A communications solution for a winning team
Imagine that you operate a professional sports team and you've gone out and acquired the top players at every position to play in the best facility in the league. You should win in a walk, but you don't. Why is that? The answer lies in the people and their productivity: if they don't work together and communicate effectively, it is difficult to stay competitive.
Sure, sports analogies are simple enough, but this line of thinking applies especially well to business today, because if your people and the technology they need to do their jobs are not functioning seamlessly, your operation is at a distinct competitive disadvantage. Fortunately, you can address that disadvantage with a unified communications solution, which, properly established, will deliver improved productivity and cost benefits. Of course these are especially important considerations in the current economic climate.
Connect your human infrastructure
Among a business's most critical assets is its people - its human infrastructure. The phrase human infrastructure reflects an interesting evolution in the way business is conducted today. Not too long ago, infrastructure tended to mean bricks and mortar, and other physical structures. Now there is a distinct human dimension to the notion of infrastructure, reflecting the essential need within successful businesses for people to be connected efficiently by quality technological tools. Human infrastructure is essentially the way people interact and collaborate.
Implementing a powerful unified communications solution requires strategic decision-making and investment. Outcomes can include helping people share ideas, benefit from the skills of colleagues and operate effectively in environments where the information flow is constantly increasing in speed.
Consider the number of ways we communicate today. Even within a small group such as a family, we email, text, telephone and talk to each other face to face, not always effectively. Yet these methods of communication only scratch the surface of the number of applications available to businesses today, so it is important that each method be used to its maximum potential. In our workplaces we constantly connect with one another using a large number of communication and information channels and multiple devices. Undoubtedly technology has enhanced productivity in general, but many businesses are still not getting the greatest productivity out of their technology. This is especially the case when systems and devices are not used effectively or are not properly synchronized.
Complexity, cost, chaos and confusion
There are a number of obstacles to having your communications operating at optimal efficiency. Allstream considers the key obstacles the four C's: complexity, cost, chaos and confusion. Complexity is the challenge of trying to operate a variety of network platforms for data and voice and then supporting such a fragmented IT environment. Cost is an ongoing issue, because ideally you want to continue to upgrade networks and devices. The third concern is chaos, which may occur when you are unable to contact a key colleague for pertinent information due to email and voice mail overload. Finally there is confusion, which results from the large number of access tools - passwords, user preferences or phone numbers - that we have to manage. All of these are obstacles to getting the most from your human infrastructure.
These issues are not just the territory of businesses with older technology. Even companies using common protocols can find themselves trying to manage a chaotic communications network with a wide range of channels, devices, applications and processes. Managing through such circumstances can be costly and counter-productive.
Instead, you can achieve a wide range of benefits and advantages by assessing your communications infrastructure and maximizing its effectiveness through a strategic unified communications solution.
Benefits of a unified communications solution
- Clients are assured of quick access to the appropriate expert or in-house consultant for their queries or issues because you can rely on multiple access channels.
- Seamless communications between different areas of your operations deliver efficiency, good customer service and better opportunities for new business development.
- You can improve employee motivation and satisfaction, allowing them to work from wherever they are, which is essential for retention of personnel.
- You can reduce your corporate environmental footprint in a range of ways, such as by reducing travel.
- You can identify areas where unnecessary spending due to unproductive communications has occurred and eliminate it going forward.
- You will be able to improve risk management and emergency planning.
