Network Performance Is Key to Avoiding Costly Downtime

There was a time when network performance was not at the top of the priority list for many businesses. When the demands on the network were limited to emails, web browsing and office applications, network failures weren’t as obvious or critical.

Today, doing business involves live video conferencing, voice calls, streaming video and massive uploads and downloads from the internet. On top of that, many businesses use their network to conduct purchases directly with their customers. Unlike the networks of yesterday, all these services are moving into the cloud. While this creates simplicity for the user, network performance is vital and finding, and fixing a performance problem is no simple task.

For every dropped call and network outage there is a cost to the business, whether it’s a poor user experience or lost revenue. Follow these five best practices to avoid costly downtime and keep your business running smoothly:

1. Monitor for insight: On a Mitel network, often what seems like a voice quality issue is in fact caused by a failing or misconfigured router or switch. By knowing where the problem is, you can proactively prevent a voice quality issue that leads to a poor user experience.
   
   
2. Test continuously for faster problem resolution: A poorly performing device can be difficult to detect, and chasing after the cause wastes valuable resources. Take a proactive approach with network testing that places synthetic calls, so you’ll be alerted before a problem can impact users in the field. When a problem does occur, being able to test directly from the monitoring system’s dashboard to find the root cause quickly will help you avoid costly downtime.
   
   
3. Use monitoring systems designed for business communications: When your network management system specializes in unified communications (UC), you gain valuable insight into how events on your network impact voice communications.
   
   
4. Go deeper with analytics: Usage reporting like SIP trunk and port usage can tell you in advance when it’s time to expand your network or add new licenses to maintain optimal performance. Alarm analytics can inform you of the most important issues on your network faster, so you can plan effectively and make more informed business decisions.
   
   
5. Prevent an aging infrastructure with software updates: Software Assurance can be a cost-effective way to deploy the latest updates, which protect against aging infrastructure, security vulnerabilities and interoperability problems.

Reliable UC network performance means a smooth user experience and less downtime, but it can be difficult to deliver in today’s complex environments. The latest release of Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA) consolidates UC and network performance management tools into one comprehensive offering, providing trusted performance management to Mitel platforms.

MPA is included in your Mitel Premium Software Assurance subscription and ensures you can take advantage of software updates, technical support and proactive network monitoring. It is specially designed for the management of Mitel solutions.

Each new release of MPA brings additional tools that lay the groundwork for exceptional UC network performance. The newest features in release 3.0 help you know when problems are occurring and how to resolve them quickly:

MPA for MiVoice Connect: MPA 3.0 now features support for MiVoice Connect that includes secure remote access, telephony services monitoring, CPU, memory, disk, network monitoring and alarm management with voice quality and backups.

Improved MX-ONE feature integration: Additional feature integration has been added for MiVoice MX-ONE customers, including trunk capacity reporting, TDM trunk traffic and extended support for premise or air gapped systems and power supply support.

Advanced UC network testing: Test VoIP and network performance with synthetic calls to quickly pinpoint a problem with tools customized for voice and video. This feature is included in MPA Plus.

Improved customer lifecycle management: Increased functionality is available for administrators onboarding new users. Features include detailed welcome emails and standardized user role templates to streamline permission granting.

Monitoring tools are only helpful when they alert you to the problems that matter. MPA ensures you see problems that are important to your business based on your workflow and operations. After all, better data makes for better decisions, and MPA facilitates that with the reliable 24/7 network performance your Mitel UC solution needs.

Learn more about what Mitel Performance Analytics can do for your business >