Communications & Collaboration Articles

The invention of the telephone allowed businesses to communicate unlike ever before, and many companies adopted the telephone quickly. In fact, most of the early phones were connected only to businesses; individuals could subscribe to the switchboard for a monthly fee. 

In today's fast-paced world, discover how multimedia contact centers are reshaping customer support. Explore the evolution, key features, benefits, and the role of technology in enhancing customer experiences. Learn how to implement multimedia channels in your contact center for improved service and customer satisfaction.

MiVoice Business Small Business Controller (SMBC) is ideally suited for smaller locations and adding new branch locations.

Unlock excellence in call centers with our comprehensive guide. Learn about technology, customer service, and efficient strategies for success.

Adapting to remote and hybrid team leadership.

With VoIP, users can make calls over the Internet instead of using traditional phone lines. This makes it possible to take advantage of services, features and benefits unparalleled by traditional phones.

Alexander Graham Bell, well-known in history for being the inventor of the telephone, was awarded his first patent in 1876. His monumental (and somewhat accidental) invention signified the beginning of the telephone, shaping the way we communicate.

With support no longer available for Avaya’s CS1000M platform, what are your options for a replacement or alternative? Mitel offers plenty of great options for the public sector, including full platforms, cloud, and a suite of products that integrates with your current system.

Discover the best replacements and alternatives to Panasonic Business PBX Telephony Systems. You've got options.

Languages can be challenging to learn, as they are a complex construction of words, accents, and sounds. There is one language, however, that requires no sound at all. American Sign Language (ASL) is one of the best resources available for the deaf, due to its tremendous versatility and accessibility.

Finding the right combination of features and capabilities to meet your business needs requires a basic understanding of the technical and functional differences between both types of systems. 

Around the world, approximately three million people engage in amateur radio operation. With this technology, they can reach others within their neighborhood or across the globe! From being a hobby, something to study, or even a professional service, you will learn about the many things that ham radios have to offer.

A cloud phone system provides the reliability,  scalability, mobility and customer engagement your business can count on. 

Telecommuting is a process in which a person works for a company from their home. In most cases, the company provides a computer, extra phone line, and Internet connection to the employee at the employee's house. The company is also expected to provide other materials, such as office supplies and any mailing supplies the employee may need. 

You need adaptable communications that leverages existing devices. Mitel’s bring your own device (BYOD) solutions are the common-sense way to move your business forward, strategically and effectively.

Working from home has become a core part of business practices. Watch Brent Leary, Laurie McCabe, and Mona Abou-Sayed discuss how the more permanent shift of remote work has impacted SMBs..

Businesses are searching for ways to adapt to a new operating normal. Brent Leary, Laurie McCabe, and Mona Abou-Sayed discuss the four phases of managing  through a crisis: reaction, mitigation, reassurance, recovery.

Company culture and an emphasis on humanizing work can positively impact employees as they take on more frequent video collaboration as part of the new normal. Brent Leary, Laurie McCabe, and Mona Abou-Sayed discuss. 

Brent Leary, Laurie McCabe, and Mona Abou-Sayed discuss how enterprise-grade communications solutions take away the aspects of disjointed remote working technology, and how they can help create a collaboration strategy for businesses in the new normal.

Brent Leary, Laurie McCabe, and Mona Abou-Sayed review how business can prepare for business in a post-pandemic world, and they discuss their outlooks for what may become of businesses in the future.

Your contact center is the front door to your brand. How does your customer experience measure up?

Increase your customer experience by providing multiple media types. Learn more about this tip from Kimberly Roper.

Most call center agents have different ways of multitasking. Patrick McDowell gives tips on how you can customize to their different abilities.

It’s time to eliminate repetitive calls from customers by creating self-help portals.

Listen to these tips on how you can optimize the efficiency of your customers experience.

Hear how to create customer journey maps and enhanced customer experiences with these tips.

Improve your customers experience by providing continuity across multiple channels. Learn how Mitel can help.

Hear Valerie Habraken give tips on how you can provide a personalized customer experience with Mitel’s MiContact Center.

Enhance your customer experience by getting feedback directly from customers.

In business, we are not only judged by our appearance, but also by our ability to communicate. Whether it is in person, over the phone, or through written letters, emails, and memos, the way in which we express ourselves says a lot. Drafting a business letter can be particularly difficult for many people. 

Technology has given us lots of new ways to reach each other, as well as new ways we can rub people the wrong way. Make a great impression with these tips. 

There are more opportunities than ever for individuals with disabilities to start their own businesses. Those who are deaf, blind, paralyzed or dealing with intellectual disabilities can reach out to government programs, support nonprofits and organizations, scholarship and grant foundations and more. 

The definition of customer experience is being taken to another level, with the increasing utilization of technology. Customers expect to connect any time, however they want, whenever they want, to receive instant answers through seamless digital interactions. With a cloud-based contact center, they can.

In the mobile cloud era, work is something you do, not somewhere you go. With cloud-based communications, you get the freedom to get more done in more places, to connect offices together seamlessly and enjoy powerful communications and collaboration tools on any device. 

Do “contact center” and “call center” mean the same thing? In this post, we discuss the differences, and how understanding them can help you create the best customer experience (CX) possible.

As a small business, it is important to be prepare for the unexpected. Creating a disaster recovery plan can help your business recover its vital records and communications, and minimize the effects a disaster can have on your business.

Looking to get more out of your customer touch points? Watch these videos to discover hacks and strategies to deliver a winning customer experience. 

One size does not fit all. What fits you?

Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who was also a highly successful inventor. Despite his successes, Gray's legacy is plagued by controversy and disappointment concerning one of his most groundbreaking inventions. 

Does your company have an emergency remote plan? Follow these best practices to prepare for unexpected events and check out our template.

Mitel MiCollab combines collaboration, mobility, and messaging into a single solution that empowers people to collaborate more easily and effectively, no matter where they are, how they work and what device they use. 

Explore these resources to discover more about encrypted communications methods & devices during World War II. 

In the office, at home, or on the go, Mitel enterprise mobility management solutions help workers in organizations of all kinds to be innovative and productive.

For many people, reading through a large chunk of text can create confusion and boredom. This is because people typically retain information better and quicker when it is visual rather than textual. 

Cold calling, however, is a legitimate marketing and advertising tactic, when used responsibly and legally. Its effectiveness proves that long-lasting business relationships can be established with just a simple phone conversation. 

Before investing in and switching to a VoIP system, companies should fully understand what it is and how it can benefit their business. 

Soon, the days of the landline might be a thing of the past. Now, in this ever-changing world of technology, some young people know no other way of making a phone call than by using their cell phone. This raises the question: How in the world did we get to this point from the earliest days of the telephone? 

The Federal Communications Commission was established on June 19, 1934, to replace the outdated Federal Radio Commission. In its history, the FCC has been involved in some very controversial decisions. 

We can convey important information quickly and efficiently, and now, with cell phones and smartphones, we can send important data, capture memories, and explore the Internet, all from our mobile phone. The history of the telephone is an amazing timeline of experimentation and discovery. 

After the introduction of the European semaphore lines in 1792, the world desired to further its ability to communicate across long distances. People wanted to receive news from people far away to understand what was happening in the world – not just what was going on in their own town or city.

We can convey important information quickly and efficiently, and now, with cell phones and smartphones, we can send important data, capture memories, and explore the Internet, all from our mobile phone. The history of the telephone is an amazing timeline of experimentation and discovery. 

The telephone is one invention that changed the world and opened a wide world of communication. Many businesses benefited from the additional communication options that became available after the invention of the telephone. 

Learn why cloud phone systems are perfect solutions for small business communications. Discover the benefits of a PBX system, including low costs & flexibility. 

An easy way to visualize how a PBX broadly operates is to imagine an old-fashioned telephone operator exchange. In these systems, a human would physically connect phone plugs across a panel to connect one caller with another. PBX technology performs this once-manual exchange task automatically and instantly

Whereas traditional phone lines had limited the number of parties that could effectively be involved in a business call or discussion, conference calling has broken down that barrier and allows for more communal discussions. 

There are several solutions that work groups can employ to make collaboration easier, many of which are based on the latest technology that is available to everyone. Some solutions are simply a matter of a team learning how to work together and get the most out of each meeting, and all solutions involve improving communication. 

A successful employment candidate will treat the phone interview very seriously and take the necessary steps to be completely prepared. 

As more companies turn to remote work, these meetings have become essential to keep businesses moving forward. But like with many productivity tools, there are areas where we can improve virtual meetings to make work more efficient and inclusive.

Virtual meetings have become the new normal. Keep your team engaged with these 6 virtual meeting tips to ensure the most success.

Whether you're looking to get the best price on a car or simply want to barter, the following advice can give you the upper hand whenever you want to make a deal over the phone. 

In order for your business plan to be useful, it needs to cover the primary subjects involved with growing and running a business. 

Take your business further, faster with hybrid cloud communications. By bridging your on-premises infrastructure to the rapidly developing cloud, your business will benefit from more complete, nuanced control of your communications platform. Mitel offers a wide array of hybrid cloud solutions to fit the unique needs of your business.

The way a person communicates in business can lose or seal a deal, influence others to increase their work performance, and ensure that your message is delivered effectively and that your intended audience comprehends your intent. 

Mitel's call center and contact center solutions have the flexibility to grow and expand with your business demands with real-time reporting and analytics. 

Read these insights from proven and respected thought leaders. Partnering with Mitel, these influencers are bringing customers the valuable information they need on a variety of industry topics. Delve into these blog posts, interviews, and more!

Artificial intelligence should revolutionize the way you do business, not create disconnects between people and machines. By integrating Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions with our software, Mitel can improve your communication across devices, platforms, and people.

Society's introduction to the cell phone, and the journey that it has taken from a thing of fantasy to a very real and important part of life, is an interesting one. The best way to fully appreciate it is to learn about the people, events, and changes that made it what it is today. 

Has your business phone system kept pace with the times? More importantly, is it capable of helping you to meet tomorrow's challenges? This guide helps you to better understand how an updated phone system can help you reduce costs, improve the user experience and grow with your business.

Today, telephones are still changing and giving people new ways to communicate and entertain themselves. Now that they can connect to the Internet, phones are also becoming a useful learning tool for children and adults. 

Cables have been used to communicate between the U.S. and Europe for more than a century. The original transatlantic cable was a relatively simple telegraph cable, but laying it across the ocean floor was an immense undertaking. 

Managing newly remote workers during COVID-19 can be a drastic change from the norm. While there will be some challenges, there are solutions to help effectively manage workers while the team works from home.

What is a cloud-based phone system and why would you want one? Will switching to a cloud based solution save you money? Why should you trust Mitel? The answer to those questions and others can be found in our Mitel Sky frequently asked questions (FAQs). 

Mitel has identified a security certificate requirement for MiVoice Business software including Release 5.0 through to Release 9.0 SP2. Mitel and our partners are committed to servicing affected systems to ensure consistency of communications.

Multi-line business phone systems are ideal for smaller businesses, as opposed to PBX systems that cater to larger firms. 

Multichannel contact centers give customers flexibility to choose their method of contact and require your organization to provide a great customer experience across channels. With the right tools, you can prepare your business to meet these evolving demands.

By eliminating guesswork and automatically connecting agents with customers, outbound dialing solutions can maximize agent productivity and deliver the information required for a successful interaction. 

Working from home has now been a continuous reality for the global workforce. We review the top 3 challenges and how to overcome them.

Whether it's hardware in a server room or a virtual machine in the cloud, you can find a call control platform at the heart of every communication system. The right solution not only offers the best features for your size and type of business, but one that's ready to scale with your needs.

Traditional phone systems sometimes referred to as TDM (Time Division Multiplexers) or PBX (Private Branch Exchanges), have come a long way. They have morphed into a digital delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) networks. 

As important as the phone is, it is just as important that businesses know the difference between what is good and what is bad phone etiquette. 

Prior to buying a cellphone for minors in the family, parents will want to understand what the negative aspects are and should discuss them with their kids. In addition to the risks to children, there are a number of safety concerns that adults should heed for themselves. 

In business, as in nature, no two clouds are identical. Fortunately, there’s a continuum of deployment options to fit your budget and goals to move your applications into the public cloud, build your own private cloud, or create a hybrid between the two.

Before 2020, remote working was a growing trend in the US business community. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a prevalent way of life. Find out what the remote workforce is and what you need to get started.

A collection of the wisdom we've collected on remote working and working from home.

On-premises systems may be the gold standard of business communications, but they’re expensive to purchase, operate and maintain. With hosted PBX services in the cloud, you can get the same real-time voice and collaboration experience and better PBX features while saving time and money. And that’s an easy call to make. 

Mitel is a leading provider of cloud, onsite, and hybrid business telephone and unified communications (UC) solutions. Our award-winning, brilliantly simple solutions consistently outperform the competition in customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, value, and lowest total cost of ownership.

There is a lot to learn about the way we communicate, how our minds process information, and ultimately better understand what makes us all so special.  

SIP is simply a protocol that tells the end points and intermediate systems how to set up a virtual session between two or more end points. Enabling the deployment of feature-rich services, SIP goes far beyond simple IP phone calls facilitating multimedia/video, instant messaging, web integration, and more.
 

Find out the current status of the Shoretel 14.2 / Mitel 14.2 phone system and unified communications platform, and check out the best alternatives and replacements for this system. 

A collection of resources on VoIP and speech in tech. 

Already have a VoIP phone system or PBX (Private Branch Exchange) that supports SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)? Then SIP trunking can deliver high quality, reliable digital voice services for your business over the Internet with no additional hardware costs or new phone systems.

Deliver personalized customer experiences with a cloud-native contact center solution for small businesses that combines enterprise-class modern cloud call center architecture with a consumer-like experience. 

Ready for an easy-to-use hosted cloud collaboration tool for small business (SMB), including instant messaging, group chat, conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, task management and more? You're in luck.

As you think about how you can change the world with you new great idea, take a look at the resources below to help get you there. 

Smart workspaces are the future of business. They’ll help you improve productivity and consistently meet the demands of today’s business environment by creating modern and connected ecosystems that are accessible from anywhere.

Cloud technology is becoming the way of the future for the corporate world. With the cloud, you can have an entire computer network without having to invest in servers, cabling, or an army of IT support technicians. 

Take the guesswork out of working together. With a great team collaboration tool, you can stop wasting time switching between tools and searching for answers—bringing everything into one intuitive experience so you can focus on getting stuff done. 

Although there was some controversy in the wake of its passing, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 marked the beginning of a new era for telephone, broadcasting, and Internet services. 

The tele in telecommunications is about voice or personal, person to person communications and the technologies that underlaid that. It started out with telephony and also some things around the edge of it like paging. It is fundamentally about people communicating.

These telephone etiquette tips will help you always convey a professional image when speaking to a customer. 

Follow the unified communications from its earliest predecessors, like the telegraph, through major milestones, like PBX, IVR, VoIP, SIP and AI, to the present day.

Your all-in-one cloud communications, collaboration and contact center service.

Transform the way you manage your business with MiCloud Connect.

MiCloud Connect + Teamwork: A Powerful Collaboration

Created with a mobile-first mindset, MiCloud Connect delivers advanced collaboration tools for employees.

Intuitive user experiences and flexible service plans with Google Cloud's proven reliability.

Two decades ago, the concept of “mobile workforce management” hadn’t yet been invented; today, however, both the size and definition of “the remote workforce” have expanded to impressive proportions. Motivating, managing and engaging this workforce is the key to productivity and employee satisfaction.

Transitioning back to on-site work after COVID-19 times can be challenging. Check out our tips to make the switch a little easier. 

Check out this collection of articles on trends in communications and collaboration across industries, technologies and strategies. 

Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) brings harmony and integration to all your business communications devices, tools, and systems. Just as a line is the shortest distance between two points, UCC allows businesses to make the fastest possible decisions and transactions with an efficient, tailored, and streamlined system.

Get a complete unified communications, collaboration, and customer experience solution. It’s the ultimate in choice.

The core concepts behind the cloud are shared services, infrastructure, and resources, all of which are centrally managed by a single company. 

Sophisticated PBX virtual auto attendants deliver economy, efficiency and professionalism. 

Meeting virtually? Considering it? Find out how the best companies do it in this guide, with benefits, top features, tips, use cases and more.

A fully virtual system grants all of the features of a fully-featured PBX, for example, but without any onsite components other than the user handset devices. 

VoIP phones can be delivered via a cloud solution that is managed by a third-party host, or via an onsite solution managed by a dedicated IT resource. 

If you're in the market for a new business VoIP phone system, then you're probably wondering how much you should budget for it. Estimate costs, learn what should be included in a quote, compare prices and get your own quote for a new VoIP phone system.

When speed and information can be the difference between the success and failure, how do you stay competitive? The answer is simple. Check out MiCloud Connect.

Our voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems help you get advanced communications and collaboration capabilities. With no on-site equipment or infrastructure, you can be up and running quickly while focusing on your business.

Unlock the full potential of every customer, client, colleague, or supplier communication with a call recording solution. With business call recording you can quickly capture, archive, organize, playback, and share voice conversations to gain valuable insight on every important interaction.

Mitel's VoIP phone systems and technology helps teachers and students at schools and universities communicate effectively in today's global environment. 

Since online security threats evolve so quickly, there are dozens of different schools of thought on how best to use encryption to enhance network security -- not just for governments, but for businesses and end users, too. 

After merging with Mitel in January 2014, some of Aastra’s products were renamed, some were replaced, and some were discontinued. We created this page to help you find out what happened to Aastra’s most popular products, while directing you to their new names or replacements.

Has Mitel stopped selling MiCloud Connect? What should you do next? Find out the status of this product, as well as the best alternatives and replacements.

We created this page to help you find out what happened to some of Mitel’s more popular products, and where possible, direct you to their new names or their best replacements. 

After Mitel’s acquisition of  Oaisys, find out what happened to  Oaisys' most popular products and, where possible, get directed you to their new names or their replacements. 

After Mitel’s acquisition of Shoretel, find out what happened to Shoretel’s most popular products and, where possible, get directed you to their new names or their replacements. 

Mitel previously offered several Unified Communications as-a-Service (UCaaS) products as part of its portfolio. In 2021, Mitel transitioned its strategy to focus on delivery of our core UC (private cloud, hybrid cloud, and on-premise) solutions.

A cloud-based solution provides a service by leveraging the power of the cloud and cloud-based infrastructure to meet business needs, often with greater operational efficiency and cost effectiveness

Learn about hosted PBX phone systems and how they can save money, time, and headaches. Discover how cloud PBX systems compare to on-premises. 

Hybrid work environments are becoming more prominent as we get closer to a post-COVID-19 world. Learn the meaning of a hybrid workplace and how this setup can be conducive to effective teamwork and productivity.

Telecommunications is a rapidly growing sector that is escalating with each decade. With an exciting history of smoke signals, reflective light, electrical messages, light-transmitting voices, and voice of internet protocol (VoIP), we haven't seen the end yet.

Unified communication as a service (UCaaS) helps businesses communicate more efficiently by bringing all their communication channels together into one streamlined, cloud-based system. 

Voice as a service (VaaS) is a part of unified communications as a service. VaaS is a growing offering as a voice over internet telephone solution.

Writing a request for proposal (RFP) for a new telephone system is a big job, requiring a lot of information and no costly omissions. 

Here is a basic primer to give you a better understanding of PBX systems.

Our workforce management and recording management solutions help you accurately plan, forecast and schedule agents to increase operational efficiency.