When Hurricane Matthew struck the Carolinas on Oct. 8, Dustin Fails and his team were called into action. ACS Technologies’ network and one of its internet circuits and commercial power went down for three days. “Like true IT people, we were here all weekend,” said Fails, who is a network administrator for the Florence, South Carolina, software development company, and a leader in IAUG’s South Carolina chapter.
Now, Fails is planning to attend Avaya ENGAGE 2017 in Las Vegas, and cloud-based solutions are at the top of his priority list. “Having been through the on-premises disaster recovery process, we are talking with our business partner about the cloud,” he said. “I’m hoping to talk with other users at IAUG’s annual conference about their experiences.”
Fails joined ACS Technologies, which develops back-office software for churches, about 12 years ago, and soon got involved in telecom. “We have done some interesting things in-house with Avaya Elite Multichannel, such as matching clients with a menu of products and creating tickets in our CRM system with screen pops on the agents’ desks,” Fails said. “We’ve been able to share what we do with other members in our user group.”
Fails has been active in IAUG for several years, and now serves as co-chapter leader with Terry McAllister. “We schedule quarterly meetings on timely topics of interest to our users,” he said. “This year, we did a lot on Avaya Breeze and Avaya Oceana. We also held our meetings around the state in Charleston, Florence and Columbia to make it more convenient for our members.”
Serving as a volunteer IAUG leader has benefited both ACS Technologies and its clients, said Fails. “We learn from other users about the issues facing their customers, and whether different products and solutions will actually help solve those challenges or not,” he said. “It’s very valuable to be able to share that information with other IT professionals. Being involved with IAUG also lets you see the latest and greatest new technology from Avaya and its partners. That’s a big help when planning for the future.”