Kurmi Virtual Roadshow: Zoom through Your Zoom Provisioning with Kurmi - Watch On-Demand

Kurmi Software

Unified Communication - Automate & Simplify the management

UC Management

Governments, public services and higher education institutions rely on intricate interconnections between internal departments, contractors, partners, vendors and constituents, such as citizens and students, to function. Unified Communications (UC), without doubt, facilitates workforce effectiveness and collaboration on a daily basis.

Providing instant access to an integrated set of features, including calling, video-enabled meetings and team collaboration, within a unified client enables everyone to better collaborate and share information internally – as well as with external partners, vendors and other agencies.

Inspired by Metrigy’s Realizing the True Benefits of Unified Collaboration for Government study, we decided to take a closer look at what automated provisioning of Unified Communications can achieve.

1. Enhance data protection and security

Governments, public services and higher education need a provisioning solution that meets their security needs – in the US, this means one that is FedRAMP certified. Automated UC provisioning makes security compliance easier to implement and monitor via a single platform that adapts to the existing IT processes, policies and strategies. This ensures a strong security baseline while also protecting data, whether preventing data loss or unauthorized access.

2. Provide precise analytics for a 360° vision

The public sector increasingly requires measurable results. If institutions invest in Unified Communications, they need to explain their choice, show the benefits and justify further investment. This means knowing how users are utilizing the technology, how well the Unified Communications provisioning solution is performing, and what impact it is having.

Integrating intelligent hardware and software UC provisioning tools provide visibility into operations and analytical data from a single pane of glass. The result? Actionable insights that demonstrate cost savings – from reduced travel to lower real estate costs through at-home working – in addition to gains in productivity like shorter meetings and improved processes.

We know that Unified Communications facilitates decision-making and helps keep projects on time and budget—but the analytics from automated UC provisioning solutions provide the proof to convince decision-makers.

3. Improve UX

The analytics and data generated by automated UC provisioning tools also offer insights that enable the public sector to simplify and optimize the experience for users. Older systems and communications infrastructure can no longer match the high expectations of today’s users. Fast access and interactive problem-solving are taken for granted. Optimizing this kind of experience via a single interface within an intuitive UC provisioning solution helps increase adoption across the organization, amplifying the benefits and making users more efficient, whether working on-premises or at home, in the US or anywhere in the world.

In addition, the self-service functionality offered by these tools further empowers end users, while also reducing support costs.

4. Add value in higher education

During Covid-19 lockdowns, remote learning became the norm for many. But it was only possible through efficient Unified Communications provisioning. Let’s take a closer look at what this means for higher education. Initially used mainly for administrative purposes, UC now plays an important role in the day-to-day business at colleges and universities, as faculty and staff rely on it to further their work, from research to lab work to presentations.

Increasingly, this is being taken a step further. More and more classes are going fully online as a result of the pandemic, but also to meet the needs of non-traditional students who may have families or work during the day. Without a robust UC provisioning solution, it is difficult and time-consuming to standardize or automate processes related to managing the UC infrastructure, taking up time better used for other essential tasks such as teaching and/or budget that could be directed elsewhere.

5. Enable a hybrid, cloud-based approach

Most agencies and institutions have to work with existing, often customized, on-premise systems. Even if they want to adopt a fully cloud-based approach, this may not be feasible – at least in the short term. However, automated UC provisioning solutions can enable them to seamlessly integrate new cloud-based capabilities into existing platforms, while also providing the opportunity for full migration at a later point. Such a hybrid, modular and multi-vendor approach has the advantage of combining an integrated user experience with centralized provisioning and management without starting from scratch later.

6. High-potential opportunities

It is clear that the benefits of automated UC provisioning solutions for government, public services, and higher education are wide-reaching. They ensure reliable Unified Communications and collaboration for day-to-day operations, allowing users to stay connected. What’s more, by ensuring security compliance, providing performance data, and reducing costs, institutions can streamline and diversify their operations while getting more from the often-limited resources they have been allocated.

How provisioning tools and automation can drastically reduce overhead

We all know the unexpected blow dealt by the global pandemic to IT organizations around the world—we lived through it. Overnight, IT teams were forced to accommodate remote work environments, adjust access and security policies on the fly, and deploy new collaboration and meeting technologies. As the “temporary” remote work plans became longer term, and even as restrictions ease, it has becoming clear that a hybrid work environment is here to stay. According to analyst group Nemertes, 56% of business leaders plan to allow work-from-home moving forward, so UC and CC teams will need to factor demand for on-the-fly provisioning and last minute MACD changes for a constantly in-flux workforce into their future planning.

Has Necessity Led to More Complexity in Hybrid Work Environments?

With the increase in new apps combined with employees working in both home and company offices, the complexity of managing these applications is higher than ever. Many of the capabilities added to accommodate collaboration in remote work were made from necessity, and in many cases without the testing and training that would have been mandatory in the past. It is now imperative that IT leaders take a step back to ensure an optimal communications environment.

Kurmi Software and analyst firm Metrigy recently hosted a brisk discussion of how successful IT organizations are leveraging provisioning tools and automation to reduce IT administrator overhead and onboard employees more quickly.

Webinar: Tips for Managing UC, Contact Center in the Future Workplace

How provisioning tools and automation can drastically reduce overhead

Robin Gareiss, CEO and principal analyst with Metrigy joined Kurmi’s COO Pascal Moindrot to discuss:

  • The core pain points IT administrators—and employees—face
  • The UC and CC administration functions best suited for easy automation or employee self-service
  • How IT staffs can build a business case to win budget for these new tools
  • What specialty tools can do to improve provisioning, particularly in multi-vendor environments
  • How to extend the value of administration tools through integration with ITSM, teams, platforms, and processes
Watch on-demand video

What were the main challenges for this financial services organization?

Simplify and automate architecture for provisioning and deprovisioning

In the USA, this company manages 401(k)s and retirement investment accounts for users including high volumes of stock mutual funds. The company was using Cisco Prime Provisioning for onboarding but continued to experience database issues like duplicate entries.

When it seemed like Cisco would drop support for the product, the organization looked for a new solution that also offered a high degree of automation to save time on repetitive tasks – like MACD changes when swapping more than 8,000 desk phones. Given the high number of arrivals, departures, move-outs and changes every day, this kind of automation had become essential.

How was Kurmi deployed?

The company carried out a Proof of Concept (POC) for Kurmi’s Unified Communications offering, as well as for a competitor, and automated the solution at one of its smaller sites at Hampton Roads, Virginia. It preferred the simplicity and automation offered by Kurmi, so they started implementation for their entire UC environment.

“We have a lot of different roles…so far, Kurmi has been very flexible. We’ve been able to modify the scripts, so that we can onboard the right people and give them
the right package.”

Self-service is shaking up digital experience and remote working with major impacts across the board from user satisfaction to operational costs and user support efficiency.  

End users, that is to say employees, now want and expect “consumer grade” experience with their enterprise IT. They’ll no longer accept waiting multiple days for a service activation or password reset. The good news is that the solution is closer at hand than you think. And even more advantageous.  

Self-service for provisioning unified communications

First things first, let’s define what we mean by self-service when it comes to provisioning unified communications. A self-care or self-service portal is a customer service tool that allows end users to manage their communication devices and UC services in real time from any device. This centralized hub delegates simple tasks, so the end user can directly access and configure operations such as call forward management and password resets.

Empowering your end users

This kind of delegation is a win-win situation. First and foremost, the user gets what they want immediately. There is no waiting around. They are in control of their work environment. Given that many more employees are still working from home during the Covid pandemic – and that the trend looks set to stay for many enterprises post-pandemic – this kind of access is essential. An intuitive and customized experience also increases end user adoption with a positive impact on the employee user satisfaction and work efficiency. 

With multimedia content and AI, it’s also easier than ever to customize support and provide relevant information addressing their questions. But more about that later.  

Maximizing operational efficiencies while lowering costs

Decentralizing simple administration tasks also means less tickets for the service team. With self-service, they are no longer swamped by single-user, low-priority jobs. Removing these low-level requests frees up time for your helpdesk, technical and managerial staff to deal with more complex, specialized tasks and critical business issues. For many companies, over time, this translates to a need for fewer end-user service team members, reducing costs.  

Administrators and managers can also use their self-service portal as a convenient ready–to–use window to provide users with important information and tools like manuals and software installation. 

Getting more from your self-service portal

Consulting firms such as Metrigy are increasingly focusing on how we can fully harness the benefits of self-service. Let’s look at what this means for provisioning unified communications. Here are 4 key points to take into consideration. 

  1. Set your scope
    Remember that the scope of self-service should be limited – not every interaction is appropriate. In many ways this is a good thing: end users shouldn’t be able to modify core services, ensuring the network is never compromised by incorrect provisioning of UC devices and services. 
    So, be sure to identify which actions are compatible and focus your efforts on these. The administrator can define the autonomy level (what end users can and can’t access) based on the company’s internal policies and the end user’s skill level. 
  2. Enhance knowledge with AI
    As Artificial Intelligence becomes both more sophisticated and accessible, the possibilities are endless. Today, 17.2% of companies are integrating AI into their self-service portals. This is set to increase to 50.7% by 2025, according to Metrigy‘ Intelligent Customer Experience: 2019-20 Research Study of 517 IT and CX leaders globally.
    AI simultaneously enables you to provide end users with relevant answers and automatically update your self-service knowledge base. This can be taken a step further by personalizing interactions based on previous ones, or making suggestions (e.g. would you like to see our video on managing your call forwarding?)
    More and more companies are training AI-powered virtual assistants to provide on-the-spot support at a fraction of the cost. However, it is important to still offer end users the option of contacting a live agent, as well as escalation if the problem becomes more complex. 
  3. Draw on data
    Analytics provide ever more data about end users and their needs. This enables you to work out where they are getting stuck. You can then create appropriate multimedia content to address common questions and explain solutions, for example YouTube tutorials. 
    Data is also a powerful tool for measuring the success of the self-service portal. Before you start, gather baseline metrics and measure them at regular intervals – making any necessary adjustments as you go along.  
  4. Create a seamless user experience 
    Self-service user support is an essential step, but only one part of the journey. By looking at the bigger picture, you can make the entire experience seamless and avoid unnecessary duplication. Employees can choose how to interact at every step and carry on where they left off, rather than having to reexplain their problem on multiple occasions. 

Is self-service right for your unified communications provisioning?

Self-service has the potential to transform unified communications provisioning. As an end-user tool, it empowers employees while reducing costs and freeing up the support team – without undermining the core UC infrastructure. 

A unified provisioning platform that combines skilled IT support and self-service access enhances the overall end user experience, while generating multiple benefits for the company – whatever its size or sector. 

With the flexible, massively customizable Kurmi platform, administrators can manage all their UC & Collaboration solutions through a single user interface. But Kurmi goes much further than that. Its API and connecting SDK give admins the power to pair a new application with Kurmi and manage it from the platform. With our SDK Connector, organizations can apply their own business rules to boost their ops teams’ productivity – and slash costs.

Kurmi’s SDK Connector includes a full set of tools to connect new applications that can be managed by Kurmi Software. The goal is to further automate processes and be more responsive, reducing customer onboarding time. Thus Kurmi becomes THE central, single steering console for UC&C solutions and other critical business apps too. Administrators have a single interface, bettering user experience with simple forms and access to many quick features.

There are so many ways to use it. Our customers have already successfully integrated Kurmi with:

  • an invoicing app,
  • internal solutions (e.g. dashboards)
  • proprietary apps
  • dedicated news solutions like Luware for Contact Centers in Microsoft
  • and the list goes on!

As Bruno Guirardel, Head of Product at Kurmi Software, puts it,

“Our Connector SDK includes information, API references, and sample code to help you get started, as well as a simple data connector model that you can quickly install and play with.” The upshot? “Kurmi is really becoming a single management and admin platform for your UC & Collaboration solutions, as well as all kinds of third-party apps.”

Kurmi Software is unmatched for configurability. It includes self-development for Quick Features (advanced provisioning scripts, transparently integrated into the native graphic interface).

About ACOSS-URSSAF

ACOSS-URSSAF is a French social security and protection network that collects and distributes 500 billion euros annually.

What were the challenges for ACOSS-URSSAF?

ACOSS-URSSAF’s challenges were:
1. Unify its telephone infrastructure – Initially distributed among Alcatel-Lucent, Mitel, and Cisco – into a single technology.
2. Manage 17,000 users.
3. Deploy new communications features. And do this all while optimizing operating costs.

One of the key items for ACOSS-URSSAF was securely delegating telephony management to non-experts in each region while partitioning its various entities. These options are not natively available in the Cisco admin solution.

After analyzing different proposals, ACOSS-URSSAF chose the NXO integrator with Cisco technology. To strengthen its value proposition, NXO integrated the Kurmi Unified Provisioning software solution to simplify Cisco’s UC admin and meet the challenge of reducing ACOSS-URSSAF’s management costs. NXO and Kurmi Software positioned their offer, which fully met the client’s needs.

How did the rollout work?

The rollout schedule was tied directly to internal financing at ACOSS-URSSAF, which necessitated a phased release.

Rollout went region by region, starting with PACA. The different sites were equipped and trained over a period of two years. Before installing and configuring the Kurmi software, ACOSS-URSSAF’s teams focused on deploying the Cisco solution. Next, Kurmi trained the teams in all of the software’s features in the lead-up to regional deployment.

It took just four months to get from information-gathering and scoping to substation ordering and delivery to Kurmi’s training and go-live. This process was repeated for each of the different regions.

Unified communications management encompasses the policies, procedures, and tools for both administration and operations management of calling, messaging, and meeting applications.  A successful UC management strategy must accomplish the following goals: 

  • Provide IT operations staff with insight into real-time performance of voice and video, and enable both proactive identification of potential issues before they occur, as well as rapid recovery from outages and/or performance problems that do arise 
  • Optimize the day-to-day management of UC applications to reduce operational cost, save time, and enable IT staff to avoid time-consuming repetitive tasks 

End-to-End Management Critical As UC Shift to the Cloud

UC management should address end-to-end needs.  That is, UC management tools must enable management (both performance and administration) across endpoints including phones, audio devices, and video conferencing systems, as well as core application platforms. 

The nature of UC management has shifted as UC applications have moved to the cloud.  Nemertes’ recent Cost-Benefit Analysis: Workplace Collaboration and Contact Center global study of more than 564 end-user organizations found that more than 34% were now using Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) for all or part of their real-time collaboration and communications needs.  Though shifting UC platforms to the cloud reduces some of the operational burden on IT shops, it does not eliminate the need for proactive strategies for performance and administrative management.  IT organizations are still responsible for ensuring the performance of real-time applications across their networks, as well as day-to-day administrative operations, they cannot simply offload management onto their UCaaS provider. 

Key Requirements for Success

Key requirements for a successful management strategy, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid, require leveraging specialty management tools that enable automation of day-to-day administrative tasks.  Organizations should focus on the following building blocks for success: 

  • Automate management workflows – including provisioning of users as well as moves/adds/changes, and deletions. An ideal approach integrates provisioning and change management with HR and ITSM / IT tools used to onboard (and offboard) employees to enable productivity benefits from faster access to new employees, and to eliminate the need for engineering staff to perform repetitive tasks 
  • Apply company-wide security policies – governing provisioning of users as well as change management, and access to applications and services.   
  • Enable self-service capabilities for password and profile management, as well as for features including voicemail, eliminating the need to involve IT staff in routine administrative tasks 
  • Delegate administrative functions to lines of business or department heads, again reducing the administrative burden (and cost) on expensive IT staff 
  • Enable multi-vendor support if operating multiple UC platforms – leveraging specialty administrative management tools in a multi-vendor environment is especially critical as such tools provide a unified administrative console for disparate underlying systems, saving IT staff from managing via separate consoles, and reducing potential for error 

Achieving UC management success requires a proactive approach that address performance and operational requirements to minimize cost of operations and to ensure consistent governance of UC applications, whether on-premises or in the cloud.  Adopt tools that optimize UC management across all platforms to reduce cost and improve user satisfaction. 

By Irwin Lazar 

Unified Communications (UC) management requires obtaining both visibility into application performance, as well as the managing of day-to-day administrative tasks including provisioning, inventory management, and moves, adds, changes, and deletions.  Absent specialized tools to support these requirements, UC management is largely a manual process requiring extensive (and expensive) resources and time. 

Unfortunately, many organizations still operate their UC platforms without adopting UC-specific performance and administration management tools. In our latest Cost-Benefit Analysis: Workplace Collaboration and Contact Center 2020-21 global study of 564 organizations across Australia, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia, we found that just 29% of participants use UC management platforms to support day-to-day operations.  A plurality of 42% only rely on the capabilities provided to them by their on-premises UC vendor or cloud-based UCaaS provider. Additionally, 37% only use their existing network management tools to monitor voice performance, but lack any capabilities for optimizing UC administration. 

1/ What happens if you don’t use a provisioning tool?

Without such tools, IT staffs face numerous potential issues including: 

  • Inability to proactively identify and quickly troubleshoot performance-related issues 
  • Reliance on manual, costly, and more error-prone manual processes for initial provisioning and on-going management rather than automated provisioning that frees engineer time to focus on more strategic activities 
  • Inability to delegate tasks to local administrators, leading to increased operational costs 
  • Lack of reliable asset management for devices including phones and headsets 
  • No integration of UC provisioning with workflows for on-boarding and off-boarding employees as they join and leave the organization 
  • No means to distribute administrative tasks to lines of business 
  • Limited provide self-service capabilities to enable employees to make changes to their own profiles, or to perform tasks such as password resets 
  • Potential inability to provision services in accordance with security, compliance, and governance policies 
  • In multi-vendor environments, no ability to create a consistent approach to administrative management across all platforms and a need to learn and operate within separate vendor-specific administration environments (e.g. Microsoft PowerShell) 

2/ Consequences also on the ROI

As noted, the lack of UC management tools comes at a cost. Nemertes’ data shows that organizations who have adopted specialty tools for UC management spend on average $933 per endpoint per year in operational costs, versus $1,303 for those who only use the administration tools available from their UC platform provider.   

We also find a correlation between investment in UC management tools and ROI on UC spending.  Those with the highest UC ROI (in terms of measurable improvements in productivity, lower operating costs, and/or demonstrable revenue improvements) spend 49% more on UC administration tools than those with below average, or no ROI. The data is clear: Investing in UC administration tools not only reduces OpEx, but is correlated with a positive ROI for overall UC spend. This is especially true as organizations have increasingly shift to work-from-home environments that require rapid provisioning of users at new locations. 

In addition, UC administration tools are increasingly being used for more than just provisioning of telephones.  Our success group, again defined as those with the highest ROI for their UC spend, manage on average about 3.2 apps with their specialty tools, versus 2.4 for those with lower or no success.  Individual apps include not just voice, but video conferencing, team collaboration, instant messaging, and contact center services. 

Optimizing UC management provides demonstrable opportunities to reduce operational expenses, deployment time, and achieve the highest levels of business value by maximizing end-user satisfaction.  Consider adopting UC administrative tools as part of your overall strategy to streamline administrative management tasks. 

By Irwin Lazar 

IT Service Management (ITSM) defines the processes that organizations use to deliver information technology in a way that delivers measurable business value. For the last several years organizations have adopted structured ITSM approaches, often based on ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), to ensure that IT services meet the needs of the business, both now and in the anticipated future.

1. Why use an ITSM

A key feature of ITSM is the automation of service management and delivery, often through the use of robotic process automation (RPA). RPA allows for the replacement of manual, repeatable tasks with programmable bots. For example, an organization can use RPA to provision a new account profile when on-boarding a new employee, or allow employees to make changes to their services via web-based chat, in which the chat agents performance automated acts (e.g. resetting a password) based on user requests.

Today, many organizations have adopted IT service management platforms from vendors including BMC (Remedy/Helix), CA Technologies, and ServiceNow.  ITSM products from these and other vendors serve as the platform for automating tasks, providing customer self-service, and managing trouble tickets and project tasks.  In addition, most organizations have deployed ERP platforms such as Workday and SAP Success Factors to automate onboarding of new employees.

2. What are the benefits for the Unified Communications?

UC administrators can benefit from integrations with ITSM and HR platforms to apply the benefits of ITSM and RPA to management of voice and related applications.  For example, integrating a UC administration management suite with an ITSM and/or HR platform can offer the following benefits:

  • Automated provisioning of UC account information including phone number, profile, policies and access controls as new employees are on-boarded, as well as de-provisioning as they leave the organization
  • Sharing of inventory information between a UC administration tool and an ITSM platform
  • Synchronization of moves / adds / changes over time
  • Automated populating of trouble-tickets, with data from UC platforms
  • Provisioning of role-based access control to enable individuals to administer services for those within their work group
  • Elimination of staff time necessary for manual provision and on-going management
  • Enabling self-service moves/adds/changes through an ITSM or HR platform

3. Why integrate ITSM with provisioning software

Integrating UC administration and ITSM and HR platforms for provisioning and ongoing management reduces staff time required for operational management and maintenance tasks, as well as potential for misconfiguration, especially for those running multiple UC and contact center platforms.  Nemertes has consistently found significant opportunities to reduce UC administrative costs by leveraging specialty tools to automate provisioning and management. Integrating UC administrative management tools with ITSM and HR platforms offer the potential for not only further cost reductions but also:

  • A simplified experience for end-users as they manage their own applications and features through self-service portals and chat bots
  • The ability to integrate provisioning with existing business processes, including automated approvals
  • Reduction in potential outages from misconfigurations by enabling establishment of a standard catalog of service requests
  • Enables further refinement based on identified, repeatable service requests

Those looking to achieve the benefits of ITSM in their UC administrative management should look for UC management solutions that offer pre-built integrations with popular ITSM and HR platforms as well as APIs that enable custom integrations.

By Irwin Lazar, Nemertes

Request a Demo

Get a FREE no-obligation demo. Submit the form below and a UC expert will be in touch shortly.