The Top Five Ways Hosted PBX with Unified Communications Can Help Your Enterprise

xo.com
The Top Five Ways
Hosted PBX with Unified Communications
Can Help Your Enterprise
Authored by: Steve Shepard, President, Shepard Communications Group, LLC

HOSTEDUNIFIED
COMMUNICATIONS The Top Five Ways Hosted PBX with Unified
Communications Can Help Your Enterprise
Authored by:
Steve Shepard, President
Shepard Communications Group, LLC
Commissioned by XO Communications
Introduction 1
1 - Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 3
2 - Self-Management 4
3 - Productivity 5
4 - Business Continuity 6
5 - Focus on Core Competencies 7
In Summary 8
Hosted PBX 9
About XO Communications 10
About Steve Shepard 10

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The Top Five Ways Hosted PBX with Unified Communications Can Help Your Enterprise XO Communications
Make no mistake about it: Hosted Voice over IP (VoIP)
with Unified Communications technologies are here,
they’re real, and they’re the answer to your most vexing
communications problems. You want ways to enable
employees at multi-site offices, teleworkers, and mobile
workers to achieve peak productivity and communicate
in the ways they prefer on any of their devices—while
you simplify and cut costs of business communications
across the company.
Let’s begin our discussion with a quick overview of generic
hosted technology. The resources required to deliver processing
power, enterprise storage, complex applications, functional
enterprise application platforms, or corporate communications
are complicated, expensive environments. Most corporations
have one or more data centers dedicated to the delivery of these
and other capabilities. Applications are being moved into the
cloud, for example, because by hosting them centrally, the client
can provide access to all employees, regardless of location, and
can guarantee that the applications are not only the most current
version, but also completely free of viruses, malware and other
intrusive elements.
The truth is that corporations have these data centers because
they have to – until recently there has been no cost-effective
alternative. Today, however, that is no longer the case. The
astute enterprise must pay attention to a question being asked
by hosted providers: If you’re not in the business of running data
centers, why are you running data centers?
Today’s IT environment has adapted to this reality, one
result of which is the emergence of companies dedicated to
delivering storage, processing power, applications, platforms,
and communications from a centrally-managed, universally
accessible place – the cloud.
Introduction

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The companies that offer these services are numerous and
capable. Amazon®
Web Services offer on-demand cloud
computing services. VMWare®
provides computing power-
on-demand. SalesForce.com®
offers a suite of sales support
applications, all delivered to roving or fixed sales personnel,
regardless of their physical locations. Google Apps®
provides
an entire platform that offers communication, collaboration,
and cooperation to all employees within the enterprise. And
XO Communications offers a hosted Voice over IP with Unified
Communications solution that allows multiple locations to
communicate as if they were physically adjacent.
In a hosted environment, all of the functionality resides “in the
cloud” – within Web-accessible data centers that are centrally
managed. The resources behave as if they were on the user’s
computer, when in fact they could be across town, across
the continent or on the other side of the world. While hosted
computing, applications, platforms and storage have received a
lot of attention in the last few years, one of the most exciting new
entrants – and the one that will fundamentally change the way
businesses communicate – is Hosted PBX.
A reliable, business-grade solution that integrates Hosted Voice
over IP (VoIP) with Hosted Unified Communications tools will
lower your total cost of ownership, enable self-management,
improve productivity, streamline business continuity and free up
your IT resources to focus on more important requirements.

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Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
1
Seven Best Practices for Cloud Computing. Cumulus Technologies; http://www.cumulus.com.au/pervasive-news/
pervasivenews/19-seven-best-practices-for-cloud-computing.
1
Today, the enterprise relies on a variety of
communications modalities: voice, texting, e-mail, and
video chat, even social media applications like LinkedIn
Facebook, Twitter and Yammer.
In fact, according to research from technology strategy
firm Cumulus Technology, one-quarter of business process
improvement initiatives today include integration of information
from enterprise social computing solutions1. Connectivity options,
therefore, must evolve beyond standard enterprise applications,
legacy systems, and databases, to forward-looking Web services.
This is where hosted UC services shine.
Consider this: the cost elements of a voice solution are not trivial.
They include the monthly fees associated with multichannel PRIs
required for site-to-site connectivity; the potentially significant –
and variable - cost of monthly local and long-distance usage; the
people, software and systems required to administer, manage,
operate, monitor, and maintain what can be an extraordinarily
complex communications infrastructure; and perhaps most
important, the capital expense associated with having to own
and operate a collection of depreciable assets.
With a hosted solution, however, this cost structure flips on its
head. The capital expense (CAPEX) associated with network and
terminal equipment follows the communications application into
the cloud, leaving the customer with operating expenses (OPEX)
only – and far less oversight and management activity, which in
turn leads to lower costs.
This is the benefit of the converged network that a hosted
solution makes possible. Each of the communications modalities
listed earlier is delivered from a different source, and each must
be separately managed and administered. For precisely this
reason the concept of Unified Communications emerged a few
years ago, thanks to the arrival of IP as a central unifying force in
the world of enterprise communications. Thanks to IP, all of these
disparate methods of communication can be unified under a
common system, thus reducing the complexity of operations and
the total cost of ownership (TCO) involved in administering the
daunting task of effective, multi-site enterprise communications.
There are no up-front equipment costs (other than a possible
LAN upgrade to handle voice); there are no costs associated
with network management or infrastructure maintenance; there
are no access charges, since all voice and data communications
are carried across a single converged IP network; and the risk
of technological obsolescence, always a behind-the-scenes
fear of IT budgeters, completely disappears, since maintenance
of technological currency now becomes the responsibility
of the Hosted PBX provider rather than the enterprise. The
network literally becomes future-proof, something that makes IT
managers smile for days.

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Remember our earlier admonishment:
“If you’re not in the business of running
data centers, why are you running
data centers?”
Nowhere is this a more appropriate question than in the area of
Self-Management. In today’s hyper-competitive communications
marketplace, companies benefit enormously when they place
as much control of the relationship as possible between the
service provider and the customer into the customer’s hands. It
is clear that service providers in today’s competitive environment
are being pushed by their customers to place a great deal more
emphasis on simplicity, transparency, the ability to customize the
relationship between the customer and the network, and real-
time choice of delivered services.
Self-Management as a central element in Unfied
Communications speaks directly to this. Needless to say, there
is a certain amount of up-front work required to prepare your
network for the arrival of IP, but the very fact that you are thinking
about a hosted UC communication solution means that you have
probably already done much of this prep work, so any additional
required support will be minimal.
With a hosted solution, any required activities such as adding or
modifying profiles of users or modifying features – the infamous
“moves, adds, changes and deletes” – are accomplished via
a simple Web interface, and are therefore as scalable as the
enterprise itself. And because the enterprise is in control of all
functions related to managing the relationship between itself
and the network cloud, there is no need to be dependent on a
service provider to handle routine tasks nor are there any fees
associated with the changes.
2
Self-Management

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What would be the point of moving to a
unified communications solution if it failed
to deliver a significant leap forward in
terms of organizational productivity?
With a hosted unified communications solution,
the “tyranny of twisted pair” disappears,
because enterprise communications
functionality can now be delivered to any
device, at any location, with a single phone
number, dial plan, and guaranteed voicemail
forwarding to an e-mail account regardless of
geography. In other words, the enterprise can
enjoy complete IP-PBX functionality without
having to buy an IP-PBX.
Calls made in the environment, regardless of
the originating device, appear to the called
party as if they were made from the main
office, thus preserving brand identity and
customer intimacy.
And because of the power of truly unified
communications, calls and other frequently
used modes of communication can be
transparently moved between desk and mobile
phones to ensure seamless communications
and uninterrupted customer service. The
result? A leap in organizational and personal
productivity, as the functional playing field
among fixed phones, mobile phones and video
devices is leveled – permanently. Instead of
having to focus on the infrastructure, users can
focus on what it does for them.
Productivity
“ And because of the
power of truly unified
communications, calls
and other frequently
used modes of
communication can
be transparently
moved between desk
and mobile phones
to ensure seamless
communications
and uninterrupted
customer service. ”
3

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Business continuity, formerly known as “disaster
recovery” or “disaster avoidance,” earned its stripes in the
early days of hosted infrastructures when data storage
made its way into the cloud.
The ability to back up critical data on multiple servers in different
geographic areas as a way to avoid disruption by geopolitical
events or natural disaster went a long way toward assuaging IT
managers’ concerns about business continuity following such
an event. When companies like XO took that same concept and
applied it to enterprise communications, a whole new level of
reliability emerged. Suddenly, weather and natural disaster – both
of which seem to have become more common of late – pale into
relative insignificance in terms of their ability to adversely affect
enterprise communications. Even in situations where weather or
other disruptions prevent employees from going to their primary
work location, they can still be fully productive because the cloud
houses all of the functionality they need to do their jobs, and that
functionality can be delivered to them, regardless of where they
are physically located. Calls can be routed to mobile devices or
to fixed facilities that are unaffected by whatever problem
is occurring.
Furthermore, the infrastructure is completely secure. There is
no physical hardware required at the enterprise location, which
means that even in the event of a complete loss of the facility,
full-featured communications can continue in an uninterrupted
fashion as long as employees can find a working phone.
Business Continuity
4

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5
Running a corporate communications infrastructure is an
expensive, complex, and human-intensive process – not
to mention a heavy consumer of CAPEX.
By shifting the expense, capital and operational burden of
communications to the Hosted PBX provider, those same
financial and human resources can be redirected to core
business activities. In some companies, IT can represent as
much as 3-5% of total revenue.
Imagine the impact of redirecting a large portion of that to other
activities that positively affect customer service, intimacy or
stickiness? That would be a well-received decision by senior
leadership, and its strategic value would be equally well-
received. Moving non-core business functions such as VoIP
and UC to a reliable outsourcing entity means that resources
that would otherwise be spent on these non-core functions can
be redeployed into activities that provide a clear competitive
advantage, without sacrificing service quality in any way.
Focus on Core Competencies
2
Gartner, Inc. IT Metrics: IT Spending and Staffing Report, 2011. Published 25 January 2011

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In Summary
Corporate communications is considered by most IT
directors to be an important but largely tactical activity.
In fact, basic IP telephony is now considered by many
companies as a must-have cloud application, especially
as other types of unified communications—instant
messaging, text, presence, videochat, and more—
take hold, driven by a generation of young, tech-savvy
workers.
When voice moves into the cloud, enterprise communications
rapidly becomes a strategic function because of its ability to
directly affect a significant number of revenue and service-
impacting functions in the enterprise.
The five ways Hosted PBX with Unified Communications can help
you are strategically important: the ability to lower the total cost
of ownership of the communications function, the ability to move
control and management away from the service provider and
put it in the hands of the customer, the enhanced productivity
that results from the irrelevance of physical location, the ability
to not only survive a major disruptive event but to in fact be fully
functional in spite of it, and perhaps the most important of all,
the ability to focus valuable human and capital resources that
would otherwise be consumed by non-core functions on those
functions that influence revenue and customer service.
Yet all of them result from one simple change. creating a trusted
relationship with a best-in-class Hosted PBX with Unified
Communications provider. Work with that provider to create an
IP-based unified communications infrastructure that supports
multi-site offices, teleworkers, and mobile workers, allowing them
to achieve their highest possible levels of productivity.

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Even if your head is already in the cloud, you can
work with a provider with proven VoIP and hosted
communications capabilities: with the right products, the
expertise and the business sense to help you succeed.
XO Communications can help you migrate to the cloud simply,
flexibly and cost effectively. XO Hosted PBX helps businesses
with locations across the U.S. integrate complex voice and
IT environments, centralize voice applications, and take
advantage of the productivity and economic gains of hosted
communications.
The company’s IP-based Hosted PBX service allows multi-
location businesses to scale their communication requirements
as required, while at the same time reducing the CAPEX and
OPEX spend typically associated with the management of
enterprise-wide communications. In fact, for those companies
that can classify the one-time setup and installation fees as
capital expenditures, the conversion to Hosted PBX could be
done with no CAPEX at all.
At the same time the service allows enterprise customers
to accelerate the deployment of VoIP and the rollout of a
comprehensive unified communications strategy. And
because the XO solution is an end-to-end IP environment,
client companies enjoy a wide array of tangible and
measurable benefits that result in a significant return on their
communications investment. These benefits include:
• The ability to transfer the operations and management of the
enterprise communications function to a capable and trusted
partner, thus freeing up resources for redeployment.
• The knowledge that the monthly per-employee cost is
predictable on an enterprise-wide basis. Calling features and
telephones are included in the overall price.
• Awareness of the fact that because of the hosted
architecture, site-to-site calling will incur no additional cost
across the entire enterprise.
• The ever-present ability to upgrade to a full suite of IP-PBX
features and to VoIP telephones without the need to
purchase new PBX equipment, and the attendant ability
to avoid technology obsolescence and benefit from
“fuure-proofing.”
• A broad range of calling features, local and long-distance
calling, enterprise-wide, multi-site high-definition voice and
video, secure online feature management, and SIP-enabled,
high-definition phones.
• Eliminate the frustration mobile device management with a
UC app that gives workers multiple ways of communicating
with each other, yet securely separates work and personal
information on their personal smartphones.
XO has been in the communications business since 1996,
developing an enterprise-centric network that satisfies the
growing and evolving needs of enterprise customers.
Hosted PBX

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About XO Communications
About Steve Shepard
Dr. Steven Shepard, Ph.D. is president of the Shepard
Communications Group. A professional writer, educator
and industry analyst with more than 25 years of
experience in the technology industry, Dr. Shepard
specializes in international telecommunications issues,
the social implications of technological incursion and
the analysis of financial issues related to technology-
dependent businesses. He is the author of 45 books on a
wide variety of topics and regularly speaks to audiences
throughout the world, and has clients in more
than 50 countries.
Mr. Shepard can be reached at:
Steve@ShepardComm.com.
XO Communications is a leading nationwide provider of
advanced communications services and solutions for
businesses, enterprises, government, carriers and service
providers.
XO customers include more than half of the Fortune 500,
in addition to leading cable companies, carriers, content
providers and mobile network operators. Utilizing its unique
combination of high-capacity nationwide and metro networks
and fixed wireless capabilities, XO offers customers a
broad range of managed voice, data and IP services with
proven performance, scalability and value in more than 85
metropolitan markets across the United States.
For more information, call your XO sales representative,
visit www.xo.com or call: 800.474.1703
For XO updates, follow us on:
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The Top Five Ways Hosted PBX with Unified Communications Can Help Your Enterprise

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