This year 13.9% of UK businesses are embracing working from home, more than at any other time since records began in 1998 (Office of National Statistics), changing the day-to-day demands of how we communicate with each other, complicating collaboration.
Consider the following the scenario between two fictional employees, Lucy and Nathan:
Lucy needs to speak with Nathan urgently about a project, ringing his office number at 9am, unaware that Nathan is working from home. By 10am, there has been no response so Lucy rings his office phone again, this time leaving a message. Still no response, Lucy emails Nathan half an hour later asking him to ring her, unfortunately Nathan is now in a meeting until 12.30, leaving him unable to answer until he finishes.
Lucy remembers at 11.30 she’s out of the office in the afternoon so sends an SMS to Nathan’s mobile phone. When Nathan finishes his meeting he can check his mobile, and thanks to a company enrolled mobile device management solution, his emails as well. When he returns to the office Nathan will then have to check his missed calls and check his answer phone messages, taking more time out of his day and reducing his productivity.
In this scenario, time is lost working on this project, going back and forth with communications, failing with attempts to make contact.
What can unified communications do to overcome this challenge?
Unified communications brings all of your communication channels together into a single application, accessible from any device with an internet connection. In your organisation, your employees are probably using a mobile phone, a desk phone, a tablet, email, instant messaging, conferencing and texting.
Using the above scenario, unified communications would let your employees see who’s available, and make them easily accessible to contact from any connected device, using different communication channels.
1. Support efficient and effective remote working
By bringing voice, email, instant messaging and SMS together, unified communications gives your employees the tools to embrace working from any location through one device.
2. Increase employee productivity
By connecting a range of popular ways of communicating, unified communications make it easier to reach the right person quickly, eliminating failed attempts to reach colleagues.
3. Reduce overhead spend
By adopting unified communications your business can save costs on office space and maintenance costs, saving a London business on average £285 per month per desk (The Next Web, 2012), whilst smaller businesses embracing working remotely can eliminate the need for office space altogether.
4. Better collaboration facilities
Unified communications brings audio, video, screen sharing and web conferencing facilities together, as well as instant messaging and presence.
5. Faster response and delivery times
Collaboration that is more efficient enables employees to respond quickly and easily to communications, saving an average of 32 minutes per day, per employee (Microsoft, 2014).
In conclusion
There is a changing landscape for how businesses work in the UK, with communications, both internally within the organisation and with external stakeholders, requiring greater investment and attention to improve business and employee performance.
Through our own unified communications solution, Touch Telephony, your business has an easy, efficient and cost effective way to help adopt a new way of working.
If you want to find out more about what Touch Telephony can offer your business we’d be happy to arrange a complimentary demonstration for you to see how it could benefit your business.