Taking a Look at Unified Communications

The more businesses have become capable of, the more important their communications and the tools that enable them have become. Given the current global situation and the challenges that arise because of it, these communication technologies can now be considered indispensable to businesses. Let’s discuss why so many businesses have elected to adopt unified communications as a means of fulfilling their operations.

What Are Unified Communications?

Speaking plainly, “unified communications” are a business’ strategy to improve its collaborative capabilities by implementing various communication solutions for its staff to use. Oftentimes, this strategy is referred to as unified communications and collaboration.

It is important to differentiate between these two parts, as they are—while similar—two different concepts.

The Difference Between Communications and Collaboration

We’re all familiar with the concept of water cooler talk. People gather around a common area and chat for a moment. This is a prime example of communication, as coworkers are talking to one another, but there isn’t necessarily any productive benefit to be directly gained from their conversation. For an example of collaboration, we would turn to the conference room, where coworkers go to discuss projects, hashing out ideas and pooling their talents.

Basically, collaboration will involve communication, but not all communication counts as “collaborative.”

Why Implement Unified Communications?

Unified communications can deliver substantial benefits to the businesses that put them in place. For just a few examples:

Improved productivity and performance. Unified communications gives the members of your team improved access to shared resources, along with the tools necessary for collaboration to take place. As a result, your team members can work together (even if working remotely) to produce a superior result.

Improved user experience. With these collaborative tools, your employees will find it much more achievable to meet your expectations. Because of this, they will be more satisfied with the work they are tasked with while they increase their overall productivity.

Improved budgeting. As unified communication platforms tend to be cloud-based, these services are billed per month and are therefore a scalable operational expense. This helps to make your available budget more flexible.

Improved cohesion. By tying all of your communications together and tracking interactions and individual projects, unified communications make it far easier to keep everyone involved up to date on important information.

Interested in learning more about unified communications, or any other beneficial IT solution? BNMC is here to help. To find out more, give us a call at (978) 482-2020.