What is Unified Communications?

The past two years have been unpredictable, to say the least. The business world has been turned upside down and forced to deal with an unprecedented situation. Due to Covid-19 and business shutdowns, business owners have had to come up with creative solutions in order to keep their doors open and their employees productive as they work from home.  

In many cases, this meant creating a hodgepodge patchwork communications setup for remote workers. Did you know that if business owners had utilized unified communications, many obstacles that they faced during this time could have been skipped? You may be wondering, what is unified communications? If this is you, keep reading. We will dive into exactly what unified communications is and how it can benefit businesses.  

First, A Quick Definition

Unified communications is a cloud-based communications solution that combines voice, video, email, messaging, and more collaboration tools into one easy-to-use platform. When a company uses unified communications, they can ensure that all employees have access to company communications, and their business line, from any location that has access to the internet with the use of a multitude of devices.  

What are the benefits of Unified Communications?

You may think you have this whole “communications thing” under control. Did you know that there are major benefits to ditching your old communications set up for a great UC solution? Unified communications can help create efficiency and effectiveness among workers. Some key areas where your company will benefit are:  

Productivity

As workers connect, they use several different communication avenues. This could be anything from a phone call to email or sending a quick instant message. If the company is not using unified communications, the employees must flip between tabs and programs to have all access to all the features and functions of a unified communications solution.  

Efficiency

Employees can work more efficiently. With all communications tied together, employees do not need to switch between tabs, wait for various programs and websites to load, or figure out a way to connect with each other. All that works seamlessly in a unified communications platform. When coworkers can work effectively and efficiently together, customers can be better assisted.

Cost

There are several ways that unified communications save companies money. By housing all your communications in one place you are reducing the number of services you spend on. Your platform provider is also responsible for the maintenance of the platform, and the plug-and-play nature means lower up-front costs.  

User Experience

As mentioned earlier, employees should be able to adapt to a unified communications solution quickly. Because of the ease of use of the platform, workers may even have an increased user experience. When workers are satisfied, turnover for your company can be reduced, and your customer experience improved upon.

What is Unified Communications and Collaboration?

Collaboration is key to a well-organized and well-run business. Some business owners are concerned about the ability of remote and hybrid workers to collaborate on projects. Unified communications can solve this pain point.  

Video conferencing is one of the easiest ways for workers to collaborate when they cannot physically be together. Unified communications allow coworkers to file share, screen share, and communicate in real-time. This reduces the slow-downs many business owners expect to occur when their team goes remote.

Not only can employees use video conferencing to communicate in real-time, but unified communication also supports VoIP (voice over internet protocol) and messaging. All three of these methods can save your workers time throughout their workday, no more waiting for email responses!  

Update Your Communications

Tierzero is excited to help you get started with unified communications. If you still have questions like, what is unified communications or how UC can help your company, we are here to help you!

Tierzero has several communications solutions for you to choose from for your business and we’re more than happy to help you make that perfect selection. Contact us today so we can go over all your options and get you started with better business communications!

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