As society continues to maneuvers to adapt to the pandemic tolerant environment, workforces are continually incorporating remote working into their policies for the foreseeable future. The zeitgeist has shown that technology has provided ways and means for employees and employers to undergo their usual tasks while away from the office.
With this new way of working, however, there is now a new need for integral connectivity in order to streamline communication among employees, and some communicative platforms are simply not adequate enough.
Over the past year and a half, investments in unified communications (UC) have proven to be the best tactic to intercept integration difficulties amongst individual workforces. The new issue alongside that, is getting companies to work smarter and migrating from the applications they are most accustomed to, to an unknown, yet easier way of working.
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What is unified communication?
Before delving into the many benefits that UC has on remote working, it is important to understand what exactly it is. Everyone is familiar with the various applications used for communication; a video calling app may be used for one form of transmission, and sending a voice message may be done through another. The issue with this is that it requires downloading various apps which take time to understand, and it is harder to keep track of information transferral and their locations on the server.
This is where UC comes in. Each form of transmission is available on one site and one application, in order to streamline the communication between the parties utilising the portal. There is no switching between software, and is therefore less confusing. UC unifies phone calls, SMS, web conferencing, emails and more, combining multiple communication channels onto one platform. Everything is trackable so nothing is lost, and tasks are easier to manage across all electronic devices.
Users of the server can also control their online presence. These days, most people shy away from the ‘real time’ methods of communication (i.e. phone calls) as they are immediate, and tend to interrupt tasks with their requirement for a rapid response. Emails – or the ‘store and forward’ way of communicating – allows for more leisurely responses, and is ultimately more preferred. UC is great at accommodating these preferences as users are able to set their status (online, offline or away) and can organise meetings according to their availability without crossing over to another app. This helps to eradicate unwanted calls, so there is no chance to interrupt the tasks that are being done at that present moment.
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What this means for the future of remote workforces
Employers are realising the need to transition to easier methods of streamlining work efficiency while employees are working away from the office. Having one unified platform which all employees can access is a simple yet highly effective way to improve the collaboration of tasks, and communication. A lot of people have experienced the inevitable crash of a mobile device or computer after opening multiple applications at once, and continuously clicking from one to the other. It slows momentum when watching that cursor spin as it tries to unfreeze itself or even waiting patiently for the computer to reboot. Investing in UC enhances the user experience which, by default, improves overall productivity, meaning better business performance from employees and the companies they work for.
Unified communication operates through a cloud based platform, so users can truly work from any location in the world. It moreover gives room for businesses to be expansive, and even incorporate more global collaborations. UC unifies the workforce in a major way, in order to offer cohesive solutions to clientele and improve overall quality of service.
The bottom line
Over the past year, remote working opened up the doors for technological complications. When there are issues however, solutions rapidly follow. Companies are noticing how UC has bridged a gap they didn’t even realise they had prior to the remote working environment. The processes already established in a company can be improved across locations and networks by merely having a consistent user experience. This consistency improves organisation of the individual, and in turn, of the company as a whole.
One major driving force for investing in unified communications has been the reduced costs established. When businesses are investing into multiple platforms, it can be a pricey strategy for a far less streamlined form of communication. UC allows users to customise what exactly they require from the portal and only pay for what they need. Then, with cloud based software increasingly merging with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, businesses can be rest assured that their servers within UC platforms are safe.
A cheaper, easier, and more secure way of efficiently communicating while working remotely – UC is certainly the future of unified business communication for workforces globally.
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