Ongoing Support, are the Cloud Providers telling the truth???
American Technology Solutions finds that yes, the monthly fee from the Cloud solution often includes the maintenance and upgrade costs in the user bundle. Does it include hardware and software MAC (Move, Add and Change) costs? If not, what are those costs or does the customer take this responsibility on for themselves. As well, many companies desire call accounting and reporting packages, is this included with the user bundle or not? My experience has uncovered that these are hidden costs that often are very expensive. How does the AVAYA IP Office premise based solution compare? AVAYA IPOSS (IP Office Support Services) is a low entry cost with many options that may be customized to uniquely fit the customers’ needs. For example, 1, 3 and 5-year Pre-Paid terms with 8am to 5pm or 24X7X365 that include these features and unique options;
a. Remote Technical Support;
b. Advance Parts Replacement (APR) – Next Business Day or 4 hour delivery;
c. APR with On Site Technician;
d. Free Software Upgrades for the Term of the Contract;
e. Free minor Software releases, service packs and software/firmware updates;
f. Enhanced remote connectivity through SSL-VPN for increased security and faster remote support resolution;
g. Low TCO and very competitively priced
Many call center companies desire reports ad hoc, in real time and possibly required by Service Level Agreements (SLA’s). This flexibility is often either not available or very expensive to receive from the Cloud Based Providers. Make sure you do your homework here. These hidden costs and factors can make a significant difference in the TCO and in some cases meeting SLA’s with your clients. AVAYA has many partners that design solutions for call reporting that range from basic to advanced and these solutions are browser based, easy to administer and have many standard reports with the option for custom reports. Another big factor is Real Time Reporting and AVAYA is the Worldwide Leader in call center technology including Real Time Reporting capabilities. AVAYA provides 90% of the Fortune 100 Companies Call Center Solutions. AVAYA is the leader vs. Cloud Based Providers as followers.
In the last 5-years there has been a strong trend by many companies to move to VoIP and Cloud Based Solutions. It has been American Technology Solutions (ATS) great fortune to displace nearly 30 of these adopters in the last 2-years. The main reason for these companies to move back to premise based was regarding this specific area;
a. Ongoing Support for MAC, the timeliness often days to weeks vs. meeting the needs of the business;
b. Hidden costs when special reporting is required;
c. Isolation of user related issues may be a finger pointing game between the Cloud Based Solution provider and the customer/data vendor. Timeliness may be disappointing and added costs may be a factor to closely consider.
This is Post 2 in a series of 7 Posts coming daily this July.
