets, endpoint options abound.

It has been five years since our first "no desk phone" deployment with a 750-user client installing Microsoft Lync 2013. The enterprise was forward-thinking and the CIO was adamant that this deployment would be heavy on "collaboration tools" and light on desk phones. Obviously, five years ago this was a bold move, but its dictum from the top meant that employees would 'play along.' The word was out -- employees would receive headsets only and desk phones were "gone." The result? Only two out of the 750 employees retained desk phones; 748 Bluetooth headsets were deployed and the cultural shift to UC was underway.

A key benefit of smart campus investment is that it helps to position the property for the future -- communications included.

You have a smart phone and possibly a smart watch. You understand smart buildings. But are you aware of smart campuses?