Why Unified Communications is a Big Deal for SMBs

Businesses need on-demand collaboration capabilities to drive efficiency. At the core of productive collaboration is effective communication, which is inherently dependent upon immediate and streamlined access to the information, data resources, software applications and remote teams that constitute today’s digital enterprise.

At the same time, relying on a disparate set of communication endpoints, resources, apps, channels, and personnel also renders collaborative efforts useless when the building blocks are inaccessible and incompatible with each other.

Unified communications refer to the integration of business communication methods such as voice, chat, mobile, and conference, in order to provide users with a more efficient, streamlined process.

Here’s how Unified Communications capabilities empower SMB organizations to maximize their collaborative potential:

Integration of Real-Time and Non-Real Time Communications

Dynamic collaboration and simplified business processes set SMBs apart from their larger counterparts. The resulting flexibility allows SMBs to mold their products, services, and operations based on the fast-changing market requirements. By integrating real-time and non-real time communications, the SMB workforce can access all necessary information updated in real-time, across all disparate communication channels.

UC products enable organizations to share, in real time, information across numerous applications.

Telzio’s integration with VTiger allows users to access pertinent CRM information as calls are received, and VTiger’s built-in webphone enables users to ‘click-to-call’ directly from within the application.

Unified communications eliminate performance bottlenecks that result from delays in the transfer of information such as project progress status and changing end-user preferences.

A Single, Comprehensive User Interface

Unified Communication solutions enable you to consolidate services and enhance end-user experience for technology-enabled collaboration. With a single interface, users can fetch information from multiple channels and integrate status updates in real-time from different apps and end-points.

The use of a single interface drastically reduces the learning curve and increases the accessibility of the software on standardized corporate devices while still supporting BYOD, enabling your staff to work efficiently even if they are off-site, and regardless of what device they prefer to use.

Related: Don't Choose Between BYOD or a Professional Image

Tag an SMS thread, assign a voicemail to a colleague, collaborate on documents, and create conference meetings from a single browser.

Greater Flexibility with Remote Staff

With unified communications, organizations can increase the size of roaming and permanently remote staff without sacrificing availability. Fewer on-site people reduce real estate costs and excessively redundant infrastructure, and that opens up the possibility to expand business to distributed locations while maintaining effective collaboration among otherwise separated workplaces.

Cloud applications enable a large number of roles to work remotely, such as customer service, sales, accounting, IT, and HR administration.

With the proper UC and software applications, virtual teams can maintain a presence and collaborate on demand.

Integration of Conferencing & Collaboration Tools

With integration capabilities and API customization, you can move data back and forth between different services quickly and easily. UC expands your options.

Integrating your apps with real-time Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC,) and cost-saving VoIP means more productivity regardless of where you are. Real-time also speeds up your staff’s response time to voicemails or authorization requests, reducing human latency and giving your customers more instant gratification.

Telzio powers telephony infrastructure at the hub of your communications and offers the capability to integrate further with your other business applications, enabling you to develop your Unified Communications strategy and evolve it as your business needs change.

For simple business requirements, Telzio’s out-of-the-box solution allows users to manage and collaborate across voice, SMS, and fax through a single interface. For more advanced business requirements, Telzio enables business IT administrators to integrate third-party applications, adding services like CRM, HR, analytics, and payments.

Improved and Faster Customer Support

Unified communications can significantly speed up and improve customer support processes. SMBs with limited support staff can only do so much to address queues, especially during early or beta product release when support demands can be unpredictable. With access to the right communication tools and real-time information, teams can tap into resources and guidance to improve customer service.

Team chat applications enable users all around the world to communicate in real-time, enabling agents to collaborate with colleagues and supervisors in other locations as needed. While help desk software enables users to manage and respond to tickets from anywhere.

Improved Internal Security

Whereas your remote staff would normally use common and at-risk consumer applications to communicate, a UC solution means use designated applications assigned by your organization and secured by your provider.

Eco-Friendly Business Operations

As a high-value secondary benefit, Unified Communications allows SMBs to operate as a green enterprise right from the beginning. Effective collaboration without the need to travel and rely on multiple power-intensive communication technologies allows SMBs to contribute to electricity savings, reduce CO2 emission and less paperwork. Overall workforce productivity that results in operational efficiencies and less time spent on each task allows organizations to consume less electricity.

The first step to realize these benefits is to invest in hosted PBX solutions as the underlying Unified Communications technology. Once deployed, organizations can work their way up to a sophisticated set of Unified Communication capabilities that streamline communications, add advanced capabilities to collaborate and deliver direct performance improvement.

Related: How Eco-Awareness Benefits Small Business