What are unified communications and how can it benefit your business?

Unified communications (UC) in simple terms is the integration of enterprise communication tools such as VOIP, mobile applications, video conferencing and data sharing.

UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified design and user experience across multiple devices and media types – with the ability to communicate seamlessly.

With so many employees now out on the road, multisite businesses and different devices, how do you ensure you are all connected? We take a look how unified communications work, the different types of technology and the benefits of adopting UC.

How do unified communications work?

In the telecom industry, unified communications are all your telecom products working together. For example, Your CRM can pop up information about a customer from an incoming call and display details such as company name.

Unified communication technology

Rather than introducing new applications, UC provides richer value from existing communication processes.

A user could seamlessly collaborate with another person on a project, regardless of being in separate locations. The user can quickly locate another user by accessing an interactive directory and launch instant messaging, a voice call, or even a video call.

Open your outlook and you can see your emails. That’s not so unusual, but what if in your email was a message from your mobile phone’s voicemail? Instead of calling a number to hear your voice messages, you can now read a transcript or listen to a recording of your voice message within Outlook.

Examples of UC technology are:

• Call control
• Presence e.g. available / unavailable / busy
• Instant messaging
• Speech access and personal assistant
• Conferencing (audio, web and video)
• Collaboration tools
• Mobility
• Software to enable business process integration

The benefits of unified communications

UC is often credited with increasing employee productivity and improving collaboration. Additionally, specific technologies, such as video conferencing, are also linked to reduced travel costs and enhanced ROI. Furthermore, UC delivers a consistent user experience, meaning employees can work the same way regardless of the endpoint, operating system or network used to access the platform.

UC can:

• Support remote working
• Manage multiple tools and platforms
• Connect new employees to your system directly from any device
• Sync contacts and schedules with Microsoft Outlook
• Display user status, e.g. busy
• Access video calls from your handset or smartphone
• Make calls from wherever you are in the world
• Collaborate in real time

Enterprises can achieve greater impact by using unified communications capabilities to transform business processes. This is achieved by integrating UC functionality directly into the business applications using development tools provided by many of the suppliers.

Research shows that the amount of people remote working has increased by nearly quarter of a million (241,000) over a decade. For many employees, there are several locations where work is completed, and UC is built around where the end user is, rather than where the desk phone is.

Rather than having multiple systems working against each other, you can increase efficiency through UC.

The cloud

The cloud will become an essential piece of the digital environment. The cloud can connect all business systems internally, between multiple sites and allows international collaboration. A recent survey found that 79% of respondents reported that they’re seeing increased productivity and enjoy better security as a direct result of using the cloud, while another 51% of cloud users reported higher revenue growth rates over competitors.

When innovations such as this are combined with mobile and streamlined UC systems, it’s easy to see how our workflow will change. Our work environment will change along with it. The devices that anchor us to a physical workplace are disappearing.

With our cloud-based phone system KloudPBX you have the ability to unite all teams, integrate applications, connect multiple office locations and mobile employees under one phone system. If you have a new office opening or new member of staff you can simply connect them to your KloudPBX system.

Contact us for more information about KloudPBX and connecting all your communication platforms.