Enhanced “teaming” and cross-functional collaboration

As workplace environments become more complex and markets grow more competitive, cross-functional collaboration is playing an increasingly vital role in the modern workplace. This strategy builds a “culture of continuous improvement” in corporate settings by allowing employees not only to take collective ownership of challenges, but also create opportunities for colleagues with complimentary talents and different perspectives to learn from each other, as opposed to pursuing work in a vacuum.

The need for adequate collaboration solutions is nothing new — 75% of employers claim collaboration is an essential part of their business, after all. But in an increasingly virtual world, the need for those tools to work seamlessly and efficiently is more critical than ever.

Videoconferencing is Here to Stay

Even before the pandemic, research from sources like Forbes Insights hailed video meetings as the “default setting for business communications.” In the company’s 2020 survey of 312 executives, 71% of respondents agreed that key business stakeholders are more geographically distributed than ever — including managers, employees, and external business partners.

With remote collaboration on the rise long-term, companies are rapidly realizing the need to make videoconferencing tools part of their daily operations. Forbes found that 79% of those surveyed called video conferencing significantly more effective than voice calls, and they overwhelmingly said this medium provides many of the same benefits of a face-to-face encounter.

Employees Are In for Long-term Remote Work

In the annual State of Remote Work 2020 Survey by social media brand-builder Buffer, one statistic remains consistent year over year: Once employees start working remotely, they don’t want to go back. 98% of respondents said they’d like to work remotely “for the rest of their careers,” while 97% also said they’d recommend remote work to others. It’s no wonder that much of the workforce is advocating to keep their work-from-home status now that COVID-19 restrictions are lifting.

That’s not to say that work-from-home environments are flawless, however. Even with an overwhelming amount of workers preferring their remote status, nearly 20% reveal they struggle with collaboration and communication. This underscores the importance of highly available, reliable, and richly functional tools that can deliver the same efficient experiences to both on-premises and home-based workers.

The Evolution of BYOD and Omni-channel Communications

As noted by several key communications surveys, employees are quickly developing a preference for utilizing their own devices in the workplace. Research shows that 59% of organizations allow employees to use their own devices for work purposes, with some sources claiming that business professionals use at least three different devices at the office.

Similarly, 87% of companies expect their employees to use those personal devices to access business applications. It is only natural then, as the channels between personal and professional use cross, that the use of text, chat, and video in business conversations has skyrocketed.

This wide-ranging adoption of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement is a “double-edged sword,” however. While it increases the ease of communication for employees, it creates challenges for companies looking to manage and document those interactions. An effective solution will consolidate channels like text, social media, and video messaging across a single interface that can be accessed via the employee’s mobile phone or desktop. Those messages can then be managed by administrators and become part of the ongoing database of all company-wide communications.

As these market trends illustrate, unified communications solutions are here to stay — which means if you’re not offering them to your customers, you’re missing out on a rapidly-growing opportunity. To learn how to get started with cloud communications, download our essential guide to cloud communications. It covers everything you need to know to capitalize on the lucrative cloud communications market and help your customers stay productive, connected, and engaged, through 2020 and beyond.

As companies begin to face the task of reopening their businesses after the COVID-19 lockdown, many will be looking for technology to help them transition their staff back to the physical workplace.

Just as unified communications were instrumental in migrating to work-from-home environments, the same solutions will be indispensable for welcoming employees back to the office.

The Hybrid Approach: Connecting Virtual and Local Employees With Got2Connect UCaaS

The flexible, ultra-scalable nature of cloud-based unified communications is particularly relevant as experts recommend a phased approach for returning staff to the office. Got2Connect’s UCaaS (unified communications-as-a-service) can support both on-site and home-based workers, which is critical in a phased strategy.

In fact, Got2Connect’s hosted cloud communications platforms may even become more essential, since several industry pundits predict that a hybrid model utilizing both in-house and virtual workers will likely become the status quo going forward.

Here are some ways that Got2Connect’s UCaaS offerings will support companies such as yours as you return to the marketplace and begin to bring your workers back to their offices:

Accessible and Immediate Inter-office Communication

As your employees re-enter public workplaces for the first time, there is bound to be apprehension. One of the first things experts are advocating is clear and accessible internal communication among employees. Business owners are encouraged to get frequent feedback from staff on how their transition is proceeding, and to provide easy ways for personnel to ask questions or voice concerns. Open, seamless communication will foster trust and help rebuild positive internal cultures.

Presence Management Across the Organization

With bringing back workers in phases, there may be a period you’re your employees aren’t entirely sure which of their colleagues are in the office and which are still at home. Advanced presence management tools will help during these stages, since it gives all personnel a view of who in the company is available at any given time, no matter where they are physically situated. Interactions will remain consistent, even if large groups of employees must change their locations over an extended timeframe.

Added Staffing & Scheduling Flexibility

Experts also suggest that businesses embrace more malleable work policies throughout the transition, such as “core hours,” a set period when employees can schedule in-person meetings to help limit physical proximity over the full course of the day. Other flexible procedures might include more lenient leave policies for those with existing conditions or at-risk family members. An effective Got2Connect UCaaS solution can help your employees navigate these shifting policies by keeping them as easily connected to the business from at home as they are in the office — while also granting your business added flexibility in hiring and staffing on an ongoing basis, since remote employees can join the organization from anywhere in the country.

Omni-channel Communications Promote Seamless Interactions

The versatile set of tools offered by an effective unified communications solution enhance collaboration, especially in light of social distancing regulations that will still restrict physical contact for some time. Got2Connect UCaaS solutions provide a range of services to choose from, including popular platforms like text messaging, video, chat, and social media, all from a single interface. These capabilities allow your employees to collaborate swiftly and effectively, whether six feet apart or across an ocean, and through the media channels they are most comfortable with — both in and out of the office. 

With businesses driving towards re-opening, the rich features and flexibility of UCaaS can help to keep them viable as they move back into the office and the market moves through this crisis. UCaaS technology has been well-recognized for helping people collaborate safely and productively, and helps re-establish a sense of normalcy and well-being, which is of paramount importance during these unsettling times. Simply put, UCaaS is an essential resource for any business that is now working on plans to safely bring team members back to the familiarity of the office setting.

Few would argue that 2020 has been a tough year, for reasons that are all too obvious. But the truth is, it hasn’t been all doom-and-gloom. In fact, there are some interesting trends emanating from the business sector, with many having to do with how companies are discovering the power of their communications solutions. Here are a few UCaaS gains that industry sources are attributing to the “new normal” of 2020.

The Cloud Communications Explosion

According to an article in eWeek, cloud communications has immediately developed into one of the largest growth areas of the new “pandemic era,” including unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Collaboration and communications technologies are proving essential for businesses to maintain their operations during social distancing.

However, there is a key caveat that goes with this exciting industry trend: as the UCaaS opportunity is growing, so too are the incidents of fraud. Businesses of all sizes are experiencing breaches during collaborative sessions — and as a result, partners need to be particularly vigilant in ensuring that their customers’ security protocols are robust, up-to-date, and in compliance with specific industry mandates, like those in financial services and healthcare.

Work-From-Home (WFH) is Not a Passing Phase

One of the most significant – if somewhat unexpected – workplace silver linings is the sudden growth in remote workers. Rather than experiencing an unsupervised and less productive workforce, home-based employees are now being hailed as at least as efficient as their on-premises colleagues. Now that the unified communications model is proving effective, many employees believe they should continue working from home, at least part of the time.

In an article in UC Today, 79 percent of the workforce is willing to “happily make sacrifices going forward to obtain the flexibility they need” to continue working from home. The article states that employees will accept fewer company benefits and a greater workload if they can work even a few days from home—especially if it includes Friday.

More pertinently, half of the respondents in a similar study said that workers would be willing to leave their current positions to work from home. This, in essence, becomes a huge recruiting tool for businesses that can attract better talent if they can dangle a work-from-home carrot. Keep in mind that the foundation for all WFH environments are the reliable and flexible UC services that accommodate this distributed workplace.

Businesses—and the technology partners that service them—need to keep a keen eye on how the workplace reimagines itself. The intelligent application of cloud technology is helping businesses overcome the substantial burdens put forth by the pandemic and is actually helping place these companies on a path of heightened productivity and profitability.

As businesses are forced to change their everyday operations, due to new work-from-home policies, mandatory shutdowns, and much more, they are rightfully anxious about maintaining the health, well-being, and safety of colleagues, suppliers, and customers.

They are also just as concerned about stabilizing their operations during a disruptive and uncertain time. Keeping up productivity, managing costs, and ensuring that customers are properly served are all issues that are front and center for owners, managers, and staff — even in the face of a pandemic.

As a business owner, you are continuously helping your staff meet these changing business dynamics. Transitioning from a traditional office setting to one that relies on a remote and mobile workforce can take some creativity and flexibility. More importantly, it takes an infrastructure that provides maximum scalability, reliability, flexibility, and simplicity, all of which can be provided by an effective unified communications solution, coupled with the guidance of an experienced cloud service provider, such as Got2Connect.

An infrastructure that enables a productive, fully functional and seamless remote work experience relies on an all-in-one solution from which users can make and take calls, manage voicemails, manage and change auto-attendants, chat, and conduct video meetings from anywhere. The combination of these critical work functions in one simple interface is an indispensable component of any company’s successful work from home or remote work strategy. Got2Connect’s proven technologies and experienced team have helped many small- and medium-sized businesses remain connected, engaged, and productive while working in remote environments — numbers that have skyrocketed overnight during the “new normal” of COVID-19. As business owners evaluate the right solution to use, there are a few important guidelines to help businesses ease into a remote communications environment:

Access to Essential Tools and Services

Business communication doesn’t just happen over the phone — employees rely heavily on the ability to chat, text, conduct video meetings, and easily access business contacts in the office and on the go. Now more than ever, an effective UCaaS solution needs to be able to deliver all of that functionality and more — all the features that make a business hum. Removing any one of these features would be highly disruptive throughout the organization. Got2Connect has structured its UCaaS platform to give remote and mobile employees access to the very same features and functionalities they use daily.

Redundancy is a Requisite

Got2Connect provides a georedundant network, offering the best option for businesses. Got2Connect has built a network architecture that minimizes any disruption to the network caused by power outages, severe weather, and other factors. If one data center goes down for any reason, a fully redundant site immediately becomes active, ensuring continuous service for all Got2Connect customers.

Security is Paramount

For many businesses — particularly within regulated sectors such as healthcare or financial services — the move to remote operations can bring with it serious security concerns, as private, protected data that was previously handled locally is now being distributed via digital channels. An effective UCaaS solution needs to be able to mitigate those concerns by providing the most stringent of security protocols.

Mobility is a Must

All employees — regardless of where they work — should have the same communications tools at their disposal. This is especially important now, as more and more employees — and even entire workgroups — are finding themselves outside the traditional office space for a significant period of time. Giving those remote employees a mobile application with the same level of functionality as their desk phone ensures they can maintain the same level of collaboration at home as they could in the office. This is crucial on not just a practical level, but in terms of giving those employees a sense of a familiar work environment — something easily lost among the rapid changes that came with COVID-19.

Companies aren’t comprised solely of people working in a single location anymore — which makes it more important than ever to have an effective unified communications solution in place.

The modern employee isn’t at their desk — they’re at client sites or working from their living rooms. They’re spread across satellite offices and branches. They’re making rounds between various buildings in a healthcare or educational setting. They’re traveling on a commuter train between meetings and talking on a Bluetooth headset. Many of these workers utilize their smartphones and laptops to conduct calls as opposed to traditional desk phones — even if they’re at their desks.

Employees need to communicate and collaborate with co-workers, vendors, customers and other stakeholders across the continent just as easily as they do with their friend in the next cubicle. And they need to appear to customers and business partners as if they’re all part of a unified, professional entity, not a hodgepodge of personal phone numbers lacking any corporate identity.

How Unified Communications Increase Productivity in a Distributed Workplace

The ability to communicate more seamlessly via powerful collaboration and mobility solutions has allowed the business community to be more productive than ever, overcoming the dispersed nature of its workforce. The trend shows no sign of slowing — which means businesses need comprehensive unified communications solutions now more than ever, so they can be prepared for the increasingly virtual modern workforce.

Sophisticated cloud service providers like Got2Connect offer comprehensive tools that facilitate fluid collaboration for on-site, on-the-go, and distributed workers alike, resulting in increased productivity. And facilitating voice traffic in geographically disparate locations isn’t enough to satisfy the demands of modern businesses. In fact, any communications solution worth its salt must provide a robust set of features that handle other media channels—like chat, text, and messaging — across a multitude of device platforms, including desktops, mobile phones, laptops, and tablets.

What Got2Connect Offers in a Unified Communications Solution

Here are some key features that Got2Connect offers our clients:

Versatile Softphones: With cloud-based phone systems, workers don’t even have to own a physical phone in order to make and manage calls. Effective software-based phone systems allow users to simply open the application and make calls with a click of a link—eliminating dialing (or misdialing), and painful searches through a separate directory to locate numbers.

Extension Management: Workers in an office setting can easily apply rules such as “do not disturb” to their lines with one-click. Extension rules can be changed with little effort using a mobile app, allowing the user to manage calls within or outside the office. An effective softphone will incorporate other tools such as contact management, call history records, and recorded voicemail.

Presence Management: Through this feature, workers can view the real-time status of anyone in the company. The system shows who is available to take a call, who is not at their desk, and who is busy. These insights allow users to transfer calls to the team members who are readily available, resulting in swift and effective call resolution and increasing customer satisfaction. It also allows an employee to view the availability of his or her co-workers across the entire company regardless of whether that colleague is at their workstation or off-site.

Attended Transfer: These tools allow users to select different methods for transferring calls. For example, an attended transfer feature allows the employee to speak to the caller first, while a “blind transfer” feature sends the caller to another destination with just a click. Users can also apply rules that automatically direct calls to a specific extension if theirs is busy, such as to an assistant, or to a co-worker with specialized expertise. This makes it easier for employees to delegate or share tasks by automatically routing calls to the appropriate colleague.

Mobile Apps: Easy-to-use applications let workers who are out-and-about view their call histories, retrieve their office voicemails, and take advantage of many of the same functionalities that they can in the office. A huge advantage of mobile tools: users can make calls from their cell phones that appear to be generated from the regular office. Clients and business partners are none-the-wiser about their actual whereabouts. The organization continues to present itself as a cohesive, well-organized, professional entity.

As the workplace continues to evolve, unified communications solutions will continue to meet — and even drive — the technological needs of the workforce of the future.