In most of our homes it’s undeniable that the traditional landline gathers more and more dust each year. So why, if as consumers we’ve turned our back on the landline, do a number of employees still insist on using them in the workplace?
The answer for most businesses really boils down to complexity. With fixed telephony, it’s generally understood that we can connect multiple phones to one set of lines to allow call queuing, diverting and holding throughout a building. It’s a proven system which has worked for decades so why change it? When we talk about moving away from the desk phone, some people jump on the defensive, eager to stress their dislike for “unreliable” mobile signals and the fear of dropping calls. But with unified communications, you don’t have to go mobile.
Let’s use my friend Adam as an example. Adam is a civil engineer who spends a lot of time out of the office but still finds himself having to take a high volume of calls. When he comes in he has no permanent desk so has to inform the reception where he is sitting so his calls can be forwarded correctly. The rest of the week Adam is either performing site surveys or meeting with clients, all the while, away from his desk phone. So what can Adam do? The desk situation seems overly complicated with fifteen or so other engineers doing the same each day. On the road Adam could use his mobile, but that means several calls made to the office that will be missed.
The answer is unified communications
Our Unified Communications solution Touch Telephony has been designed around exactly what our customers need with a whole new world of flexibility opened and is simply about communicating where you want and how you want via one convenient platform.
If Adam is in the office, all he has to do is open Touch Telephony on his computer, connect his USB phone or headset and he’s away! Any call made to Adam will come straight through his laptop using a simple interface. If he is away, he connects his laptop to the mobile WiFi device we supplied, allowing him to answer his calls wherever he wants without his customers ever realising he’s out of the office. If he isn’t at his laptop however, the Touch Telephony application can divert calls to his mobile phone meaning he never misses a call.
In the future however, there is potential for Adam to take a fixed role within the office. If this ever happens, Touch Telephony can run through the desk phone, “twinning” with the orbit application to allow calls to ring through several of his devices should he want them to. In certain cases where any one member of Adam’s team is able to take a call, “hunt groups” can be assigned to send calls through to each appropriate team member, adopting a “fastest finger first” method of receiving calls.
Beyond the phone
Additionally, Touch Telephony calls to onsite and remote workers are free and through an availability feature called presence, employees save time when contacting members of staff. In Adam’s case this helps when working on big projects with several team members as visual representation of availability mean that in seconds Adam can identity who in his team are.
If people are unavailable to talk, there is an instant messaging chat function. Adam has set up a group for the leaders of the project he is working on to allow them to bounce ideas around whilst keeping each other up to date with their progress.
For the business
Unified communications can save employees 32 minutes per day which according to a Microsoft report, equates to £900,000 savings a year per 1,000 employees. The system can either be hosted or on site, the benefits of which vary from company to company. On site allows a business to employ direct maintenance whilst streamlining the system with their current disaster recovery protocols. Hosted on the other hand cuts the installation costs and makes the whole system much more scalable, making the addition of users incredibly easy should you expand. Hosted also eliminates the chance of your phone system going down should any problems arise in the office such as a power cut. Pre agreed systems can jump into place, diverting calls to functioning phones, reducing offline time considerably.
Unified comms and you
Unified communications can help a variety of businesses in a number of ways. By analysing your exact needs, we can tailor the service to your company, providing ultimate efficiency whilst saving you money. To find out exactly what kind of valueTouch Telephony can add to your business, why not book a demonstration?
Related blogs:
Reasons to invest in unified communications
Major luxury retailer trusts Intercity for its scalable & flexible unified communications
