Unlocking New Potential for Higher Ed

About 90% of colleges and universities see fewer than 70% of students graduate within six years. Clearly, student retention is a big goal for provosts and other institutional leaders. Higher Education is seeking ways to engage students to not only keep them rooted to the campus community, but also to ensure they graduate. Additionally, as campuses expand within their own footprint or to new locations, they look to modernize and future-proof investments.

It goes without saying that 2020 has been the most chaotic year of our lifetime, and changes we have experienced this year are likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future—if not indefinitely. The way that we collaborate with each other at work, the way our children are educated at school, and even how we spend our personal time with clubs, family, and church have changed.

During this year of uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many issues within schools, colleges, and universities globally on how to deliver student applications.

There’s an old adage among veterans that the military is a great place to be from. This is certainly true for me, as the knowledge and experience I gained by attending the U.S. Naval Academy and as an officer on board a Destroyer has served me quite well throughout my current career in the corporate world. For starters, there’s no doubt that my military service helped me get an excellent civilian job when I transitioned out of the Navy – I was hired into my first “tech sales” position by a former USMC Colonel who overlooked the fact that I had no direct experience in sales. That early vote of confidence, and the mentorship that came along with it, motivated me to work especially hard and strive to be among the very best in my newly chosen field.

To no surprise COVID-19 has forced organizations to provide communication solutions and offerings that address today’s challenges and ensure resilience. While many companies know that this is a need more than ever, migrating IT workloads can seem cost prohibitive due to the time and challenges most organizations face when trying to do all the work internally.

Challenges can compound when the migration includes mission-critical data, infrastructure and moving to the cloud. Since there is no single method for all sizes and types of cloud migration, you can significantly bolster your chances of cloud security success by leveraging best practices, well-executed plans, and partners with experience.

Steve Brock, Avaya OneCloud Marketing Leader, recently wrote a great article about the four new mindsets Avaya has noted that have enabled customers to maintain and even increase their workforce productivity during these challenging times.

The concept of customer experience is top-of-mind for every company with a contact center, and the need to actualize beyond self-service and voice has become urgent. There has been a tremendous push within this space to incorporate newer technologies like omnichannel and journey orchestration. This push has been defined by a desire to develop new opportunities for ecommerce and online marketing through the use of these technologies.

The Healthcare sector (often known as Healthcare and Public Health, or HPH) is currently under an all-out cyber-attack, again focused on hospitals and ransomware gangs of cybercriminals.

Our research results reinforce key technology trends that continue to impact the future of the contact center and the overall experience it can provide to its customers and employees. These trends have transitioned from nice-to-have to essential. To adapt and outpace the competition, financial institution contact centers will need to adopt the following technology trends to offer best-in-class service to both their customers and employees.

Campus Security

We ask our educators to do a lot. The threat of school violence on campus and from remote sources has district decision-makers needing answers. Risks need to be identified, with consideration given to protecting the student wherever they are. Security needs to be conducted in a way that doesn’t feel like a prison. What’s more, innovation with physical security provide new feature sets only possible on IP networks ⏤ meaning that IT teams now have partial or new responsibility for physical security. ConvergeOne coordinates a mix of digital applications to shield against/respond to threats and other hazards. Key areas of focus include:

In today’s pandemic times, we are finding more and more customers and end users are working remotely from home. This requires users to access a number of devices, including laptops and tablets, while at home. Is this secure? Absolutely not.