During a test conducted with Bell Canada, the Komutel-Avaya NG9-1-1 call handling architecture successfully received an NG9-1-1 test call from the Bell 9-1-1 ESInet network. This key milestone is a first step towards more fully implementing Next Generation 9-1-1 services, which will be introduced in Canada starting June 30, 2020, and in preparation for the decommissioning of the national E9-1-1 services by June 30, 2023.1

Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) is a cross-industry initiative that strengthens and improves how 9-1-1 calls are handled. It reimagines the response possibilities of emergency services, allowing responding agencies the opportunity to have greater context, smoother workflows, and improved operating efficiency. This ultimately helps empower public safety agencies to respond to emergencies with greater speed and effectiveness for better outcomes that save lives and property. Over time, NG9-1-1 workflows will include voice, text, video, files, telematics information, and rich data about the call, caller, and location. With roughly 300 Public Safety Access Point (PSAPs) across Canada, Komutel and Avaya serve the largest number of them jointly.

“In situations where time is vital, seamless communication can make all the difference,” said Brian Silverstone, VP Canadian Federal Government Sales and Public Safety, Avaya. “Komutel and Avaya are proud to partner in bringing innovative solutions and support to Canada in supporting the transformation of their 9-1-1 communication centers. We’re excited about the potential that NG9-1-1 can deliver to help in improving emergency responsiveness, and to see how a commitment to standards and software-based architectures can be leveraged to support digital transformation.”

“Together, Komutel and Avaya serve the largest number of PSAPs in Canada and are fully committed to making our client’s transition to NG9-1-1 as tailored as possible to their specific needs while minimizing risks and disruptions,” said Yves Laliberté, President, Komutel. “Support for the NG9-1-1 standards as adapted for Canada is only the beginning and the IP architecture lends itself well to workflow automation to improve PSAP operating efficiencies.”

“9-1-1 services have been in place for many years without much advancement,” said Deputy Commissioner Rose DiMarco, Traffic Safety and Operational Support, OPP.“NG9-1-1 brings significant opportunities to increase our effectiveness for handling and responding to emergencies. We’re proud to conduct the first NG9-1-1 call in Ontario. This early stage of NG9-1-1 testing is paving the way for better interaction with 9-1-1 services for all citizens in the years to come.”

“We were excited to have Combat Networks’ Technical Integration Specialists be a part of the successful testing of NG9-1-1 in collaboration with the Ontario Provincial Police” said Rob Finucan, Chief Executive Officer at Combat Networks. The dedicated team of professionals from Bell Canada, the OPP, and our vendor partners, Avaya and Komutel, have demonstrated that both the technology and expertise for future successful NG9-1-1 deployments are one step closer to becoming the new standard for Emergency Services in Canada.”

Earlier this year, leveraging their longtime relationship as an Avaya DevConnect partner, Avaya and Komutel deepened their collaboration to provide NENA i3 Call Handling Functional Element solutions to address the needs of large and small public safety agencies as they evolve to NG9-1-1, and leverage communications to support digital transformation initiatives driving improved citizen engagement and operational efficiencies.

For more information see the release here.

Why Combat Connect SIP?

Traditionally, major service providers use Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) trunks to allow corporate PBXs to interface with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), however businesses are now embracing the convenience and cost savings of Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) as a unified solution for transmitting voice, data and video signals consistently, securely, and effortlessly.

• Lower cost of fixed trunking requirements
• Burstable GLSIP trunking to support fluctuating call volumes
  • Don’t pay peak volume rates for the entire year, burst when you need to
• Global Point of Presence (POP’s)
• Lower Long-distance cost
  • Replace/Eliminate expensive PRIs and analog facilities
• SIP expertise and technical support (24/7)
• Simplified contracts with no restrictive conditions
• Virtual Number presence (DID)

The Combat Networks Advantage

The simplicity of a single point of contact via Combat Maintenance Services and our intuitive Combat Service Portal.  Traditional Service Providers have siloed resources for Voice and Data. Combat Connect SIP Trunks support centralized management and control. In addition to full integration with Combat Networks NOC, Combat Connect also offers support for CLI-based control, SNMP integration and TR-069 management when an SBC is deployed.

Ask us for a Proof of Concept (POC)
Combat Consultation services will help you establish your current PSTN connection costs including Long distance fees, and we will demonstrate compelling cost savings with Combat Connect SIP.

Download the brochure.

2019/04/01 – For immediate release

I am pleased to announce an important and exciting extension to our Combat ETA program.  As you know Combat ETA allows our customers the opportunity to know how far a technician, account manager or executive is away from visiting their site, trackable through an in-house custom built application.

This application has been well received but as you know at Combat, we don’t stop just because we are ahead of the game!  After a lot of careful consideration, I think we can add significant value and continue to develop the application thanks to some work by Paul Boone to transition the application into a profit centre for Combat.

Long story short, we have taken the opportunity to approach Uber Eats to see if we could leverage our technicians, vehicles and Combat ETA application and they immediately saw the benefit and jumped on board.  Under the terms of the agreement with Uber Eats, when we dispatch one of our highly qualified Technicians, Sales Account Manager or even me, using Combat ETA we can now offer the Uber Eats service at the same time.

The way Uber Eats wants to see this flow is that the process starts off as normal when we receive a request for service or a site visit from a customer through the phone, email, web or NOC contact call.   The NOC team will contact the technician, account manager or executive and simultaneously log into the Uber Eats driver app and select an Uber Eats Restaurant/Customer pair that is on the route or near the route to the customer and offer our customers the ability to not only open a ticket, but request a pre-arranged stop at a restaurant, grocery store or LCBO/Beer Store enroute.  In the future, I think we can add dry cleaners or postal services as an additional value-added service.

Simultaneous to the ticket opening and dispatch, an email will go to the customer to see if they want anything from that restaurant (a Big Mac, Chinese food or Tim Hortons)  as a value-added service provided uniquely by Combat Networks.   Not only will Combat show up to fix the customer problem, but we will also be able to bring a delicious meal with us at the same time.  The end result should be an increase in both profitability and customer satisfaction and a differentiated service offering from Combat.

Click here to request info from the sales team.

Learn how Customers across Canada are leveraging Combat Networks expertise and services.

Linamar Corporation, a leader in the automotive industry, recently highlighted the engagement by Combat Networks on both their telephony and network infrastructures.

Click here to learn more

Wait until you see what we do in 2019!

Click here to see what businesswire.com had to say about it.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190123005409/en/Avaya-Unveils-Americas-International-Partner-Year-Awards

How does a technician get to a customer site to install an emergency spare part in a down system?

This is not a trick question. The most common answer is, they drive there.

Servicing mission critical on-prem solutions requires eyes on the systems with a 24x7x365 NOC, a healthy supply of spare parts in depots across the country, highly qualified technicians, and a fleet of vehicles to get them to site on time, every time.

Cloud providers need spare parts for 1 system (or none, as it is often hosted by another company), and 1 or 2 technicians to look after just 1 system.

How do you know when your technician will arrive with your spare part?

Combat eliminates any guess with clarity.

The Combat ETA App shows customers exactly where the technician is while en route.  When you buy on-site support with an SLA, Combat provides proof of that commitment being met.

When looking for an SP, don’t be afraid to ask those tricky questions.  “How are you investing in your service model to guarantee support of my on premise solutions?”

Cloud is not an upgrade, it’s a deployment model and a decision that forms part of a successful deployment.   There are questions you need to get a very solid understanding of before you look at leveraging the sophistication of technology to get you where you need to be.

• What issues are you trying to address?
• What experience are you trying to achieve?
• What complexity are you trying to reduce?

Why Combat and Avaya’s Private Cloud technology have been a winning ‘Combo’ for some of our largest customers

Combat understands that the benefit of technology from a customer’s perspective will only be realized when the architected solution is a perfect match to address the needs.   The TCO becomes a relevant deciding factor with considerations of the deployment model, management ease and uninterrupted service, unmatched support and OPEX vs. CAPEX.

Combat does not choose a technology first and then find a need.  We take our time.  We do our homework.  We make an investment and then we get skilled.

“Combat injects time, resources and the learning necessary to support and evolve communication infrastructure environments and to leverage innovative approaches offered by these solutions.” 

– James Williamson, Channel Account Manager, Avaya Canada.

By complementing our customer’s business outcomes, Combat has become the largest integrator of the Avaya Pod Fx™ platform in Canada because it fills a need.

“A private cloud deployment of an Avaya Pod Fx™ is a great choice for those organizations that aren’t tolerant of even the shortest maintenance windows.  Or in other cases, where organizations need to run communications systems in parallel, such as moving into a new building, while taking advantage of the technology upgrade opportunity that move presents to them.”   

– Greg Curry, Combat, CTO

• Deploy unified communications and contact center solutions quickly and easily in your private, public, or hybrid cloud environments with Avaya Pod Fx™. You get a combo of applications, servers, storage, networking, and management components in ready-to-operate packages—for turnkey deployment in virtualized data centers and service provider points of presence.
• Save time and reduce management complexity with fully-integrated multi-vendor solutions. You’ll have industry-leading virtualization technology from VMware, storage technology from EMC, and applications from Avaya, fully integrated in single full-stack solution.
• Simplify ongoing operations and software upgrades with common orchestration. Because all solution components are managed through a single umbrella management system, you can take advantage of faster troubleshooting and streamlined management. Single-call support simplifies vendor relationships and reduces your number of support contracts.

This is how Combat and Avaya are Accelerating Your Path to Cloud-based Communications

By Christine Armstrong, Communications Strategist

The most popular model by far for compensating sales teams is via a commission-based sales structure.  The theory behind commissions was based on the premise that somebody would work harder to satisfy the needs of the buyer and would be rewarded by their company for that extra hard work on behalf of the customer.  It all made sense and everybody wins.  And the best part was commissions were just assumed, but not talked about, making it all quite convenient and entirely comfortable.

 What might have changed?

Informed Decision Making:

By far the biggest change for Tech Sales has been the easy and readily available access to information.  Buyers work extremely hard to make informed decisions by evaluating the available technologies, and often even pre-selecting their technologies before a vendor sales team becomes involved.

Team Environments: 

Technology purchase decisions require input from many sources within both the buyer and vendor extended teams.  The more experience, knowledge and attention to detail that a team can pull together, the more successful the implementation and customer satisfaction.

If vendors listen hard enough, and contribute enough value through understanding not only business requirements but also business operations and bring technological experience to the table, they become an extension of the client team with one common goal.

And this is where things get trickier in a commissioned sales model . . . and very uncomfortable.

Now, buyers are skeptical when they get the sense that somebody is “on commission” and starts to row in a direction away from the common goal to what might be their personal goal.

That’s not always the case, but asking questions about commissions up front can help buyers perceive what can influence vendor motivations.  We believe that tackling the elephant in the room early and openly talk about compensation models makes sense in today’s market to help buyers get the most out of their vendor engagements.

An article published today in the Financial Post highlights the changing requirements for Tech Sales in Canada but will the model change along with it?  http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/the-huge-job-opportunity-in-canadian-tech-that-no-one-is-talking-about

For 17 years, Combat has not paid commissions, choosing to sit on the same side of the table as our customers and finding technology solutions that best fit the business needs and not to maximize individual sales commissions.

Combat falls on the “non-commission” side of the debate.

Understanding that there are pros and cons for both models, we would love to hear your opinion and your experiences.

Great network switches today look very different from legacy solutions in size, speed, and power from the ones you may have purchased over the past few years. It’s not just about a switch or a box anymore, it’s about a platform and a solution set that will drive value well into the future….

Click here to download 6_Reasons_to_Consider_Extreme_for_Your_Next_Project

We know it is important to have viable options when a customer is considering a technology, and equally important to trust the competence of the partner you choose to design, architect, and implement the technology to execute the plan. Many of our historical customers relied on Combat and Avaya as their partner and technology of choice.

In the Summer of 2017, Extreme Networks announced the acquisition of Avaya’s networking business and started the process of integrating their technologies into a state of the art portfolio. At that time, Combat Networks was Avaya’s largest networking partner in Canada, holding the highest technical and sales certification credentials in the portfolio.

Without skipping a beat, Combat engaged with Extreme Networks, Inc. with the intent of achieving the highest Partner status with the broadened solution set under the Extreme Partner Program. To that end, Combat achieved Black Diamond Partner status in the Fall of 2017.

In April 2018, Combat Networks became the first partner globally to achieve an Extreme Networks Master Specialization Accreditation. Our specializations in ExtremeSwitching™, ExtremeWireless™ and ExtremeManagement™, combined, make up our Master Specialization credentials in the Automated Campus Networking™ portfolio of products and solutions.

What does that mean to customers?

“I am proud that our Canadian partners have taken the lead globally to deepen their expertise in Extreme Network solutions. This translates directly into a better experience for our customers.”

– Michael Boonstra, Canadian Country Manager, Extreme Networks

“Combat is committed to providing value to our customers through certifications, training, and hands on deployment experiences. We have made the investments to achieve our partners’ most distinguished level of technical expertise in the industry so our customers can have confidence that their communications networks are secure, reliable and high performance. That is our commitment.” 

– Rob Finucan, CEO, Combat Networks