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Summer has officially arrived here in the northern hemisphere, and like me, you’re probably looking forward to the more relaxed lifestyle and slower cadence the warmer weather brings with it. Most of us take some time off work, spend more time socializing outdoors and generally enjoy a more equitable approach to work-life balance.
While everyone needs a break from their work, some of the things we love most about summer—vacations and downtime with family and friends—can create challenges on that front.
More than ever, you need to pull teams together
With fewer people working at any one time due to vacations, there’s a risk that business productivity levels will drop over the summer.
Businesses can’t afford for the summer lull to result in a productivity lull that in turn may slow time to market for new offerings or lead to disappointed customers. In today’s competitive markets, it’s all too easy to be left behind by competitors who are faster to market, work more efficiently and do more to keep their customers happy.
To keep business on track over the summer months, staff who are not on vacation typically need to cover for those who are taking time off. To juggle their own assignments with additional responsibilities, these staff members need to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, and they need tools and technologies that can help them do that.
No one can afford to waste time or effort attempting to communicate, collaborate and share information across a disjointed set of third-party applications. There’s simply too much risk these disconnected tools can result in human and project disconnects that affect productivity and customer satisfaction.
Integrated solutions are crucial for productivity
While people are filling in for their colleagues, they may find themselves in situations where they’re performing certain tasks for the first time, or communicating and collaborating with colleagues, customers, partners and suppliers they’ve never had prior contact with. This lack of familiarity means it’s more important than ever for people to be able to focus on their tasks and interactions rather than the multiple different tools they’re using.
Third-party apps were likely a good way to meet urgent needs when you adopted them, but they’re not ideal long-term solutions. They’re more of a band-aid, or patchwork, approach to communications. People have to jump from app to app depending on what they’re trying to achieve. Each app has a different user interface and a different user experience. And there’s typically no ability to easily switch channels while conversations are underway.
When your communications and collaboration solutions are seamlessly integrated, people can access all voice, data and video communications and collaboration capabilities through a single, consistent user interface. They’re free to focus on the topic, task and conversation at hand instead of the mechanics required to use, and switch between, a variety of disparate apps.
With integrated solutions, the technology easily enables people to enhance productivity levels and deliver the best possible customer experience.
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It’s the perfect opportunity to start your cloud evolution
Sooner or later, every business will migrate to a cloud-based communications system. By giving your teams access to cloud-based apps for communications and collaboration over the summer, you can achieve multiple goals:
- Provide the integrated communications and collaborations solutions your teams need most, when they need them.
- Start on your path to the cloud in the way that makes the most sense for your business objectives today and tomorrow. The apps you add today will also be available to your teams when you fully migrate to the cloud.
Here’s a brief overview of the cloud apps available to help Mitel MiVoice Business users achieve their goals:
- Mitel MiCollab gives your teams the seamless, multi-channel communications and collaboration experience they need to remain productive over the summer and beyond. They have a single, user-friendly application that provides voice, video, messaging, presence, audio conferencing, mobility and team collaboration capabilities.
Collaboration is no longer limited to isolated, third-party applications or physical spaces. People can instantly start collaborating and sharing information as a natural extension of the voice, messaging or video conversation already underway. And they can benefit from these capabilities no matter where they are.
With Mitel MiCollab, everyone, in every department, can quickly and easily communicate and share information using the same, consistent interface from anywhere, on any device, whether they’re at home, in the office or on the road. This web of connectivity, delivered from the cloud, gives people far better ability to stay up to date on the latest project activities, connect with colleagues, customers, partners and suppliers and share knowledge and ideas across business units — no matter what season it is.
- Mitel MiTeam Meetings gives your teams real-time video conferencing capabilities across time zones and geographies so they can build new relationships and strengthen existing relationships globally with no need to travel. They can spontaneously start live video sessions from a chat or call that’s already underway to instantly take conversations and collaborative efforts to the next level.
With face-to-face communications, conversations are more immersive and interactive, whether there are two, ten or twenty people involved. Virtual whiteboards, screen sharing and file sharing during video conferences simplify the exchange of ideas and stimulate brainstorming sessions. And saved records of chat conversations mean you don’t lose any of the discussion.
Because the video conference service is delivered from the cloud, you can scale it up and down as your business needs evolve.
The Cloud is the Future. Modernize Your Communications System with Collaboration Tools Today
The customer experience is part of the journey
While you’re evaluating cloud-based apps, don’t forget to consider the customer experience.
Mitel MiContact Center Business lets you extend your Mitel MiVoice Business system with an integrated private cloud call center. You have everything needed to give your customers a world-class call center experience, including a built-in workflow designer, interactive voice response (IVR) and chatbots. And you can use the call recording, quality and workforce management features and real-time dashboards to ensure the quality of your customer interactions remains high.
Call center agents can simultaneously manage communications with multiple customers on different channels with no need to switch applications. This simplicity helps them work more efficiently and effectively to keep productivity levels up and better serve customers.
Summer is short, so get started now
Summer always seems like the shortest season, although that’s probably just my perception. But the time does go quickly, and your teams need these cloud-based solutions as soon as possible, so don’t delay.
Get in touch with your Mitel certified partner today. They can help you evaluate and deploy the cloud-based apps that will help your business meet its goals this summer and beyond.
