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Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Boosts HCAHPS Scores with Vocera’s Real-time Rounding Solution

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Patient satisfaction increases more than 11% across multiple metrics SAN JOSE, Calif., June 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vocera Communications (NYSE:VCRA), the leading healthcare communications company, announced today that Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (GRMC) in Seguin, Texas has improved key patient satisfaction metrics with Vocera Rounds, a secure mobile solution that captures and manages feedback from patients, families and staff members in real-time.  Since implementing the solution, GRMC has experienced an 11.8 percent increase in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores for pain management across multiple hospital units. The hospital has also seen significant improvement in HCAHP scores for communication with nurses, responsiveness of staff, and communication about medications. With nearly 5,000 admissions per year, leaders at GRMC are continuously innovating to improve the patient experience. In 2015, the 125-bed hospital implemented Vocera Rounds to standardize the rounding process, accelerate the exchange of information between care teams, and improve response times when addressing patient needs and requests.  “I can’t say enough about our partnership with Vocera. We love how closely they worked with us to ensure the solution was aligned with our culture, values and goals,” said Daphne Blake, Chief Nursing Officer at GRMC.  "Because of Vocera Rounds our staff members are given the opportunity to engage with patients and families in more meaningful ways and make a positive impact on their healthcare experience when it matters most.” Prior to implementing Vocera Rounds, the hospital used manual paper-based transcription to capture and share patient feedback, which made it difficult to address patient needs quickly. It also made aggregating information for analysis and reporting labor intensive, contributing to a cumbersome workload for the hospital’s patient experience coordinator. Vocera Rounds provides real-time reporting of patient feedback, enabling staff to escalate requests as needed, track progress, and close the loop on requests quickly. In addition, hospital leaders and improvement teams use the solution’s performance analytics to get ahead of service issues proactively, pinpoint opportunities for improvement, identify best practices, and recognize high performers. “The collaborative culture and innovative spirit at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center is impressive,” said Brent Lang, President and CEO of Vocera. “It’s rewarding to work with a hospital that has a strong commitment to improving the patient, family and care team experience; and it’s even better when the organization goes a step further to measure their efforts and ensure they are getting it right. We are honored to partner with GRMC and help them continue making a positive difference.” Continuously driving to improve patient experience, GRMC recently started using Vocera Rounds to conduct staff rounds and are also deploying the Vocera Collaboration Suite, a complete end-to-end communication solution enabling secure text messaging, real-time voice communication, and integration with key clinical systems, to strengthen care team collaboration and performance. About Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (GRMC) distinguishes itself from regional health centers in many ways. GRMC is the only city-county hospital in Texas, a non-profit community hospital which does not depend on tax support.   Physicians enjoy practicing at GRMC because of the high quality of care provided to their patients. Employees and volunteers enjoy working here because of the culture of caring, and patients and their families consistently recommend the care and services provided by the dedicated and skilled staff. About VoceraVocera Communications, Inc. offers the most robust clinical communications system in healthcare. Installed in more than 1,300 organizations worldwide,

TelStrat charts innovative course through changing market and technologies

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TelStrat has served UC and contact center communities for over twenty-three years, featuring technology partnerships with major platforms such as Avaya. Now, with their flagship product, Engage, about to undergo a major new release (Engage 6), Mike Berlin, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development discusses with Doug Green how TelStrat is venturing into new verticals while riding the wave of migration to cloud. In this podcast we discuss major trends such as cloud, how IT managers are reacting to Skype for Business, and how TelStrat offers new value as partners such as Avaya realign their own portfolios. Even as change occurs in the products connecting enterprises and their contact centers, the need and demand for the recording, quality, analytics, and workforce management solutions TelStrat offers continues to grow.

Iridium Announces Timing for Commercial Availability of Iridium Certus (SM)

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MCLEAN, Va., June 07, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) announced today that the Iridium CertusSM service will be commercially available in the second quarter of 2017.  This next-generation, satellite broadband communications service will serve users and enterprises across all industry verticals delivering a portfolio of global voice and data services. “We are very excited to see this service come to fruition,” said Matt Desch, chief executive officer at Iridium. “Iridium Certus is a game-changing new service for users in the maritime, land mobile, aeronautical and government markets in that it will provide unparalleled quality, coverage and performance in a single, multi-service terminal, and at a great value. Iridium Certus is in response to industry demands for alternative broadband solutions that have persisted for several years, and we are looking forward to redefining the mobile satellite market landscape with this launch.” Iridium Certus is an advanced, multi-service communications platform that will improve business operations by delivering higher-quality services to market at a greater value. It is poised to enable the fastest and most reliable L-band mobile satellite service for customers of all kinds, regardless of industry.  Leveraging the robustness and reliability of the Iridium® network, Iridium Certus is a versatile service, delivering broadband communications to meet user needs as a standalone option or alongside VSAT solutions. The service will support a wide range of partner products targeted to the specific needs of maritime, land mobile, aviation and government users. “We are very enthusiastic about the progress being made toward reaching this key milestone and are looking forward to seeing users begin to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities enabled by Iridium Certus,” said Bryan Hartin, vice president of sales and marketing at Iridium. “Customers can look forward to a portfolio of products, serving all vertical markets, coming from our industry-leading manufacturing partners, including Cobham, L-3, Thales and Rockwell Collins.” Iridium Certus will be powered by Iridium NEXT, the company’s next-generation low-earth orbit satellite constellation scheduled to begin launching this summer. Once fully deployed, Iridium Certus will eventually deliver speeds up to 1.4 megabits per second over L-band spectrum.  Iridium has partnered with SpaceX for its series of seven launches, with ten Iridium NEXT satellites deployed at a time, on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.  For more information about Iridium Certus, please visit https://www.iridium.com/company/industryleadership/iridiumcertus. About Iridium Communications Inc. Iridium is the only mobile voice and data satellite communications network that spans the entire globe. Iridium enables connections between people, organizations and assets to and from anywhere, in real time. Together with its ecosystem of partner companies, Iridium delivers an innovative and rich portfolio of reliable solutions for markets that require truly global communications. The company has a major development program underway for its next-generation network — Iridium NEXT. Iridium Communications Inc. is headquartered in McLean, Va., U.S.A., and its common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol IRDM. For more information about Iridium products, services and partner solutions, visit www.iridium.com. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not purely historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has based these statements on its current expectations and the information currently available to us. Forward-looking statements in this presentation include statements regarding the development and capabilities of the Iridium NEXT constellation and Iridium Certus.

Vocera’s Experience Innovation Network Explores Family Perspectives in Patient Centered Care

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SAN JOSE, Calif., June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), the leading healthcare communications company, invites industry leaders to experience the U.S. healthcare system through the eyes of the family during a unique webinar on Thursday, June 9, from 1-2 p.m. EDT. Vocera’s Experience Innovation Network, focused on thought leadership and research, is hosting the event to provide a platform for hospital leaders to hear firsthand from family members about ways to improve engagement in supporting patient experience. The webinar, titled “Family Involvement in the Care Process,” will feature three family members as co-presenters who will share their healthcare experiences and provide insights into best practices. Webinar participants will hear personal stories from a mother caring for her child with cystic fibrosis, a wife managing the care plan for her husband who has a brain tumor, and a daughter helping provide care for her mother-in-law whose mental and physical health is deteriorating. These family members will offer valuable perspectives to assist healthcare providers redefine traditional approaches to communicating with family members and involving loved ones in supporting patient care. “Family members can be allies and advocates for patient care, providing support to their loved ones and extending the capabilities of the care team – but only if they are actively involved in the care process,” said Liz Boehm, director of the Experience Innovation Network and webinar moderator. “Too often family members are overlooked as valuable partners in care. Yet, when family members are empowered with the right resources, support and information, they can actually help improve patient understanding of the care plan and compliance.” Click here to register for this complimentary webinar hosted by Vocera’s the Experience Innovation Network, an international group of industry thought leaders focused on putting the science behind the experience of care and discovering innovative solutions that meet the Quadruple Aim of improving population health, elevating patient-centered care, and reducing costs while restoring joy back to the practice of medicine. About VoceraVocera Communications, Inc. offers the most robust clinical communications system in healthcare. Installed in more than 1,300 organizations worldwide, Vocera delivers secure, integrated and intelligent communication solutions that enable care teams to collaborate more efficiently by delivering the right information, to the right person, on the right device, in the right location, at the right time. Vocera solutions provide hands-free voice communication, secure text messaging, patient engagement tools, and integrated clinical workflow with EHRs, nurse call systems and physiological monitors.  These solutions help improve operational efficiency, quality of care, safety and satisfaction across the continuum of care. In addition to technology solutions, Vocera drives thought leadership and new standards in care to elevate patient, family, nurse and physician experiences via the company's research collaborative, the Experience Innovation Network. Vocera is headquartered in San Jose, California, with offices in San Francisco, Tennessee, Canada, India, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.vocera.com and @VoceraComm on Twitter. The Vocera logo is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. Vocera® is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.CONTACT: Contact: Jessica Donnelly Edelman 323-202-1051 VoceraTeam@edelman.com

Allworx names David Plakosh general manager

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ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allworx Corp., a Windstream (NASDAQ:WIN) company, today announced the promotion of David Plakosh to general manager. He will continue to serve as chief technology officer. In his expanded leadership role, Plakosh will oversee the strategic direction of the business and the product vision and continue to lead all research and development activities. “David brings a strong combination of product development expertise, knowledge of the industry and experience leading successful teams,” said Joseph Harding, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Windstream’s enterprise group. “Allworx remains an integral part of our business and we’re thrilled to have David assume his newly expanded leadership role on the team.” Plakosh began his career at Allworx in 2001 as principal engineer and was promoted to chief consulting officer in 2004. Prior to joining Allworx, he held various management roles at Xerox Corporation. Plakosh earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and holds six patents in embedded control systems. About Allworx:Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., Allworx is an award-winning maker of VoIP communication systems for SMBs and a wholly owned subsidiary of Windstream.  Allworx provides a complete portfolio of VoIP systems, IP phones, network switches and advanced software options to help SMBs create solutions tailored to meet their unique needs. Allworx is available to SMBs through a network of 1,000+ independent resellers in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, and also as Windstream IP Simple, a managed monthly subscription service that combines Allworx with VoIP and data services from Windstream. For more information, please visit www.allworx.com.     About Windstream:Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN), a FORTUNE 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications and technology solutions for consumers, small businesses, enterprise organizations and carrier partners across the U.S. Windstream offers bundled services, including broadband, security solutions, voice and digital TV to consumers. The company also provides data, cloud solutions, unified communications and managed services to business and enterprise clients. The company supplies core transport solutions on a local and long-haul fiber-optic network spanning approximately 125,000 miles. Additional information is available at windstream.com. Please visit our newsroom at news.windstream.com or follow us on Twitter at @Windstream.  CONTACT: Allworx Contact: Annie Ahari 585.421.5575 aahari@allworx.com Windstream Contact: Wendy Wiedenbeck, 720.529.7648 wendy.wiedenbeck@windstream.com

Voice Plus Visuals = 600% Improvement

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By Gary Audin It is very common to encounter either an IVR or a call center agent. The IVR or agent is scripted but you cannot see the script. What if you not only could see what the script contains but it could be in the language you are most comfortable speaking and reading. How about an IVR that has a screen display where you can select your response more accurately and quickly from a visual menu of options? Add the ability to work with any voice device and an Internet connection and you have this result of  ChoiceView®. Dr. Richard Davis, CTO and Dr. Theresa Szczurek, CEO of Radish Systems www.radishsystems.com (also known as Radish 2.0) and Gary Audin discuss their approach to enhancing the user experience with visuals in addition to voice. Theresa points out that the voice/visual combination can improve understanding by 600%, according to Brain Rules. Applications like tech support, customer care, and e-commerce benefit. It is in healthcare coaching where dramatic improvements have been delivered with ChoiceView®. An earlier company Radish 1.0 developed and pioneered a modem protocol, VoiceView®, allowing data to be transmitted during an ordinary land-line phone call. The protocol was licensed in 1994 by Microsoft, Intel, Rockwell International, and dozens of other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It became the defacto industry standard and was shipping as a part of the Windows operating system and more than 90 percent of off-the-shelf PCs, modems, and chip sets. Radish products for contact centers and IVR systems were used by 1-800-Flowers, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and a host of other companies to improve the efficiency and value of transactions.

Visual IVR Makes it Better

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by Gary Audin You have encountered that IVR with a rigid menu. You make a mistake you then hit “O” to get an agent. This is frustrating and adds to the agent workload. The solution, introducing visual IVR to improve the interaction. A screen display that is the first customer contact can foster effective self-service, with a good ROI. A second ROI is that visual IVR self-service produces 75% shorter calls with happy customers and less agent intervention. Chris du Toit, CMO for Jacada www.jacada.com and Gary Audin discuss the frustrations and solutions surrounding classic IVR technology in this podcast recorded at the SpeechTek conference. Visual IVR enhances self-service, reduces errors, shortening interactions, and delivers happier customers. Jacada www.jacada.com enables organizations worldwide to deliver effortless customer self-service and agent assisted interactions by implementing cutting‐edge mobile, smart device, and web based visual IVR solutions www.visual-ivr.com, as well as optimized agent desktops, and business process optimization tools. Customers can benefit from an improved customer experience at every touch point with the organization, whether at the contact center, on the mobile, the website, or at the retail store. Jacada solutions have helped organizations improve customer experiences and reduce operational costs. Jacada projects often deploy in less than six months, and customers often realize a complete return on investment (ROI) in far less than 12 months of deployment.

The Intelligent Assistance Contact Center

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by Gary Audin Can you enhance your applications with speech technologies that transform rigid DTMF menus into effortless customer experiences? You want a standards-based integration with automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) software for natural, conversational customer interactions. Speech-enabling touch tone apps can drive significant ROI. Tom Fetters, Strategic Accounts Director for Blueworx www.blueworx.com and Gary Audin discuss the growing demand for “intelligent assistance” in this podcast recorded at the SpeechTek conference. Prospects want to contact companies through the device of their choice, using their own words ant time of the day. The interaction needs to quick, error free and satisfying. In a space where technologies often look the same, Blueworx believes that  their focus on customer service, communication and relationships creates the ultimate differentiator and that this will translate into tangible advantages for your business. The Blueworx www.blueworx.com  platform drives critical customer interactions and business processes. They understand this and are committed to providing ongoing innovation, investment, and focus. Blueworx wants this to be the last IVR platform you’ll ever own. To do that, they push the envelope on what’s possible, partner with you to maximize your investment, and help you deliver customer experiences that are awesome. Learn more by reading “News Analysis: Blueworx, the New Name for WebSphere Voice Response” http://www.blueworx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BlueWorx_Report_OpusResearch.pdf

OpenScape Desk Phone CP Family Brings New Function to the Desktop

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Earlier this week, Unify announced the introduction of the OpenScape Desk Phone CP Family, a group of new end points integrated with collaboration software designed to meet the needs of a modern work space. In this podcast an Jan Hickisch, VP of Global Solutions Marketing at Unify walks us through the release and discusses the importance of enterprises being able to offer a great desk top experience to their employees. Read the press release. Listen to the podcast.

IR Provides Critical Insight As Networks Migrate

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IR (Integrated Research Limited) provides companies with proactive performance management software for communications networks and IT infrastructure. IR's flagship Prognosis works for UC users of Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft Skype for Business, Alcatel Lucent, Oracle, Sonus, and AudioCodes, and also helps service providers, contact centers and payments.  As companies migrate to the cloud or other communications methods, obtaining actionable information on network performance has become more critical than ever. In this podcast Chief Solutions Officer John Dunne and Sales Director Kevin Donovan walk us through how UC managers need critical information about their networks, especially as the architecture and functionality of those networks evolve. Commenting on how the IR booth was busy all week at Avaya Engage, Kevin Donovan remarks "As they go through these transformations...they need solutions like ours." At the end of June, Prognosis 11 launches. " No matter where the gremlin in the network or the UC environment, you'll be able to triage that with Prognosis," says John Dunne. Visit ir.com

CCT Solutions Welcomes

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To Uwe Kreuter, Managing Director, of CCT Solutions, Avaya Breeze and newly announced Avaya Oceana are welcome developments. Kreuter sees these offerings as a, "way to find a very intelligent way to migrate from the old world to the new world without having to do an ugly forklift upgrade." Based on Avaya technology, CCT helps companies communicate with a new generation of customers, through social media, chat, and video, ensuring enterprises adapt to the changing customer landscape, decreasing contact center costs and providing deeper relationships with their customers. In this podcast, Kreuter reacets to Avaya's announcements at Avaya Engage and discusses how his closely aligned CCT offerings will help customers be able to move on with out costly disruptions or new worker training. He also touches on integration with solutions such as Moxtra and the importance of providing many migration capabilities to Avaya users. Visit www.cct-solutions.com, and listen to the podcast  

Windstream expands cloud connectivity in tier 2 markets through partnership with 365 Data Centers

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Windstream (NASDAQ:WIN), a leading provider of advanced network communications, today announced a partnership with 365 Data Centers, one of the top edge colocation data center providers in Tier 2 markets.  Windstream has established presence in 365 Data Centers’ facilities in Buffalo, N.Y.; Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa, Fla., and Southfield, Mich.  The partnership with 365 Data Centers is part of Windstream’s strategy to expand its network to provide high-performance connectivity to wholesale and enterprise companies. 365 Data Centers’ customers will have access to Windstream’s Wave, Carrier Ethernet, MPLS and IP services, leveraging the sixth largest fiber network in the U.S., spanning approximately 125,000 miles. “Large bandwidth users have been asking us for additional ways to access cloud resources at the edge,” said Jeff Brown, director of product management and marketing for Windstream’s wholesale business unit.  “The partnership with 365 Data Centers is an ideal fit for us, as customers in Tier 2 markets will have direct access to Windstream’s national DWDM, Ethernet, and IP network.” “We’re thrilled to have Windstream as a key 365 Data Centers partner,” said Keao Caindec, chief commercial officer for 365 Data Centers.  “Not only are our customers able to access Windstream’s expanded solutions portfolio, but we also share common foundational values – reliability, accessibility and commitment to an exceptional customer experience. We look forward to building on our longstanding relationship Windstream.” 365 Data Centers’ facilities are HIPAA, PCI DSS, SSAE 16, SOC 2 and ISAE 3402 compliant and feature redundant power, cooling, connectivity and security 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year. 365 Data Centers has a seven-year record of 100 percent uptime across all of its facilities. Windstream has established a point-of-presence in the following 365 Data Centers locations: Market: Address:Buffalo 350 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14202 (2nd floor MMR)Chicago 427 South La Salle St., Suite 405, Chicago, IL 60605Cleveland 1255 Euclid Ave., The Sterling Building, Suite 200, Cleveland, OH 44115Indianapolis 701 West Henry, Suite 101, Indianapolis, IN 46225Pittsburgh 100 S. Commons, Allegheny Center Mall, Suite 126, Pittsburgh, PA 15212Southfield 24660 Lahser Rd., Southfield, MI 48034St. Louis 210 North Tucker St., Suite 400, St. Louis, MO 63101Tampa 655 North Franklin St., Franklin Exchange, Suite 1000, Tampa, FL 33062   About Windstream Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIN), a Fortune 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications and technology solutions for consumers, small businesses, enterprise organizations and carrier partners across the U.S. Windstream offers bundled services, including broadband, security solutions, voice and digital TV to consumers. We also provide data, cloud solutions, unified communications and managed services to business and enterprise clients. The company supplies core transport solutions on a local and long-haul fiber-optic network spanning approximately 125,000 miles. Additional information is available at windstream.com. Please visit our newsroom at news.windstream.com or follow us on Twitter at @Windstream. About 365 Data Centers 365 Data Centers is the leading data center solutions provider for cloud, content, carriers and enterprises in tier 2 markets. Through its 14 U.S. edge colocation data centers, carrier-neutrality, 100% uptime, and industry compliance, 365 helps hundreds of businesses to improve user experience, reduce cost and speed innovation. For more information, visit 365datacenters.com.  CONTACT: Windstream media contact: Tanja Jameson 501.748.7236 tanja.jameson@windstream.com 365 Data Centers media contact: Keao Caindec 415.901.5750 kcaindec@365datacenters.com

End-to-End Customer Experience Support

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by Gary Audin DIY or DI cloud? The cloud is an expanding option. But most cloud services do not include the network access. With the combination of a provider and cloud service, then the management of the contact center can view and monitor the caller, the call, and the agent in a single real time report so the center managers know what is working and what to fix. Felipe Rodriguez, COO for Advantone www.advantone.com and Gary Audin recorded this podcast at the SpeechTek conference. Felipe discusses the growing requirement for flexibility and scalability that cloud services provide. With the combination of IntelePeer and Advantone, the contact center can gain the operational insight of the contact center call end-to-end. This improves the operation and can allow the management to tweak their business model and rapidly see the results. Advantone www.advantone.com is a Communications as a Service (CaaS) provider with over 25 years of hands-on experience working with multi-national organizations in North America. They partner with clients throughout different industries such as Retail, Consumer Goods, Direct Response, Pharmaceutical/Healthcare, and Finance. Advantone has years of experience in helping these organizations improve the customer experience of their Contact Centers by offering IVR, Call Routing, Virtual ACD’ and Predictive Dialing solutions. Their mission is to provide the best service delivering a continuous cycle of assessment and development. Advantone’s infrastructure and operations are designed to support the customer’s demands and today’s compliance requirements. Built on enterprise infrastructure, Advantone’s technical footprint expands across multiple data centers for scalability and business continuity in order to ensure 24/7 availability.

The Contact Center Complete Package

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by Gary Audin You need an outbound dialer, an inbound contact center, call center scripting, web agent, call recording, and mail interactions. This can mean multiple packages and working with an integrator. The cost can be high and so can the risk. The delivery of a complete package mitigates these problems. Paul Dickinson, VP North America at Presence Technology www.presenceco.com  and Gary Audin discuss the evolution of the contact center at the SpeechTek conference. This podcast covers how to deliver seamless services across multiple channels. He also covers the differences in supporting North American customers vs. international customers. Presence offers its software for on-premises solutions that are hardware agnostic. The services are also available on both public and private clouds. Presence Technology is a provider of Multi-Channel Contact Center Solutions. Their contact Center Suite of Solutions was created and developed in one of Europe’s largest and most respected Call Centers. They understand the day to day operation of Contact Centers. Today their solutions support more than 200 clients in 20 countries with over 75,000 contact center seats. The clients utilize Presence to optimize resources and increase productivity in the communications process with their customers. Built to be versatile, easy to integrate, and user friendly, Presence is designed to meet the changing demands of today’s Contact Center industry. 17% of their annual budget is devoted to research and development.

First Iridium NEXT Satellites Declared Ready for Shipment and Launch Date Announced

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MCLEAN, Va., June 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) today announced that its first Iridium NEXT satellites have completed assembly and testing, and are now prepared for shipment to the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The shipment of these satellites represents a significant milestone toward the first launch of the Iridium NEXT constellation, which the company officially announced as targeted for September 12, 2016. “This is a really exciting milestone. After more than seven years of effort, the first of our next-generation satellites are finally ready for space,” said Matt Desch, chief executive officer, Iridium. “It has been fantastic to witness our satellites evolve from manufacturing designs to fully functioning vehicles, and we congratulate everyone involved in making this goal possible.  This program replaces the largest commercial satellite constellation in space with state-of-the-art technology and new capabilities, allowing Iridium to support the connectivity needs of today, as well as those yet to be imagined.” Assembly, integration and testing of the satellites are performed by Thales Alenia Space and their subcontractor, Orbital ATK, at the Orbital ATK manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Ariz. The production process incorporates a unique, assembly line system consisting of 18 different work stations ranging from panel integration and payload testing to full satellite integration, solar array installations and alignment checks. Each satellite features more than 5,000 individual parts assembled, culminating in one hundred thousand hours of workmanship by hundreds of engineers. A total of 81 satellites are scheduled to roll off of this assembly line, with 66 serving as the operational satellites to replace the existing Iridium® network, and the remainder serving as ground and on-orbit spares. Following assembly and integration, the first satellites underwent a series of tests to ensure the vehicles met design specifications, as well as production tests to verify the quality of the manufacturing process. Some of those tests included vibration and acoustic testing, which simulated the movement and sound pressures experienced during the launch, while thermal vacuum tests created the temperature extremes the satellites will face while in orbit. These tests allowed the engineers to confirm that the satellites would withstand the launch and operate successfully when deployed. “The scale and complexity of the Iridium NEXT constellation is unprecedented in the satellite community outside of Iridium, requiring that the engineers balance delivering high-quality satellites designed for high-rate manufacturing, with a unique fully processed payload while maintaining an efficient schedule,” said Bertrand Maureau, executive vice president of telecommunication at Thales Alenia Space. “We’re thrilled to ship the first batch of Iridium NEXT satellites, as they represent the culmination of the team consortium work including worldwide partners and all the main Thales Alenia Space entities.” Along with measuring the quality of the satellite production, the testing phases helped validate that the assembly line is fully qualified to move to high-rate production. During the last three months, the number of assembly, integration and testing engineers working on Iridium NEXT has doubled at Orbital ATK’s facility. With the vast resources and aerospace engineering talent in the Phoenix area, the team plans on adding another 30 engineers as production increases to complete more than five satellites per month.  “The Iridium NEXT production process features a unique assembly-line approach inspired by the production of Iridium’s initial constellation which launched over 19 years ago,” said Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK's Space Systems Group. “While certain stations require more hours of efforts than others, each represents a critical step toward delivering a fully fu...

Cloud Contact Center; Now or Soon

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by Gary Audin Most organizations have a premises based set of hardware and software for their contact centers. In some cases it is old and needs to be replaced. In other cases, the seasonal variations in traffic demand a full sized center that is underutilized most of the year. In another case, the solutions they own does not have social media, chat, messaging, or video. In any of these cases, migrating to the cloud has to be on the organization’s radar. Mayur Anadkat, VP Product Marketing at Five9 and Gary Audin recorded this podcast at the SpeechTek conference. They discuss the sales, service, and support that is part of the contact center. Mayur thinks that cloud solutions for the contact center have moved beyond an idea to an accepted reality. The contact center was the purview of the CIO and sometimes the CFO. It is now an important tool for the CMO. The contact center is part of the marketing strategy. Five9 www.five9.com is a provider of cloud contact center software. They transform contact centers into customer engagement centers of excellence, coupled with a deep understanding of the cost and complexity involved in running a contact center. Five9 software creates more successful customer interactions while increasing contact center productivity, without the capital expense and maintenance costs of premise-based systems. They are focused on building, implementing, and supporting an easy-to-use, complete cloud contact center solution with a flexible architecture that adapts to the customer’s changing needs. Customers can enhance the Five9 cloud contact center platform with customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, workforce management, performance management solutions, and telephony providers.

Test for Performance Results

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by Gary Audin Stress testing can highlight problems that do not occur when performing function and feature testing. Stress testing goes beyond component level testing to verify the performance of production systems and environments. When testing IVR and contact center systems, even your SIP trunks, from the outside-in, stress testing reveals the system performance from the customer’s perspective under real-world conditions. You also need to test call scenarios that most effectively monitor the end-to-end performance of your contact center customer interactions from an outside-in perspective. Testing can stop the finger pointing and help resolve issues. Russ Zilles VP, Testing Solutions at IR www.ir.com and Gary Audin recorded this podcast at the SpeechTek conference. They discuss the value and benefits of testing the call center systems BEFORE they go live. System stress must be produced to ensure that the systems perform as expected under heavy traffic conditions. IR www.ir.com is the corporate brand name of Integrated Research Limited, a provider of proactive performance management software for critical IT infrastructure, payments, and communications ecosystems. More than 1,000 organizations in over 60 countries rely on IR Prognosis to provide business critical insights and ensure continuity-critical systems deliver high availability and performance for millions of their customers across the globe. Every second, thousands of teams work tirelessly to maintain order but the threat of a problem is never far away. IR makes sure these systems run at their best and predict vulnerabilities before they arise. Today IR Prognosis solutions for payment hubs, unified communications ecosystems, and contact centers are trusted by Fortune 500 companies to keep their business running. IR continues to be an industry pioneer with innovations in predictive and prescriptive analytics as well as advances in automation, allowing IT to stop a problem even before it happens.

A.I. in Self Service; The Virtual Assistant

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by Gary Audin 57% of online consumers report that they will probably abandon an online purchase if they cannot find what they want quickly. The virtual assistant can accelerate the process. Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is a layer of technology that sits between you, your team, and your customers to answer complex questions, execute solutions, and deliver the right outcomes. It’s about more than streamlining processes. It’s about building relationships and growing them through self-help processes. It’s human emulation technology. Rick Collins, President, Enterprise at next IT and Gary Audin discuss virtual agent technology in this podcast recorded at the SpeechTek conference. Virtual agent technology has capabilities including natural language processing and the ability to integrate with enterprise systems. Virtual agents offer business benefits, including enhancing customer experiences, reducing live agent costs, and producing cross-sells. Next IT www.nextit.com is the intelligent interface company. The Alme® platform from next IT spans across an enterprise to answer complex questions, execute solutions and call on different data sources to deliver the right outcomes. Alme is able to guarantee accuracy and consistency with digital dialogue that’s powered by a proprietary engine smart enough to ask questions, clarify intent, and engage in two-way conversations that flow naturally and delight users. Watch the video http://www.nextit.com/.

Humans Listening to Call Recording is not Enough

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by Gary Audin You need to unlock the vast amount of data within all, not just a sample, of your call recordings. Listening to a sample of the recordings can miss important information about the call. Are all the agents following the script? Are all the agents compliant? Are there changes occurring with the customer’s traffic that needs to be flagged and resolved? Recording a call is the start. Analyzing the call is the finish. Nick Bandy CEO of iQventures www.iqventures.com and Gary Audin recorded this podcast at the SpeechTek conference. Nick covers the emergence of speech analytics and its value to the contact center. He points out that at minimum, call recordings can be analyzed after the call is recorded. He foresees real time speech analytics becoming common once the cost of the processing decreases. He has discovered that different verticals use speech analytics differently so the analytics tools have to respond to these requirements. iQventures mission is to revolutionize communications technology by creating intelligent, easy-to-use solutions for their customers. It has decades of experience in technology-driven service organization. Their ultimate goal is to create a seamless, intuitive ecosystem for business communications that helps you better communicate, and better operate. The SpeechIQ™ product http://iqventures.com/speechiq/ makes it easy to analyze sales effectiveness, quality assurance, and compliance. It is a cost effective solution that is available on-premises or in the cloud.

Cloud intensifies need for e911

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In the new cloud and federated rich world of communication, E9-1-1 and related services are more important than ever. West Safety Services, a division built on the innovative work of 911 Enable. In this podcast Lev Deich, VP of Service Delivery and Operations at West discusses the shape of the E9-1-1 today, Kari’s Law, West’s partnership and specialization for Avaya users, and migration. Lev discusses his presentation: “Upgrading your Legacy Systems without Breaking 9-1-1.” Visit www.west.com/safety-services/ Save Save
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