As communications technology advances and evolves, more organizations are moving away from their legacy, on-premise phone systems. And while cloud-based communications solutions such as voice-enabled Microsoft Teams provide a wealth of benefits to businesses of all sizes, one of the key factors determining the success of a new system is the provisioning process.
At its core, provisioning is about ensuring your users have the tools and access needed to perform their jobs effectively. Provisioning a new communications system can be tedious, from loading and configuring software to programming extensions and user information – especially if your company has hundreds of users to account for.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how automation can help you overcome the challenges created by traditional provisioning methods – and the benefits of UniVoIP’s Automated Onboarding when migrating your business to a cloud communications solution.
What Are the Disadvantages of Manual Provisioning?
Traditionally, provisioning is performed manually. Manual provisioning involves the manual setup and configuration of network resources, such as switches, routers, and other network devices. While this method provides businesses with greater control over individual components of their communications system, it also presents many challenges.
A few commonly-cited issues related to manual provisioning include:
Prone to Human Error
One of the biggest challenges of manual provisioning is human error. The provisioning process is complex and relies heavily on attention to detail. If the person performing the task becomes distracted, data entry or configuration mistakes can easily occur. And because different organizations may have different provisioning needs, it’s difficult to standardize the process.
Labor-Intensive
The process of manual provisioning involves many steps, such as creating user accounts, assigning rights and permissions, configuring software and equipment, and more. Even for small companies, the process can take a significant amount of time – and may take companies with hundreds of employees weeks to complete.
Insider Threats
One aspect of provisioning involves providing user access and permissions. If an administrator gives improper access to someone, it can lead to consequences ranging from accidental disruptions to malicious misuse. Whether intentional or not, insider threats can cause significant damage. In fact, losses resulting from insider threat activity reached $15.38 million in 2022.1
Limits Ability to Scale Quickly
Since manual provisioning requires technical expertise, it often falls on the shoulders of a limited number of staff. As a company grows, scaling the communications system to accommodate new users depends on the availability of these employees, who are likely already overworked and lacking the resources to focus on this critical task.
What Is Auto-Onboarding?
Auto-Onboarding involves automating the provisioning process with software tools and scripts. Network administrators set up a series of rules and workflows that automate tasks such as deploying network services, configuring devices, and adding new users to simplify and speed up the provisioning process. As a result, provisioning a communications system and adding new users as the company grows takes significantly less time and effort to complete.
Additionally, Auto-Onboarding eliminates the risk of human error by removing manual processes. This results in more accurate provisioning and reduces the risks of insider threats or access issues. And because the process is automated, your staff are free to focus on other important tasks that benefit your business rather than wasting hours and resources on provisioning.
What Are the Benefits of UniVoIP’s Automated Onboarding?
At UniVoIP, our mission is to guarantee partner and customer success by providing superior business communications technology with white-glove support. One way we help ensure your success is with our Service Control portal, which automates onboarding and lifecycle management to make migrating your communications system – and adding new users as your business grows – fast and easy.
Our Service Control portal is intuitive and user-friendly, so you don’t need advanced technical knowledge to get your new communications system up and running. Our Automated Onboarding process allows anyone to set up the cloud voice service for more than 100 MS Teams users in minutes.
With UniVoIP’s Automated Onboarding:
- Setup can be completed in minutes – instead of days, weeks, or months.
- The streamlined process includes a license check, activation of voice paths, adding telephone numbers and assigning users, and testing.
- You get a dedicated provisioning manager to assist with number porting.
- You gain full account management visibility through our single-pane-of-glass Service Control portal.
- You gain redundancy by combining Cloud Voice with UniVoIP’s UCaaS solutions to allow users to connect to a separate/backup PBX.
- Overlaid solutions such as fax, analog devices, paging, SMS, and contact center fill the void for non-Microsoft features.
How Does UniVoIP’s Auto-Onboarding Work?
Because we own the cloud-native framework our Cloud Voice solution is built on, we have a direct connection with the Microsoft Teams client and can add or remove network components in real-time. APIs make it possible for us to automate all the voice network migration tasks that would normally be time-consuming and complex. Once you log into the Service Control portal, you can simply select the option to onboard your new service with the click of a single button.
Streamline Your Business Communications With UniVoIP
Moving to a cloud-based voice solution is critical for staying ahead of the digital curve, but complicated manual provisioning processes hold many businesses back from making the switch. UniVoIP makes provisioning easy with our automated onboarding workflow, eliminating the labor-intensive tasks of manual setup and configuration.
The workflow integrates directly into our cloud-native platform, so third-party applications aren’t required. Plus, we’re able to deploy updates and improvements without disrupting your Cloud Voice service, so you always have access to the latest features needed to optimize your operations. And thanks to our geographically-redundant network, our solutions “self-heal” in the event of a disruption – so you never have to worry about downtime or productivity loss.
Trust UniVoIP for:
- 24/7/365 U.S.-based support
- The lowest prices in the industry
- Best-in-class security
- Guaranteed SLA to the desktop
- White-glove customer service
If you’re ready to move to a cloud-based voice solution, using a Microsoft Teams phone system is likely a top consideration – and rightly so. It’s easy to deploy and maintain, lowers telephony costs, and maximizes your Teams investment by transforming the platform into a true unified communications solution. Contact UniVoIP today to learn about Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams and how our Auto-Onboarding process makes activating your new system easy.
Sources:
- https://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-reports/cost-of-insider-threats
