Communication has to be faster and faster. Communication is no longer time and location dependent, but has to be possible everywhere and every time. Universal Communications is an excellent solution. How can you optimize the user of Universal Communications for now and in the future? Let us provide you a couple of tips and tricks with a result of 30 minutes extra time a day!
What are the advantaged of Universal Communications?
Communicate fast is not only an important wish of the user, but also for the organisation needed to survive. What are the advantages for your organisation in the area of UC? We will explain this via four criteria.
What are the changes for your organisation?
With UC in your organisation do also slowly change the capabilities of the employees. Collaboration and conferencing are becoming increasingly common. More and more employees work remotely, so it’s obvious that not all invitees are really physically present.
For all organisations is it necessary to use as less resources in an efficient way in order to maximize output. With UC the costs for local, national and mobile calling decreases, but the biggest cost saving is the reduction of travel spent and costs of facilities. Just imagine if you would keep your weekly sales meeting with the accountmanagers in one country just online instead of in the office. Even the business cards will become less full as you don’t need to show all the communication methods anymore, it’s just “you” they need to contact and you decide how they will reach you. It also gives better control about your own working time as you can decide not to be disturbed during a complex project/task. An average cost saving is around 50%, but of course for every organisation it is different.
The output of a satisfied employee is much higher than an unsatisfied employee. With UC your presence status can be made visible internally and/or externally, which does reduce the need to find out where you are. This will increase the efficiency in your daily work and the internal cooperation will be improved as you don’t need to find a timeslot to meet as not only the timeslot itself, but also the travel time has to be taken into account. Just saving the walk to another meeting room will save 10 minutes a day. Of course this does not mean you can stop with physical interaction! It’s not that black and white.
Using UC for only internal need is too simple. Every organisation does need customers, partners and suppliers to survive. Customers do expect to be kept up-to-date at all times, but a typical customer service department (callcenter) does only get an average grade. Customer satisfaction can be increased by offering other communication methods like chat and video which makes the service really personal. The communication with your suppliers and partners does follow the same route. The closer and more efficient the cooperation between customers, partners and suppliers is, the more success is possible for all parties.
Have you ever noticed that your internal management information is outdated, you are not reaching your deadline, but figured this out too late? The extend to which your organisation can respond quickly to changes is often crucial. To be flexible and effective must be included in the requirements of your communication solution. This will reduce and even limit delays in your projects and tasks.
In the last couple of years the employees are getting used to work remotely and they don’t expect anymore that everybody is physically present in one room. With UC becoming more of a commodity we see changing requirements and wishes around an integrated communication platform.
The cooperation with external parties is still complicated due to the diversity of the standards eg. Cisco, Microsoft, Unify, Mitel and Avaya. Several protocols only allow chat and audio, and the world of videoconferencing is still not one, every vendor has it’s own dialing string…. And don’t even think showing a presentation, working on a whiteboard and sharing applications are simple across companies.
The next step will be to communicate UC platform independent. The user should not be worried what the other party will use. Right now the connection between Skype and Skype for Business/Teams is a first step and the use of webapi’s as well. Cisco via Cucilync and Skype can be integrated, but it’s not as easy to use, the user still has to think before he/she can setup a call. This is not the ultimate solution yet as the user just wants one single application to work with. They don’t have the time nor interest to constantly think which application they have to use for what activity and with whom they want to work together.
The market is asking for an additional solution which makes it possible for them to communicate with the other side at any time and with any tool. User adoption will be the driver for this.
Even the biggest competitors do see the need to cooperate, like Microsoft and Cisco are connecting Skype for Business with Cisco Videoconferencing.
Right now the UC solutions are still independent islands in the UC world, but the first step is made via the use of Virtual Meeting rooms. These virtual rooms are capable to connect with many different UC platforms and tools, thus creating a more seamless user experience.
In order to investigate if UC will bring added value to your organisation it will be important that ICT and the business do connect. A company wide analysis of your current situation is needed before an advise can be given. Internally often departmental silos are present which do block a centralized, harmonized and simplified universal communication solution.
If you want to discuss your challenges and the way forward for your organisation in more detail, just contact us.