As things escalated very quickly in the spring of 2020 with Covid-19, many companies were forced to undergo a forced and highly unplanned digitalization of the workplace. This created many different challenges with just as many mixed results on solutions. Many companies are still struggling to find their way.
Intro
As the Covid-19 pandemic swept through countries around the world, companies had to make rapid changes to keep production running. UCaaS is a concept that many have become familiar with recently. Here, our UCaaS expert, Felipe Leiva from the Cloud Sales department at Telavox, guides you through how to create the best conditions for your team to collaborate remotely.
What is UCaaS and how does it help businesses?
UCaaS (UC) is an umbrella term for a cloud-based solution that brings together all your company’s communication tools in a single system. You don’t have to deal with a bunch of different providers and administer different systems. The Telavox communication platform is a good example of a UCaaS solution where our customers can easily and conveniently take their office home and continue working as usual. Everything you need to manage a normal working day is in one app.
A basic version of UC can involve bringing your company’s telephony, PBX, email, chat and video calls together in one platform.
Do you have any tips for companies that want to improve their communication with remote workers?
It is important to qualify the communication required to be able to work remotely. You must ensure that the technology you have meets the need. The way you communicate must also work externally. There is no point in developing guidelines and policies if not everyone can communicate satisfactorily if the technical conditions do not exist.
In many cases, there is a wide range of solutions available in a company. Video conferencing is one such example. It is not uncommon for the same company to use different video services for remote meetings depending on which department you belong to. The same goes for document management. Some use file sharing in the cloud while others still email their documents.
In any case, it is important to ensure that the solutions are accessible to everyone and that there is consistency in the company. Create clear, simple and open communication channels. This promotes transparency and encourages employees to reach out to each other.
It is important to be clear about how, when and for what your communication channels will be used. You may want to handle more formal documentation via email while more casual communication is done via Slack or Teams.
An internal guide can help you reduce confusion about what and where team members should post. If your team uses different communication tools to collaborate (such as Microsoft Teams for file sharing or Slack for chat), let all team members know right away.
Does UCaaS save money?
Without a doubt! There are many reports showing that poor communication damages the organization. According to the study “The Poor Cost of Communications“, 400 companies with 100,000 employees each have an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year due to poor communication to and between employees. And even if your small business is a fraction of the size of the companies surveyed, your business is also affected by poor communication.
By minimizing the number of different solutions and systems, the more cost-effective it becomes. Bringing together telephony (fixed and mobile), video and teleconferencing, chat and discussion groups on the same platform means fewer invoices and a smoother and more seamless working day for employees. It also leads to an inclusive culture as communication becomes more accessible to everyone.
Simplicity in technology is a prerequisite for it to work. If there are too many different solutions and too high demands on the user’s technical knowledge, there is a great risk that remote communication will fail.
Most solutions come with a cost that should be taken into account. Does everyone in the company have the same type of license? How do you weigh cost versus benefit? By gathering all these elements in one place, you can more easily ensure that everyone communicates on the same terms and conditions.
Furthermore, there is also an economic benefit for companies to be able to reduce the cost of all the business travel that takes place each year.
What happens to businesses that do not have or acquire effective digital communication tools? Will they be left behind?
In the early 2000s, around 50% of Swedes had internet access at home. Today, the figure is 98%. This means that almost every Swede can communicate with the whole world with just a few keystrokes. Digitization also allows us to take our work home and be productive remotely. And for those companies and organizations that have been lagging behind, the coronavirus crisis has been a wake-up call – they have been forced to take crisis measures and quickly implement digital solutions.
The longer you wait to make the changes required in dynamic and changing times, the more difficult it becomes. Raise the issue. Clarify the ambitions. Set reasonable expectations. Start from creating value for all. Set deadlines and work towards the same goal.
Could it be an advantage from an employer branding perspective to offer your employees a UCaaS solution?
Absolutely! Everything is constantly evolving regardless of the industry, especially in the world of technology where trends change rapidly. Many of the things we take for granted at home we want to work the same way in the workplace. Younger generations are coming in with more ‘modern’ eyes. This puts pressure on employers to keep up with the times and understand what employees need to do their jobs effectively.
Keeping up with and creating the right technological conditions for the future is clearly an advantage when it comes to employer branding and creating an attractive workplace. For companies and organizations, it is crucial to stay competitive. It allows them to hire the right person for a role and for a team, instead of relying on who lives closest. It also provides access to new knowledge and diversity.
How important is it to have a solution that is open to integrations?
In the recent Telavox chat with Gartner, a world-renowned IT analyst firm that publishes valuable industry reports, the analysts there mentioned that integrations have become one of the decision parameters when choosing a UCaaS provider. It is important that we show understanding of customers’ needs – they often have multiple platforms for their business needs, especially enterprise customers. Having multiple platforms creates complexity both for the IT managers (many systems to install, train users, support) as well as the users who have to switch between different interfaces.
If you want to save time, money and increase efficiency in your company, don’t keep switching between apps – get a solution that has the capacity to integrate with other systems instead!
Many solutions have become increasingly user-friendly, which is a good thing. But it also places demands on users to be able to handle most things themselves. Could this be a disadvantage for the customer?
This has actually been addressed by Gartner. For example, they mentioned that one of Microsoft’s weaknesses is a lack of support. They rely on their resellers to provide this kind of support to their customers. Sometimes it works, but it’s a third party and an intermediary, which may not always be well versed in the product. Therefore, the quality of support can vary a lot.
At Telavox we also have a Customer Operations department whose job is to help our customers. You will be assigned a Customer Success Manager from the start, who has overall responsibility for delivery, training, management, development and providing customers with proactive solutions. Telavox’s latest customer survey shows that the service provided by our Customer Success Managers is the most appreciated service, especially among large companies.
Do you have a specific example of a customer who has streamlined their business thanks to UCaaS?
Yes, there are many. What characterizes all of them and has made them successful is basically control. Investing in a common communication platform gives you a completely different overview of costs and organization. Control over the small changes that often require long phone queues to operators, costing both time and money. You can see colleagues’ availability – when they leave or start. Knowing that you can solve most things on your own without involving an external provider. That’s why people choose Telavox in the first place, and the answer to why we’ve become so popular is user-friendliness.
The pandemic has accelerated Gleerup’s digital journey.
The company Gleerups develops digital tools and has been a Telavox customer since 2013. Elisabeth Lennartsdotter is Sales and Marketing Manager at Gleerups and says that their threshold for running digital meetings, both internal and external, disappeared quickly this spring.
“The pandemic has definitely accelerated our transition to an increasingly digitally driven business. And we probably won’t return to the same level of business travel we had before the pandemic. The majority of our meetings work just as well to be conducted digitally.”
Elisabeth says that thanks to Telavox, it was easy to make the transition in a short time.
“The transition to moving all employees’ offices to home, or time-sharing between office and remote work, has been a very smooth process. Everyone was already used to Telavox. Our receptionist has the cloud switch in an application on her computer that is connected to Telavox via the cloud.”
Telavox cloud exchange facilitates remote work for Lund companies.
For Martin Berg, CTO at the software company Lime in Lund, it has been a relief to have Telavox’s cloud-based communication solution at their disposal in these times. Something that he says can make a big difference for companies during the coronavirus outbreak.
“In the Nordics, we have come a long way with cloud-based solutions and are already used to working remotely. This also applies to Lime Technologies employees to the extent possible depending on the service. But if we need to send everyone home, it’s no problem thanks to Telavox’s cloud-based solution. The IT department can use and manage everything remotely and the same goes for our customer support and many other departments,” says Martin.
It should be easy to stay safe.
Despite working remotely, Lime Technologies does not have to compromise on information security, which is a priority for software companies. Martin thinks it’s important to keep a balance and be flexible – employees should be able to work from home and use the necessary tools on the computer. He wants the same approach to customers.
“Security should be simple and Telavox is well on its way here. You can choose to log in via your Microsoft account and then we have centralized control over who logs in, and when people leave, we can administer it in a simple way,” says Martin.
Executive summary
There are good reasons why more and more companies are choosing to move to UCaaS. Some of the key benefits can be summarized in the following points:
- Ease of administration.
- User-friendly interface.
- You become a more attractive employer.
- Effective communication, better cooperation and transparency.
- Lower costs and better overview.
Why choose Telavox as your UCaaS provider?
Telavox’s unique UcaaS platform has had a major impact on the Nordic market. The solution consists of a cloud switch, mobile application and interface with telephony, chat, video conferencing, statistics tools and integrations with other systems.
Telavox can handle both IT and telecom and is also one of the largest operators in the B2B sector. This way, our customers only need one supplier. We put a strong focus on mobile for all telephony and UcaaS services. Administrators can quickly and easily get started with the app and manage users, costs and data security in a single portal instead of having to log into multiple systems.
With Telavox, users can benefit from automation, better customer service and effective collaboration tools to strengthen both internal and external communication.
These are Telavox’s best UcaaS features
IP telephony and cloud-based PBX which you easily manage in the app.
Video conferencing with integrated telephony and video conferencing solution. No installation is necessary. External participants do not need to install special software but can join directly from their web browser.
Telephone conferencing where you can easily invite external and internal participants.
Integrations with several Microsoft systems such as Teams, Azure Active Directory, Power BI, Microsoft 365 as well as integrations with other platforms such as Google G Suit, Freshdesk, Zendesk, Hubspot and Salesforce, among others.
Softphone – Use your computer as a phone. It’s cheap and easy to upgrade!
Contact Center – a single app for both customer communication and internal collaboration. Contact Center offers features that provide enhanced functionality to customer service agents, as well as statistical and revealing data on how to better plan staffing and workforce to meet customer needs.
Passive call recording Record all or some of your calls via both mobile and landline.
Statistical tools with real-time statistics allow you to keep track of your queues, which can help you improve customer service.
Telavox widget maximizes your customer support on the website and makes it easier for you to talk to your customers.
International numbers: Telavox can offer numbers in over 65 countries and in more than 10,000 locations with the help of global partners. This can further enhance the unified experience of a solution across the organization.
