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Tag: unified communications

  • 6 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs Cloud Communications Solutions

    Modernizing your small business phone system with cloud communications solutions can provide numerous benefits for your business: saving money, improving collaboration, streamlining your operations, improving call quality, and more.

    As a small business owner, you’re always looking for ways to stay ahead of the competition and keep your team productive, all while keeping costs under control. One area that’s often overlooked, but is critical to your success, is your communication system. On-premises phone systems can be very limiting, especially given the rapid adoption of remote and hybrid work models. In this blog post, we’ll discuss 6 reasons why you should consider making the switch from on-prem to cloud communications solutions.

    1. Save Money:
      Cloud communications solutions eliminate the need for expensive hardware and maintenance costs, allowing you to save money on setup and maintenance.
    2. Flexibility:
      Cloud communications solutions offer the flexibility and scalability needed to keep up with the changing needs of your business. You can easily scale up or down as your business needs change, without having to invest in new hardware or software.
    3. Collaboration:
      With cloud communications solutions, your team can communicate and collaborate in real time, no matter where they are located. You can also access your communication tools from any device, whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
    4. Streamlined Operations:
      Cloud-based IVR (Interactive Voice Response) can automate your inbound call-handling process, allowing your team to focus on more complex tasks. This can help you streamline your operations while improving your customers’ experience.
    5. Remote Collaboration:
      Cloud-based video conference solutions can provide high-quality video and audio, as well as screen sharing and other collaboration tools. This can help your team stay connected and collaborate effectively, no matter where they are located.
    6. Better Call Quality:
      Cloud-based VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) solutions provide high-quality call quality, even in areas with poor network coverage. This can help you stay connected with your customers and provide better service.

    Modernizing your small business phone system with cloud communications solutions can provide numerous benefits for your business. Whether you’re looking to save money, improve collaboration, streamline your operations, or improve call quality, there’s a cloud-based solution that can help. So, if you’re still using an on-premises phone system, it’s time to consider making the switch to the cloud!

  • UCaaS Solutions for Small Business: Everything You Need to Know

    Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) can unlock a lot of doors for small businesses. Flexible, mobile, and easy to implement, this is one solution that has become even more useful in 2020 for companies forced to work remotely. UCaaS solutions for small business offer a way for teams to communicate, collaborate, and to stay productive from wherever.

    Let’s take a look at why UCaaS is becoming increasingly popular and how this technology is uniquely positioned to help SMBs thrive, even in the coronavirus era.

    Small Businesses Depend on Efficient Solutions

    Unlike big-budget enterprises, smaller companies don’t usually have a lot of financial flexibility. According to a recent McKinsey survey, close to one-third of small businesses in the US were operating at a loss of breaking even – before the pandemic.

    Yet, for many, adopting the right technologies quickly has become vital for sustaining business. With a UCaaS solution, there’s no need to invest in expensive hardware or to shoulder maintenance and IT management costs. To use the software, users simply need to download an app to their laptop or mobile phone.

    Not only that, but as a cloud-based solution, there’s no tech implementation hurdle. Once your teams have the software and your subscription is activated, staff can get to work. UCaaS has served as a frictionless solution for small businesses during the pandemic.

    UCaaS Boosts Productivity

    With Unified Communications technology, users can access all collaboration and communication apps from one interface. Your employees can log in to one platform – which means one password and username for one integrated solution. From there, they’ll have everything they need to connect, share, and stay productive.

    • Business phone system
    • Team chat and SMS
    • Video conferencing
    • Screen sharing
    • File management

    Since all of this is available through one platform in the cloud, your staff can use all these tools on-the-go. Whether employees are working from home, in the office, or anywhere else, they’re equipped to answer emails, chat with co-workers, host meetings with clients, send and review documents, and more.

    This is why UCaaS solutions are often adopted for their ability to increase agility and productivity. It’s also why this technology boasts a year-over-year market growth rate of 29 percent.

    Secure Solutions Are Exactly What Small Businesses Need

    With the right UCaaS solution, small businesses can count on comprehensive security. When exploring solutions, check that your provider is vigilant about keeping their infrastructure – and by extension, your data – safe. Here are some of the standard security measures you can expect:

    • Data centers that are physically monitored 24/7
    • Multi-layered security controls to protect the infrastructure such as formal policies for authentication and configuration standards for firewalls
    • Monitoring controls to identify potential security threats quickly
    • Use of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection to further safeguard network security

    They should also use data encryption to protect sensitive customer and call data. For a higher level of security, look for a provider that encrypts data both in transit and at rest.

    More than one-third of senior technology executives say that cybersecurity risks have gone up as the majority of employees started working from home. Chief technology officer for Nationwide, Jim Fowler said about the uptick in cyber threats, “Businesses should anticipate that bad actors will assume people aren’t manning the gates, providing them with an opening.”

    One way small businesses can combat this increased risk is to only adopt technologies that they know are safe. As your Unified Communications solution is the hub of business communications, choose a provider that takes security and data protection very seriously.

    UCaaS Is a Win for Small Businesses

    This is true in the current business climate. It’s also the case for the future of work. Whether your teams are working remotely or not, UCaaS solutions empower teams to be more productive and more efficient.

    NTELogic Elevate, our popular Unified Communications as a Service solution, comes with a 99.999% financially-backed uptime service level agreement and relies on state-of-the-art technologies to monitor for and protect against malicious intruders.

    You can also embed your communications into your everyday business apps. NTELogic Elevate integrates with Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, G Suite, NetSuite, Salesforce, Slack, and other leading CRM, sales, and collaboration applications. Find out more about how it can benefit your business.

  • Unified Communications for Small Business: 6 Features to Seek Out

    Communication and collaboration are critical to any business. Enabling your employees to do both of these effectively requires the right tools. Unified communications provide small businesses with everything they need. If you are considering switching to a new platform, it’s important to define what features matter most to you. Let’s take a look at the top ones you should seek out.

    The Small Business Communication and Collaboration Challenge

    Small businesses typically pursue strategies based on efficiency and productivity. They know they need to operate lean to find success. These businesses often have distributed teams, even more so now with the transition to remote work. Because teams are not in a central space and cannot interact with partners and clients in person, the demand for communication and collaboration tools is skyrocketing.

    The problem that many small businesses face is using multiple platforms for chat, video conferencing, and file sharing. If tools are in silos, teams may be as well. With the rise of cloud-based unified communications, small businesses can now afford integrated solutions that enhance communication and collaboration.

    Choosing Unified Communications for Small Business: Must-Have Features

    Your small business should consider unified communications to resolve the use of disparate systems, save money, and improve workflows. When comparing offerings, there are some must-have features you should include.

    Ability to Scale

    Every business has growth aspirations. As you add team members, you’ll need to consider how your technology can scale. It should be easy and straightforward. Unified communications platforms provide you with this control. Ideally, you want to be able to add users in a few clicks. Be sure to inquire about this when comparing providers.

    Support for Business Continuity

    Business continuity is vital for any organization. Natural disasters or other disruptions can put your company at risk if communication systems aren’t available. Unified communications helps support business continuity. The system can ring all endpoints for every call. If no one answers, you can route calls to a number of your choosing, including mobile or an automated attendant.

    Cloud-Based Phones

    Unified communications frees your staff to answer and receive calls from anywhere via VoIP (voice over IP). Employees can take calls from their desktop computer or mobile phone. You’ll experience the same call quality, no matter where you are. Cloud-based phone systems also streamline management from a single web-based portal. You’ll enjoy all the features of any standard business phone, including voicemail to email, hold and park, transferring calls, and call recording.

    Call Analytics

    Measuring the performance of sales and customer support is possible with call analytics. You can track the usage of your teams through reporting. These reports help you analyze the efficiency of your teams and the quality of the engagement with customers. If phone calls are a medium for your sales and support teams, this is a feature you absolutely need.

    Video Conferencing That’s Secure and Easy to Deploy

    Video conferencing has never been more necessary in the business world. It offers your team the ability to connect when in-person meetings aren’t feasible meaningfully. While many unified communications platforms include video conferencing, they aren’t all the same. It’s especially important to determine the security of the system to ensure privacy and compliance.

    It should also be easy to deploy. It shouldn’t require your team to sit through hours of training or download lots of applications. A browser-based solution means users can start meetings with a click and work from any device.

    File Backup and Collaboration from Anywhere

    Having a secure, accessible repository for documents is paramount to simplifying collaboration. Your team members can work together on a document, even editing at the same time. This functionality eliminates the need to email back and forth with multiple versions of a document. Unified communications allows you to achieve the next level of collaboration, and users can have access from anywhere.

    Security is also a factor with a file repository. Advanced security technology should keep files safe. Backup of those files automatically also means you can recover them quickly in the case of a ransomware attack or other data loss incident.

    Enable Better Communication and Collaboration with Unified Communications

    Unified communications is a smart, reliable toolkit for any small business. Your team will have all the resources it needs to communicate and collaborate, all on one platform. As you search for the right solution, keep in mind these must-have features.

    Elevate by NTELogic offers all of these and so much more.