The way people collaborate and communicate at work has changed rapidly in recent times. This accelerated digital transformation has catapulted business technology capabilities from being limited to a specific desk, phone or computer to the newfound freedom of sharing knowledge, skills, and ideas from multiple locations and devices.
While these freedoms have facilitated some new innovations and more flexible working arrangements, the influx of options for communication tools has resulted in many businesses and IT teams feeling overwhelmed and using tools that aren’t truly integrated.
This reveals a need for businesses to find a better way to serve their users, and support their team’s efficiency, while also helping to provide a consistent customer experience.
Enter unified communications (UC).
What is unified communications?
Unified communications are telephony and technology tools located on a central platform that help streamline your team’s workflow.
In the past, technology and telecommunications were independent. Now, unified communications bring together voice calling, video calling, instant messaging, integrated apps and file sharing all in one place. So, rather than your team having to jump between platforms depending on the work they’re doing, unified communications tools can bring tech tools under one ‘house’.
At TBTC Melbourne City, we’ve seen the first-hand some of the ways that teams can be working more efficiently with the support of UC tools. Let’s explore six key ways that your team can benefit from UC tools.
1. Brings remote teams together
With most organisations operating a hybrid workforce, employees who are not in the office can be at risk of feeling excluded or ‘out of the loop’ in instances where the tech doesn’t support a quality video conferencing experience. An effective UC platform also helps facilitate the feeling of being in the same room, even when your team might be hundreds of kilometres away. This, in turn can help bring remote teams together, boost your organisation’s inclusivity, and facilitate a more human connection.
2. Boosts team responsiveness
Additionally, when using collaboration tools to manage tasks and communications, employees can respond and complete deliverables from more places. For example, staff who are in the middle of school drop off or commuting via public transport can attend meetings, coordinate with colleagues èn route, and more easily switch between mobile or desktop devices without missing a beat. Furthermore, with features like screen and file sharing, a team member can also respond to colleague or customer needs more quickly and easily.
3. Supports improved productivity
For small businesses, productivity is a key factor in whether you can reach your strategic business goals. UC enhances workplace productivity by helping reduce wasted time and energy from your team switching between the platforms they need to use to connect and collaborate. In addition, its features help to improve the efficiency and speed with which tasks are completed while allowing teams to connect in the way they feel most comfortable, and using the device of their choice.
4. Makes task management more seamless
When your team uses a single, unified platform for task management, it means team members can more easily understand which stage of a task a co-worker is working on. Tools like search, group calendars, and in-app chat help make coordination easier and processes more efficient. Plus, with real-time messaging, team members can get their queries answered promptly, helping to minimise the time they would otherwise be waiting for peer feedback, and can quickly hand over completed tasks.
5. Simplifies day-to-day communications
With the help of unified communications, the days of phone tag are gone. The features of UC platforms allow you to see who’s available and contact them on the appropriate channel. Plus, you can help reduce superfluous systems by bringing voice, video and data services together, all in one place while still having access to traditional voice functions like hold, transfer, forwarding and voicemail in the cloud.
6. Lays the foundation for more collaboration
When communication is made easier and more reliable, there are fewer barriers standing in the way of your team working together. Core features like digital whiteboards, screen sharing and file sharing can encourage cross-team collaboration and help facilitate real-time team participation within a virtual workspace.
How consolidating systems can lead to business-wide benefits
It’s important to note that UC tools not only can support your team to be more responsive, collaborate more easily, and be more efficient and productive – they can also help lead to improved business-wide efficiencies.
To help tap into these opportunities within your business, you need to select the right UC platform that supports the way your workplace operates. To determine what this looks like, you can consider the questions below:
- What telephony system do you use now?
- Do you use video calling?
- How many staff are making voice or video calls at any one time?
- Is your team on site, or do you have remote workers dialling in?
- Are you looking to hire more staff going forward?
How TBTC Melbourne City can help
Here at TBTC Melbourne City, we deliver unified communications solutions that are designed to suit the way you do business. Some of these solutions include Telstra Calling for Office 365, Cloud PBX Calling and Telstra IP Telephony (TIPT).
Our technology advisors can help you answer the above questions and take the time to understand how your business operates, along with the support your team needs. From there, we can recommend solutions that help to move your business forward, so talk to us today to get your business better collaborating.
