{"id":9631,"date":"2016-11-08T17:29:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T00:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/?p=9631"},"modified":"2017-05-11T08:26:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T15:26:37","slug":"cloud-therapy-ep-026-what-is-office-365-e5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/cloud-therapy-ep-026-what-is-office-365-e5\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud Therapy: EP 026 &#8211; What is Office 365 E5?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9632\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CT-E026-O365-E5.png\" alt=\"CT-E026 - O365 E5\" width=\"810\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CT-E026-O365-E5.png 810w, https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CT-E026-O365-E5-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CT-E026-O365-E5-250x139.png 250w, https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/CT-E026-O365-E5-600x333.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/>Learn whether or not <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/company-profile\/microsoft\/office-365-large-biz-100-users\">Office 365&#8217;s E5<\/a><\/span> offering is going to make your company&#8217;s employees shout out of joy or frustration.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/company-profile\/calltower\">CallTower&#8217;s<\/a> <\/span>CRO, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/williamrubio\/\">William Rubio<\/a>, joins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mikesmithaerocom\/\">Mike<\/a> to discuss the intricate details of what E5 is and what it is NOT.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: none;\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/4728126\/height\/90\/width\/640\/theme\/custom\/autonext\/no\/thumbnail\/yes\/autoplay\/no\/preload\/no\/no_addthis\/no\/direction\/backward\/no-cache\/true\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/87A93A\/\" width=\"640\" height=\"90\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Which 3 VoIP phone systems\u00a0do we recommend for your company? Click below.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/static.leadpages.net\/leadboxes\/current\/embed.js\" async=\"\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><button style=\"background: #f26e22; border-color: #f26e22; border-radius: 4px; color: #ffffff; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; padding: 16px 32px; min-width: 192px; border: 1px solid #f26e22; font-size: 1rem; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center; outline: 0; line-height: 1; cursor: pointer; -webkit-transition: background 0.3s, color 0.3s, border 0.3s; transition: background 0.3s, color 0.3s, border 0.3s; box-shadow: 0px 5px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);\" data-leadbox-popup=\"144249073f72a2:136337e37f46dc\">MY TOP 3<\/button><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>TRANSCRIPT:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mike: Cloud Therapy Episode 26.<\/p>\n<p>Hey, IT Nation, welcome to Cloud Therapy with AeroComInc.com where you learn about the latest cloud and telecom technology that is going to take your career to the next level. I\u2019m your host Mike Smith. Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome, IT Nation! Welcome to another great episode of Cloud Therapy. Thank you for joining us today. We\u2019ve got a fantastic show for you. And I can tell you, if you are thinking about Office 365 for your company, or maybe you already have Office 365 for your company, and you\u2019re thinking about E5, that E5 package, should you use that for voice? Is that going to make everyone in your company pleased? Is it going to be a big hit? Is everybody going to say, hey, that\u2019s really easy to use, and it\u2019s so integrated with everything now with our phone system? Or, is it going to be a big pain in the neck and cause a lot of problems and not going to be really what you thought it was? If that\u2019s a situation you\u2019re in, this is a fantastic episode. I\u2019ve got William Rubio, Chief Revenue Officer for CallTower, on the show today, and he\u2019s going to tell us all about the E5 offering from Office 365, what it is and what it is not and how it can fit into your company\u2019s voice infrastructure in a way that will make everyone really happy or ways that, if you try to squeeze it in there, will make everyone in your company unhappy. So if that\u2019s the situation you\u2019re in, if you\u2019re looking at Office 365\u2019s E5 package or you\u2019re just interested in it, in the very least, this is a fantastic episode for you.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, but before we get into the show, a couple of quick reminders. Number one, make sure you go to our website and check out the transcripts of the show. So if you\u2019re driving or you\u2019re at the gym or on a walk or doing some yard work and you\u2019re listening right now, don\u2019t worry about taking notes, just go to our website afterward and read the transcripts. So that\u2019s AeroComInc.com, go to the Blog section, and then search for this episode and you\u2019ll find a replay of the episode as well as the full transcript. So make sure you check that out.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I\u2019ve got a really cool free gift for everyone today.<\/p>\n<p>All right. So, CallTower stepped it up and is giving away a Microsoft Surface tablet to a lucky winner at the end of the year, and all you have to do to enter to win this Microsoft Surface tablet is text the word \u201cCALLTOWER\u201d to the number 44-222. So if you text the word \u201cCALLTOWER\u201d to the number 44-222, you will get entered to win a Microsoft tablet that we\u2019ll be giving away on December 31st. So we\u2019re going to announce the winner in January but a fantastic free giveaway that could end up being a really cool giveaway for someone, so make sure you enter in that contest. Just text the word \u201cCALLTOWER\u201d to the number 44-222.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"550\" height=\"309\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l6aHC2jEd6o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All right. With that being said, let\u2019s jump into William Rubio talking about Office 365\u2019s E5 offering.<\/p>\n<p>All right. Thanks for joining us, William.<\/p>\n<p>William: Great. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me on.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, it\u2019s great to have you. So tell us a little about yourself, personally, professionally.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. So my name is William Rubio. I\u2019m the Chief Revenue Officer for CallTower. I\u2019ve been with CallTower for about four years now. I\u2019ve been in the IT telecommunications industry going on about twenty years plus right now. And I have a bachelor\u2019s from the University of Miami and also a master\u2019s from Kennesaw State up in Georgia in business. I\u2019ve been in the industry for a pretty long time.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, Miami. When I was in college, I played football, and we played against you guys. That was the rowdiest stadium I\u2019ve ever been in. Like, the Orange Bowl? Did you ever go to any football games while you attended Miami?<\/p>\n<p>William: Oh, absolutely. I am still and I was a season ticket holder for a long time and at the Orange Bowl, a lot of memorable games.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, so I played for Washington, and we came in there and you guys had a home win streak and we broke that home win streak.<\/p>\n<p>William: I was at the game. I was at that game.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, were you really?<\/p>\n<p>William: Yes, I was.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, man! That was a heck of a game, and it was like when we rolled in there, it was like from the second that bus pulled up everybody, all the fans were talking trash on us, and then we got in the stadium. I\u2019ve never had so much heckling in my life. I was like a third string, fourth string quarterback on the team, and the fans were like watching me warm up and like reading the media guide and calling out, you know, my number and just like following me around the whole game, just heckling. Like, I mean, that was the level of heckling they had, it was all the way down to the fourth string quarterback, even. I mean, it was the first string, too, but they went deep and wide when it came to heckling. And you\u2019re just ignoring them, but you\u2019re like, man! These are the rowdiest, craziest fans I\u2019ve ever seen. And then at halftime, when Miami was up on us, I think they\u2019d just scored a touchdown right before the half, and I think they went up like maybe a couple of touchdowns on us, and then sound system kicked in and the whole stadium was, I think, doing the Tootsie Roll or something. And the players were dancing on the field. That was the craziest thing I\u2019d ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>William: Yeah, we do have some rowdy fans down here, so sometimes we don\u2019t put our best foot forward, but for the most part, at least, it is enjoyable.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, no, like in a fun way, it was like everybody was really into it and rowdy. And to me it was like one of the most memorable moments of my college football career was just being there. You know, that\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s fun, is when the fans are really into it and it\u2019s the stadium\u2019s super loud and it\u2019s just it\u2019s an intense environment that you\u2019re in. I mean, I think it charges everybody up. So whenever I think of Miami, that\u2019s what I think of. And then a good friend of mine that I grew up with down here and trained with played for Miami. His name is Scott Covington. He played there for a while.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. I remember him.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: But yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>William: Yeah, he was quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yep. Yeah, so good football memories there. Sorry, all you IT people who don\u2019t like football. That was a moment I had to share. But yeah, so tell us a little bit about yourself personally.<\/p>\n<p>William: Well, I\u2019ve been in Miami for roughly about twenty-five or so years and grew up in Northern New Jersey. So I grew up there, literally right across Manhattan, across the Hudson River, so I was pretty close to downtown New York, probably closer than some of the folks that live actually in the boroughs of New York. That\u2019s how close I was.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, wow.<\/p>\n<p>William: To Manhattan, yeah. I was about four and a half miles, if you drew a straight line from my house to Times Square, even though I was in New Jersey and not in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, wow.<\/p>\n<p>William: But I grew up there, yeah, and then moved to Miami. And I have a wonderful two four-and-a-half-year-old twins, and they keep me busy, so we\u2019re very happy with them, and they\u2019re just a ball of fun right now. They\u2019re at a perfect age.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Oh, that\u2019s cool. That\u2019s awesome. Well, all right, so today William\u2019s going to talk to us about Office 365\u2019s E5 offering and kind of, you know, help us all understand that offering a little bit. When he and I first spoke about what he could come on the show and talk about, he mentioned that in a lot of customer meetings that he had noticed that there\u2019s a lot of IT professionals out there who didn\u2019t really understand the E5 offering very well. And it\u2019s something that he thought he could shed some light on for us. So with that, I\u2019ll just kind of turn it over to you, William, and let you run with it. And then, if you don\u2019t mind having me chime in once in a while for questions.<\/p>\n<p>William: No, Mike, I think that\u2019s great, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk to your audience and hopefully provide some education around the E5 product offering and some of the dos and don\u2019ts that we\u2019ve seen as far as best practices over the last several years.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Awesome. So if you could give us some background in terms of, kind of, how you came, you know, to this knowledge about E5 and kind of how you realized a lot of people aren\u2019t very aware of it and, you know, what the issue is that, you know, why they\u2019re not really aware of it.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. Well, actually, in my current organization with CallTower, we\u2019re actually one of the providers of Microsoft Office 365. So we have a lot of customers that come to us to help solve a lot of their day-to-day issues and looking for the right solution that\u2019s actually going to fit their organization. And we are a best-of-breed organization, and when they come to us, what we try to do is, we try to basically provide them a solution that fits for them. We\u2019re not trying to put a square peg in a round hole but actually trying to make sure that for each unique offering or for each unique office that they have, there\u2019s probably going to be some type of design that\u2019s going to be a little bit different than the one before, so it\u2019s not really cookie cutter. And with that comes the knowledge that you must strive for understanding the different products out there and also making sure that you\u2019re educating your customers. The more education we get, the more that we can pass along to our customers to make sure that we\u2019re actually putting them into the right solution package that they want, not just to meet their needs today, but also as they continue to grow and drive business for their organization.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Sure. That makes sense. And then you noticed just on customer meetings that you guys were bringing up E5 and there\u2019s a lack of knowledge there, huh?<\/p>\n<p>William: There absolutely is. You know, there\u2019s been this big, what I like to call kind of the drive to UC, to unified communications, and the minute you start mentioning UC or unified communications people kind of open up their eyes a little bit because they\u2019re basically trying to figure out what that even means, you know, in a lot of cases. And it\u2019s really not that difficult. I mean, unified communications, it really comes down to putting together and bundling all the different types of communications that we have out there. Right? I mean, before it was just your basic telephony. It was just people making or receiving phone calls and that was really kind of just the main part of it. Then it started to get a little bit more sophisticated because we started to add the network component of it, right? Now, all of a sudden, you had things like PRIs and internet circuits and then we started to move into the SIP world, right? I mean, SIP basically became a big thing and then we started to look at the total cost of ownership and the savings because now you could bundle everything together, run it over one circuit or over a couple of circuits and bundle them together. And then you started to move more into this, what I like to kind of call the communications modality, right? Then you started to look at things like instant messaging and presence, some multimedia applications, some conferencing type of applications, video, audio conferencing, web conferencing as well.<\/p>\n<p>And then start to throw into that the different devices that a lot of users want to use, right? Nowadays you have a lot of employees that actually come with their own device into an organization. They just basically want to add the business productivity apps that you have to run your day-to-day business and pretty much just use their devices and just go from there. And then when you probably add the last part it which is what I like to kind of call more of the social business, that\u2019s really where the business impact comes in. That\u2019s when things are user-initiated. You want to make sure that the entire suite of offering that you have to the customer and to your employees is very simplistic and it is effective. And then you want to make sure that it\u2019s also what I like to call event initiated. Whether it is that you have to send an instant message or whether it is you have to pick up the call and make a phone call or you have to express in video or share your desktop, it really starts to transform the business overall, and that\u2019s when you kind of start to see that drive to UC. And Office 365, and even the E1 package, the E3 package, the Business Essentials, and the E5 are all part of that driving towards the UC.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Got it. Got it. Great. Sorry to kind of throw you off track there a little bit, but go ahead and tell us a little bit about E5.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. So, you know, E5 is a recently new product SKU that was actually developed by Microsoft, so it was something that just recently was added to their portfolio. And the E5, what it basically was, it was basically an add-on or let\u2019s say a leapfrog to what was initially the E4. Now the E3, the E4, and the E5 plan were all pretty similar. I mean, that\u2019s basically where you get all the same applications as far as unified messaging, you get voicemail, you get all the Office applications that are all part of it. It\u2019s not really limited to the amount of users you can have. When you start to look at things like the Office 365, like, Business Premium and Business Essentials, that\u2019s kind of more limited to about three hundred users max, but when you start to get into the Enterprise E1 and E3 and E5, that\u2019s pretty much unlimited. So it actually starts to move a little bit away from the small and medium-sized business, the kind of more of the small enterprise business and above because it does give you some of that feature functionality that you didn\u2019t have before. It does come also with Microsoft Exchange and your email and your Outlook and your calendar, and you have the personal archive. You do also get the full mailbox size, usually it\u2019s basically like a 50 gig that you get. You also get the auto sync with the mobile device that\u2019s all part of it. The compliance part, the envelope, the journaling, the data loss prevention. I mean, it just has a host of different things that come with it.<\/p>\n<p>And then what the E5 actually added to the entire portfolio is it really started to add what we like to call PSTN conferencing. And I\u2019ll give you a prime example of what that means. It\u2019s if I was an E3 user with Microsoft and all of a sudden I wanted to send out a Skype invite from my Skype application because that was part of the E3, when I would send that invite out, usually what would happen is, is that my participants on that call would only basically have the option to use their audio through their computer or we would have to use another audio bridge. So we would have to still have a ten-digit number or an 800 number for them to actually call. And what the E5 actually did is it started to add in what we call PSTN conferencing which basically gives the customers or the companies the opportunity to have a local number. So let\u2019s say it\u2019s a company that\u2019s based in Texas or in Dallas, let\u2019s say in Dallas, Texas, and they actually want to have a local Dallas number, they could actually have that as well as an 800 number. So they could have their participants, whether they\u2019re domestic in the US or even internationally that they have the ability to actually call through that number so that they could actually access the meeting and then basically still see the desktop sharing and the video, but the audio would be just through a regular basic telephony interface. So that was really one of the main driving force behind the E5 that it actually did bring to the table.<\/p>\n<p>Now what happens is \u2013 and this is kind of where that confusion actually starts \u2013 is that some customers actually think that that includes what we like to call the telephony aspect or the PBX functionality of the Skype for Business world. And it actually doesn\u2019t. And what I mean by that is E5 basically just gives you that invitation for the meeting invite so you could actually dial into the meeting, and then if all of a sudden you want to start to get some telephony features, for example, if you want to make and receive calls to any user in the world, it doesn\u2019t have to be a Skype user, it could be me calling Mike on a cell phone, and then I also want to get my voicemail and my voicemail-to-email and I also want to have let\u2019s say things like call recording and some features like that, that\u2019s when you start to have to move into the E5 with PSTN calling just to actually start to look at getting some of those features that are actually out there. And we\u2019re kind of seeing a big shift in that because customers are saying why am I going to have an Office 365 environment; let\u2019s say with an E5 or E3, etc., anything that\u2019s an Office 365 product that I\u2019m running my email, I\u2019m running my calendar, I\u2019m also running my unified communications, but I have a phone sitting on my desk that\u2019s from another provider, and those two really don\u2019t talk to each other. And when you start to look at what the E5 could actually do and that PSTN or that telephony feature license that you could add to it, that\u2019s when you really start to actually integrate everything together, to actually basically make it all into one platform.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, I agree. I think that makes a lot of sense. I\u2019ve always thought that the functionality part of, you know, Skype for Business, you know, the old Lync platform just made so much sense that a lot of people were looking at it like, hey, we want to do this, but at the same time, you know, from the hosted perspective, from hosted VoIP, they were like, well, it\u2019s not really, you know, trying to make that into a hosted VoIP provider is where they kind of were having a problem, so that kind of leading into what you\u2019re talking about makes a lot of sense. It\u2019s trying to mesh those two together where you have the ability to really integrate your functionality of, you know, Skype for Business with your phone system and do it well.<\/p>\n<p>William: That\u2019s exactly right, Mike. And just some statistics, I actually like to read them. I always try to read some industry publications that are out there. I mean, the Boston Consulting Group, you know, recently had some great statistics out there, I mean, with the people that they actually interviewed. It was about 43% of employees work out of more than one location, which is, I think, a pretty good statistic, and then 70% of the small to medium-sized businesses out there are looking for some collaboration in the cloud. They basically don\u2019t want to have it sit in their office anymore. They have workers that are remote. They have a lot of road warriors that are out there that are basically all over the place. They want to make sure that whether it\u2019s their laptop or whether it\u2019s their tablet or their Surface or their iPad or even just their regular mobile device, that they have all the tools that they need to make them successful, and that really gives them that competitive advantage over their competitors. And that\u2019s one of the reasons why you see this drive to Office 365 and this drive into that UC world as well.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. And, you know, I think all of us businesses are out there, I mean, just trying to figure out how to make all these different disparate systems talk to each other. I mean, there\u2019s so much cool technology out there, but I think we\u2019ve all experienced that, where you start to consume it and then you realize, gosh, now we have all these different logins and all these different systems and, you know, all these different cool little software applications to help us collaborate and do different things, but you\u2019re like, man, it\u2019s all just, you know, piecemealed and it\u2019s not working together very well. Yeah, I think you\u2019re right. I think that is something that still is just a huge need out there for small, medium businesses.<\/p>\n<p>William: Absolutely. And when we start to look at, you know, one thing is the integration, right? So now it brings peace of mind to a lot of IT managers and directors and CIOs that are out there basically trying to say how could I integrate all this with also keeping my expense or my cost down? Because obviously, I don\u2019t want to have a whole group of individuals having to try to integrate all this because the more integration and the more plug-ins I have, the more of a challenge I have or the more of a risk I have to actually have something go wrong, you know, within my network and within my day-to-day operations. And when you start to look at Office 365 and Microsoft and the E3 and the E5 and etc., since it all is under one platform, and now you start to look at adding some of the telephony aspect to it, that\u2019s really when you get everything integrated onto that one platform. That just makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s a lot of what I like to call opportunity costs when you\u2019re actually measuring something, especially in a total cost of ownership, you know, when you\u2019re looking at your TCO models. I mean, easily, right off the bat, it reduces your travel expenses, probably anywhere from what, 5 to about 30%. It reduces your audio conferencing because now you don\u2019t even have to have a separate audio conferencing bridge. Everything can be done within the Office 365 environment, and that usually saves you about 30 to 95%. There\u2019s a lot of expensive conferencing charges out there that now you have it all bundled into that one platform. And then even just from a simple telephony standpoint because of the fact that you\u2019re able to do instant messaging and conferencing and a lot of collaboration all in the one platform, that saves you about another 50 to 70% on your telephony charges. So it\u2019s not just a matter of the integration, which actually brings peace of mind to individuals but also at the same time, when you start to look at your costs, it does substantially decrease a lot of those costs.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, I can definitely see that, you know, and it\u2019s surprising how many things you can start to get rid of, but you go, oh, yeah, oh, we don\u2019t need that anymore, and oh, yeah, we don\u2019t need that anymore. You know, I\u2019ve definitely seen that time and time again.<\/p>\n<p>William: Oh, yeah. And that\u2019s kind of just on the cost standpoint, right? That\u2019s a little bit easier to grasp and see, especially when you\u2019re sitting there and you\u2019re looking at budgets and you\u2019re looking at expenses and, you know, whether you\u2019re looking at it on a quarterly basis or on a yearly basis. And one of the other things that we do with clients is we also try to explain to them how working with the Office 365 environment and those unified communications altogether, how it actually improves even some of your business outcomes. You know, for example, there are some statistics out there that say that because of the fact that you have everything bundled together, you\u2019re going to save up to about thirty minutes per day on end user productivity. That means that when they\u2019re trying to search for somebody and kind of going back and forth, whether it\u2019s by voicemail or email and waiting for somebody to respond and I called you and now we\u2019re playing the phone tag, it actually saves about thirty minutes per day. Then now it gives that thirty minutes back to the employee to actually be more productive in what their core competency is to actually drive the business or drive the actual business to better productivity overall. It also even helps resolve customer issues faster because of the collaboration. And even from a sales standpoint, imagine when you could actually walk into an organization and now you\u2019re collaborating with marketing and finance and all the other departments to actually drive that sale for your company. It even shortens that sales cycle, probably up to about 20%. So it\u2019s not just what you can actually save, which is kind of inherent to look at, but also how it improves the efficiencies and the communications within an organization.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: That\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>William: Thanks. Yeah, no, I think it\u2019s really revolutionary what\u2019s coming out there, and that\u2019s again, going back to the actual feature set of the E5. You know, the E5 kind of just gives you that one aspect of it, and then when you want to start to add in the telephony and the voice aspect of it, there is more to it. And obviously there\u2019s a cost to it, and then you have to actually get into the costs and see what it\u2019s going to do. And that\u2019s when organizations like myself with CallTower, what we do is we basically act as that consultative approach to the customer to make sure that we\u2019re actually driving the right opportunity or the right solution set for that customer, depending on what their needs are.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Great.<\/p>\n<p>William: So let\u2019s kind of break down a little bit on, you know, what that E5 would actually look at. So there\u2019s a couple things that the E5 would bring to the table that\u2019s just kind of inherent overall when you\u2019re looking at Office 365 because obviously Microsoft does a very good job of trying to make sure, from a secure standpoint, you know, security is obviously a big thing, so you want to make sure that you have that. And what the E5 does, it just really kind of makes sure that that\u2019s kind of inherent, whether it\u2019s the E3 or the E5, it\u2019s going to make sure to give you things like exchange advanced threat protection. It\u2019s going to give you some Power BI Pro which basically is going to give you some of that integration with SharePoint and with OneDrive to actually make sure everything is working together. It\u2019s going to give you the opportunity to look at that Skype for Business online to give you that telephony aspect of it, which is obviously one of the big aspects of it overall, and then even just like what we call Advanced eDiscovery which is more about archiving and some retention and also just the eDiscovery overall.<\/p>\n<p>So when you start to look at what you could actually do with the E5 overall, it does bring some good things to the table, but again, when you\u2019re starting to look at it from a Cloud PBX standpoint, it is an add-on and that\u2019s really where the confusion comes in with the customers, because I think that when they go with the E5 they\u2019re automatically getting that and again, that\u2019s a farce because from there you do have to add what is called the Cloud PBX. And then, in some cases, you also even have to add the international PBX piece of it if you actually want to make sure that you have the global presence to actually make and receive calls, not just domestically in the US but also international.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s when you start to get the confusion because customers think, well, great, I should just go to the E5. Microsoft sells that E5 somewhere around the $35 range. And then they say, great, for $35 I\u2019m getting conferencing, I\u2019m getting my Cloud PBX. And then it\u2019s like, no, guys, hold on, back up. You\u2019re just actually getting the E5 with the conferencing, that PSTN conferencing. But now if you want to start to add the Cloud PBX, you got to tack on another $12. And then if you also want to make sure that you can make and receive calls internationally, so if you happen to have an international office or just do business internationally which nowadays who doesn\u2019t, right, we have a global economy, that\u2019s going to add another $12.<\/p>\n<p>So when you\u2019re looking at a total package, you\u2019re looking at a total package of about $59 a month to actually get the full E5 with the Cloud PBX going. And when you start to look at some of the packages that we\u2019ve put together, we\u2019re easily going to be somewhere around the mid forties and at the same, give you that wide expertise and that solution-based consultative approach to make sure that we\u2019re putting you into the right package based on your user experience and your user requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Very cool.<\/p>\n<p>William: We\u2019re, you know, pretty exciting overall because of where it\u2019s going and I think nowadays you\u2019re starting to see that buzz and when people start to ask me how much of an impact do you see Office 365 and even the E3 and the E5 being, I always kind of use the analogy of dial-up and high-speed internet with DSL and cable, right?<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>William: I mean, if you remember back in the day when you had that dial-up and that modem was dialing back and forth and it was going and then, all of a sudden, you went to DSL or cable. It was revolutionary as far as what it was connecting. No one ever want back, and that\u2019s what you\u2019re kind of starting to see within the Office 365 environment and those different types of licensing plans that you can have because now you have everything under one shop. And I don\u2019t have to worry about having a disc on the side sitting in my IT office that I could basically give to a new employee to upload all the Office products like Word and Excel and so forth. All that goes away. Everything is in the cloud. It\u2019s a subscription-based type of license. You pay per month. If that user happens to leave the organization or you terminate that employee, then pretty much at that point you just pretty much just turn down that license.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, that\u2019s fantastic compared to the old model.<\/p>\n<p>William: It is. Yeah, I know. It\u2019s a big difference. And that\u2019s where the drive is really going to be because everything now is going more to that subscription-based; everything is going more into the cloud. I mean, everybody has something in the cloud. Whether they want to accept it or not, I mean, that\u2019s where everyone is driving to, and some customers only understand they do still want to have some things on-premise and there are some advantages of having that. So we understand that. But at the end of the day, any organization today that does not have one of their core competencies in the cloud, they\u2019re just basically doing a disservice to their organization and hopefully, they\u2019ll never get to the point that they\u2019ll have to activate some redundancy or some business continuity because it can drive down their business.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s another statistic, Mike, too, that I\u2019d like to share with you, and when you start to look at some of the catastrophic events out there, whether it\u2019s an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane, you know, something like that \u2013 we\u2019ve been having some of those around the East Coast and over in the Pacific Coast here lately \u2013 small to medium-sized businesses \u2013 and what we mean by that is businesses usually at about a hundred users or less \u2013 if they are out of their services for more than week, I think it\u2019s about 40% of those businesses never come back. And that\u2019s a big statistic, that basically that business closes shop for a week, they can\u2019t be sustained anymore, so that means that those employees have to go look for other jobs. And that business venture just closes down and never actually comes back.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s that important actually look at going to things into the cloud and then also going to plans like an E3 or an E5 and hopefully, CallTower could be one of the organizations to bring that to the table for your customers.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know, I think I\u2019ve heard something similar to that before. You know, it\u2019s always hard to believe, like, gosh, man, one week and then you\u2019re toast. But it\u2019s like, I think it\u2019s one week of downtime and you just die a slow death when you\u2019re trying to come back.<\/p>\n<p>William: It is. It really is. And you know what, what you have to look at to is you have to try to partner out there with organizations and, you know, customers nowadays they realize that it\u2019s no longer a vendor-customer relationship. It\u2019s now really a partnership. So you want to make sure that you\u2019re actually looking at what the best practices are out there and who has the best experience because there\u2019s a thousand organizations out there that are some value-added resellers, some ISPs and so forth that all understand what are the value-adds that they bring to the table.<\/p>\n<p>And from every organization you got to basically see what those best practices are, right? You got to look from what\u2019s the feature gaps that E5 currently have and how could I find an organization that could actually pretty much fill in those feature gaps, from a device management who\u2019s going to be supporting my devices, my physical phones that are sitting at the desk, and also what are the benefits that that organization brings to the table that could basically help alleviate the day-to-day operations that I have to run just to maintain and support whether it\u2019s E5 or E3 or just my unified communications experience so that my entire IT organization, whether it\u2019s ten people, fifty, or three could actually focus on the core competency of our business and continue to drive the revenue to our company so that we continue to be successful.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: That makes a lot of sense to me.<\/p>\n<p>William: So it is. And as far as, you know, what type of companies work or basically, what type of companies that E5 plan does work, you\u2019re kind of looking at a little bit more of the small to midsized businesses. That\u2019s kind of a best bet for the E5. Somebody that\u2019s probably maybe looking or that\u2019s currently without a current PBX or conferencing system in place or they\u2019re kind of basically looking to try and amend that altogether, and then somebody who is looking basically to get some advanced technology, right, they really don\u2019t have the manpower to actually do implementation and training and support. So you\u2019re actually looking for somebody that could actually bring all these to the table and at the same time, making sure that you could partner with organizations that could bring you that E5 experience or that E3 experience and basically fill in all these different gaps that are out there.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, and that even is changing, you know, just all the time it seems like, you know, who\u2019s ready for Office 365 fully integrated with voice. Just, you know, five years ago everybody was still kind of scared of it and now it\u2019s just all of a sudden kind of taken off like wildfire. It\u2019s like that veil\u2019s been lifted and everybody is like, all right, you know, I think we\u2019re ready to try this.<\/p>\n<p>William: Oh, absolutely. I just recently came back, in July I was over in Toronto at the Microsoft World Partner Conference that they have every year. And the latest statistic I heard was that globally Microsoft currently has, right now, about two hundred and fifty million users or subscribers on one of their Office 365 plans. Now, that\u2019s not the E5; that\u2019s just overall. But that\u2019s a substantial amount. That\u2019s a lot larger than most countries out there as far as the amount of users that they actually have. And here\u2019s where, you know, kind of that demystifying the E5 or where the challenge comes in.<\/p>\n<p>So you look at the E3 or you look at the E5 plan and you say, great, I think that that works for my organization, now where do I go get it? And that\u2019s really where an organization like CallTower and the expertise that, say myself and my team has, that we could bring that to the table. We could bring a dedicated project manager, show you that track record of managing, not just the implementation from the IT side but also the managing voice part of it, who\u2019s going to be managing my devices, who\u2019s going to help me troubleshoot, right? When I do have an issue, I want to be able to pick up the phone or I want to be able to email an organization and make sure that I\u2019m going to get a response back so that I actually see what\u2019s going on with my business because obviously it\u2019s detrimental for me to have any type of interruptions on my day-to-day business.<\/p>\n<p>And then post implementation, you want to make sure that you could work with an organization that\u2019s going to provide you training, not just to the IT staff but also to the end users, right? You want to make sure that your end users have that post implementation training and then even ongoing training because you might have new employees when you have some turnover or employees that never used the specific feature set that, maybe six months down the road, now they have to start using because maybe their job roles and responsibility wound up changing. You want to make sure that you have an organization that\u2019s there for you 24\/7. So you want to make sure that that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n<p>And then, also just that ongoing account management, that account review of somebody whether it\u2019s quarterly or whether it\u2019s semi-annually or whether it\u2019s just annually, just to kind of sit down with the key decision-makers and say, okay, where is your business going and how could we partner up together to make sure that we\u2019re providing the best solutions for you to continue to make sure that you are optimizing and being efficient within your company to drive your revenue? Cost savings is always very important, but I always kind of look at it as a two-pronged approach. It\u2019s not just what could I save you, but also how could I help enable you to actually drive more revenue for your organization.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, I think some of those things you\u2019re bringing up are huge because, you know, that that\u2019s kind of what I\u2019ve seen in the marketplace, is the people who are going to, you know, they\u2019re trying to use Skype for Business as their main phone system, a lot of times you\u2019ll see these people they\u2019re almost like cowboys out there. They\u2019re trying to do it all themselves. And they\u2019re trying to just, kind of, throw it together, you know, with the pure offering of, you know, Skype for Business and they\u2019re not really partnering with a company like yours where it\u2019s like, okay, you guys are helping them make sure that the voice is high quality and it works. They\u2019re just kind of throwing some phones out there and saying, no, you know, we\u2019re using Skype for Business. And they almost just, like go buy, you know, their IP phones and install them or have, you know, an outside vendor come in and install IP phones and kind of set the whole thing up for them, maybe help them a little bit, but they\u2019re not kind of partnering with an ongoing voice company to really, you know, wrap their arms around that application and make sure that it works.<\/p>\n<p>And I think that\u2019s a huge differentiator that I want everybody on the line to understand, is that that\u2019s really where a company like CallTower can come in, you know. And obviously, there\u2019s other companies out there as well, it\u2019s not just CallTower, but speaking to you specifically just mentioning CallTower, that\u2019s where you guys come into play and really kind of help that situation because you\u2019ll hear people say, well, I don\u2019t know about Skype for Business. That\u2019s just kind of risky. And I think they\u2019re right. It\u2019s like, yep, that\u2019s absolutely risky if you\u2019re just kind of trying to do that on your own and have somebody, you know, maybe help you install it but then just, you know, keep your fingers crossed and hope that it works. And doing that for a company with, you know, a couple of hundred employees, that is kind of nuts, you know. But there are other options out there. And I think that\u2019s where I see a lot of IT departments don\u2019t really understand. There are other options out there like a CallTower where you guys can come in and kind of really help them with that and make sure that it works, and do it in a way that\u2019s a high-quality way to deliver Skype for Business, you know, not just throw it in there and get phone service through Office 365 and keep your fingers crossed.<\/p>\n<p>William: No, absolutely, Mike. I mean, there\u2019s simple things that we do, like best practices. I mean, we have documents that we provide to our customers, on best documents from a firewall configuration, from a bandwidth allocation, right? Because this is not just voice, right? And that\u2019s one misconception right there when you start to look overall and just say, well, you know, I currently have a couple T1s running my voice right now, so can you give me the equivalent? It\u2019s like, guys, hold on, we\u2019re no longer just doing voice, right? Now we\u2019re doing video. We\u2019re doing desktop sharing. We\u2019re doing instant messaging. We\u2019re doing presence. We\u2019re doing, in some cases, high-definition video. We\u2019re also doing some white boarding. Because those are of different unified communication features that actually come with the product.<\/p>\n<p>And then when you start to look at that E5 with Microsoft and you start to look at an organization like CallTower, you know, what\u2019s that value-add that would bring to the table. And this integration that CallTower provides is not a plug-in into the Microsoft environment; it\u2019s actually native to the Microsoft environment. And that\u2019s really where kind of that big difference comes in. And I\u2019ll probably give you the best example. When you\u2019re looking at a softphone, nowadays a lot of organizations are looking at a softphone, with our solution the Microsoft Desktop Client that you used for instant messaging and presence, and it\u2019s your address book and so forth, actually becomes your softphone. So now you don\u2019t have to have a separate softphone app running on your computer, the Desktop Client for Microsoft running on your computer, have your email open, all that is integrated into the one portal. That\u2019s pretty much what you\u2019re looking at on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p>And then when you start to look at things of who\u2019s going to manage my equipment, who\u2019s going to provide me the training, who\u2019s going to actually do that white glove implementation that I\u2019m looking at, where could I call for support, who could I call for support? And then additional features. My organization is a little bit more robust or unique, I need things like call recording, I need things like contact center. I need things like integration with different CRM tools like Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce.com, those types of things. That\u2019s when you started to look at the Microsoft solution and say, hey, it\u2019s great. It gets me about 60% of the way there, but I need somebody to go ahead and put me over that finish line and I need all these different things done by a host of organizations or at least one, and that\u2019s really where CallTower comes in and brings that value-add to our customers.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah. And I think another thing that\u2019s neat that you guys can do, you know, you guys can bring a circuit in as well, which kind of controls that voice quality and so that a voice is never hitting the public internet, if the client wants that. It\u2019s not always necessary, but if needs be, that\u2019s something you guys can do as well. I think it\u2019s just kind of like, you know, really wrapping your arms around the whole solution and saying like, hey, we can deliver it any way you want it and make sure that it works. It\u2019s just a matter of what you need, depending on, you know, the applications that you\u2019re running with voice, like you said, are you doing a call center, how mission critical, you know, how many users do you have at that single site or if you have multiple sites, kind of putting the whole thing together. It\u2019s like, like you said, like that\u2019s where a company goes, oh, Office 365 and adding phone service or basically to add a phone system to it, that\u2019s great, but there\u2019s all these holes that they\u2019re thinking of, and that\u2019s what I think worries them. And a lot of them don\u2019t understand there\u2019s companies out there, like you guys, that can kind of complete that puzzle and say like, okay, well, here it is, it\u2019s a great service and we\u2019ll let you use it exactly as it is, meaning, like, all the functionality. It\u2019s not going to be kind of quasi, you know, Skype for Business or any of that stuff. It\u2019s actually you\u2019re doing it but it\u2019s, you know, you guys come in and make sure that it works the way they want it to work.<\/p>\n<p>William: That\u2019s exactly right. And we\u2019ve had some organizations that are domestic-only in nature. We\u2019ve also had some organizations that are international. We do actually provide the service not just here in the U.S. but also in about seventy countries on a global level. And we can also include that circuit, Mike, like you mentioned, so it does become more of that full turnkey solution. And depending on the customers\u2019 needs, some location could be ramped up rather quickly or we can look at doing things in a phase implementation and go at the pace of the customer to make sure that we\u2019re not overwhelming them, either going too fast or going too slow. We pretty much can go at the pace of the customer.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, very cool. Awesome! And just in closing, what would you say, just to kind of wrap up, that you\u2019d like everybody to kind of take away from this?<\/p>\n<p>William: You know, the biggest thing with this is, I think when you start to do your homework and you start to do your research, you want to make sure that you\u2019re working with an organization that has the years of experience and can provide good references on their customer experience as far as how the onboarding is going, how the implementation, and then also the support end. Cost is obviously a big driving factor, but you have to look at all those different aspects of provisioning onboarding and support, and making sure that you\u2019re getting the right expertise\/help, to actually bring the right solution to you. It\u2019s a big process to go through, but if you do your homework and you do it right, at the end of the road, you\u2019re going to make sure that your employees, which is the biggest thing you\u2019re looking for, are happier and you\u2019re making your organization more effective.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Very good. Very good. I agree. And so, what we\u2019re going to do now is, is take a little bit of a happy break from the serious conversation. And I do want to talk about CallTower a little bit and have you tell us, you know, what you guys do really well and, kind of, what are your highlights are, tell us a little bit about CallTower in general. But before we do that, again, I just like to take a quick little break and as we always do, just have you tell us a funny story about something you\u2019ve witnessed in the workplace, whether it\u2019s the most funny thing or interesting thing. Tell us a story that will make us smile a little bit.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. There\u2019s a lot of those stories to tell, but I\u2019ll just tell a quick one on that. So we had a customer, it was a large customer, this was probably going back about fourteen years or so, and the customer actually called us in a panic. And it was actually the receptionist that called us. And the receptionist, when they called in they were just flipping out just because they were saying that the phone\u2019s not working, they\u2019re not able to answer the calls coming in. And it was a small business. There was only about eighty users in the business itself. But basically, it was one of those a little bit more old-fashioned companies that they answer every call. They want to have that human factor. And the receptionist was kind of going crazy, right, because they have X amount of employees having all those calls come in.<\/p>\n<p>So the receptionist actually calls us into our support center and, you know, kind of freaking out. I mean, almost in tears. It was a young lady, and she was almost in tears, and she\u2019s saying how she doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, the phone\u2019s not working, the phone\u2019s not working, calls are coming in, I\u2019m hearing the calls come in and they\u2019re going to other people and I\u2019m going to get fired from my job, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. And so we sit there and we did troubleshooting for them for about twenty minutes. And we just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. I mean, it\u2019s just not working. And then come finally to fruition at the end of those twenty minutes, one of the guys actually that\u2019s on a call, we had basically our Tier 3 and Tier 4 guys on the call, says, \u201cCould you do me a favor? Can you see if underneath your desk if the power\u2019s actually plugged in?\u201d And the girl took a step back and looked and said, \u201cOh, my God, I kicked it with my foot when I got here.\u201d So all that troubleshooting and everything and it was that she literally just had her entire communication system was just not plugged in and that\u2019s why she had no power and it was not working.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: I hate to judge because we\u2019ve all made those decisions. No matter how technical we are we\u2019ve all done that where we\u2019re going like, there\u2019s a solution right in front of our nose and it\u2019s just something stupid, but it\u2019s still funny for all of us to sit back and laugh at, right? There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, you know, laughing at someone else\u2019s expense once in a while just because they tripped and fall. It\u2019s still kind of funny.<\/p>\n<p>William: It was. And we all did have a chuckle afterwards, even with her, but for about twenty minutes the poor woman was in tears.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah. Yeah, it\u2019s like, you know, oh, man. You know, I\u2019m adding that to the list of great stories I\u2019ve heard that are very similar. You know, I think that there\u2019s definitely a growing trend on this podcast that, if there\u2019s something wrong, the first thing you want to do is make sure it\u2019s plugged in. Or, and plugged into the wall. I had one person come on and say that, like the power strip was plugged into itself. Like, okay, just make sure the device is plugged into the power strip, the power strip is plugged into the wall. That is the first rule of troubleshooting. I\u2019m sure all the IT professionals listening can attest to that one. They probably see that on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p>William: Absolutely. They probably all do. They probably all have at least one or two good war stories to share.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, awesome. Well, cool. All right. So tell us a little bit about CallTower. You know, tell us a little bit about the company in general and what CallTower is really good at in particular, and maybe something new that\u2019s going on that you\u2019re excited about.<\/p>\n<p>William: Sure. Sure. So the organization, CallTower itself, we\u2019ve been around since 2002, so we\u2019ve been around for about fourteen-plus years. We currently have about seventy thousand users on a global level that are currently running on our platforms. So there\u2019s a lot of organizations out there that depend on us on a daily basis to make sure that that we\u2019re providing a good, reliable, stable service. And in the industry we are considered to be a best-in-breed solution provider and primarily, the reason for that is because what we run in our datacenters is 100% end-to-end Microsoft or 100% end-to-end Cisco. So we actually are one of the few organizations out there that don\u2019t have a third party VoIP switch, that you can basically put a Cisco phone or a Polycom phone on your desktop and say, oh, this is Microsoft, or oh, this is Cisco. We actually make sure to run end-to-end Microsoft and Cisco.<\/p>\n<p>And, you know, going back to the E5, Mike, that you had mentioned, we are one of the few organizations out there that are actually native within the Microsoft Office 365 environment. And what I mean by that is, there\u2019s other VoIP systems out there that actually say, yeah, we could provide some type of integration, but it\u2019s usually a little clunky or requires you to have, like, an extra toolbar on your computer screen that you have to kind of integrate with. And with us, what we do is, since we run the Skype platforms within our datacenters, what happens is, is that we get to actually provide dial tone and give you that full telephony feature functionality, the contact center, the DID, the voicemail to email, things like call recording and so forth, that are all part of it, all running within the Office 365 environment.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s basically our core competencies. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been able to do. We\u2019ve been a partner with Cisco and run the Cisco platform since 2002, we introduced Microsoft to our customers right around the 2008 timeframe. So again, we\u2019ve been a good Microsoft partner now for about six-plus years. And we\u2019ve also expanded our services to provide services for users in roughly about seventy countries on a global level. But I think that that\u2019s really one exciting thing to mention, is the fact that customers nowadays they are more global than they have been. You have, in a lot of cases, even a 50 or 100c customer down here that might just be kind of what we would consider more small than more medium or enterprise, but they do happen to have some users that are somewhere over in the EMEA or the APAC regions of the world, and they do also need to have some collaboration going back and forth.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re pretty excited about where we are today as a company and where we\u2019re going and the fact that we\u2019re probably one of the only organizations out there that have native Skype for Business that we could provide to customers. It is pretty exciting for us. And we were one of the few organizations back in 2012 to actually introduce Voice Enabled Lync, which is obviously the predecessor of Skype and actually took basically the bumps and bruises and realized where the gaps were in providing that full telephony and that full turnkey solution to our customers, and really kind of put it on steroids, for the lack of a better words, to actually make sure that we could give that full functionality to our customers.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s exciting times right now at CallTower. We have a lot of organizations whether it\u2019s domestic or international. We have some universities and colleges, some manufacturing organizations, some retail organizations that are using our services and they\u2019re really coming to us saying, hey, I love this E3, I love this E5 plan that Microsoft has, but I really want to try to see if I could do more with it. I want to make it now that full unified communications solution so I could give that full turnkey to my employees, but I really don\u2019t know how to go about it. And that\u2019s really where CallTower comes in and adds that value-add to the customers.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, that\u2019s definitely the way I think of you guys. It\u2019s just like you had mentioned, it\u2019s, you know, the full integration of a hosted VoIP provider and Office 365 Skype for Business, someone who wants that, who kind of wants both of those. And like I said, most service provides, they do hosted VoIP and they can add on some Office 365 integration, but they\u2019re not doing Skype for Business typically. You know, they\u2019re not really running Skype for Business and fully integrating that with their hosted VoIP system, it\u2019s a hosted VoIP system that\u2019s integrating with some Outlook functionality or Skype for Business functionality, and it\u2019s not the whole package. And really, to kind of marry those two together there\u2019s very few providers that can do it. And off the top of my mind I don\u2019t really know of any other than you guys that can do it, just off the top of my head, that\u2019s whenever anybody brings that up it\u2019s always like, oh, CallTower can do that. That\u2019s more of an application for CallTower because like I said, it\u2019s just very rare that people are running it like at that level.<\/p>\n<p>William: Absolutely. There\u2019s also even some customization, we do have some requests from some customers that come to us and they\u2019re looking for some things. For example, we\u2019re working right now with an organization that is a global organization. It\u2019s about two thousand users. And they\u2019re actually looking to do some integration with Skype for Business and HipChat which is, you know, one of the big programs that are out there. And we\u2019re looking at doing that integration. There are some other ones that are asking us about Slack, as well as integration with Skype for Business. So we\u2019re looking at those things. So we do have not just the fact that the Skype for Business as one of our core competencies, but also that customization request that also comes in where we wound up helping our customers.<\/p>\n<p>And we have a lot of bars on the Microsoft side that are saying, hey, I know how to do all the IT stuff, but when it comes to voice, you know, kind of those little hairs on the back of my neck stand up because I\u2019m not really an expert on it, and that\u2019s where that expertise of CallTower comes in.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, cool. Thanks for sharing and thanks for being on the program today. I think, you know, I definitely learned a lot, so I know that everybody else online learned a lot as well. And, you know, I really appreciate you carving out the time to educate us a little bit on E5. And like I said, going into this, you know, when you and I talked before the podcast, I really didn\u2019t know what E5 was. I was like, well, I know it has something to do with voice, but, you know, I really appreciate you, you know, educating us a little bit and teaching us and I think everybody\u2019s better for it.<\/p>\n<p>William: Well, great, Mike. Thank you very much for having me on. I appreciate the questions and good luck to everybody out there. Appreciate your time.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: All right. Thank you very much. Have a great day.<\/p>\n<p>William: You, too.<\/p>\n<p>Mike: Okay. Well, that\u2019s a wrap, Cloud Nation. Thank you for listening. And don\u2019t forget a couple of quick things. Number one, if you want to revisit any of the information that we talked about, William and I, don\u2019t forget we have the transcripts and a replay on our website. Just go to AeroComInc.com, go to the Blog section, and search for this episode and you will find the full transcripts as well as a replay of the episode that you can play at your leisure. So make sure you check that out; that\u2019s a resource that we do just for you.<\/p>\n<p>And then, also make sure you enter into win the Microsoft Surface tablet that CallTower and William and their marketing team are giving away. Hey, it\u2019s free stuff, right? All you have to do is text the word \u201cCALLTOWER\u201d to the number 44-222 and you might win that Microsoft Surface that we\u2019re going to be giving away at the end of this year, 2016. So if you\u2019re listening, and it\u2019s before the end of the year in 2016, text the word \u201cCALLTOWER\u201d to the number 44-222 and see if you might win that Microsoft Surface.<\/p>\n<p>All right, thank you for listening again, Cloud Nation. Have a great day out there, and we will catch you next time.<\/p>\n<p>IT Nation, thank you for joining us on Cloud Therapy with AeroComInc.com. Visit us at AeroComInc.com, that\u2019s A-E-R-O-C-O-M-I-N-C dot com and head on over to the Blog section for notes on everything we talked about today as well as our blogs, provider reviews, and of course the best quotes for any technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn whether or not Office 365&#8217;s E5 offering is going to make your company&#8217;s employees shout out of joy or frustration. CallTower&#8217;s CRO, William Rubio, joins Mike to discuss the intricate details of what E5 is and what it is<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/cloud-therapy-ep-026-what-is-office-365-e5\/\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more &#8250;<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[371],"tags":[220,215,451,446,447,422,429,453,452,382,448,377,431,432,428,433,430,456,423,455,454,450],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}