Unified Communications: 4 Big Benefits for Your Business
Unified communications. Sounds cool, kind of like some high-tech organization in a Marvel movie or a new trend in connecting with others. And guess what? It is (well, the second one).
Unified communications (UC) is the integration of business communication services such as instant messages, voice, audio, web, and video conferencing, data sharing, etc. It’s the synthesis of all forms of communications employees exchange on your business network.
Essentially, with UC employees can send a message on one application (or device) and receive that same communication on an entirely different one. For instance, a coworker can shoot you a desktop message on your business chat platform and you can respond to it on your mobile device while you’re out and about.
Adopting unified communications can bring a variety of business benefits. Here are 4 of our favorites.
Increase Collaboration
A unified communications approach expands the ways employees can communicate with one another and with customers to do their jobs. Maybe some of your staff needs to work from home during a big project. Instead of putting things on hold because they aren’t in the office, video conferencing lets everyone discuss logistics face to face. Or, if you step out to run an errand and an employee calls your office phone to verify a piece of information, you can get the call on your cell phone without missing a beat.
Essentially, this kind of flexible communication allows you to fully integrate your business processes, boosting company-wide collaboration and engagement.
Boost Productivity
Streamlining your communications bridges gaps between different teams, partners, and customers, eliminating the need to share the same piece of information on multiple platforms. This helps your team save time and avoid confusion on critical projects.
Unified communications deliver updates to your team in real time across a variety of platforms. So, no matter how (or where) they’re working, they’ll get messages, data and feedback they need to be fully productive. When the right person gets the right thing at the right time, your team is able to do more and help grow your business.
Enable Mobility
Many communication platforms have mobile apps that integrate across devices. So you don’t have to be at your desktop to get that critical chat message from Becky in sales letting you know your business just closed a huge deal and to call the new client immediately. You’ll get the message on your phone and can give them a ring from the McDonald’s parking lot, fries in hand (maybe not in-mouth, though).
Additionally, a whopping 72% of organizations are permitting BYOD (bring your own device) or planning to do so in the near future. Enabling business communication with employees on their personal devices is essential. And given that this trend saves businesses money, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Remain Competitive
While your SMB might offer more personal customer service than a bigger company, you still need to be able to compete with the advanced technology and high-touch tools these bigger organizations are using. Potential customers are watching.
Unified communications in your business will give you the same communication options as the top dogs, meaning you can benefit from the same technology advantages of streamlining communications. Bringing your business communications up to par will keep you competitive in terms of productivity, mobility, and collaboration.
If you’re interested in learning all the ways your business can reap the benefits of unified communications, reach out. We want to help you get the most out of your technology solutions and innovate the ways in which you grow your business.
