How communications and connectivity will drive business efficiency
As we enter the ‘roadmap’ to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are reassessing their people operations. Some have adopted a ‘hybrid’ working model, allowing employees to split their time between working from home and from the office, and others have even given up their office spaces entirely.
For these businesses, connectivity has become more important than ever and will be fundamental in keeping the mobile workforce in constant communication.
Here are some of the main ways communications will support companies and enable them to be more agile as they continue to navigate the pandemic.
A more flexible workforce
The pandemic has given us more and more reason to believe that open plan offices with fixed personal desks and phones assigned to each worker will eventually be a thing of the past.
Having the correct mobile technology in place provides flexibility for businesses and can remove the need for desktop phones, delivering an experience that transitions smoothly across multiple devices, platforms and networks.
This benefits not only employees but business owners too as, by empowering their teams and giving them the tools to work flexibly when and where they want to, they can make the most of employees’ time and bring real value to their business.
Improved efficiency
Another benefit of unified communications solutions is that they help businesses to work more efficiently and provide call reporting software that can enable business owners to analyse call patterns, monitor the time taken to answer calls and track the number of abandoned calls.
This enables businesses to identify weaknesses and opportunities in their teams and operations and to manage their resources more effectively. Having business mobile also allows employees to access emails on the move, meaning they can be more responsive and remain in constant contact with customers and suppliers.
Increased productivity
Business owners are always looking for ways to help their employees become more productive at work, and statistics show that technology and connectivity advances have a direct impact, with 83% of global workers believing that technology advances have enabled them to be more productive and stating they see this increasing in the future.
Mobile applications can empower employees and boost their productivity by enabling them to work from wherever, whenever, and communicate with and update their colleagues on the move.
Not only that, when working remotely, if their broadband goes down, employees can use their business mobiles as a backup to access their emails and any potential leads or sales until their connection is restored.
More visibility and control
With advanced communications and connectivity tools, business owners can have the visibility to see that calls are being answered, giving them more trust and an element of control when employees are working remotely.
Hosted systems can show who makes the most calls, what they are using data for and if they are working when and as much as they should be. Employers can have access to real-time dashboards, reports and analytics for actionable insights for further improvements to profitability and productivity.
Time is money and having visibility of how employees are using their time when they are on the move or working remotely can help deliver greater return for a business.
Conclusion
Connectivity is essential for virtually all businesses these days and will only become even more integral and they navigate the new world of remote and hybrid working.
Whether it’s with staff, customers or suppliers, it’s increasingly important to stay online and in touch during these times of uncertainty, and to have greater efficiencies in place to overcome any new challenges that may arise.
The successful implementation of the right cloud phone service can improve business agility with features that support employee productivity and performance, and the offerings will only grow bigger and better over the years.