Author: Marc Hebner

Creating a Communications System Built for Hybrid work: How existing customers can transform their on-prem solution with cloud-based flexibility

Posted by Marc Hebner on Posted in Cloud, Contact Center, Unified Communications Tagged , , , ,

Survey after survey keeps telling us that the in-office workplace is a thing of the past. Offices are not obsolete, but most companies admit that remote work didn’t cause any collapses of infrastructure, operations, or productivity. In fact, 83 percent of employers and 71 percent of employees call remote work a success according to PwC’s Remote Work Survey.

Hybrid work models involve flexibility on where someone works, whether remote, on-site, or anywhere in between. However, this model is creating challenges for businesses with existing on-premises phone systems as they look for a seamless transition that keeps operations moving forward.

Introducing UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE – Your BRIDGE to the Cloud

Up until now, the options on-premises NEC customers had in response to remote and hybrid work was limited. On-premises users had two options: continue utilizing an existing on-premises phone system with disparate applications or abandon the on-prem investment and move to a completely different solution.

NEC recognized the need to provide another option to meet the needs of our customers in this new work environment. That’s why we created UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE. This new option extends existing NEC phone systems with cloud-based communication tools via desktop and mobile apps, creating a seamless, all-in-one communications experience.

Protect Your NEC Phone System Investment, Extend Its Capabilities

Many on-premises NEC PBX customers are choosing to keep their existing on-premises system due to its’ long shelf life, despite the hybrid work benefits of cloud communications; and this is why we have differentiated our strategy from other competitors in this space. NEC will continue selling and supporting premise systems for many years to come, and enhance their capabilities through integrations into the cloud. This is great news for NEC premise customers! If your on-premises system continues to work well for your business, there is probably not an immediate need to migrate to a full cloud-based unified communications (UCaaS) solution. You already paid the capital expense for your on-premises system, so it’s understandable for businesses to opt out of a full cloud migration to see their investment through its end-of-life.

With UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE, existing on-premises NEC customers no longer have to choose between the flexibility of cloud communications or protecting their current phone system investment.

UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE was designed specifically for NEC customers. It seamlessly integrates with:

  • UNIVERGE® SV9100
  • UNIVERGE® SV9300
  • UNIVERGE® SV9500
  • UNIVERGE 3C®

CONNECT BRIDGE enables inbound and outbound calling via desktop and mobile apps, PLUS includes an integrated suite of collaboration services.

Consolidate Multiple Standalone Solutions – Reduce Complexity and Costs

To keep up with the needs of the workforce during the pandemic, businesses with on-premises phone systems turned to standalone collaboration services with the intent of empowering employees to stay connected and maintain productivity from dispersed locations. While this approach may have worked for the short term, as a long-term solution, there are many drawbacks.

Leveraging multiple disparate systems cause productivity and efficiency challenges. Lack of integration results in these standalone tools living in silos, leading to significant issues for the business at the user level. Additionally, using multiple standalone solutions often means juggling multiple vendors and bills. This can result in billing complexities and higher costs than consolidating all your tools into one application, which is traditionally a benefit of migrating your entire solution to the cloud.

UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE brings together your existing NEC phone system with the critical collaboration tools your teams need – all in one single application from the provider you already trust with your business communications, NEC. By extending your existing NEC phone system with cloud-based tools via desktop and mobile apps, employees enjoy one seamless solution with all the collaboration tools they need to get work done. The days of switching back and forth from one application to another are over. Now, employees receive a seamless, all-in-one communications experience for one low per-user monthly fee.

How To Solve Collaboration Issues In A Hybrid Work Environment

Allowing for remote flexibility is good for business and retaining high-value employees. They have different expectations now, with 92 percent of employees requesting to work remotely at least one day a week.

How do you manage a hybrid workforce and all their communication and collaboration needs? Regardless of where your employees sit, they should have the same experience with access to the technology required to do their jobs well. Now, on-premises NEC users can leverage their existing platform to be the ideal solution for hybrid teams. With UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE, employees can collaborate in the office, at home, or anywhere in between with integrated video conferencing, chat, and file sharing/backup.

Hybrid work requires advanced tools such as video, chat, messaging, and file sharing to enable seamless and quick collaboration. For businesses with existing on-premises NEC phone systems, depending solely on the voice features with an on-premises PBX could result in a disadvantage when it comes to hybrid working and attracting new talent who expects flexible working environments.

Enhance productivity and collaboration through seamless cloud UC integrations with NEC’S UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE, keeping your team connected anywhere they are.

How Organizations Need to Respond to Shifting Communications Needs

Business communications needs are different than they were during the in-office work era. While businesses had to pivot to address communications and collaboration quickly, many did so in haste; hence, the standalone applications model. Now, you need business communications tools that address current and future work models. Futureproofing the work model will be a priority for every business that wants to grow and thrive. Thankfully, there’s a way to do this while leveraging your investment with your existing NEC phone system through NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT BRIDGE.

Now is the time to look for a consolidated approach that extends your business phone system to remote workers, protects your current investment, and adds on additional voice and collaboration tools that your employees need to stay connected and productive. To learn how NEC can help, reach out to your Authorized NEC Representative, or visit the CONNECT BRIDGE website to learn more: www.univergeblue.com/connect-bridge

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NEC UNIVERGE BLUE® ENGAGE: Everything a Modern Contact Center Should Be

Posted by Marc Hebner on Posted in Cloud, Contact Center, Unified Communications Tagged , , , , ,

Organizations have invested in cloud services to help employees stay engaged and efficient, while working remotely. Should you consider doing the same for your contact center operations?

Instead of a high-pressure, windowless room filled with frantic agents, NEC invites you to consider a highly customizable, cloud-based contact center solution: NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE.

UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES platform renders UCaaS, Business Productivity Apps and CCaaS within a single pane of glass. UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE is the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) component, that improves your Customer Experience by enabling your agents to be better-balanced and more productive working in an office, remote or anywhere.

NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE makes the move to the cloud easy, as it can co-exist with your existing telephony service (PBX / Cloud telephony services) and support a complete replacement of older, disparate and wired cost centers. Consolidating equipment and applications reduces the need for time-consuming annual updates / upgrades and cuts the cost of maintenance. NEC’s CCaaS saves as much as 20% compared to other cloud communication services.1

Read on to discover how NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE provides a seamless Customer Experience for healthcare, government, hospitality and education organizations.

Healthcare

UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE improves the patient experience by making communication more convenient and effective. Our best-in-class contact center:

  • Facilitates better schedule adherence with patients through automated communication channels
  • Increases team collaboration and productivity, ensuring anywhere, anytime access
  • Maintains high compliance standards across all communication and payment options
  • Leverages electronic health records to improve personalization and self-service

These options make it easier for patients to book or change appointments. Patients can quickly get in touch with the right doctor, renew prescriptions and stay engaged in care programs through secure communications channels like email, available at all times.

“

75% of consumers look forward to a consistent experience across multiple engagement channels–social media, mobile, online, in-person, or through the phone. 73% will likely change brands if they don’t get it. (Salesforce) 2

 ”

Government

Government organizations face stringent obstacles when evaluating cloud solutions that can provide superior service levels to the public. With NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE, government agencies, from small single offices to larger state or nation-wide service providers, solve common challenges such as:

  • Call volume spikes, by allowing for seamless scalability at any given time
  • Secure Access and flexibility between office and remote work with a fully cloud-based solution
  • Control costs with easy month-to-month billing
  • Meeting constituents’ demand for service with limited staff resources using call routing
  • Lack of disaster recovery and business continuity plans, with DR built right in

Skills-based routing and geo-routing help get callers to the right expert at the right time. SMS alerts can be sent automatically to help prioritize inquiries when staff bandwidth is limited. Disaster recovery and business continuity is built into the product, eliminating the need for another IT purchase.

“

33% of Americans say they’ll consider switching companies after just a single instance of poor service. (American Express)3

 ”

Hospitality

Guest experience is the lifeblood of the hotel and hospitality industry. Exceptional customer service and loyalty is dependent on the interactions delivered.
UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE Contact Center offers:

  • Surveys and emails to measure guest satisfaction
  • Reporting library that integrates with the hotel CRM for enriched data visualization
  • IVRs offering confirmations, inquiries, check-ins, etc.
  • Call thresholds with distributed overflow
  • Streamlined reservation process with two-way communication and automated processes

Dynamic notifications can send reservation reminders, room ready notifications, and information about activities, special promotions, shopping, and restaurants to enjoy—greatly improving the guest experience.

“

34% of respondents surveyed stated that the most frustrating aspect of customer service is the Automated Telephone System (IVR) or inability to reach a live person for customer support. (Microsoft)4

 ”

Education

In the education vertical, students, alumni, donors, parents and staff need to interact across varying channels, with varying levels of urgency. Our CCaaS resolves these diverse interactions and communication requirements with:

  • Scalability, up or down, depending on seasonal fluctuations of staff and call volume
  • Ability to use wherever and whenever across dispersed departments and locations
  • Self-service options that are dependent on identification for accurate routing
  • Omni-channel and digital channel capabilities to address multiple communication preferences
  • Admissions, financial aid, housing and other planned or unplanned student body notifications
  • Alumni Campaigns (agent driven as well as fully automated configuration options)

When hundreds of thousands of individuals need to be connected, UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE is a proven solution for learning institutions across North America.

Want to Know More About NEC UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE?

UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE eliminates the large, upfront capital required to purchase, operate and maintain the enhanced Customer Experience outcome you require to be competitive.

UNIVERGE BLUE Engage

NEC has affordable and simplified pricing, as we offer two (2) unique packaged options, delivering on the promise to bring enterprise cloud communications and business applications at a price point that is approximately 23% less than the competition.1 Our Client Onboarding Services transitions you to the cloud at a pace, that you’re comfortable with, allowing your full participation in the actual setup and configuration. UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE is also one of a few enterprise cloud solutions that provides a “single pane of glass” for managing the complete communication and workspace experience.
Contact centers are at the front line of the customer experience. Investing in cloud services for a more modern contact center meets customers and agents where they are, with more features and functionality than ever before. Contact an NEC solutions representative to learn more about UNIVERGE BLUE ENGAGE.

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Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Fill out the form, and we will get back with you.

References

1 NEC’s CCaaS saves as much as 23% compared to other cloud communication services, when comparing licensing and usage fees. The comparison jumps to 28% or higher, when factoring in implementation and onboarding, third party integrations (i.e. CRM, IVR), custom developed reports, Move, Adds and Changes (MAC’s) and continuing education.

2 State of the Connected Customer 4th Edition, Salesforce

3 American Express Customer Service Barometer

4 State of Global Customer Service Report, Microsoft

Partner Success Story: How Forerunner Technologies was able to increase their operational efficiency and deliver a better experience to customers with UNIVERGE BLUE

Posted by Marc Hebner on Posted in Cloud, Unified Communications Tagged , , , , ,

Founded in 1989, Forerunner Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services to business of all sizes and industries. Forerunner CEO, Paul Diesu and VP of Sales and Marketing, Rick Taylor have extensive experience in the telecommunications industry and helped build Forerunner’s reputation of providing tier-one customer service through personalized services and flexible solutions.

I recently sat down with Paul and Rick to discuss their partnership with NEC and selling UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES, here’s what they had to say:

The Challenge

“We take customer service very seriously. We have built the business around our reliability and providing a white glove experience to customers,” Paul explains.

Paul and Rick knew they needed to provide customers with a reliable, cloud-based UC offering, but feared that reselling another company’s cloud portfolio wouldn’t allow them to offer the white-glove service customers had become accustomed to. Forerunner white labeled another vendor’s cloud portfolio as their own but learned it would be near impossible to compete with the larger cloud companies that already had so much of the market share.

After attempting to white label another cloud solution, they tried reselling a cloud portfolio, but couldn’t find a solution to meet their customer’s needs. “Our customers needed more versatility in how, when, and where employees could communicate – our past offering could not meet their expectations.”

Forerunner continued to search for a cloud provider that could deliver a full suite of reliable, fully integrated, easy-to-use, and well-supported communications solutions, with a partner model more favorable to their business.

The Solution

Cost Effective and Feature Rich Unified Communications for Forerunner’s Customers
“When we were researching cloud providers, we knew we needed advanced unified communications (UCaaS) features at a reasonable price for our customers. That’s what we get with UNIVERGE BLUE,” Paul shares.
“By bundling all of the UCaaS features into one integrated application, customers no longer have to maintain relationships with different vendors to get all the features they need in a communications and contact center solution.” Rick adds, “In the past if a customer wanted file sharing, meeting transcriptions, auto attendants, and basic contact center functionality, they would have to use different solutions and vendors. Now, they come to us and we can provide them with all the features they want within one fully integrated solution, UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT.”

Customer Ownership Model with Local Support
Forerunner spent years building relationships with their customers, they did not want to lose touch with customers by reselling a cloud product in which the OEM would have control over customer service and local support. Luckily, with UNIVERGE BLUE, Forerunner was able to choose a partner model that fit their business.

“NEC allows partners to sell under their own brand and offer the local support that our customers have become accustomed to and enjoy. The Customer Ownership model is unique in comparison to other UCaaS offerings and allows businesses to better control the end user experience while keeping costs in line,” Paul Diesu shares.

Easy Administration and Quoting
The user-friendly interface of the UNIVERGE BLUE partner portal has helped Forerunner service customers quicker and easier. Paul says “We can go in and easily port over numbers, make adjustments, provision the account, and deploy changes very easily. This is something that has allowed our technical staff to be more efficient in deploying services to customers.”

Advanced End-User Portals
“The UNIVERGE BLUE Admin Portals are extremely intuitive and easy to use.” Rick continues, “Even the most non-technical clients are able to leverage the portal to make changes to their system. With an on-premises system, even the smallest changes can become labor intensive and costly for IT.”

The Results

Increased Operational Efficiency
“One of the greatest things we’ve seen come out of UNIVERGE BLUE from an operational perspective is shorter implementation timelines and the ease of delivering services to customers,” Rick shares. “UNIVERGE BLUE has enabled us to focus on the core business, instead of having to deal with tricky implementations associated with on-premises hardware and other less intuitive cloud providers’ products.”

A Better Customer Experience
“No matter what a customer or prospect needs in a UCaaS or CCaaS solution, UNIVERGE BLUE offers all the features customers need and want,” Rick explains. “With on-premises systems, it’s difficult and costly for customers to adjust licenses as demand grows. Now, with UNIVERGE BLUE, they can retract or add licenses on an as needed basis – this has benefited our customers greatly.”

Cost Savings
“UNIVERGE BLUE reduces support costs for us because the services are turnkey and don’t require a lot of troubleshooting.” Paul continues, “UNIVERGE BLUE makes us a lot more profitable in terms of our service margins by freeing up more time. Since we have lower administrative costs, we can focus on supporting our end users and on our corporate strategy going forward.”

The tradition of providing clients with reliable and flexible solutions continue as Forerunner transitions into a cloud service technology partner with UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES.

For more information on how you can become a UNIVERGE BLUE Channel Partner and begin realizing the unlimited benefits and high-margins that come with being a cloud provider, visit https://www.univergeblue.com/partners today. For any questions about the program or to meet with a UNIVERGE BLUE Partner Program Representative, submit your information to us and we will get back to you shortly.

Contact Us Today

Please let us know if you have any questions about the program or to meet with a UNIVERGE BLUE Partner Program Representative. Fill out the form, and we will get back with you.

Customer Success Story – How migrating to UNIVERGE BLUE helped Epic Web Studios enable remote working, improve scalability, and grow their business.

Posted by Marc Hebner on Posted in Cloud, Contact Center, Customer Experience, Servers and Storage, Unified Communications Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Epic Web Studios is a full-service marketing agency headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania. A customer of NEC since 2010, Epic started out using the SV8100 platform but migrated to NEC UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES after seeing the increasing need for more unified communications to support its growing workforce.

I recently met with David Hunter, President and CEO of Epic Web Studios to discuss how UNIVERGE BLUE was able to help his company enable remote work, improve scalability and grow its business.

Marc: Tell me about Epic Web Studios. How did you get started?

Epic Web Studios is a full-service marketing agency that does it all for clients, no matter the size. From Website Design and Development, Social Media, Digital Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), our goal is to help clients compete in today’s ever-changing marketplace through a viable digital marketing strategy.

Headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania, Epic Web Studios started in 2009 as a small, single-client web-site development firm. Today, we are a full-service digital marketing firm with over five hundred clients in North America and more than sixteen full-time employees.

Marc: Wow! That is quite the achievement. In the past decade or so since you started the company, what has changed?

As time and technology progressed, the need for more unified communications features became increasingly apparent. Epic was growing rapidly and needed a system that could keep up. With more clients and the large shift towards remote working, we needed a flexible, cloud solution to allow us to communicate with clients, collaborate cross-functionally and be productive from anywhere, at any time.

Marc: You’re not alone. Now more than ever, businesses need the ability and flexibility to communicate and collaborate from wherever they may be. Can you share further insight into some of the challenges Epic Web Studios was facing?

With our on-premises system, our teams were restricted to only using voice and email to communicate. Unanswered calls were forwarded to one general voicemail, and emailing back-and-forth became inefficient as the primary mode of communication.

Our employees needed greater control over how calls could be made, forwarded, and received; they also needed more flexibility in their business communications and more variety in their communication methods.

In addition, we relied on various communication and collaboration tools, which was inefficient, costly, and difficult to manage. We needed a communications system that was fully-integrated and secure so that we could go from online meetings to instant messages to phone conversations and everything in between very easily and seamlessly.

In short, we needed a solution that would provide reliable, real-time communication with robust and fully-integrated features to support employee productivity. We also needed a solution that would enable employees to work from home, which would have been very difficult with our old on-premises communications system.

Marc: It sounds like you came to the right place. However, I know there are plenty of different vendors in the market. What made you ultimately choose UNIVERGE BLUE?

ROI CalculatorWith other options reviewed, costs were too high, functionality was missing, or the solution just didn’t meet Epic Web Studio’s needs. Luckily, NEC launched UNIVERGE BLUE as I was researching new platforms.

Ultimately, we chose UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT because the features were the strongest, the transition was going to be easy, and the price point was extremely competitive. We also chose UNIVERGE BLUE because of the local support that NEC provides with a large network of Channel Partners. Our technology partner was instrumental in getting our system set up and is always there to answer provide any support that we need. Most of the larger cloud companies and service providers do not offer this kind of local support.

As technology evolves, NEC is always on the cutting edge of new ways of working to make our communications more convenient and secure. This bevy of new features included with UNIVERGE BLUE offers us new opportunities to become even more efficient and productive with our business communications – all at a reasonable cost.

Another bonus was the ease of deployment. It was pretty much effortless. When we moved from our on-premises solution to UNIVERGE BLUE, we were up and running in a matter of hours. It was incredible.

Marc: Well, we are certainly happy to have Epic Web Studios as a part of the UNIVERGE BLUE family. Here’s my final question – what results have you seen since deployment?

For starters, our employees have been able to communicate with clients more effectively. We have seen a significant decrease in the number of back-and-forth emails thanks to UNIVERGE BLUE. Our clients call us directly and we can have one-click video-conferencing meetings with them. We have also seen a major increase in our productivity because of UNIVERGE BLUE.

As a result of both the streamlined communication and increased productivity, we have also been able to scale our business and grow our client base. Because we were able to provision more users very quickly, we’re able to take on more projects, and that has led to the growth of the company, which has been phenomenal recently thanks to UNIVERGE BLUE. I can’t recommend UNIVERGE BLUE enough!

For more information about UNIVERGE BLUE, NEC’s full portfolio of “As-A-Service” Solutions, visit www.univergeblue.com. For questions about the products or to meet with a UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD Representative, submit your information to us and we will get back to you shortly.

Contact Us Today

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Fill out the form, and we will get back with you.

Partner Success Story: How Folkerson Communications was able to solve customer’s challenges with UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES

Posted by Marc Hebner on Posted in Cloud, Conference, Contact Center, Government, Healthcare, Hospitality, Unified Communications Tagged , , , , ,

Introducing UNIVERGE BLUE® Early Adopters Series – NEC Corporation of America (NEC) honors Channel Partners who were early adopters of UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES and are improving customer care, employee engagement, and business operations. Hear the stories of why our early adopters chose the UNIVERGE BLUE Partner Program and why partners recommend UNIVERGE BLUE for their customers.

The Background

From the time founder Greg Folkerson began his career as technical writer in 1976, Folkerson Communications was built around providing exemplary service in all facets of communications to customers in the Central Texas and Austin area. Greg’s commitment to customer service and employee training has positioned Folkerson as an industry leader.

The company offers 5 key services — Phone/VoIP, Carrier Services, Network Solutions, Structured Cabling and 24/7 Customer Service — and handles everything from purchasing and deployment to networking and troubleshooting.

Folkerson Communications became an authorized NEC Channel partner almost 25 years ago, and for several decades that meant providing clients with NEC’s on-premises communication servers and IT technology. Around 2015, Folkerson responded to a growing demand for VoIP and non-traditional communications technology.

I recently met with Greg Folkerson to discuss the partnership with NEC and his experience being an early adopter of the New Generation UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES.

The Challenge

As cloud and hosted solutions grew in popularity, Folkerson knew that it needed a rock-solid cloud solution that would provide the reliable and dependable services that his clients had come to associate with Folkerson. Before UNIVERGE BLUE, Folkerson tried other cloud vendors, but finding a highly reliable solution that met Folkerson’s stringent standards, and one that allowed them to own their customer relationships, proved to be nearly impossible. NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE Customer Ownership Partner Model was unique in allowing Folkerson to maintain full ownership of billing, bundling, adding services, and supporting a customer’s environment — preserving the customer confidence upon which Folkerson has built its reputation.

Greg Folkerson explains some of the challenges he faced with other cloud providers, “The industry is changing. There are now non-interconnect companies selling voice services, and many of these vendors do not understand that for most of Folkerson Communications existence we were a traditional interconnect company – we have technicians, we roll trucks, we train customers – and we built a reputation around providing this type of hands-on customer service. While selling cloud services has immensely simplified the programming and implementation, the need for human-like customer service has not gone away, and that is what our customers expect from us. NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE Partner Program has been great for us because it allows us to own our customer relationships, and NEC is always there to provide significant sales, marketing, and service support. NEC always answers our questions and is always there when we need them.”

Greg continues, “Our customers trust us and the relationship we have built with them over the years. It was imperative that we offer a reliable and dependable solution that meets our customers’ needs and one that reinforces our reputation of providing exceptional customer support.”

The Solution

Now Folkerson Communications sells UNIVERGE BLUE® CONNECT – NEC’s Unified Communications As A Service (UCaaS) solution and UNIVERGE BLUE® ENGAGE – NEC’s Contact Center As A Service (CCaaS) solution. Unlike other providers, UNIVERGE BLUE has allowed Folkerson to maintain their customer relationships and expand their service offerings into existing and new areas of their customers’ businesses.

While customers certainly enjoy ENGAGE’s full-featured contact center (CCaaS) capabilities and CONNECT’s (UCaaS) features, which includes a full-featured phone system, video/web conferencing, team chat, file sharing & backup — Greg says the flexibility and simplicity that UNIVERGE BLUE provides is key. “Many of our customers found it challenging to manage the complexities associated with maintaining a phone system in multiple locations – with UNIVERGE BLUE, we were able to solve these challenges by offering our customers a centralized, fully managed, and scalable phone system hosted in the cloud.”

Greg continues, “UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT has reduced complexity for our customers, minimized telecom costs, improved communication and collaboration, and even enabled remote work environments, which would have been difficult to do with a hardware-based solution.”

On Folkerson’s end, the UNIVERGE BLUE Administrative Portal has allowed Folkerson to easily monitor and troubleshoot customers’ voice services and contact center features. Greg was able to retrain his existing staff to handle UNIVERGE BLUE UCaaS and CCaaS implementations.

“Because of the competitive solutions UNIVERGE BLUE offers, the great sales, marketing and service support NEC provides coupled with the ability to set our own margins, we are able to focus more on selling and building relationships with our customers and less on other ancillary activities often associated with hardware that cut into our profits. The margins with BLUE are very attractive, and it didn’t take long to adjust to a monthly recurring revenue model.” Folkerson explains.

The Result

Folkerson Communications is now an exclusive NEC dealer, “Becoming an exclusive NEC dealer was a no-brainer decision based on the success we have seen with NEC’s hardware solutions and now with the business growth we are seeing with UNIVERGE BLUE CLOUD SERVICES.”

Folkerson Communications is embracing a new role – a complete cloud technology provider who offers end-to-end cloud solutions, committed to being a trusted advisor, adding value across every customers’ lifecycle. Greg notes, “The UNIVERGE BLUE Cloud partnership has allowed us to keep pace with the external marketplace and everchanging demands of our customers. We are starting to see significant growth in our cloud-business and do not see it slowing down any time soon.”

NEC and Folkerson will continue to partner together to provide solutions to customers’ unique needs. The future of Folkerson’s business includes a combination of both cloud-based and on-premises solutions, creating a hybrid IT and UC portfolio that balances the scalability and flexibility associated with cloud and the security associated with hardware. NEC will continue to be an integral part of what Folkerson does in the IT and Communications space.

NEC is committed to providing Channel Partners the opportunity to expand their offerings with customers and profit from delivering cloud-based communication and collaboration solutions. If you are a technology provider who is interested in partnering with a market leader who helps build on capabilities to drive sustainable and profitable growth, reach out to an NEC representative today or visit www.univergeblue.com/partners.

For any questions about the program or to meet with a UNIVERGE BLUE Partner Program Representative, submit your information and we will get back to you shortly.