Expert Advice For Cybersecurity Professionals On Successfully Interacting With Senior Executives (VIDEO)

 

In this video Avrohom Gottheil of AskTheCEO talks with Kayne McGladrey, CISSP cybersecurity strategist for Ascent Solutions and senior member of the IEEE.  They discuss everything a cybersecurity professional needs to know to interact successfully with senior executives and influence desired outcomes.

To learn more about all the options available to you for meeting your organization’s data protection and network security requirements (including security posture and risk assessments, and awareness training and employee education programs) ... simply ask us at FREE Network Security Sourcing And Design Support. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

How YOUR Business Can Digitally Transform With Certainty

 Masergy understands that you need to compete in the digital age, driving transformation initiatives that increase collaboration, improve productivity, and reduce cost. Masergy UCaaS can help you achieve those digital ambitions and transform with certainty. As a concept, Masergy is a large strategic vision; they offer versatile hybrid solutions as it relates to voice along with SD-WAN strategies that bring security right to the customer’s edge. Over the last three years, Masergy has become much more agnostic as it relates to various forms of access.

Masergy is well known for being a global company:

MASERGY AND MICROSOFT TEAMS

With over seventy-five million daily users, Microsoft Teams enables employees to effectively communicate from any location via text chat, voice call, or video conference. While you can replace your company’s existing private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system, you cannot use Microsoft Teams without an additional PSTN service. This is where Masergy steps in, providing voice services in twenty-five countries with superior call quality, all while reducing management across disparate vendors. Below you can view a snapshot of what the Microsoft Teams landscape looks like:

Masergy has two options when it comes to Microsoft Teams Integration. The first option is MS Teams PBX plus Direct Route. This is their bring your carrier option, and they do not charge on a per-user basis for this direct route option.

Their second option is Masergy Hosted plus Integration. This is for those who want to keep their collaboration and telephony budget separate. The advantage of this option is that you get a consistent user experience.

Lastly, Masergy is also able to provide Hybrid Services Designs.

To learn more about Masergy, simply visit Masergy And More and ask.

THE WAY WE WORK HAS CHANGED FOREVER

 Working from home became a necessity this year, and companies across the world found themselves having to adapt to the need for remote work. Surprisingly only thirty percent of business leaders feel their organization is well prepared for remote work. Most companies saw challenges in the following three areas:

RingCentral’s goal is to make it easier for companies to pivot towards a work from home environment, and they accomplish this through their Collaborative Communications platform. They also offer the following:

• 240+ out-of-box integrations
• 5,000+ customer integrations
• 50,000+ developers

When talking to your company leadership about where RingCentral succeeds, there are three things you should be discussing:

• Global Telephony
  • 30% -50% usage savings
  • Highest quality voice
  • Quality AND Uptime SLAs
  • 29 Global data centers
  • Local telephony and Global admin
• Company-wide Collaboration
  • Connected Contact Center
  • Expert access
  • Shared directory
  • Call transfer or conference
  • Pulse notifications
• One Vendor Relationship
  • One support number
  • No finger-pointing
  • Simplified pricing
  • Single sign-on
  • Simplified admin
  • Global number procurement

Earlier this year RingCentral also announced their direct routing solution, RingCentral Cloud PBX for. Microsoft Teams. This means that RingCentral can now integrate with MS Teams.

Whether you're a big enterprise business or a small shop, the way you interact with your customers is vital to your business success and customer loyalty. Finding the right contact center technology solution for your organizations specific needs can be an exercise in total frustration. But it doesn’t have to be. Simply tell us what you need accomplished at the link below (including WFH and cybersecurity requirements)....and we’ll help help you source and design a custom contact center solution just for you (whether that be RingCentral or another best-in-class provider). Plus.....our services are FREE.

Contact Center Technology Resources

CENTURYLINK ENGAGE IS DIFFERENT....A CLOUD SOLUTION AND SO MUCH MORE

CenturyLink Engage is a simple cloud solution that offers business calling, collaboration, and call center support, no matter where or when you do business.

• Stay Engaged Anywhere, At Any Time – Your workers and sales force remain effective while traveling, using their tablets and smartphones to serve customers.
• Complete Flexibility – Mix and match calling, collaboration, and call center features power your brand and business. Bring your own internet or use theirs.
• Inclusive, High-Value Plans – Three easy-to-understand packages deliver high value with simple billing.
• Low Risk to Use – We’re so sure you’ll love CenturyLink Engage that they back it with a no-cancellation fee satisfaction program regardless of your agreement type.
• Maximum Reliability – Built over-the-top but optimized for performance and call quality when bought with CenturyLink connectivity.
• Deliver Exceptional Customer Service – Add affordable call center capabilities to your business without the need for on-premises equipment.

Three primary offerings that are available with Engage:

Below you can take a look at what is available in each of the three packages:

To learn more about CenturyLink and take advantage of a comparison of 100s of other business calling, collaboration, and contact center solution vendors ... including FREE network design and sourcing support ... simply ask at FreedomFire Communications.

How To Plan & Implement A Successful Remote Work Strategy For Your Employees....A Survival Guide For Business Owners

With every significant event, our reality changes in society. Each event changes the way we work, interact, and do business with each other.

COVID-19 will be one of those events that change our status quo, and we will come out of this a very different society compared to what we were going into this. Businesses and employees will have to fight through the struggles of learning to work from home and have a fully remote workforce. Now, as almost a basic necessity for businesses to survive in our new economy, companies will be looking for guidance as UCaaS becomes the new reality.

Businesses are asking for help to make the transition from Premise Based Phone Systems, and old forms of communications, to new technology that allows people to communicate and collaborate how, when and where they want. Making this digital transformation will help them adapt to the changing environment and prepare them for other coming changes.

Today the coronavirus epidemic continues to prompt new travel restrictions and emergency declarations around the world, with massive lockdowns affecting millions of people. Work at home declarations from the CDC and other government agencies are probably going to become the new normal. Not only could it become temporary law, it's the best way to protect your employees from exposure to the novel virus. So how can you as a business owner prepare to transition your workforce into a work-at-home team that still performs at a high level?

Here at FreedomFire Communications, we are seeing certain technology buying behaviors that are the tech equivalent of loading up on bottled water, batteries, and toilet paper. For traditional businesses who still have an on-premise phone system, email server, or file servers, you're going to need to get to the Cloud if you're going to get work-at-home enabled. Here is a quick list of "ingredients" we've compiled to help step you through this transition. Not to worry, you got this!

Ingredient 1: Usable Broadband / High-Speed Internet

The first thing you need to do as a business owner is survey your employees to see what kind of broadband they are using at home. In order to run business voice and video calls they're going to need plenty of throughput. A good standard that should provide enough horsepower is 50 Mb down, 5 Mb upload speed. If your employees aren't getting those kind of speeds, you may consider offering to subsidize the difference to upgrade them from their current plan to 50 Mb x 5 Mb. There are some cable, best-effort fiber, and 4G internet providers that will allow your executives and other employees to get a business-class service delivered to their residence.

If you'd like to review your options, we have access to our patented GeoQuote tool (shown above) that will tell us, in under 30 seconds, what providers (and prices) are available at your employees' locations.

Ingredient 2: Move Your Phone System to the Cloud

You've known about UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) for some time, and now may be the time to finally make that jump. In the past, many on-premise phone system users cited quality issues related to running essential traffic over the internet as a reason to NOT move to the cloud. Those issues have more than been addressed through SD-WAN technology, which fixes packet loss and other factors that degrade voice and video quality.

Here are the key features of UCaaS that will enable your work-at-home employees by leveraging the benefits of unified communications in the cloud:

1.  Video Conferencing - if your team is forced to stay at home, having a high-definition video conferencing bridge will enable you to stay connected as a team, and to stay connected to your best customers. Almost every unified communications as a service provider we offer has video conferencing built in to the monthly price, or you can buy it stand-alone from our newest provider: Zoom. Know that we have a lot of options here, including some familiar names: 8x8, RingCentral, Fuze, Nextiva, GoToMeeting (Jive/LogMeIn), and others.

2.  Mobile App - when you move to UCaaS, every employee will be able to download an app to their iPhone or Android phone. Once installed, the app will become the phone system, allowing them to receive and make phone calls from their work number, to transfer calls to fellow employees, and for a general IVR to route calls to your team's soft phones by department, skills, etc. The BEST part about using a cloud-based phone system is reporting - YOU as the manager can see call volume, call duration, and dozens of other metrics about your team, all at once.

3.  Collaboration - using tools like Glip (RingCentral), Slack, 8x8, Nextiva, or Microsoft Teams, your teams will be able to communicate one-to-one, one-to-many, much like a group text that never goes away. Add employees at a future date and they'll see the entire history of the chat as well as all of the files that have been uploaded to the specific groups. Caution: you're bound to see more animated gif's than you every would have dreamed possible!

4.  CRM Integration - UCaaS was built to integrate with other cloud-based systems, especially CRMs. Many UCaaS providers have already built API's into the most popular CRMs: SalesForce.com, Zoho, ZenDesk, Method CRM, MS Dynamics, Sugar CRM, Hubspot, etc. If you have a homegrown CRM or other internal system you've built specifically to interact with your phone system, we have many providers that can build a custom integration with a new cloud-based phone system for you.

Ingredient 3: Move the Desktop Workspace to the Cloud

One of the reasons many companies require their workforce to come into a centralized office is the specialized software required to do their jobs. Another reason is access control, employers wants to control who has access to what file and inside a physical office, using Active Directory, you can ensure certain file sharing rules within your own Local Area Network.

We have two up-and-coming technologies that address these features and move them all to the cloud, while maintaining centralized control over access permissions.

1. Workspace as a Service - on of our newest suppliers, StratusWorx, offers a platform (shown in the graphic above) that allows you to run ALL of your fully-licenced software programs in the cloud, all while giving you full control over who has remote access. This would allow you to fully virtualize your office while maintaining your current level of production.
2. Desktop as a Service - this service (shown below) allows you to virtualize your employee's individual desktop computers, putting the actual computing in the cloud, and allowing your employees to "see" it through a light-weight app that mimics the PC's workspace.

We can source multiple vendors (shown below) that can help you move to Desktop as a Service, some of them with the capability of turning up seats in a matter of minutes, making it one of the easiest cloud technologies to implement.

Ingredient 4: Remote File Share

When you send your workers home, it's imperative that they be able to share, collaborate on, and store files in the cloud. The most popular cloud file storage providers are:

1. Microsoft Office 365 - OneDrive
2. Google G-Suite - Google Drive
3. Dropbox
4. Box.com

Using file share you'll be able to sync desired folders and files to your local machine, you'll be able to share files with JUST the people you want to see it, and most importantly, your entire enterprise will be immune from data loss caused by failing, damaged, or stolen hardware.

Time Frame: How Fast Can You Make the Pivot?

The good news is, we and our network of Trusted Service Providers can get these new services set up for you quickly. The thing that takes the longest time is the transfer of your current phone numbers, which requires paperwork to get your existing provider to release them to the new one. We typically see this taking around a month to transfer properly. Everything else can be done in weeks and in some cases, days.

Looking on the bright side, once this virus has been contained (and it will), you'll have the most advanced cloud-based technology working for you well into the foreseeable future, making your workforce dynamic, adaptable, and mobile.

If you'd like assistance in putting a work-at-home technology plan in place, simply ask us online at FreedomFire Communications and we'll take it from there. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

In the meantime, stay safe, work smart, and know that we are proud to play a small part in helping contain the Coronavirus outbreak and to protect our most vulnerable from this terrible virus through practical work-at-home strategies. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this outbreak.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or idea, we'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

VoIP Tests And PGI Collaboration Put Managing Your Business Network WAY Ahead Of The Curve

If your business knocks it out of the park with network monitoring and management .... AND conferencing and collaboration ... you’ll be so far ahead of your competition they’ll look silly.  Just think of the possibilities for your customer and employee satisfaction, as well as your bottom line.  There’ll be lots of happy faces all around.

To take advantage of either resource discussed below simply ask at Network Resources ...it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

INTRODUCING VXSUPPORTLINE

VXSupportLine is a platform enabling a Cloud Self-Service workflow that shows relevant information between the End User and the Service Providers data center. This starts in the pre-sales process by removing fear and risk, ensuring applications will function as intended in the user’s environment. As the ultimate end user, you want this because you can identify and resolve potential bottlenecks in the your environment before deployment, avoiding a negative experience.

Through VXSupportLine, you can test the voice quality from an end-user’s computer to a beacon installed in the data centers of specific hosted service providers by simply visiting a URL. Based on standard network requirements the test will reflect what the hosted user experience would be at that very moment, real-time and if the network performance can support a hosted environment.

All the suppliers you see above are currently participating in VXSupportLine. The goal is to have ALL hosted service providers in our portfolio participating.  To run the test, you will enter: vxsupportline.com/enter supplier name here.(Example: vxsupportline.com/vonage)

This is the data you will see when you visit this page:

• Find Server – can the application test even find the internet
• Check Firewall – Confirming the correct 5060 port is open
• Upload/download Speed – confirming there is sufficient throughput and traffic speed. This represents the speed of the test itself. How long does it take to reach the suppliers data center, and how long does it take to come back to the URL and the customer.
• Internet Speed to You is Latency or Delay
• Packet Errors to You is Packet loss if there is any
• Traceroute – How many hops the test goes through to reach the supplier’s data center.

When VXSupportLine reflects negative test results, suggested next steps will be listed here.

WHY VXSUPPORTLINE

With VXSupportLine you can do the following:

• You can test the voice quality BEFORE your customer commits to a service provider. Use this tool to begin hosted conversations with your customers.
• Establish user empowerment when there is an issue – VXSupportLine enables customers to identify if the call quality issues they are experiencing reside on their network, or if they should contact their hosted service provider. By identifying this, you give them back control of the situation.
• And VXSupportLine is an unbiased validation to the customer. Give them transparency, top the finger-pointing.

WHO IS PGI?

Established in 1991, PGi began with a simple goal: Empower people and businesses to connect and collaborate. Throughout our 25-year history, PGi has met the evolving challenges of collaboration head-on, developing new and innovative solutions to better serve their customers. PGi’s expansive portfolio of communication solutions enables digital workers to connect, communicate, and collaborate every time, everywhere. In fact, that’s what their flagship communications solution, PGi GlobalMeet is all about. PGi facilitates smarter communications for nearly 50,000 customers worldwide, including 75 percent of the Fortune™ 100. Over the time PGi has been around they’ve invested and built a large audio conferencing network. Their advanced Global IP Network includes the following:

Expansive Coverage

• IP audio network with 160+ local access points
• Integrated worldwide VoIP network for hybrid audio
• Localized user interface and voice prompts
• Regionally-delivered service and support

Reliability

• One interlinked global infrastructure
  • Consistent hardware and software configurations
  • Equipment redundancy within each node
  • Node redundancy within the global network.
• Solid partnerships and connections to 30+ telecom carriers

AUDIO & WEB BUNDLES

High-quality audio is a critical component of every meeting, which is why GlobalMeet 5.0 integrates audio seamlessly into your existing collaboration solutions, like Skype for Business and WebEx. The new GlobalMeet 5.0 is HTML 5 and WebRTC based.

GlobalMeet 5.0 also offers the following:

HD Quality Video

• Video delivers up to 1280×720 depending on users bandwidth and number of videos being displayed.

Bandwidth Management 

• Stream quality is determined by group’s bandwidth.
• SVC Layering: user’s bandwidth determines layers received.
• Bandwidth is monitored continuously for real-time optimization.

User Feedback 

• In the event of a very bandwidth the app will recommend the user disable video.

Encryption 

• All video is encrypted using DTLS over 443.
• Security patches come from browser providers.

LARGE AND HIGH-PROFILE EVENTS

iMeetLive’s cloud-based webcasting software empowers users to easily create professional-quality webinars or webcasts for more than 10,000 people. Leverage features like screen share and live-polling to engage audiences and host more effective webcasts and webinars.

Targets: 

• This is a mid-size to enterprise solution
• Large, high-profile, or important events
• Common LOB’s:
  • Marketing
  • Corporate Comm (CEO townhall & IR calls)
  • HR
  • Sales
• Traditionally users of a lot of operator assisted calls

Differences include: 

• HTML 5 based – no download, device agnostic
• Unlimited usage license (DIY) or Fully Managed
• Scale – can go up to 10,000 (have gone up to 40k)
• Amazing branding capabilities – logo’s, colors, sponsorship logos, speaker pics, email confirmations and reminders, etc.
• Tracking and analytics – Create leads, not just participants.
• Integration with other marketing automation tools.
• Enhanced security.
• Extend the life of your content.
• Hive enabled – high quality streaming with minimal network impact.

 SKYPE FOR BUSINESS PRACTICE

As a Microsoft Communications Partner of the year recipient, PGi offers unique and high-quality solutions to optimize the O365/Skype investment. Key integrations for Skype Online and Skype Server include:

• PSTN Audio Conferencing
• Video Room System Integrations
• ‘One-Click’ Mobile App
• CustomInvite (Outlook Toolbar plugin)
• Skype Server Audio Integration
• Skype help for end user support
• Skype IM Broadcast
• Professional Services offerings – Planning, architecture, diagnostics, integration, and adoption programs

So, how can you as a partner position the solutions?

Priceless Advice On Connecting Your Global Workforce

RINGCENTRAL’S GLOBAL OFFICE

RingCentral has three primary missions; the first one is to provide a technology in a single platform whether it’s in the US or across the globe. Their second mission involves making sure their technology is easy to use, purchase, deploy and on a global perspective easy to localize. Lastly, they like to make sure their products are eye-friendly for the end user. Aside from delivering great technology and innovating on a frequent basis, their real mission is to empower employees to be more productive and more responsive to their customers. RingCentral has taken the experience that everyone knows and loves from North American, and they’ve unified it and expanded it for global locations.

Their focus is on bringing together all the core pillars of communication. This includes Cloud PBX, meetings and online sharing, team messaging and contact center. They combine disparate solutions into a single platform to give you not only a unified experience but also a global and open platform.

RingCentral’s Global Office benefits include:

• Extended global presence
• Connect global workforce
• Simplify administration
• Consolidate billing
• Free global extension dialing
• Instant activation
• Local dial plan
• Comply local regulations
• Consistent user experience
• Mobile access

ONE PLATFORM FOR YOUR GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

RingCentral is not the only company to offer a global office solution, but whenever they open a new country, they do it in a full-service capacity. This means:

• In-country, localized phone service – For example, if you are in Singapore and you want to call a store in the area, many services would require you to dial the country code then the prefix before you enter the local number. With RingCentral you can just dial your number directly just like any other local call.
• In-country device shipping – This means all the devices you order are already provisioned, so your employees can easily plug in to your network and use the phone. This helps reduce IT efforts.
• International language support – Every time they roll out a country they make sure end users have support experiences that are localized in the simplified local vernacular.
• Worldwide ext-to-ext dialing – All employees are under the same RingCentral platform, this means all your internal communications are free – even the distributed office.
• Number Porting – If you have local offices using a different PBX solution but you want to continue using the same numbers, RingCentral can support your number porting.

RingCentral supports a total of 37 countries for Global Office and 82 countries offering international numbers as of December 2017. All their global office services are compliant with local regulations to provide safe and secure communication. They also have emergency services covered for your phone services. RingCentral has 17 data centers around the world to provide reliable communication services.  They also work closely with more than 45 local carriers and 200 ISP to ensure quality services for every RingCentral customer.

ADDITIONAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES

The International Virtual Number (IVN) Solution is ideal for companies that have no physical branch offices but need local presence or companies that have local offices but only need inbound calling. IVN does not include calling minutes, but North American calls are unlimited. Inbound calls to an IVN are free unless rates are indicated. So, what is the difference between Global Office and IVN?

International calling credit bundles are ideal for companies that want simple international unlimited calling for all countries or companies that are paying international rates for inbound and outbound callings, including toll-free. Discounted calling credit bundles are available from $300 to $675k and overages are billed at a standard international rate. Bundles expire at the end of the month and cannot roll over to the following month.

RingCentral also offers Global Office Unlimited which includes the following:

• Coverage for over 100 countries.
• Connects to your customers with a predictable, fixed-price calling plan.
• Outbounds calls cover both landline and mobile.
• Available for US and Canada accounts with 250+ users.

To learn more and get a free quote and network design help simply ask here....

Global Office