Things to Consider Before Moving to Unified Communications

Unified communications has had a growth of over 20% every year since 2015 (23% in 2017, and 21% in 2018) (Gartner, 2019) and this is not a surprise as it has been a popular topic for over a decade and is becoming something most organisations today can not imagine living without. It’s adaptability has revolutionised business communications and customer service; the rewards have been immeasurable. 

Unified communications is a single platform that includes various communication tools such as: 

• Voice

• Messaging

• Meetings – video, audio and web-conferencing 

• Communication enabled application

• Presence and instant messaging 

• Desktop sharing

A successfully installed UC platform can increase your business efficiency, work productivity, enhance communications with customers and reduce gaps in communications such as missed calls or unread emails. As great as it sounds, it’s not so straightforward  to implement a UC platform that your business can truly benefit from. There are few crucial things to keep in mind when transforming for business communications.

It is extremely important to first analyse your business needs and operations to be able to determine the nature of how unified communications best utilised. One of the greatest advantages of UC is its fluidity which simply means that it can adapt to every business need if done correctly, nevertheless it needs your insight to do that. Think of tools that can be integrated into your current system not only saving money but also making it easier for the end user to adapt.

When it comes to UC it’s not enough to simply make technology work, organisations should focus on user adoption in order to integrate communications that would optimise business processes. Help your organisation adapt to new ways of communicating by holding end user training (how and why), internal marketing as well as having executives set an example. Unified communication tools are a big investment and it is crucial that your employees are ready for it.

Telecoms is not a static thing. While you are planning and implementing your UC strategy, new tools are being created and the industry is shifting. Make sure you are not getting locked into a system or vendor that will stop your business from moving forward. Pay attention to factors such as the lifespan of the current system, future plans of the organisation and UC providers options (to buy into a managed proposition or maybe build your own unified communications capability on-premise). 

Unified communications solutions can make a great impact on your employee productivity, business efficiency as well as customer experience. It also reduces telephony spending and allows businesses to keep up with the constantly moving and evolving communication trends among businesses and customers. Start planning your unified communications strategy now and contact Welltel to find out the best tools for your business.