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Case Study: IPC
Global association switches to cloud phone service to support flexibility, reduce costs
As an industry association supported by member companies, IPC must operate in an efficient and cost-effective way. To lower global real estate costs, IPC encourages employees to work from home and decided to deploy Microsoft Office 365 to support this new model. IPC employees can use new features in Skype for Business Online to more easily work remotely and join meetings from anywhere, while IPC has reduced real estate costs by 60 percent and phone costs by US$10,000 a year.
New work model blocked by phones
Since 1957, IPC—Association Connecting Electronics Industries—has been guiding the electronic interconnection industry through dramatic changes. A global industry association dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its more than 3,700 member companies, IPC represents all facets of the industry, including design, printed circuit board manufacturing, and electronics assembly and test.
IPC primarily guides the companies in the US$2 trillion global electronics industry in setting standards but also provides training, market research, and public policy advocacy. With global headquarters in Bannockburn, Illinois, IPC maintains 12 additional offices around the world and employs 150 people.
To operate as cost-effectively as possible, IPC set out to reduce its global office footprint and began encouraging employees to work from home. In its Bannockburn headquarters, the organization downsized a 24,000-square-foot space to an 8,000-square-foot space and moved to a hoteling model in which permanent offices were replaced with shared temporary spaces.
To make this model work, however, IPC needed a more flexible phone system that would allow employees to make and receive calls from home. The company’s existing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system did not work for many employees because their home Internet service providers blocked the calls. Employees resorted to using personal landline and cell phones, which was not optimal.
In 2014, to give employees easier, anywhere access to documents and to increase email messaging reliability, IPC replaced its on-premises email messaging system and desktop Microsoft Office licenses with Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite that includes familiar Office applications for email, document storage, document sharing, instant messaging, audio and video calls, and more.
While many daily work functions were now integrated and easier to use, phone calls and meetings were still outside of this unified experience. IPC used Citrix software for audio and video calls, which meant the company had additional desktop tools to learn and support. “One of the Citrix conferencing products limited meeting attendance to 25 people, so our employees that held standards meetings with our members would send out an invite to 50 people but warn them that only the first 25 people could join,” says Habib Bilfaqi, Network Manager at IPC.
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“Skype for Business Online is really helping us downsize our global real estate needs.”
Habib Bilfaqui, IPC, Network Manager
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Bigger, more streamlined meetings
In late 2015, IPC upgraded to a premium version of Skype for Business Online (part of Office 365) that helped address all of these problems and others. IPC uses Skype for Business Cloud PBX to provide software-based private branch exchange (PBX) functionality. It uses PSTN Calling to provide employees with a primary phone number in Skype for Business Online for VoIP calls and PSTN Conferencing to let employees join a Skype for Business Online meeting by dialing in over a landline or mobile phone.
Bilfaqi offered classes to teach employees about the new features, but migration from the Citrix products to Skype for Business Online was quick and painless. “We rely heavily on PSTN Conferencing, which is easier to use and accommodates more meeting attendees than other meeting solutions,” Bilfaqi says.
With PSTN Conferencing, IPC employees can host meetings with up to 250 attendees and share content with all. Plus, the meeting organizer does not have to be on the call to start the meeting but can authorize another attendee to start the meeting. “We no longer have to paste call-in numbers into our Skype for Business Online invites, and it makes us look far more professional to our members to not have to cap meeting attendance,” Bilfaqi says. “We also don’t have to worry about costs; we pay a flat fee for unlimited domestic meeting minutes.”
Helpful phone features
By using PSTN Calling, IPC has been able to simplify internal calls. Previously, every employee had a four-digit extension used to call one another internally. However, these extensions were hard to remember. Today, employees simply find a colleague’s name in their Outlook address book or start typing the name and have Outlook find the person. “With PSTN Calling, we don’t have to distribute phone lists anymore, and the call quality is amazing,” Bilfaqi says.
IPC uses another PSTN Calling feature to speed and track help-desk response. It has put all help-desk team members in a Skype for Business team-call group, which is a team of people who answer the same calls. When a team member picks up the phone, the other phones stop ringing and all team members are notified who picked up the call. “It’s really helpful to know not only that someone picked up the call but who picked it up,” Bilfaqi says.
Remote flexibility that finally works
By switching to Skype for Business Online for voice and meetings, IPC has finally been able to move ahead on its “work from home” policy. In fact, all 100 US staff members now work from home at least two days a week.
Skype for Business Cloud PBX has a unique communications port that helped IPC employees overcome the port-blocking issues with previous VoIP solutions that hampered work-from-home efforts. “Skype for Business Online is really helping us downsize our global real-estate needs by around 60 percent,” says Bilfaqi.
Bilfaqi estimates that IPC will net an additional $10,000 a year by eliminating Citrix licensing, its old phone system, phone lines, and phone system maintenance costs. “As an industry organization, it’s important that we demonstrate fiscal responsibility to our members,” Bilfaqi says. “By using Skype for Business Online, we are working more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before.”
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8 ways to successfully lead your mobile workforce
For many of us, the rise of the remote workforce comes as no surprise. For years now, office workers have been abandoning their desks in favor of settings that are farther afield and allow them to work in a more comfortable, and often more productive, environment. And it’s a trend that only promises to keep growing. In fact, according to theInternational Data Corporation (IDC), the U.S. mobile worker population is on track to grow from 96.2 million in 2015 to 105.4 million mobile workers in 2020. And by the end of the forecast period, IDC projects that mobile workers will account for nearly three quarters (72.3 percent) of the total U.S. workforce.
Although the mobile workforce has been building for some time, managers are, in many ways, still catching up and trying to determine how best to lead their teams when they’re not only not in the same room, but may be spread out over a number of cities, states or even countries. However, because so many organizations have used a remote workforce model for so many years now, and technology has moved ahead by leaps and bounds, leading remote teams is certainly easier than in years past. Of course, finding your own path to successful leadership will largely depend on your personal style, corporate culture and team members, but if you don’t know where to start or would like to add new techniques and technology to your bag of tricks, you would do well to try these time-tested tips:
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Manage results, not style—
Remote employees often have their own style of working. Some may work for two hours, then take a break to take their kids to school or run an errand, then work four more hours, take a break and work the remaining two (or more) later, while others may keep regular office hours. So instead of managing how an employee gets his or her work done, focus on the quality of the work, whether deadlines are being met, whether they exhibit good decision-making skills, etc.
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Encourage teamwork—
Working great distances from your co-workers can feel isolating, so make a point to encourage project work that allows team members to work together. This way, your staff will feel more connected to each other, and your department will benefit from shared ideas and greater communication between team members.
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Communicate—
Because you can’t just pop over to someone’s desk or grab a cup of coffee in the break room, managers need to take initiative to establish relationships with their teams. Weekly or bi-weekly status calls can often help you address upcoming projects, performance issues, etc. Yet, other times an instant message or email conversation (that may or may not be work related) might be the best way to stay in touch. Whatever your approach is, be clear in your communications—but also let your personality shine through. After all, when you’re building and managing a team it’s important for everyone to know who they’re working with.
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With everyone’s camera up and a shared view of your agenda, presentation, etc., your team can not only see each other—and put faces to names—but see the presenter’s desktop and get a clear picture of the information being addressed.
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Give them the right technology—
Part of being a good manager is ensuring that your team members have everything they need to work efficiently. And when your workforce works remotely, that means supporting your staff with the right technology. When researching your options, look for software that makes sharing files safe, secure and simple; works on a range of devices, including laptops and desktops, tablets and mobile phones; and gives your workers the power to work on the same documents simultaneously. This way, everyone will have access to the same tools, you can mitigate compatibility issues, and your collaborative efforts can flourish.
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Give them a reason—
Remote workers can feel disconnected from an organization’s goals and may not have a clear understanding of where their work fits into its mission. If you share the company’s vision and goals with your remote workforce and address how their work contributes to the success of the organization, your team will feel less detached from the company. This, in turn, inspires remote teams to work toward a common goal and be productive members of the organization.
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Be inclusive and provide praise—
When it comes to training, praise for a job well done, and parties, offsite employees are often overlooked or simply forgotten about—which does nothing to encourage loyalty or foster relationships. As you manage your team of remote workers, try to ensure that they have the same opportunities for training as others and receive the same, prompt praise for a job well done that you would offer onsite workers. As for parties and team outings, if remote team members can’t make it to an event, consider giving them a small gift or a few extra hours off in a week. It’s a small gesture, but it can go a long way toward making them feel appreciated.
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Encourage a work-life balance—
For remote workers, it’s easy to get caught up in a project or want to make just a little more progress on something before calling it quits for the day. It’s also equally easy to get distracted by projects at home, spouses, kids, pets, etc. The key is to strike a balance between the two. When onboarding new remote workers, talk to them about setting a schedule that they can stick to and setting aside a space designated for work only. Then, at the end of the day, they can shut down their laptops and disconnect from work. This will help them mentally unwind and enjoy their downtime, and start work with a clear head and a fresh perspective the next day.
Finally, as with most things in life, you must lead by example. By taking a proactive, transparent approach to work, being available to your teams and communicating clearly and often with staff in a wide variety of ways, they’ll see that you can not only be relied on, but trusted. They’ll see firsthand how you want the team to function and will follow your footsteps—helping you create a supportive virtual environment that’s conducive to mobile productivity and exemplary work.
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TONIGHT: Orange County Networking Happy Hour @Karl Strauss Brewing Company
Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Time: 4pm-7pm
Location: Karl Strauss Brewing Company
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NEW EMPLOYEE: JAMIE GASIOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
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Jamie Gasior joined the Managed Solution team as a Business Development Manager (Arizona) on Monday, April 11, 2016. Jamie has over twenty years of sales experience in the technology industry with the past 10 years focused on cloud and/or managed services.
Jamie was born in Michigan and lived in several states throughout his childhood (6 total!) He moved to Tucson, AZ for college in 1992 and has lived there ever since. In 1997 he met his wife Erin, who is also from Michigan, at a laundromat near the University of Arizona campus. They have been married for 16 years and have 4 awesome kids (Emma, Abby, Jack and Luke) and Wrigley, a golden doodle.
Before Jamie decided to grow up and get a real job, he was dedicated to chasing his dream of playing golf professionally until he realized his potential or lack thereof – but he still enjoys playing for fun! Jamie also loves coaching his football team which has his boys Jack and Luke playing on together. He is excited to join the Managed Solution team and we are happy to have him on board!
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][vc_button2 title="Corporate Culture " link="url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.managedsolution.com%2Fcorporate-culture%2F|title:Corporate%20Culture|target:%20_blank"][vc_message]Here at Managed Solution, we thrive in an energetic, performance-driven environment where results, teamwork, and quality of customer satisfaction are recognized and rewarded. Our corporate culture is diverse, open and creative. Above all, we are focused on organically growing our solution service offerings while delivering outstanding client support. We look for team members with proven experience, a strong sense of passion and dedication to the highest levels of excellence, technology and business ethics.[/vc_message][vc_posts_grid grid_columns_count="3" loop="size:3|order_by:date|order:ASC|post_type:post|categories:29"][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
