Lower Your
Costs and
Increase
Productivity
with 
Unified
Communications

Unified Communications (UC)

At a high level, unified communications is about allowing communications to happen where and when you want it to happen, using the device that’s most appropriate at that time and in that place. You may be walking through an airport. You may be in a taxi. You may be working at home because of severe weather or some minor emergency at home that makes it difficult or impossible to reach the office. You could be at a client’s site. You may be in the office.

Unified communications allows you to use the device—your mobile phone, your home phone, office phone, email—to communicate with your customers and your colleagues no matter where you are. And it’s all with the express purpose of allowing you and all your employees to be as productive as possible, to keep costs in check, and to make sure that you are serving your customers to the best of your ability.

Ensuring responsiveness

Your customers and prospects have many choices. When it’s difficult to contact you they can go somewhere else. They want to do business with a vendor who treats them as a special client. With UC, you can be sure that you and your employees are accessible—anytime, anywhere. For instance, with UC, employees receive calls that come in to their desktop phone simultaneously on their mobile phone. That makes it easier for customers to reach key employees with just one number to call. Clients may leave voicemail at some times and email at other times. Keep track of it all on your preferred device. Recognize your clients when they call with caller ID.

You may be traveling internationally; your cell phone doesn’t work and calls from the hotel are an expense you can’t afford. UC enables you to stay connected and in contact with colleagues and customers even under those circumstances. With software loaded on your PC and an Internet connection you’ll be able to make and receive calls and conduct business just like when you are in the office—without incurring additional costs.

Your customers and prospects have many choices. When it’s difficult to contact you they can go somewhere else. They want to do business with a vendor who treats them as a special client. With UC, you can be sure that you and your employees are accessible—anytime, anywhere. For instance, with UC, employees receive calls that come in to their desktop phone simultaneously on their mobile phone. That makes it easier for customers to reach key employees with just one number to call.

Clients may leave voicemail at some times and email at other times. Keep track of it all on your preferred device. Recognize your clients when they call with caller ID. You may be traveling internationally; your cell phone doesn’t work and calls from the hotel are an expense you can’t afford. UC enables you to stay connected and in contact with colleagues and customers even under those circumstances. With software loaded on your PC and an Internet connection you’ll be able to make and receive calls and conduct business just like when you are in the office—without incurring additional costs.

Productivity—no matter where you are

UC helps enable non-stop productivity in the event of things like snowstorms or other occasional reasons you or your employees can’t get into the office. They might have a child who is sick and needs to stay home. They themselves might be feeling a bit under the weather, but well enough to work. Better that they stay home rather than coming in to the office and getting others sick.

What about travel? You can equip traveling workers with the tools to communicate efficiently at anytime from anyplace. With an Internet connection, your office travels with you. With UC, you can take advantage of delays experienced at the airport or cancelled/postponed meetings during the day.

Employee Satisfaction and Your Bottom Line

Industry estimates indicate it costs approximately $5,000 per employee for office space (including rent, equipment, utilities etc.). Enabling employees to work from home, full time, can provide significant savings. Working at home can save your employees up to $11,000 per year in a variety of costs such as gas, tolls, wear and tear on their car, meals, dry cleaning. That’s great for the employee—and it translates into an equivalent salary increase of up to $16,000 a year.
 
Employees want flexibility. Studies show that a flexible work environment is high on the list of what employees want. They’ll stay at a company because of it. They’ll move to a new company because of it. It reduces stress for them, helps them balance work and family responsibilities. It increases their loyalty to you, and you can attract and retain the best employees.

With just an Internet connection, their PC and a home phone, your employees will get and receive calls and have all the same communications functionality as they have in the office—with no special hardware needed at home (just their home phone). Offering this kind of flexibility can be a major morale booster for employees. It reduces stress and also has a positive impact on the environment.

With UC, you’ll have the flexibility to employ the most qualified workers wherever they are located. 

You’ll be able to hire someone two time zones away to handle early morning or evening calls. You can boost loyalty and morale with a flexible, productive work environment while providing home workers with the same functionality as workers in the office. As the business owner, you can monitor and track calls and productivity of remote workers—you’ll have access to calling records to track who is being called and for how long.