A study conducted by Firstup, a communication solutions provider, found that 52% of corporate employees witnessed poor financial outcomes, including lost sales and damaged company reputation, because of ineffective communication.
It is numbers like these that are nudging organizations to explore new ways to improve their communication system. And most are turning to Unified Communications Solutions to streamline and improve interactions between their employees as well as with customers.
Enterprises are fast realizing that cutting-edge apps and high-tech gizmos only come with a limited capability to increase workplace productivity. The one system that can truly be a game-changer is an end-to-end communication solution like a UC phone system.
Unified communication solutions are providing the latest and best mix of technologies that help workforces stay connected and have them collaborate seamlessly. UC solutions have emerged as a one-stop platform to collect and store information, as well as to communicate. They are powered by a diverse range of communication features, including voice and video calling, visual voicemail, chat, and email. Added to this is a long list of collaboration features like presence, status, conferencing, and seamless integration with tools like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
The COVID-19 triggered pandemic made it imperative for global workforces to adapt to different ways of working – and remote became the new way to work. The pandemic may be ebbing, but remote working seems to be here to stay. It is, therefore, critical, for enterprises to ensure that their employees stay productive as they clock in their work hours from home, and are able to communicate and collaborate in a hassle-free way with their co-workers.
Be it remote on in-office, unified communication solutions have become a strategic way to address communication challenges for organizations, as they offer an integrated platform where UC tools can be used concurrently or interchangeably and can help employees collaborate with ease. What’s more, the seamless user experiences that unified communication solutions offer ensures that employees can work in a uniform manner, regardless of the endpoints, operating system, or the network they use to access the platform.
In a nutshell, modern unified communication solutions provide a much richer communication experience than their traditional telephony counterparts. While different industries and businesses face different challenges, ensuring that employees stay productive is a common goal that every organization strives for. And businesses are discovering that poor communication is one of the biggest barriers to improving productivity.
In this blog, we will look at how unified communication solutions are a sure-shot way to boost workforce productivity and get a low-down of UC features that power productivity.
How Unified Communication Solutions Boost Workplace Productivity
With time, organizations have realized that unified communication solutions increase employee efficiency and speed, help them to multi-task, and foster better inter-employee relationships. This happens because UC systems give global workforces access to a host of communication features that streamline processes, and reduce work turnaround times. Let us look at the many ways in which UC solutions empower employees and boost workplace productivity.
Add the power of mobility to communication
UC solutions can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. Employees can make calls, get onto video calls with colleagues and send emails on the go. Higher mobility is a sure way to improve productivity. As the Covid-19 pandemic forced large numbers of employees to work from remote locations, UC solutions turned into a boon for enterprises, as they powered workforces to communicate and collaborate seamlessly and improve productivity.
Powers collaboration in the workplace
Unified communication solutions unify e-mail, phones, video calling, messaging, and integration with other applications under one umbrella. This make collaboration more effective and boosts productivity in the long run. Besides video conferencing, UC solutions offer a range of features – like screen-sharing and quick document sharing – that make it possible for employees to access documents instantly and improve cross-enterprise collaboration.
Adds speed to communication
If your business needs to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive market, then speed has to be a key component of your work process. UC solutions help add speed to work processes by bringing all channels of communication and collaboration – be it voice or video calling, emails, or instant messaging – under one platform. When customers reach out to a business, a quick and precise response improves their experience and leads to higher customer satisfaction. This, in turn, adds to a brand’s value and credibility and boosts the company’s bottom line.
Streamlines operations
Since UC solutions enable the integration of all applications under one platform, it helps streamline operations. It also makes the work of the IT staff easier as all applications are deployed in a common environment. Also, as UC solutions integrate instant messaging, presence information, voice, mobility, audio, web, and other services, they streamline communication processes as well. Better communication results in high productivity and performance. Real-time messaging and instant video calling gets questions answered quickly and issues resolved faster.
Brings the power of the cloud to your communication
The cloud has replaced on-premise infrastructure on many fronts. And the communication and collaboration space is no different. Using the power of the cloud, unified communication solutions are able to store all data and business communication from an array of platforms in one place. This makes it easy for any employee to access the information, and use it to complete project deadlines or handle customer queries in a better way.
Add the benefits of AI to your phone system
UC solutions add speed and efficiency to business voice and video calls, messaging, and file-sharing. You can turn this speed a notch higher by adding AI capabilities to your UC solution. Tools like machine learning and natural language processing bring a whole new kind of efficiency onboard. It enables tasks to be completed in a faster and more accurate way, leaving your employees to concentrate on other, larger, organizational goals. Automating workflows – like getting a real-time transcription of a meeting, or scheduling meetings – is another advantage that AI brings to the table.
Also read, Why Choose Unified Communication Solutions for Small Businesses
The Main UC Features that Boost Workforce Productivity
What are the features of unified communication solutions that help businesses boost their workforce productivity? Let’s take a look.
Unified messaging
Unified communication solutions offer a single-window platform where email, instant messaging, chat, and voicemail can be accessed easily. This allows employees to multi-task better, improve collaboration and add speed to their work output. It’s also a big cost-saver, as organizations do not have to maintain different platforms for these collaboration tools.
Voice calling and conferencing
Voice calling lies at the crux of any communication system and UC solutions do it with enthusiasm. With UC solutions, employees can reach their colleagues as well as customers from anywhere, at any time. This makes businesses better equipped to take on customer queries and to service them better and in quick time. Also, with integrations to third-party applications, employees can access all customer information in quick time and respond better to them.
Video calling and conferencing
This feature enables business teams to conduct remote meetings in a real-time way. Employees can meet each face-to-face and this goes a long way in improving workforce productivity and collaboration. It also removes the need to opt for a separate conferencing service. Also, calls can be set up in quick time, using the dynamic click and drag functionality that UC solutions offer.
Desktop sharing
This feature allows employees to share documents instantly with their colleagues, thus increasing collaboration and boosting business performance.
Instant messaging and chat
Employees can reach out to their co-workers instantly using the messaging services offered by unified communication solutions. This increases the speed of communication and collaboration and allows them to share information, documents, files, and presentations in a quick and seamless way.
Speed recognition
Unified communication solutions that are powered by advanced IVR tools come with the capability to recognize a customer using speech recognition software. The system then checks the customer’s background information and connects them with a customer service agent who is best equipped to resolve their query. And all this happens in quick time, without leaving the customer waiting endlessly for their problem to be addressed.
Presence
The presence or status monitoring feature of unified communication solutions lets an organization’s managerial staff know who is available when they are planning an impromptu meeting. This feature is considered one of the key factors behind boosting workforce productivity, as it enables teams to get together in a faster and more efficient way. This means more people can be roped in to attend meetings and decisions can be taken faster. Presence can also facilitate the making of smart call queues.
BYOD
With unified communication solutions, organizations can easily implement BYOD policies and save costs by not having to supply their remote employees with a work phone. Employees can use their personal phones to connect to their office communication network and reach their co-workers just like they were calling them on an office extension number. And this does not mean that their personal and professional calls get intertwined as UC solutions keep the work communication exclusive to their platform.
UC Solutions add Wings to Business Growth and Employee Productivity
Businesses are embracing unified communication solutions with open arms. And it is paying huge returns. As UC solutions bring diverse communication and collaboration channels under one umbrella, it is helping organizations increase workforce productivity, boost efficiency and grow business bottom lines.
