Unified Communications
What is Unified Communications (UC) anyway?
Integrating your communication tools, so they can work together and provide you with all the power to connect with anyone via any method, all in one place, with one look and feel. That is Unified Communications! It is not a product or thing to touch; it is a collection of products providing easy access and use of nearly every method and medium of communication, with a unified display or layout, making it easy to use and monitor them all.
Is it for me?
New products and services keep coming out and becoming "necessities" in the ever changing marketplace. Some businesses and people choose to let others be the "early adopters" and work out the bugs first, others jump in later but find themselves tangled in too many products that take time away from the prime focus, and cost more to run than they bring in. Others choose to let new technology just pass them by, and hope they can hang in there by sticking to their old methods which have worked until lately.
Benefits of UC
Unified Communication can make it easy for your business and staff to start using some of the new technology that your competition are already using, and put it to use in a way that makes your operation easier AND more effective at the same time. Things like voicemail to email transcription, SMS (text) messaging, instant conference calling, wifi phone service on the road, fax-to-email and email-to-fax, instant messaging, presence information and dynamic call control (are they at their desk? in a meeting?), video telephony, and CRM/directory integration.
Start Small and Grow
There are many components of UC, but you can start with a couple, and expand when ready, to include the most effective tools for your business, while increasing productivity and ease of use.
Growing Pains
Will there be new things to learn? Absolutely! Will you have someone right there to teach you the no-nonesense quick path to basic usage? Absolutely! Will you be baffled at how you survived without it before? Absolutely! You have a business to run, and you need the tools to do it. You can golf 18 holes with just a putter, or build a house with a hammer and saw; but there are better ways to do it, giving you better outcomes, and more fun along the way!
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