What are the best communication system monitoring and management tools?

1 Communication system challenges

Communication system managers often face a variety of challenges, such as ensuring high availability and performance of communication systems, detecting and resolving communication system issues, optimizing communication system resources, integrating and synchronizing communication systems across different platforms, devices, and protocols, and measuring and improving communication system quality. These tasks involve making sure voice, video, email, chat, and social media are functioning properly; dealing with network congestion, latency, packet loss, jitter, and security breaches; optimizing bandwidth, storage, and power consumption; and improving user satisfaction, productivity, and collaboration.

2 Communication system monitoring tools

Communication system monitoring tools are software applications that collect, analyze, and display data about the status and performance of communication systems. These tools can help communication system managers to identify and troubleshoot problems, such as failures, errors, bottlenecks, and anomalies; track and report metrics like availability, throughput, latency, jitter, and quality of service; alert and notify about events like incidents, alarms, and notifications; and visualize and dashboard data such as trends, patterns, and correlations. Examples of communication system monitoring tools include Nagios for network server and application availability; SolarWinds VoIP & Network Quality Manager for voice over IP (VoIP) and video quality; PRTG Network Monitor for network devices, bandwidth traffic, and applications; and Zabbix for network server and cloud infrastructure.

3 Communication system management tools

Communication system management tools are software applications that control, configure, and optimize communication systems. They can help communication system managers to manage and update settings, such as policies, rules, and permissions; deploy and provision components, such as hardware, software, and licenses; automate and orchestrate tasks, such as backups, restores, and migrations; and optimize performance, such as load balancing, compression, and encryption. Examples of communication system management tools include Cisco Unified Communications Manager (for managing voice, video, and collaboration devices), Microsoft Teams Admin Center (for managing chat, calling, and meeting features), Slack Enterprise Grid (for managing workspaces and channels for large organizations), and Zoom Admin Portal (for managing meetings, webinars, rooms, and phones).

4 Communication system integration tools

Communication system integration tools are software applications that connect and synchronize communication systems across different platforms, devices, and protocols. These tools can help communication system managers to enable interoperability, streamline workflows, enhance functionality, and expand capabilities. Examples of communication system integration tools include Zapier, Twilio, RingCentral, and HubSpot. Zapier automates communication systems using triggers and actions. Twilio enables developers to build and integrate voice, SMS, and video features using APIs. RingCentral unifies voice, video, chat, and fax communication systems using a cloud-based platform. Finally, HubSpot aligns communication systems with sales, marketing, and customer service functions using a CRM platform.

5 Communication system evaluation tools

Communication system evaluation tools are software applications that measure and improve communication system quality, such as user satisfaction, productivity, and collaboration. They can help communication system managers assess and benchmark performance, survey and feedback users, analyze and optimize processes, and test and validate improvements. Examples of communication system evaluation tools include MRTG for measuring network traffic, SurveyMonkey for creating online surveys, Microsoft MyAnalytics for tracking productivity, and TestRTC for testing WebRTC-based communication systems.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?