What are the benefits of using a virtual phone system for remote teams
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WITS 3 Virtual Communications Express
The world of voice communications has changed beyond the simple phone call. In today's rapidly evolving, demanding and geographically dispersed business environment collaboration is everything. When teams can quickly connect and collaborate with one another from virtually anywhere, your entire organization can become a more efficient, productive and creative. Virtual Communications Express for Government gives you a simplified, cloud-based unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) platform that can be deployed quickly and tailored to your needs and budget. Simplified, seamless connectivity helps your teams achieve more for your organization and your constituents. Virtual Communications Express for Government can be tailored for either large or small organizations but it's uniquely designed to connect geographically dispersed office locations together with virtualized, cloud-based tools. With these new capabilities colleagues can instantly determine their co-workers availability with rich presence and instant messaging features. They can share ideas and files live across locations at any time, from inside the office or from remote locations with mobility features. This means your organization can make faster better decisions working productively while controlling costs. Putting Virtual Communications Express for Government to work for your agency is easy. We help get all of your locations and every one of your employees—on-site staff and your mobile workforce—up and running quickly. You easily reap all the benefits of a unified communications and collaboration solution while controlling costs and maintaining business agility. Help your team members be connected no matter where they're located or what devices they're using. Virtual Communications Express for Government enables all of your communication tools, including video and HD audio calling, instant messaging, desktop sharing and presence. Make calls, set up and access virtual meetings, and instant message with a simple click. 1-800-381-3444 These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent AllowedWe use technologies to collect and share information about your use of our site. By continuing, you agree to the use of these capabilities for a better experience and other purposes. Learn more in our .
Learn moreUniversity of Illinois Shutdown & Virtual Learning Business
We've got some great deals going on right now exclusively for our online customers... chat now to hear more! Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. How the University of Illinois supports students during (and beyond) campus shutdowns,No one—not even large universities with storied legacies—could have prepared for how disruptive the COVID-19 pandemic would be. The is a public university with more than 51,000 students from more than 100 countries. It's also an innovation powerhouse: the first graphical web browser was developed there, and it's home to a research park that's a technology hub for Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. But like many universities, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had to quickly pivot to virtual learning when college campuses shut down to stem the spread of the coronavirus, all while finding ways to creatively tap into technology to benefit its community. The university leveraged its existing partnership with Verizon to implement flexible solutions, offering student technology programs that enabled virtual learning as well as rolling out a first-of-its-kind 5G Innovation Hub to drive research around emerging technologies. "The partnership with the university and Verizon is a unique experience that has allowed us to stay at the forefront of the evolution of technology and continue to meet our customers' needs and demands," said Uros Marjanovic, the lead network engineer in the university's IT department. "Additionally, the patience and empathy for our processes" benefited the partnership and contributed to the success of these initiatives, he said. With the help of this partnership, the university was able to weather an unprecedented disruption to campus life and lay the foundation for innovation at the same time. When the spring semester began in January 2020, UIUC was prepared for a full slate of in-person instruction, research and cultural and athletic events. But by the time spring break arrived in late March, the World Health Organization had declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and it became clear that the rest of the semester would need to go virtual for the sake of public health and safety. Students left campus, some without access to laptops or the internet while they were away. Faculty couldn't teach on-site, and many university employees faced challenges to perform their jobs without access to the technology they needed. The university needed a solution that would let the campus community remotely conduct its learning, teaching and research—and it needed one fast. In 2020, the school launched two programs that would allow students continue their studies off campus. The first was a technology program designed specifically for students receiving financial aid, who could request laptops to stay connected while off-campus. Some students who participated in the student technology program also did not have regular, reliable access to the internet while off campus, meaning they would only have half the technology resources they needed to learn in a virtual environment. To support these students, the university rolled out its second solution: a tech loan program in partnership with Verizon. The initiative let students without internet access request smartphones and/or mobile hotspots to continue their studies during the campus shutdown. As the fall semester came into view, the University of Illinois built on its spring successes, pursuing a flexible, blended approach that included online and in-person learning. Students and faculty members who felt safer meeting remotely could do so in virtual classrooms enabled in part by the Verizon-backed programs. "Having that cellular connectivity has really allowed our faculty, our staff and our students to take advantage of those virtual offerings and to continue doing university business and research," said Janet Jones, Associate Director of web and collaborative services at UIUC. The university knew it would need to create a safe classroom environment to facilitate in-person instruction, and that meant finding a way to manage access to campus buildings. Built by the university and deployed in August 2020, the Safer Illinois app was that solution. The app served as a sort of digital boarding pass, ensuring that anyone seeking entrance into a campus building was cleared for entry. It also provided a broad range of resources supporting community health and safety, for example displaying information about on-campus COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff who thought they might have contracted the virus and notifying members of the community about possible COVID-19 exposure. Soon after releasing the app, the university rolled out the Safer Illinois loan program so that students without martphones could receive one with the Safer Illinois app installed. By quickly responding to the COVID-19 crisis with flexible programs that delivered timely access to student technology, the University of Illinois was able to scale existing capacity to support new students in the fall and lay a strong foundation for future educational enhancements. "What we thought was going to be a short and sweet quick little project in March is actually still going on," Jones said. "We still have the tech loan program, we still get requests for cellular internet connectivity and devices, and we're still fulfilling those requests.",The university was able to deploy the right technology at the right time thanks in part to its flexible contractual arrangement with Verizon, which let authorized faculty and staff members approve purchases within budget. University personnel could reach out to their Verizon representatives for assistance with their questions. The flexibility prevented bottlenecks in the provisioning process, letting the university quickly mobilize the technology it needed. "Having the State of Illinois Central Management Services contract and being able to leverage that contract to ensure that all campus departments, colleges and groups are getting consistent pricing from a contract that's already been vetted by the state and by the university has really allowed us to get the services very quickly," Jones said. Strong connections are the heart of the campus experience. This is as true for network connectivity as it is for the community bonds that enable learning and innovation. The university's close-knit IT team has steadily pursued 5G network projects that set the stage for a host of future improvements to support the evolving technology needs of students, faculty and staff. This customer-centric approach to IT service delivery begins with providing 5G network connectivity in the campus buildings. The university's IT department had conducted regular surveys over the past several years to understand how well the existing technology in buildings at the Urbana-Champaign campus supported the people who use it. It learned that maintenance inspectors often could not get cellular network coverage while servicing basements and out-of-the-way areas in buildings. If an inspector was on-site dealing with a water leak, for example, there was a good chance they would not be able to receive phone calls or messages during that time, preventing them from coordinating their work or responding to other maintenance issues. The university IT team shared this feedback with Verizon's regional office in Schaumburg, Illinois, to address the problem. Verizon examined the campuses' existing 3G infrastructure, evaluated the feedback and the network analytics it had on hand, and decided that the existing network was due for an upgrade. In close coordination with the university's IT team, Verizon gradually implemented a holistic upgrade of the existing cellular network infrastructure, using network extenders and other devices not available when the original 3G network was erected. These enhancements laid the groundwork for future 5G connectivity, which will benefit the campus and its surrounding community. The university also noted that over time, students weren't using the landline phones in the residence halls, preferring to use their cellphones instead. The university maximized its technology investments based on student needs and continued enhancements to cellular and Wi-Fi coverage. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign isn't simply a world-class name in research, teaching and public engagement—it also aims to be a leading public research university. The university's Research Park is an innovation hub for startups, corporate research and development operations. It's home to more than 120 companies across a range of industries including digital agriculture, financial technology, data science and digital transformation. It also hosts university startups that engage the ingenuity of both students and full-time tech professionals. Thirty global corporations, including many Fortune 500 companies, have dedicated innovation centers at the Research Park. Meanwhile, the EnterpriseWorks incubator provides 43,000 square feet of space for laboratories, offices and collaboration areas for startups, which have received over $1.1 billion in venture capital funding to date. The university's innovation hub taps the student body in pursuing cutting-edge research. In October 2020, it became the first Verizon 5G Innovation Hub at a university research park or incubator. The 5G Innovation Hub, located in the EnterpriseWorks incubator, will help students, corporations and industry partners develop, test and demonstrate 5G-enabled solutions. will drive research and development in machine learning, the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, guided vehicles, drones, manufacturing automation, virtual reality, data analytics and more. As part of the initiative to make the campus 5G-ready, Verizon and the university wired up Memorial Stadium with full 5G connectivity. The stadium, one of the centers of campus life, now boasts double the network capacity it offered in 2019. Anyone who's attended a major sporting event knows that it can be challenging to feel plugged into the broader fan community when network service is spotty during big games. With Memorial Stadium's new 5G capability, Fighting Illini fans can now freely stream and post their experiences in real time. "It's a big achievement," said Marjanovic. "The athletics department has been a great partner with us, and they have been wanting to do something like this for a very long time. We've been able to work with them on improving the fan-base experience. This is just helping them enhance that level of customer experience and providing things to the venue that they normally couldn't provide.",Lead Network Engineer, Technology Services at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,Lead Network Engineer, Technology Services at UIUC,About five months before the campus was shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the University of Illinois launched UI Ride, a shuttle service that operates between the University of Illinois's Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses and the Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago. The shuttles offer Wi-Fi access and convenient workstations to help students make efficient use of their commutes between the campuses and minimize travel fatigue. Although shuttle service was temporarily halted when in-person schooling was suspended, it is expected to resume once the pandemic abates. In April and May of 2020, working with public school teachers, the university sent UI Ride shuttle buses to neighborhoods without reliable internet access so that families with school-age children have the resources they need to engage in remote learning. The UI Ride buses, which offer Wi-Fi within 60 feet of the vehicles, park in highly visible spots, and families can park their cars nearby or walk up and access the internet for free. One other University-funded bus also helped support local communities. In addition to serving as a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever it goes, the Hip Hop Xpress Double Dutch bus, founded and directed by Dr. Will Patterson, is a mobile innovation lab. The Hip Hop Xpress team not only records local musicians and hosts presentations by local activists, but also works to address social inequities. Among other visits, the Hip Hop Xpress was at the Canopy Club in Urbana for the What's Goin' On? celebration in July 2020. It also rolled into Springfield, East St. Louis' the House of Miles and to Chicago's Musical Arts institute in October 2020. UIUC's pandemic response was efficient and effective, in part due to its partnership with Verizon. The university team was able to hit the ground running and launch innovative initiatives quickly and efficiently. "It was really awesome, and that's going to hold true as Verizon continues to expand the technology to include 5G in some of their sites, which we think is the hope," Marjanovic said. "We're excited about some of the ideas that the Innovation Hub can bring—for example, some of the ties with [Amazon Web Services] and edge computing and connectivity for researchers. A lot of those conversations are still really in the early stages, but it's really exciting."Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
Learn moreHow to Help Your Employees Be Productive Working From Home Business
We've got some great deals going on right now exclusively for our online customers... chat now to hear more! How to help your employees be productive working from home,Author: Rose de Fremery,, remote work is here to stay, but not everyone is fully convinced of its benefits. According to , 85% of business leaders say that the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive. A mere 12% of them have full confidence that their team is productive in this setting. How can managers ensure that their remote employees are productive working from home? The path to a more productive remote or hybrid workplace lies in and taking advantage of collaboration tools that can enhance productivity. Lack of trust can undermine working from home productivity,While leaders may have misgivings about in-person versus remote work productivity, employees do not. Microsoft's study found that being productive at work. The rate of double-booked meetings increased by 46% per person in the past year, and 42% of participants multitask during meetings. Yet when managers are unable to walk down the hall and see their employees carrying out these activities, they struggle to believe that their staff are actually engaged and productive. Compared with in-person managers, hybrid managers are more likely to say that they have difficulty trusting that their employees will do their best work (49% vs. 36%), and these managers report that they have less visibility into the work their employees do (54% vs. 38%). When they lack effective strategies for managing remote employees, many managers resort to installing tracking software on their employees' devices to monitor their remote work productivity. As Harvard Business Review points out, this approach pits employees and managers against one another and undermines the trust necessary for . It's also an ineffective way to measure or manage remote work productivity. Research shows that business leaders are considering a number of solutions, including: "Increased investments in best-of-breed solutions (73%), remote-working hardware (71%), and best-of-suite solutions (68%) are top of mind; however, these investments need to cater to a diverse range of work styles regardless of location," according to a . Effective strategies for managing remote employees,Overseeing can require different strategies than managing staff in person, and navigating the learning curve can take some time. Managing remote employees involves frequent communication, clear expectations, team bonding, supporting employees' professional growth and taking advantage of modern business collaboration tools. 1. Communicate often and well,To cultivate trust and inspire employee engagement, managers should communicate effectively and often. They should begin by openly acknowledging that remote workers can feel disconnected from the life of the organization, then they can explore ways to bridge this gap via ongoing dialogue with employees. This can look like setting up regular individual and team check-ins using , for example. Remote workers can use the same tools to join virtual lunch-and-learn sessions or town halls with the CEO. Managers should also embrace transparency when communicating with remote workers about decisions they have made. A survey from MIT Sloan Management Review found that who explained their decisions and clarified the rationale behind those choices—especially during periods of economic uncertainty. When employees have more opportunities to share their ideas and voice concerns just as they would in an in-person setting, they are more likely to feel motivated while on the job—and, thus, more productive working from home. With this in mind, consider conducting regular employee surveys to find out which aspects of remote work are going particularly well, which ones are not and how the overall experience could be improved. 2. Set clear expectations,When remote employees don't know what's expected of them, they may become concerned that they're not delivering for their managers. They may feel they're out of sight and out of mind, missing out on opportunities for special assignments or promotions. According to a Pew Research survey on employee views about remote work, one reason why almost one-quarter of workers with jobs that could be done remotely choose to go into their workplace is they feel there are . In a tough economy, they may worry that their positions are no longer secure. You can give your remote employees a better chance to succeed by clearly articulating what you expect them to contribute in their roles and measuring their performance against that standard. As you do, focus on specific deliverables rather than solely the amount of time logged in front of a screen. 3. Encourage team bonding,Remote work can feel lonely and isolating at times— said they felt less connected to co-workers. When your remote employees can't casually mingle with one another in the break room, they miss out on chances to feel connected to the broader organization. You can mitigate this common challenge to remote work productivity and connectivity by creating opportunities for team bonding. Celebrate success often. When you instill a sense of belonging and camaraderie among your employees, you will find them more engaged and enthusiastic about coming to work—whether that commute takes place physically or virtually. 4. Support employees' professional growth,One powerful strategy for improving productivity, whether in person or in a remote setting, is to support your employees' professional growth. Rather than simply focusing on whether they are productive working from home, take some time to assess the quality of their work. When you have strong performers, praise their successes. Also consider creating professional development plans for each of your remote employees in collaboration with the employees themselves. As you do, the conversations you have with them will shed light on what skills already enable your workers to excel while working remotely and which skills could help them accomplish even more impressive results. 5. Take a fresh look at your technology,According to research from Accenture, say they can be productive working from home, at the office or anywhere. These employees are also toward their organization and their team, and their employers observe a 7.4% revenue growth premium per year. The right technology plays a strong role in enabling more effective communication across the board—whether that's between managers and their employees, between different teams or within individual teams. Many businesses already invested in and remote access capabilities in order to help their employees' transition to remote work during the early stages of the pandemic. If managers haven't yet considered how to build on this existing tool set, they may want to take a fresh look at their remote workplace technology stack. Accenture found that 86% of workers surveyed who claim to experience omni-connection also reported upgrades to their company's technology and skill sets, allowing them to work in new ways. How business collaboration tools can help,Modern business collaboration tools, beginning with conferencing services, can help to defeat work uncertainty and allow employees to be more productive working from home. This comes in handy whether they're having their weekly check-in with their manager or attending an important company-wide meeting. Voice calling also plays a key role in remote work productivity. and bring external calling to the Teams platform. Verizon is also the first U.S. carrier to offer Teams Phone Mobile, delivered as , which enables a complete mobile Teams calling experience. gives remote employees a single phone number and allows them to answer it from any device they wish—whether that's a smartphone, a laptop or a desk phone—so they never miss an important call. Set your remote employees up for success,Although remote work poses unique challenges for employees and their managers, particularly when managers become concerned that their remote staff isn't fully engaged or when remote employees don't have the support they need to succeed, it is still possible to improve remote work productivity. Frequent communication, clear expectations, team bonding and support for professional growth, particularly when paired with the right digital workplace solutions, can set up your remote employees—and, ultimately, your organization as a whole—for lasting success. Discover how Verizon's transform your employees' home offices into business-grade workspaces. If you'd like to receive new articles, solutions briefs, whitepapers and more—just let us know. . * Indicates a required field. We will follow up from your contact request using the information provided. Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. We use both third party and first party cookies for this purpose. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly. These cookies may be set through our site by Verizon and third parties. They are used to present Verizon advertising on third party sites that you may visit. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising from Verizon. BackClear Filters,All Consent Allowed
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