Nonprofit Provides Future-Proof Environment, Enables Business Continuity, and Streamlines Support Through Cloud Communications Adoption.
Client
A Washington DC-based publicly funded non-profit corporation serving low-income Americans across the nation. A new CIO intends to drive digital transformation across the organization by moving aggressively to the cloud from on-premises systems. The new CIO, just 3 weeks on the job, engages ARG for their first project – evaluating cloud-based voice services.
The client’s strategy for digital transformation is driving innovation to maximize the availability, quality, and effectiveness of their services, support projects vital to their mission, and develop new ways to carry their message to a broader audience. They also seek to achieve the highest standards of management to sustain a capable, responsive and accountable organization.
Challenge
The client was looking to improve and modernize their technology infrastructure by moving to the cloud, provide business continuity, and streamline support and management without increasing technology spend.
Solution
After a detailed ARG analysis of user requirements, and future plans and reviewing multiple options, the client chose a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution. The design took advantage of their existing internet bandwidth and leveraged software-defined networking (SD-WAN) to ensure user experience.
Replacing the 6-year-old Avaya system rather than undertaking an upgrade created a future-proof communications system which is easier to manage and fell in line with their corporate strategy to move their premises-based infrastructure to cloud. With a Salesforce migration on the horizon, the solution also supports a plug and play integration with Salesforce.
Financial Impact
ARG’s complete technical and financial analysis between the various solutions broke down current and projected costs of upgrading the Avaya or moving to a UCaaS subscription model. The analysis incorporated end-user impact, benefits to the business, and associated risks.
The client decided to opt for a solution to achieve a more robust business continuity posture with increased features and decreased support requirements. The unified communication solution replaced the PBX maintenance costs, PRI, switched long distance and conferencing with a single bill that was only $3 more than their previous spend.
Throughout the course of the engagement, ARG also uncovered significant savings in their corporate mobility services by simply optimizing their current provider charges. These savings created a favorable ROI for the client, who upgraded their technology, improved service delivery to their user community, and ended with net savings in their IT budget.
Results
The client is well on the way to their digital transformation goals. They gained more control along with a technology partner with a defined strategy to support future integrations and enhancements. The cloud-based communication system offers carrier-grade geo-redundancy to reduce risk in the event of a weather event or power outage and now has live-answer support from ARG. The decreased support requirements allow the IT team to focus on projects that support their mission.
Conclusion
Increasingly, IT organizations see administering the PBX as a distraction from their core projects. Moving to UCaaS makes changes simple through an online portal. Layering ARG’s 24 x 7 x 365 support means you get even more time back. Please reach out to ARG if you’d like to look at alternatives to managing an onsite PBX.
