When managing a complex unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) environment, a fundamental requirement is an overview of the current state of the complete ecosystem and an effective alerting system that identifies when issues are occurring, or ideally even before they occur.
This requires a dashboard that provides an end-to-end visual representation of the environment and drilldowns to aid fast and proactive troubleshooting. But what metrics should you focus on when monitoring the performance of your UC&C ecosystem?
Defining UC&C metrics
UC&C metrics are the indicators that assess the performance and impact of your company’s UC&C infrastructure. These metrics are essential for evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and overall quality of your communication systems.
By measuring specific metrics, your organization can gain actionable insights to optimize its UC&C strategies and ensure you’re align with business objectives.
Key UC&C metrics to consider
Measuring QoS: MOS or the R-Factor
The Quality of Service (QoS) of voice and video is usually the most reliable indicator of the health of the entire UC&C environment and generally appears as a metric on most Chief Information Officer dashboards.
It can be measured by Mean Opinion Score (MOS) – a subjective measure using a 1 to 5 scale, where 5 is excellent, or measured by the R-Factor, which uses a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being excellent.
MOS takes into account the CODEC being used as well as network measures such as packet loss, latency and jitter.
From MTTR to MTTI
Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), the speed at which problems can be resolved, is another common metric. However, a commonly held view is that 80% of MTTR is Mean Time to Identify (MTTI).
Once the issue has been identified, a resolution is often quick to follow.
Averages ignore outliers
Subjective measures like these are a generalization and only encapsulate certain elements of a call. So, despite a high MOS, users may still be experiencing issues such as insufficient sound levels.
Scores are also calculated on the mean data, so can ignore outlying issues. They can miss an important issue such as a high percentage of low scores coming from a concentrated group of affected users.
Real-time monitoring and alerts
UC&C performance management tools like IR Collaborate monitor QoS in real-time and alert IT Operations to issues as they are occurring. The real-time, proactive monitoring and alerting puts IT Operations in control, allowing them to be aware of issues sooner and respond faster.
Testing inside and out
For Contact Centers, proactive testing of UC&C environments using agents that generate synthetic calls internally, combined with an external testing service automatically placing real calls into the organization, will identify whether there are issues with incoming and outbound calls.
Tying UC&C metrics back to the business objectives
The demands of the business on IT Operations have significantly increased in recent years. End users expect corporate voice and video calls to work as well as the consumer grade services they subscribe to.
This was much easier to achieve using dedicated phone lines, but when calls are routed over the same network as all other data, issues are bound to occur. Add to this the network bandwidth demands of video traffic and application sharing and you have significant complexities.
Those who take the time to plan and have the foresight to include ongoing monitoring and troubleshooting as a prerequisite to a UC&C deployment are most likely to have satisfied users within their business.
IT Operations leaders need to work closely with the business to negotiate a service-level agreement that balances the criticality of the business with the cost to deliver the service. For example, it might be acceptable to experience the occasional downtime in some areas of the business but not in others, such as the customer contact center.
When determining what matters most to the business, IT Operations leaders should look to the strategic objectives set by the CEO and how these relate to the individual business units that IT must serve. Aligning IT metrics to business metrics should not be a ‘set and forget’ process, as requirements invariably change over time.
How IR Collaborate can help
IR Collaborate simplifies the complexity of modern UC&C environments, providing the insight you need to ensure your most essential business systems provide seamless communication and collaboration experiences.
