Unified Communications – What is UC and why should I be using it?

UC, or Unified Communications, is the next big thing in telecoms. By unifying all your business communication tools into one platform, its goal is to save your staff time at the same time as helping them work more effectively together.

Video and voice calling, file and screen sharing, and pretty much any other communication tool you can think of are all included with every UC install. The chances are you already have, or have had, these tools available to you, but until now you’ve had to spend a lot of time hunting for the right app, or finding the right app only to see that the colleague you want to talk to either isn’t signed in or isn’t available. This is where UC really starts to show its value; you won’t need to hunt for the right app anymore, and as such your staff are far more likely to log in and actually use it.

Not only does this save you and your colleagues time, but it will also save you money. Bundling all the tools you use at the moment into one service from one provider has enormous benefits that may not be obvious at first glance. If anything were to go wrong, for example, you only have one number to call. Similarly, you’ll never have to worry again about whether one of these tools can integrate with any of the others – since they’re all under one roof, they all play nicely with each other. The primary benefit of bundling these services into the UC platform is cost. 

Don’t just take our word for it. In a recent survey of IT professionals, 89% of them thought that the system of communication tools most businesses use is disjointed and not effective. Ask your IT guys what they think of the setup you’re using now – I guarantee that they will either already be using their own tools in the department to communicate and collaborate with each other, or they will bite your arm off at the chance of consolidating all your tools into one.

The IT professionals were also in near-unaminous agreement that the current ecosystem of communication tools impacted staff’s abilities to get the most out of their contact with clients. 88% of those surveyed thought that frontline staff having to spend a lot of their time jumping between applications to find the right tool or information was undermining their ability to speak with customers effectively. It’s easy to see why if you think about it – if all the information you needed was available at your fingertips you wouldn’t need to put customers on hold so often.

The real figure to take away from the survey, however, is that 97% of respondents agreed that unifying all communications tools into one app would make it easier for staff to serve their customers. 95% also agreed that there was a direct link between staff collaboration and business profitability. After all, isn’t that why you’re in business?

“Hold on” I hear you saying, “What’s the catch?” Well, to put it simply, there isn’t one. Chalvington have over 20 years of experience installing the latest communication equipment for customers. 

Basing our platform in the cloud means that you can access the system from anywhere. Remote or mobile workers will rejoice when they find out they can collaborate with your office staff without having to download and install more than one app. The built-in presence panel is their eyes and ears in the office, so they can see immediately who’s available to take a call. Being accessible from anywhere also provides new opportunities for flexible working time – it’s now possible for your staff to work from home without necessarily impacting their productivity.

We all know that effective and engaging communication between staff and customers is at the heart of any successful business. So why carry on with a cumbersome suite of tools that’s costing you too much money, is a nightmare to maintain and isn’t helping to improve customer engagement?