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Unified Communications represent the intersection of IP Telephony and advance internet applications which leads to efficient consumer communications, customer relationships and employee teamwork.
In business, mistakes such as miscommunication relating to product pricing information etc. happen regularly. Imagine if you could instantly rectify such by simply sending a mobile text message to all sales personnel, regardless of their current location. Imagine if sales staff had one number to receive all communications, and could access inventory data for the product in question via a wireless device. For instance, a London based contact centre agent that is on the phone fielding an inquiry about a pricing mistake, could obtain the information instantly by sending an IM to a colleague in another location, enabling him to solve the situation in a quick and efficient manner.
The advantages described in the above scenario will be enabled by the Web 2.0 type of functionality that Unified Communications brings to Small to Medium Sized Business (SMB’s).
In a SMB, an audit of current capabilities and an understanding of new technology developments will make a positive difference in the workforce and customer communications.
Many businesses are migrating to Unified Communications platforms that allow them to pull their voice, data and video messaging together in one system.
Unified Communications portals also feature pop-up screens that co-ordinate a voice call with data screens identifying the caller and providing background on their call history. These types of tools enable customer service agents to resolve issues and answer questions promptly and efficiently.
Effectively, Unified Communication strategies enable a social network within a company, allowing customer-facing employees to communicate with each other and resolve ways in serving them better.
By upgrading to a Unified Communication Solution, SMB’s will find applications such as Mitel’s Quick Conference that make it cost effective and simple to connect remote team members on an ad hoc basis. This provides a flexible and scalable audio conferencing solution for business. Users can setup conference calls from any location at any time without operator assistance.
More advanced SMBs have added web functionality to their conferencing so that documents can be reviewed on the desktop, once again without outsourcing. Certain leading-edge firms are now also adding video functionality to their virtual meetings. Through UC a host of solutions will be available that support video telephony and other rich media conferencing functionality in cost-effective integrated packages that are well suited for small businesses.
Reachability is the most compelling reason for SMBs to adopt Unified Communications. Given the global landscape of business today, most businesses have staff working from remote locations.
Unified Communication Solutions have enabled SMBs to stay connected with remote workers while presenting a seamless face to the customers.
The capabilities delivered by Unified Communications solutions have provided significant competitive advantages for SMBs.
In the past, security concerns have kept many small businesses from adopting Unified Communications. However, as the technology has become well established by larger enterprise companies, SMBs are realising that IP Solutions offer a high degree of security.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signalling protocol for Internet Conferencing, telephony, virtual contact centre presence, events notification and instant messaging. It establishes features such as the “redirect” which enables customers or employees to initiate and receive communications using the same phone numbers regardless of location or device. With mobile extension, a company’s employees are never completely disconnected from each other or their customers.
Unified communications guarantees the consistency of operations because standards such as SIP are now well established, and it is relatively easy for SMBs to integrate applications from different media (email, voice, video) as well as equipment from different vendors (mobile devices, PC’s, phones).
The interoperability benefits of Unified Communications are huge for SMBs. It gives SMBs a level of flexibility that they have never had before. They also now have access to more advanced solutions such as video and rich data communication.
Many solutions will be designed with interoperability in mind enabling businesses to implement IP-based solutions through a seamless integration with Microsoft’s Office Live Communications Server.
This enables a SIP-based presence and collaboration server, which will allow customers to deliver emails on mobile devices and instant messaging into their Unified Communications platforms.
Finally, and most importantly, a SMB must audit its customer-centric performance. If customer acquisition is the goal, then Unified Communications can be used to reach out to new customer groups and new geographic territories.
Above all, SMBs should understand that Unified Communications is within their budget, and should be factored into their future investment plans. The benefits for SMBs are enormous, allowing business owners to have more control and flexibility in how they want to operate, and the types of applications they want to use today and in the future.
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