Donnabrook - A Cloud Communication & Collaboration Advisory Service

Customer Loyalty and Churn As I embrace the world of customer experience by helping companies in Australia leverage TechSee, a global leading remote visual support platform, its both exciting and overwhelming how much scope there is to improve customer experience by simply adding a secure and controlled visual element to a su...

A simple yet commonly unused step to better customer service… a chat with Krys Sutton from the CRM Team.

Greet your customer by name when you answer their call! Click here for the full article - https://www.donnabrook.com/post/a-simple-step-to-better-customer-service-a-chat-with-krys-sutton-from-the-crm-team

“The key feature for us is integration", Kent Chalmers, CTO of Home in Place.

A year in after helping Home in Place transition from their legacy telephony environment to a global leading cloud unified communication service I share here that experience in more detail from Kent's perspective. Looking forward to many more successful years to come and helping Home in Place expand globally.

“The key feature for us is integration", Kent Chalmers, CTO of Home in Place. Leading community housing provider renovates for future growth and customer service innovation replacing their legacy telephony environment with a digital transformation upgrade to UCaaS and CCaaS, supported by Donnabrook. As one of the largest non-government providers of social housing in Australia...

Compass Housing Services and Donnabrook use RingCentral to support a hybrid workforce, improve tenant experience and improve business processes.

We are excited to partner with Compass Housing Services to help support their digital transformation to cloud unified communications.

Compass Housing Services (Compass) is one of Australia’s largest non-government social housing providers with over 35 years of experience in providing secure and affordable housing for low-income households.

Under covid conditions with staff working remotely, they sought an effective way for their staff to collaborate and communicate with each other and with tenants. “We needed a highly flexible, functionally rich, and completely untethered unified communication service enabling us to expand, enhance and digitise our services while continuing to meet our compliance requirements”, said Kent Chalmers, GCTO of Compass Housing.

We look forward to helping Compass Housing become the premium public housing provider in Australia.
Donnabrook provides digital transformation unified communications advisory services and is a referral partner for RingCentral, a global leading cloud service combining phone, messaging and video. Donnabrook has offices in Newcastle and Sydney and helps organisations address challenges in customer and employee experience, cyber security, compliance and integration/business process improvement that are impacted by unified communications.

We are looking forward to working with Compass Housing Services to help them deliver on their commitment to provide the best experience for tenants of social housing and to continue to be an employer of choice in Australia.

Pondsplash seeks a highly flexible cloud telephony /video conferencing capability to establish a national presence and support remote specialists.

We are happy that Sam Mehana of Pondsplash approached Donnabrook to discuss their business and growth plans and how they could optimise their communications and collaboration environment to have the best customer and employee experience.

Donnabrook’s process was the same with all organisations in assisting them in their investigations; understand your current situation, your challenges, what your ideal state should be, and what options do you have.

Based in Sydney, Pondsplash are focused on developing and manage digital landscapes for businesses with expertise in ecommerce, digital marketing, web and search ranking (you can insert statistics here on your growth? Size – go ahead and flatter yourself). In Sam’s words,
“we needed a reliable, credible and robust cloud telephony, video and messaging capability that was highly flexible and easy to manage. Donnabrook was able to help us assess our options and migrate us to RingCentral. We can now easily collaborate with our mobile and distributed specialists, establish and manage a national state capital contact presence and engage our customers without requiring a separate video conferencing service.

We are looking forward to working with Pondsplash to help them become one of Australia’s leading (fill in here?).

To BYOD or not to BYOD (Bring your own device)

The answer? It depends. For some its suitable and for other organisations it is not. It also depends on what you value in terms of company brand, compliance, customer, and employee experience and in some cases WH&S. Many reasons against BYOD are becoming increasingly invalid as global UCaaS (cloud unified communications) providers improve the capability, quality, and functionality of dialling from the company extension via a softphone. With calls made through the company extension/softphone, security, brand, compliance, and other requirements may be addressed so be sure to investigate those options.

Here is a quick list for and against BYOD from the perspective of the employee and company:

For and against BYOD from an employee’s perspective

Against BYOD
- Damage to my phone! – for employees that work in environments where their phone could be easily damaged using a company issued phone is preferable;
- Don’t want to put anything on my phone (i.e.. Invasive company software)
- WHS – the right and ability to turn off the phone when you finish work
- Upgrades: I may have to upgrade my phone to meet requirements for company installs.

For BYOD
- Don’t want to carry two phones
- Familiarity with phone and functions
- I remain connected to my work contacts, client etc after I leave the company

For and against BYOD from a company’s perspective

Against BYOD
- Cost – mobile device management (MDM) and enrolment process and other processes may make it more expensive;
- Sensitivity of data – the risk from device theft, cyber or employee departure may be too great;
- Time – may require more time to manage and maintain MDM
- Security risk: with employees who unknowingly download apps that may be a security risk
- Brand – concern about company number leaving with employee and losing that connection Note, this is not an issue if calls are made through the company extension via a soft phone

For BYOD
- Lower costs – less MDM; For the same reasons above it may benefit you – if your deployment is simple, you may not require complex MDM. Alternatively, a UCaaS (unified communications) service with the ability to provide an end-to-end encrypted phone call and secure messaging/video may be all you require;
- Lower costs – less voice calls – if company calls can be made from a soft phone extension you may only require data for those calls and thus a lower cost. Note, 90% of mobile device-based calls are made within buildings so many of those calls may be using in house wi-fi services
- Higher Security – the levels of security provided by a global class UCaaS service can be significant and very difficult to match so why bother – consider using a UCaaS service;
- Keeping mobile numbers – many employees often request that they keep the mobile number when they leave the company – this can be a death by 1,000 cuts scenario completing those forms every time. I’ve had this very sentiment expressed to me by a fatigued and overworked IT Manager;

In either case, factor in the value of having work related calls by your employees made primarily from a company extension/soft phone. The mobile phone is just a device and there will be two options for calls; the mobile network or the company extension. One gives you a phone bill at the end of the month and list of calls. The other gives you a world of opportunity to improve employee/customer experience, brand, compliance, and much more.

Had a wonderful time Thursday last week enjoying a virtual gin tasting organised by KPMG Australia and Donnabrook and hosted by Earps Distilling Co. The timing was great as it immediately preceded our first lockdown free weekend! A big thank you to all the CEOs, Executives, Directors and other leaders of the Hunter business community for joining us. Thank you also to RingCentral and Patricia Russell, for the visa gift cards for the trivia and best hat award.

Is it finally almost over!!?? Will we miss our gripping, endless video meetings and domestic entrapment? It better be over or things will just get increasingly silly and mad.

As we enter what is hopefully the final stretch of lockdown which created some incredibly difficult times for people I wanted to make a quick shout out to Robert Louis Stevenson who has penned a few quotes that have helped me along and hopefully some of you. Have a great day.

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.”

“So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

https://www.donnabrook.com/post/when-your-employees-just-use-their-mobile-for-work-here-are-a-few-reasons-why-an-office-number

12 Reasons why using a company extension via softphone rather than a mobile number may be better. I talk to companies every day about their situation and challenges regarding communications and collaboration. I often have companies telling me, especially under lock down, how their employees “just use their mobile” to make calls. Today, the traditional “landline” or 8-digit number we asso...

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewolsen1_businessaustralia-businessnsw-businesshunter-activity-6835716245346758656-H8bT

Andrew Olsen on LinkedIn: #businessaustralia #businessnsw #businesshunter | 10 comments Had a lovely catch up with Sarah Peacock, Head of Customer Engagement at Business Australia. Heard she was from Canada so thought I would dress to impress... 10 comments on LinkedIn

https://www.donnabrook.com/post/best-practices-for-working-remotely-since-we-will-be-doing-that-for-a-while

Best Practices for working remotely…since we will be doing that for a while… An article pointing out a few things you may not have thought of and here are a few: - Avoid public wi-fi if possible; - Keep work data on work computers; - Block the sight lines; - Encrypt sensitive data in emails and on your device; - Physical; - Lock your doors; - Don’t leave devices in the car...

Hi All. Sharing a story of my daughter made possible by the incredible efforts of director Justine Moyle. Everyone has a story and this is just one but I think this story touches us all in terms of the value of focus and commitment, following our passion and how we have all been impacted by the global pandemic. Follow your passion. Be prepared for anything and roll with it. Live slowly. Laugh quickly.

Well hello there LinkedIn.. please excuse any typos or guffs being my first post on the platform. Please be kind :)

I made a film, thanks to an incredible crew and my tenacious & extraordinary producer Jo Austin of Candid Films.

A Feature Length Documentary, all about a girl finding her way in the world. She also happens to be the first female to represent Australia in Park Skateboarding at the Olympics in August.

It's out next week in Australian cinemas for one week only.

Find all the details and session times at tallpoppymovie.com

https://www.donnabrook.com/post/largest-privately-owned-housing-maintenance-company-addresses-highly-adaptive-workforce-needs

Largest privately-owned housing maintenance company addresses highly adaptive workforce needs. We are very happy to have Lake Maintenance ask Donnabrook to partner with them to facilitate and support the changing needs of a highly adaptive workforce with the ability to work from anywhere with a simplified end-user experience that leverages Microsoft Teams. With approximately 140,000 propertie...

Rejecting hybrid work models may cost employers, a survey finds.
A paper entitled “Why Working from Home Will Stick” finds that Job seekers may take the same job with a 5% to 10% pay cut if it allows a WFH option. Also, if you are in a war-for-talent employers may have to offer much higher pay to retain staff.
Based on a recent survey of 30,000 Americans the abstract states that 20% of full workdays will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends compared with 5 % before and supplies evidence for 5 reasons for this trend;
- Better-than-expected WFH experiences;
- Investments in physical/human capital that enable WFH;
- Greatly diminished stigma associated with WFH;
- Lingering concerns about crowds and contagion risks and;
- A surge in tech-innovations that support WFH.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3741644

Such a pleasure meeting and listening to Gus Balbontin’s life story and inspirational messages today.
When asked what a key message may be for his 3 children he said, “Let your kids decide what success looks like for them…”
Keep surfing, playing music and dreaming Gus!

“What I see here is more flexibility than we will ever need”.

How often can you say that about the software vendors that support your business?

I speak to business managers every day and the same qualities they desire hold true every time; they want flexibility and a software service with the elasticity to move with their business.

And yet, it seems many are still suffering from rigid infrastructure and software.

Here are some points to consider when selecting a vendor and the software they offer to help ensure you get the flexibility you need to survive and grow.

They understand and genuinely care.
Keep an open mind.
Configuration vs Customisation.
Past and Future history of innovation.
Cloud vs Hosted.
https://www.donnabrook.com/post/what-i-see-here-is-more-flexibility-than-we-will-ever-need

We are very happy to partner with the Newcastle Business Club to facilitate and support their need and use of cloud-based services for communication and collaboration using RingCentral.

Since 1933, the Newcastle Business Club have been helping the people from the Newcastle and Hunter business community meet for luncheon events to hear from speakers who present their views, opinions and directions in business and the wider community.

The orchestration of these events and member management requires a lot of collaboration by committee members to ensure a successful and smooth outcome. By deploying RingCentral they will have a highly flexible integrated phone, messaging and video service that they can use easily from any device, anywhere, at anytime.

“…the organisation of a large Committee can be challenging and with the amount of communication we all receive daily, messages can often be lost. We needed a reliable, secure and supported cloud service where individuals can be included in relevant discussion threads, track assigned tasks and access our cloud storage.” – Stephanie Jordan, President Newcastle Business Club

We are looking forward to working with the Newcastle Business Club and supporting their legacy as the premier networking and business club in the Hunter.

Enjoyed reading this article from the Harvard Business Review suggesting how companies can quickly tell how well they are strategically aligned. That is, to what degree all elements of the business, organisational structure, marketing, IT etc. are working together. Looking at 4 categories weighed against strategy effectiveness and organisational effectiveness it places you in (from best to worst); Very best chance of winning, best intentions but incapable, boldly going nowhere, not long for this world.

https://hbr.org/2016/05/a-simple-way-to-test-your-companys-strategic-alignment

A Simple Way to Test Your Company’s Strategic Alignment Are you winning, or boldly going nowhere?

Happy to participate in the 2021 Sleepout for Soul. Soul Cafe provides hundreds of free sit down and take away meals each week. Many of Soul Cafe's guests are dealing with issues of homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction, crime or violence, poverty, separation, mental health or illness concerns and accommodation needs. For me its activities like these that help keep things in perspective and appreciate what you have and help those who are on the downside of advantage.

The Right To Disconnect

I help businesses investigate options on improving their ability to stay connected with staff and allow them to work from anywhere, at any time, on any device. The downside of this is that you can be easily connected and contacted when you should be relaxing after hours.

The good news is this “digital leash” can and should be turned off when it’s time to chill. Recently it’s been reported that unions in Australia are pushing to give workers the legal right to ignore non-emergency out-of-hours work calls, texts and emails. As we all slowly return from our Easter holidays its important to reflect on the value of work-life balance.

Here is a nice summary of 5 reasons I found:
- To maintain your mental health - avoid burnout;
- To ensure your physical health and wellbeing;
- Want more productivity? Make sure your staff and balance;
- Become a more rounded individual;
- You only have one life – so go for it.

And here is my little Easter pic from Golspie, NSW…finding balance.

"...A disruptive threat to death can be as short as 12 to 18 months..."

Happy to have received a copy of Matthew Tice’s latest book: Insurgence: How Established Incumbents Can Operate Like Nimble Insurgents in Fast Changing and Volatile Markets

I talk to organisations every day about their operations and their current situation and challenges they face to continue growth and meet their goals. I am struck by the relevance of Matt’s comments in his prologue as it relates to the reservations commonly presented to me; the risk of change. And yet in my area of focus change is what is most needed to optimise operational flexibility and scale.

Matt writes…
“The one universal truth in business as we enter the middle part of the 21st century is that the pace of change is accelerating to such a degree that the foundations of the global economy and its participants are increasingly unstable for established players.

The content is based on 3 key questions he asks:
1. How stable is the environment surrounding your business?
2. How robust is your business model to the change surrounding the business?
3. Can established incumbents learn to operate like nimble insurgents?

Look forward to reading this. Thanks Matt.

We are very happy to have Robson Civil Projects ask us to partner with them to facilitate and support their utilisation of best practice cloud-based services for communication and collaboration using the global leading provider, RingCentral.

Operating for over 50 years and over 200 employees, Robson Civil has the technical capability and resources to deliver complex civil projects around the country.

By deploying RingCentral for integrated phone, messaging and video they are seeking greater flexibility, scale and continuous innovation for an all-inclusive investment.

We are looking forward to working with the Team at Robson Civil and help them achieve their goal to be the preferred provider of high quality integrated civil construction services.

A few quick points about the future of the Land Line….

“I hardly ever use it” is the response I often here from employees. The reality is though customer calls still need to be channelled, monitored, and managed and this is done through a business phone system. And this capability is not there with mobile phones.

Here are a few other points to consider...

1. It represents a consistent point of contact for you business - not your staff's mobile numbers;
2. Mobile data access keeps getting better - this is then blurring the lines between app based calls and mobile;
3. The Land Line is completely untethered - Thus the name “landline” itself is a misnomer. The office number or “end point” goes with you wherever your mobile phone goes and you have Internet access;
4. Dial from any of your office numbers; Leading UCaaS providers, (unified communications as a service), will allow you to dial from any number of office locations from your mobile through their respective app;
5. Integration - Employees don’t want more apps. They want more functionality within an app and integration to Teams, their CRM or other core system;
6. No Technology - you only require the Internet. No phone system boxes or infrastructure. Just access.

Food for thought.

RingCentral Leads with First Place and Highest Growth in 2020 Frost Radar UCaaS North American Market Report from Frost & Sullivan

RingCentral Leads with First Place and Highest Growth in 2020 Frost Radar UCaaS North American Market Report from Frost & Sullivan RingCentral announced industry security veteran Heather Hinton as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Hinton brings more than 30 years of IT and cybersecurity experience, having led product design and architecture, development, and sales and support for several organizations.

What an interesting 12 months it has been in Australia. We have gone from some of the worst bush fires we have ever experienced and horrific drought to a global pandemic. Last year, my Valentines camping weekend destination to Gloucester River Barrington Tops was brown and almost lifeless. This year it is flourishing, verdant and the river flowing.

Just reminding myself how lucky we are to have relative control over COVID-19 compared to other countries and have rain to make it a little easier to ride the pandemic out.

A shout out to Charles Green and Andrea Howe, authors of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook. I’ve always made the effort to continually study and learn especially when you think you’ve “got it”. But they have reminded me yet again that you can always learn or refresh your knowledge. They discuss what trust is all about. Just sharing a few points that are now key principals for me and I think somewhat poignant globally now:

- It is not enough to be right. You must earn the right to be right. “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care”.

- Trust is reciprocal – you get what you give. If you listen to people, they are more likely to listen to you.

- Listen better; don’t build a better case. Friedman said, “Its not what you hear by listening that’s important. It’s what you say what you hear that’s important.

- Curiosity trumps knowing; curiosity builds relationships – it is intrinsically other-focused – that is, on the person(s) you are engaging – this way you are constantly poised to learn, to create a connection and to positively influence.

Wishing everyone a better year in 2021 filled with more vulnerability, honesty, transparency and trust.

84% percent of US companies say they’ll offer permanent after the pandemic passes. Others plan to implement a hybrid arrangement of working partly at home and partly in the office

5 key takeaways from COVID-19 about remote work | RingCentral Highlights 41% of people working remotely report higher productivity than when they worked in the office Video conferencing emulates the social

The great significant event here is that RingCentral consistently reach this goal, year on year. Amazing.

6 Years in a Row: RingCentral Named a 2020 Gartner UCaaS Magic Quadrant Leader | RingCentral Every year, industry analyst firm, Gartner, evaluates and recognizes vendors offering Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) – incorporating team

I've relaunched my website and thank you for all the input from everyone. www.donnabrook.com . Of course, its always a work in progress!

Home | Donnabrook My goal is simple.  Change is not easy but sometimes necessary, so I try to make the process as easy as possible.  Firstly, I raise awareness about RingCentral and the business challenges and issues it is addressing.  Secondly, I assist in objectively assessing the potential value to their busine...