Q. What kind of support and services related to Unified Communication does your company offer?
“For more than 20 years, SOFTEL has been helping businesses think in creative, progressive ways about their technology investments. In 1993, our founders began the business in response to evolving enterprise communications modalities. Business-to-consumer and business-to-business interactions were, and continue to be, progressively disrupted—think voicemail, call centers, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), cellular phones, Internet, email, VoIP, smart phones, SMS, social media, web and video collaboration, etc. So SOFTEL stepped onto the scene aiming to facilitate how people communicate in the midst of changing modalities.
Our customers capitalize on this disruption because we help them align new communication norms with their existing business strategies. Effective communication is the foundation for all business transactions. SOFTEL is an expert at adapting the tools (systems and modalities) businesses use to communicate internally—and externally. As new technologies evolve, consumers compel businesses to adapt to ever-changing methods of transacting business. SOFTEL helps those same businesses optimize their processes and/or create revenue opportunities. We do this by creating innovative or disruptive approaches to the way businesses use communications technologies, and the results are measurable business gains.”
Q. Tell us something about Leadership at SOFTEL Communications.
John Cognata, Co-Founder and Business Development Executive of SOFTEL C ommunications, explains why SOFTEL is a proven choice for enterprises and organizations looking to harness business opportunity though unified communications and collaboration technology. John’s passion is finding ways to combine innovation with technological solutions that solve business problems, creating distinctive (sometimes disruptive) value-driven solutions for network service providers, IT solution providers and/or their customer base.
Q. What kind of different tools and applications does your company use to extend your UC service beyond the traditional voice, video, instant message and presence that comprise UC today?
SOFTEL engage across many different sectors and we have found that “Unified Communications” means something different in each of them. As examples;
Microsoft Skype for Business (SfB) is the fastest growing UC platform, according to leading industry analysts. SOFTEL is a key Microsoft partner, with Gold certification and competency in Microsoft Communications and Productivity platforms. Alongside platform implementation and ongoing support, SOFTEL provides core re-development using both the UCMA and UCWA developer toolsets. This is a key area of strength for SOFTEL, in developing Microsoft Skype for Business Cloud applications – something very few other providers can achieve. This means that we can develop from the ground up, based on very specific enterprise customer needs.
As for Cisco, SOFTEL is a key service partner with expertise in UC and Contact Center, including an evolving Cisco IoT practice. With strong experience in CISCO UCCE best practice implementations for leading multi-national enterprises that aim to streamline both operations and customer services.
Using a “hybrid” approach to combining UC communications channels we architect, design, develop, test, implement and manage on premise and Cloud enterprise applications based on a customer’s business specifications and enterprise security protocols.
In truth, there is no real extent to the versatility of the UC or Collaboration solutions that SOFTEL have provided for their customers and partners. Our applications and development toolsets reflect whatever is required to combine the customer’s channels and platforms of communication.
Q. How your company is going beyond the conventional way and proving to be the unique one in the maturing competition?
SOFTEL continues to provide new ways to enable Collaboration through Unified Communications solutions. While our core area of focus is B2B communications, we see a growing need to provide Collaboration between B2C. In doing so we are innovating the Telemedicine, Gamification, Education/Training, and Social Media applications and enhancing communication channels in these market segments. As an example in the areas of telemedicine and preventive maintenance;
We are helping our service provider and IT solution provider customers develop and deliver new services through the innovative application of UC or Collaboration technology thereby creating additional revenue streams and generate better productivity for multiple parties.
Q. With the introduction of a new technology every other day, what kind of changes you are experiencing?
SOFTEL recognize that most customer service-oriented organizations are facing a dilemma in keeping up with the explosion of new technologies and new ways of communicating for consumers. Our aim is to provide the glue that keeps our clients solution upright, functional – and relevant. With each new wave of social or personal communication methods comes the opportunity to innovate, through that disruption. The end result is a more streamlined and unified method of interacting across each channel – new or old.
Q. How your team has contributed to the success of your company?
Experience, focus and an unwavering commitment towards our customers’ success! Our team reflects this in each role and task they are allocated; seasoned professionals who know what works and – more importantly – what doesn’t. Through their teamwork at every level, they uphold the core of SOFTEL, frequently going the extra mile to make sure the job is done right. Here’s a few of our customer quotes, reflecting our core values;
“We chose expertise and experience over a big name. We appreciated the SOFTEL hands-on approach and their capacity to assimilate our complex business processes and propose appropriate solutions.”
“The SOFTEL solution has been invaluable to our organization and has resulted in a reduction of about 70% of our security resets on the network side, and there is no telling what the translation is in productivity gains to the organization. This has helped us become among the pioneers in the journey towards true self-service and user empowerment.”
Q. What are the future plans of your company?
Our company, like many others, evolves with the available technologies. SOFTEL invests perpetual research effort and time in looking beyond the available sectors for Unified Communications, in the spirt of innovation to drive value for our customers. We look for opportunities that bring together UC as a Service, outside of where you might expect to find it. That’s because we recognize that UC isn’t just for human to human interactions – there’s a whole host of new business within collaborations for business, gamification, telemedicine, collaboration for the federation of resources, remote resource training, Virtual Reality, IoT and on-line bots & Artificial Intelligence (Content & Knowledge Management) – all of which continues to extend UC into all directions, across all sectors. Of course, we serve many different clients and customers in Contact Centers but that isn’t where we see that UC ends. Wherever there is a need for innovation, expertise and experience in supporting excellence in communications and collaboration amongst humans or between humans and machines – that’s where you will find SOFTEL!
