In this rapidly changing modern business environment, agility and adaptability are vital qualities needed for any company to continue achieving success. However, the realization of both these aspects remains marred due to one key impairment – that being effective communication.
One promising approach to resolving this hurdle is Unified Communications (UC). This is defined as the process of integrating all your business’s different communication channels onto a single network platform and thus, provide a consistent, unified user interface and experience. Once implemented, a UC system can incur an organization significant advantages. Listed here are the key benefits of Unified Communications.
Efficiency
The biggest key advantage of Unified Communications is efficiency. Information flow is at the heart of every work process, and thus, faster information flow can lead to more work done in less time. Whereas previously significant time would be wasted as multiple team members went back and forth to get information, with a UC, all communications can be done through a single interface, allowing information to be made instantly available to all members simultaneously.
Through UC, employees can also ensure that they remain connected at all times, suffering virtually negligible downtime. For instance, if a certain team discussion being made via chat becomes too complicated for the channel, the team can easily and seamlessly switch to a video call instead.
Flexibility
Another benefit of UC is that it makes business communications much more flexible; fully adaptable to unforeseen events. For instance, in the context of the current pandemic, a transition to remote work can be done seamlessly as the needed communication tools are already set in place and accessible through the web via the cloud.
Employees can also communicate and collaborate effectively with the rest of the team while in transit as easily as they would have in the office. With UC, work is no longer synonymous with a formal office environment, and distance no longer a barrier to effective communication.
Scalability
Having a non-integrated communication system is not only inefficient but also costly and detrimental to your expansion. As your business grows and its communication demands change, old communication infrastructure has to be upgraded or replaced – overall, an expensive undertaking.
A UC system, on the other hand, is much more scalable. With it being set in the cloud, you only require limited hardware upgrades to aid its expansion. Many UC solutions are also offered as SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), which meaning that you only have to pay a monthly subscription for its use, and upgrading just meaning switching to a different payment plan.
Easier Upkeep
An extension of the previously stated point, implementing a UC system also means much easier maintenance. Having a single, centralized communication network means that there are fewer physical parts to look after.
The maintenance needs can even be almost non-existent if you opt for a SaaS UC system, where the provider will be taking care of it at the backend. With one provider, one contract, and one bill to pay, administrative needs are also cut down significantly.
Security
Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important issue for businesses. High-profile attacks in recent years, such as the ones done on Yahoo, Facebook, and Equifax, show just how vulnerable today’s IT infrastructure really is.
Managing many different systems for your communication channels results in more points of vulnerability for hackers to exploit. In contrast, all the information that goes through a UC system is encrypted and thus, harder to access. In addition, the physical risk of a data breach is also minimized with there being much less hardware that would need monitoring.
Customer Management
It is not just your employees that a UC system can bring benefit to but also your business customers. Providing a good customer experience requires your business representative to have a prior context of previous engagements. Since a customer is likely to make use of different channels as they move through the buyer’s journey, it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a representative to figure out exactly what a certain customer has contacted them.
If you ask a customer to repeat their query and give information on their prior engagement each time they contact you, it would obviously translate to a very negative experience, and potentially, you may end up losing that customer.
A single representative cannot be available at all times on all channels for a particular customer. Rather, the communication system itself has to be upgraded to a unified one. This way, logs of prior engagements, regardless of the channel, can be quickly accessed by a representative to quickly get a context of why a customer has contacted them.
Why Mul-T Tech?
Founded in [Year], Mul-T Tech is one of the fastest rising small business IT support services in the state of Nevada. Our mission to provide small and medium-sized businesses with among the most robust and efficient IT solutions that can gear them to compete on a better footing with bigger players in their industry.
At Mul-T tech, we do our best to understand the unique needs of our clients and provide them with a bespoke solution molded to their exact requirements. For any queries or more information on our services, don’t hesitate to call us on our number [phone number] or alternatively, email us at [number].