In the last few years, many business organisations have undergone a myriad of changes in terms of how teams communicate. It’s no longer a given that team members can simply saunter down the corridor for a quick chat or check-in about a project. In fact, team members are often scattered across the country, if not the globe.
Moreover, there’s been a major shift towards work-from-home and remote teams as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where video meetings may have once seemed strange to many of us, they’ve now become commonplace and a major part of many people’s working days.
As the number of collaboration tools grows, business owners and managers have various options at their disposal – it can be tricky to know where to start with a solid telecommunications strategy for your organisation.
With the uncertainties introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent impact on business management, communications inside and outside your organisation have become more important than ever.
A smooth communication channel is essential to ensuring proper business collaboration and as such business owners need to provide adequate telecommunications for their employees.
Multifunctionality of VoIP
The growth in the number of international business collaborations in the last few decades has caused changes in telecommunication needs. Traditional phone lines are expensive, slow and inflexible when compared to more modern systems. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business phone systems empower business owners and service providers to communicate more quickly and affordably.
VoIP-services are constantly advancing, which is reflected in the number of additional options.
As mentioned, VoIP service packages are easily scalable. This allows you to choose an adequate package for your current needs and make adjustments – for example, during periods of higher workloads. When workloads return to off-peak levels, services can be removed from a package, saving some money along the way. Since a business’ needs are constantly evolving – ebbing and flowing with customer demand – a telecommunications solution that allows you to easily adjust to those ever-changing requirements makes a lot of sense.
Portability is another practical aspect of VoIP-solutions. Software can be installed to all your business devices ensuring constant and efficient communication with your clients and remote teams, regardless of where they, or you, are situated. To your customers, your organisation will appear as a seamless, united entity, no matter how many locations you operate or how many remote workers you are supporting.
Also, business professionals – and their clients alike – appreciate any kind of automation which accelerates their work processes. In terms of VoIP-services, there are lots of options to this end. Seamlessly transfer calls to any of your locations, funnel customers through to the correct liaison within your organisation via automated prompts, avail of automated reply services and take advantage of the ever-popular talk-to-text capability for receiving your voicemails via email. Any one of these automations can be a practical and time-saving option for each department within your business and have a real impact on efficiency and productivity as each member of your team can spend less time managing their communications and more time taking action.
VoIP integrations for MS Teams
As mentioned above, work-from-home and remote teams have become the norm for many of us. This has introduced the need for more efficient tools for online collaboration and communication. That’s why more than 500,000 organisations trust Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) for efficient communications.
This collaboration platform is an integral part of the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) package of apps. In other words, it’s a perfect platform for businesses already using Windows and Microsoft’s productivity suite and a logical add-on for enhancing business telecommunications. When integrated with the Microsoft Azure cloud, you get a fully rounded package of services that a modern business might need for smooth and productive collaboration.
The great news is that it’s possible to integrate your VoIP system with MS Teams. Rather than maintaining separate communication channels, your employees will be able to take and make phone calls directly on their computers, right inside MS Teams. This means that anyone – your employees, clients or other stakeholders – will have a single hub for taking business calls or joining a video conference.
Unitec can advise on fully integrated VoIP solutions which have native integrations without any additional hardware or software tools. You stay in control of everything that’s happening via a single web portal and we provide 24/7 IT support for these services to ensure your business continues to function smoothly.
Assisting your remote workforce
While a remote workforce offers many advantage and benefits, it’s not without its challenges.
Communication, processes and culture are three areas often cited by managers as being where these challenges arise.
When you opt for full integrations of VoIP telecommunications into your MS Teams, it’s easier to delegate, organise, and monitor your organisation’s work tasks, while keeping a finger on the pulse of your business and how each member of the team is faring. With the new “Together Mode” (which is currently rolling out to customers), teammates can even digitally sit in a shared background, making it feel like they’re in the same room with everyone else!
Chat, video meetings, phone calls and true collaboration using the apps your employees are familiar with… When your team members have everything in one place, meetings will be shorter but more productive.
Conclusion
This is the age of intensive business communication. Thanks to the advancements of the internet on a global scale, it’s possible to telecommunicate with practically anywhere in the world quickly and efficiently via various VoIP solutions. What’s more, solutions like MS Teams allow for the comprehensive integration of various collaboration and communication services and tools. For companies with scattered teams and clients, these features can make a huge difference in the way they communicate, exchange business data, and organise their work tasks.
If you’re ready to take your telecommunications to the next level, get in touch with Unitec today – our friendly experts have a wealth of experience in consulting, planning and implementing business phone systems and VoIP solutions and are ready to tailor-make a solution to address your unique business needs.
