TechFindr Insights Edition: Technology Case Studies and Latest Vendor Updates

In this latest edition, I wanted to highlight a few case studies and real-world examples of what organizations are doing to impact transformation.

As well as highlighting the latest updates and key technology providers that could help you drive change within your organization.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about any of this information.

Case Study #1 - CBTS

MSFT CSP, Managed Azure, Azure Consumption, and Microsoft Licensing

About the Client

Privately held nationwide addiction treatment centers with 175 locations, annual revenues of +$250 million, and approximately 3,000 employees.

Client Problem

• The client had limited internal staff to administer, monitor, and manage their Microsoft environment. This environment included O365 licenses, Azure consumption (VMs, storage, etc.), and monitoring and management (systems administration) of their Azure environment.
• The client needed expertise around security, management, and license monitoring for their mission-critical Microsoft environments and Azure workloads

Client Solution

• CBTS was assigned to be the CSP for O365 and Azure Consumption as well as delivering a fully managed Azure environment along with optional Backup as a Service, DR as a Service, and Cloud Security

Client Result

• CBTS’ extensive experience with Microsoft Azure Security, Azure Management, Azure Consumption Monitoring, and Microsoft CSP capabilities gave this organization the confidence that CBTS was a long-term partner that could help them stabilize, evaluate, and manage their mission-critical Azure applications both in the short and long term.

Case Study #2-Avant Communications & RingCentral

The Breakdown

• Technology Category: UCaaS
• Industry: Manufacturing
• Size and Scope: 2,000 Agents
• Winning provider: RingCentral MVP

The Details

What were the drivers for the client?

The customer’s aging Avaya infrastructure required them to explore alternative options.

In the RFP written by the Trusted Advisor, the customer noted that they needed a solution that integrates with Microsoft Teams and provides lightweight contact center functionality.?

How did the Trusted Advisor help the client?

The Trusted Advisor led the process from the beginning. They researched technologies, composed an RFP, and managed the tender through to the final presentation.

The TA leveraged AVANT Engineers and Pathfinder tools to assist in documenting the current state challenges and future state requirements.

This helped to narrow the list of vendors receiving the RFP. The Trusted Advisor also consulted AVANT Engineering for the review and scoring, resulting in the customer’s choice of RingCentral.

How did AVANT support the win?

AVANT Engineers were engaged at the outset to help with technical discovery and future state requirements gathering. T

his data formed the foundation of the RFP that the Trusted Advisor created on the customer’s behalf, per their request.

Once bidders sent their responses, the Trusted Advisor brought AVANT Engineers in once again to help score responses and further narrow down vendor options, giving the customer confidence in their final decision.

Latest Technology Provider Updates (Source: Avant Communications Engineering)

As a Trusted Advisor, we can keep up with the latest advancements and changes become paramount. In doing so, we can effectively assist and steer our clients.

This is why AVANT Sales Engineers remain dedicated to taking part in ongoing training sessions with our vendors!

The Avant SEs engage with leading solution providers and work to acquire agnostic certifications.

This equips them with the latest insights, updates, and information that they can then share with us and our customers to ensure they can adeptly navigate the dynamic tech landscape.?

Explore our newest Ninja Notes, carefully crafted to provide in-depth analyses of emerging products, features, and the diverse array of providers behind them!?

CCaaS/UCaaS

• 8×8 continues to innovate, adding exciting new AI-powered capabilities to its contact center platform, while also offering enhancements to its meetings application.?
• Alvaria is a private/dedicated instance contact center software provider, formed by the merging of Aspect Software and Noble Systems.?
• AptEdge offers AnswerGPT, a form of Agent Assist technology that enables agents to intelligently search company knowledgebases/data sources for answers to customer/patient questions. AnswerGPT will generate customer-facing responses for agents to deliver, saving them precious time.?
• Authenticx offers a Quality Assurance/Monitoring solution purpose-built for the healthcare vertical. Their platform will analyze channel usage, including digital and voice bots, to determine their effectiveness as well as where these tools can be deployed in a more optimized manner.
• Assembled offers a Workforce Management (WFM) solution purpose-built for today’s omnichannel communications. It offers granular reporting and scheduling capabilities not found in legacy WFM solutions.?
• Buwelo is a full-service BPO (Business Process Outsourcer) offering their customers highly trained offshore call center agents.?
• Edify?is a UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS vendor built across all 3 major hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, GCP). Their sweet spot is small to midsize contact centers (~20-200 agents) that have Salesforce and/or Zendesk environments. They offer flexible pricing models, including the industry-standard named user license as well as a Pay-By-The-Hour option ideal for customers with seasonal spikes in contact center agent counts.?
• Evolve IP?has a strong story to tell with Microsoft & Teams as a Microsoft Gold Partner, CSP, and Operator Connect provider. They have an industry-exclusive “Office in a Box” offering that includes the desktop, storage, Microsoft licensing, security, server, backup, collaboration, & voice. For customers not needing a Microsoft Teams voice solution, they also offer a Cisco Broadsoft solution with Webex, dedicated voice circuits, and SIP trunking.?
• GoTo now offers their own proprietary CCaaS solution for larger contact center environments (sweet spot is 50-750 agents). It boasts supporting over a dozen digital and voice channels, off-the-shelf integrations with Salesforce and Microsoft Teams, as well as with legacy Workforce Management (WFM) and Quality Monitoring (QM) solutions like Verint and Calabrio.?
• Regal.io specializes in helping their customers optimize their outbound sales and marketing initiatives. Its platform includes advanced auto-dialers as well as facilitates creative digital outreach strategies, typically increasing answer rates by up to 30%.??
• Replicant offers an AI-powered self-service solution designed to resolve frequent/routine/transactional inquiries, improving the customer experience and saving human agents from repetitive tasks. Its advanced platform has the ability to assist with multiple intents e.g., “I’d like to update my address as well as the VIN number for my car’s insurance policy.”?
• RingCentral now offers an SMB-focused omnichannel contact center solution best suited for contact center environments up to 200 agents. It includes its own proprietary Workforce Management (WFM) and Quality Monitoring (QM) solutions as well as RingSense AI, which assists agents with after-call tasks such as summarizing interaction notes.?
• Sanas offers a noise elimination and accent neutralization software designed to improve sound quality as well as reduce friction due to accent-related miscommunication. Best suited for organizations that staff contact center agents offshore, minimum of 100 agents.??
• SuccessKPI provides customers a platform-agnostic analytics and reporting engine that allows customers to retain important, bespoke reporting formats even as they migrate off their legacy contact center to a modern, cloud-based replacement. A variety of agent and supervisor dashboards are available, as are “playbooks” with next-best action guidance for agents.?
• Verizon Mobile for Microsoft Teams allows Verizon Business Wireless customers to elect to use Verizon to connect their Microsoft Teams PBX to the PSTN. End users will be able to make/receive calls to/from their Teams DID using their mobile device’s native dialer (vs. the Microsoft Teams app). End users benefit from having a single number to be reachable while mobile as well as via Microsoft Teams.?

Security

• 11:11 Systems has expanded beyond their traditional IaaS, BaaS, DRaaS, and managed Fortinet security services to offer BCDR and security consulting services. They highlighted their Business Impact Analysis (BIA), Cyber Recovery Tabletop Exercise, and vCISO/Advisory Services as particularly useful in uncovering customer needs.?
• AT&T continues to see the most success with their Managed XDR, Vulnerability Scanning & Pen Testing, Managed SentinelOne, SASE, Risk/Gap/Compliance Assessments, and Check Point Email Security services. They highlighted people, technology, process, and accountability as their top differentiators.?
• eSentire’s comprehensive MDR solution has five components – network, endpoint, log, cloud, and vulnerability – which can be sold together or a la carte. They support leading EDR solutions like Carbon Black, Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne. They’ve recently added standalone dark web monitoring as well.?
• Fortra – Alert Logic is now part of Fortra, formerly known as Help Systems. MDR packages (Essentials, Professional, Enterprise) remain the same. They are gradually replacing their existing endpoint protection platform (EPP) with Digital Guardian, a DLP and EDR solution within the Fortra umbrella.?
• Quest has several new security offerings, including the CyberDefense Suite – a mix of products including EDR, email security, MFA, SIEM, and ZTNA, plus pro services and managed services – Cybersecurity Checkups for various services, Cyber Risk Monitoring, and Arctic Wolf.?
• Thrive continues to acquire MSPs and MSSPs as they see their cloud, managed services, and cyber revenue increase. On the security front, they’ve added automated pen testing and MDR with Microsoft Defender. Their cloud platform is available in 15 data centers globally. Thrive’s ideal customer is 100 to 2000 employees, willing to spend at least $5k MRR.?

Learn more about these providers and more by contacting me at [email protected]