Our Insight

IT isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago. Besides traditional tasks that keep your organisation running, you’re asked to spearhead digital initiatives to make your business more relevant and competitive. And you’re not alone; in enterprises around the world, nearly a third of projects in the IT pipeline relate to digital transformation (DT)¹.

In my previous post, I discussed why contact centres are widening their reach to include non-voice channels such as e-mail, chat and social. I also discussed the difference between multichannel, which handles these as separate silos within the business, and omnichannel, which integrates the channels into one overall customer experience.

If we accept that only omnichannel contact centres will enable companies to remain compliant while they maximise the opportunities of the digital revolution, we need to examine how we put the seamless, frictionless omnichannel concept into practice. We also need to consider how to make the most its potential benefits.

It looks like the worst of the weather might be over, as the Beast from the East slowly relaxes its grip on the UK. In Brighton's comparatively small freeze, my plan B was to ditch the road bike for my mountain bike, wrap up extra warm and enjoy an amazing snowy ride to Ideal along the seafront. What was yours?

Omnichannel is a hot topic in contact centres. Many technology vendors make outrageous claims about its market potential, but what is the truth behind the trend? What, for a start, is the difference between multichannel and omnichannel?

Your call may be recorded. It's a phrase we've all heard when we speak to the bank, get car insurance, take out a mortgage, or do any of the many things we still do over the phone. Companies record customer conversations for quality or training, or because they're working in industries like finance where they have to. But what happens next?

Cisco's unified communications (UC) and telephony systems are pretty much the gold standard for reliability, quality and features, but until now they've been overkill for a startup or many smaller SMEs. If you're running a company of, say, 25-100 people, you need a great phone system, but you probably don't need full-blown Call Manager - or the hardware, software and days of configuration work involved in an enterprise system like Cisco's Business Edition 6000. To be honest, you probably can't afford them either.

That's why we're excited to be offering Cisco's brand new Business Edition 4000 (BE4000): a quality, full-featured IP telephony system in one easy-to-configure box.

Cisco ONE - What is it?

Cisco One offers a great alternative for licensing and the IT infrastructure management solutions for your business.

>But what is it? Ideal’s Account Director George McKenna explains all…

In the age of apps, mobile devices and data everywhere, the way that customers, employees and partners expect to interact with your organisation is changing fast. As your business needs to change and evolve at an ever-increasing rate, so your IT planning, delivery and performance need to keep pace.

How do you ensure that your IT strategy is clearly aligned to the needs of your business, and that you have the necessary buy-in from stakeholders to support your approach?

Last week we hosted the first of our series of cyber security briefings, in association with one of our key security partners, Palo Alto Networks (PAN), and distributor Exclusive Networks. We knew cyber security is a hot topic at the moment - particularly in relation to ransomware - but even so we had an absolutely amazing response: it was literally standing room only at our City View office, as 60 people came to hear about the the shortcomings of anti-virus in the new era of ransomware and zero-day exploits, and how endpoint protection forms part of the PAN next-generation security platform, along with firewalls and cloud.

As a Cisco Premier Partner, it's probably no surprise if we think many of Cisco's solutions are the best on the market. That's certainly the case when it comes to unified communications (UC), and now you don't just have to take our word for it: in its latest Magic Quadrant on unified communications, Gartner positions Cisco as the outright leader.

The Ideal blog is the perfect outlet for us to reflect on what's going on in our sector, but some trends and concepts are just too important or complex to boil down into a 300-word post. It's these topics we aim to discuss in our customer briefings: two-page, downloadable documents giving our steer on key trends and changes we're seeing in the technology sector, and the opportunities and challenges they present for our clients.