Outsourcing Enterprise Voice Support for Microsoft Lync

Unified communications voice deployments are on the rise, and many organizations are integrating Microsoft Lync enterprise voice with existing communications solutions, such as PBXs, IP PBXs and network and end-point devices. In fact, a key value of Lync is the APIs and plug-ins that enable it to operate with legacy systems and devices and be easily embedded in mission-critical business processes and customer care applications. As Lync becomes integral to these applications, users rely on internal teams to ensure uninterrupted service and predictable operations across their devices. The open nature of Lync presents a challenge to IT organizations who aren't trained to handle end-to-end telecommunications issues.

Microsoft solves this challenge through its Premier Support for Partners program, certifying third parties such as Dell to provide 24/7 end-to-end support for Lync to end customers. These partners invest in deep and broad training in the Lync application, underlying infrastructure and associated network, end-points and devices, to become Microsoft-certified support providers. With this support, customer IT departments can deliver Lync's collaboration benefits while confidently managing demanding service level agreements with only a help desk interface to the end-user and to the partner's experts.

Solving customer problems for maximum ROI

Here is a sampling of problems the Dell ProSupport team has helped resolve:

• Known callers were not being identified on caller ID, causing recipients to leave the calls to voice mail and miss communications opportunities. The Dell ProSupport team examined session initiation protocol traces from Lync and determined that the legacy PBX wasn't passing caller ID information from the public switched telephone network (PSTN) correctly to Lync. Dell engaged the PBX vendor on behalf of the Dell ProSupport customer to work through a resolution.
  
  
• An employee in a remote office ran up thousands of dollars in long distance charges which should have been free with Lync. The Dell ProSupport team investigated the call routing configurations and discovered that the order of the dialing rules was causing calls to Chicago to go directly to the PSTN from the remote site instead of traveling over the data connection to the Chicago office and then to the PSTN, where the calls would have been local calls. With simple changes to the configuration, Dell solved the problem.
  
  
• A customer's employees were unable to communicate with partner organizations, though the customer had purchased and set up the appropriate Lync certificates. The Dell ProSupport team discovered that the certificates had not been correctly applied to the server at the Lync network edge and helped to remedy the problem.
  
  
• A Lync Mobile 2013 user was unable to initiate calls. The Dell ProSupport team determined that the configuration was correct, and escalated to Microsoft. The team determined that a too-long Dial Plan name was creating the problem and resolved the problem.

Dell ProSupport solves 99% of Lync issues directly, without escalation to Microsoft

Dell ProSupport escalates less than 1% of operational problems to Microsoft for resolution. When they do escalate, Dell has direct access to Microsoft level 3 support, bypassing the time delays of going through lower support levels available to Microsoft Lync customers without a Microsoft Premier Support for Partners solution. Because Lync integrates with existing telephony systems and many manufacturers' devices, the Dell ProSupport team also works directly with other Lync ecosystem suppliers for quick resolution of integration, configuration or operational problems.

As a Microsoft partner with 21 Gold competencies and a leading provider of end-to-end solutions for Microsoft Lync, Dell has stepped up to support organizations migrating from legacy hardware-based telephony systems to Microsoft Lync's software-based UC. This offering, Dell ProSupport for Multivendor Software, Microsoft Lync Voice, makes Dell your single point of contact for all Microsoft Lync ecosystem support issues. Dell notes that they deliver "prompt and preemptive responses to Lync-related problems that can interfere with mission-critical communication requirements."

Summary

Microsoft Lync is rapidly gaining ground with all types of organizations in displacing legacy hardware-based telephony systems with software-based UC capabilities. UC represents an evolutionary path that requires more management and technology skills than most in-house IT organizations can provide. Because Microsoft Lync works with many vendors' devices and flexible infrastructure, customers working with a Premier Support For Partners provider like Dell can mean more rapid adoption and mission success for mixed environments.