Updated December 2024
COVID-19 redefined how businesses run and how people do their jobs. Even as we move forward in 2024, the rise of hybrid and remote work has made effective communication between employees more important than ever.
If you had unified communications established pre-pandemic, you likely were better able to weather the storm than your contemporaries. Unified communications help employees stay connected and work more efficiently, no matter where they are – meaning they’re critical now in this post-pandemic era and will likely only become more important going forward.
What Are Unified Communications?
Unified communications (UC) are a way of understanding and organizing communication in the business world. It integrates all types of business communication – emails, instant messaging, voice and video calls, file sharing, conferencing, and more – into one unified system.
A UC system works best when it is cloud-based (i.e., when it is not bound to a local server hosted at a company’s location). Moving business operations to the cloud has become increasingly popular, not just for UC but for other business practices like document and customer management as well. Connecting your business to the cloud makes working remotely and hybrid work arrangements easy. It also offers more benefits, like regular back-ups of your information and an outsourced tech team.
Cloud-based software also makes it easier to expand as needed while also managing costs. Managing costs is one of the biggest advantages of UC. In fact, utilizing UC can save money and time in a big way, which is why it’s so attractive.
For example, UC makes scheduling easier. Meetings are necessary for just about every business, and before UC, you’d have to fully furnish a boardroom, manage everyone’s schedules, and maybe even account for travel costs for some employees. But with UC, you can easily coordinate schedules and have a meeting with no travel time or boardroom costs – without sacrificing any quality. This remains true today as companies continue to prioritize flexibility and efficiency in workplace operations.
UC also allows for much easier and more efficient communication between staff and customers. Instant messaging, or chat, is a much better way to communicate quick information, leaving email for more important and lengthy matters.
Ultimately, UC systems help improve communication by reducing email overwhelm, enabling instant communication amongst team members, and making all forms of communication seamless. This level of efficiency remains critical as businesses adopt flexible working environments and prioritize streamlined operations.
How Can Unified Communications Help Your Business Today?
UC systems let people stay connected, no matter where they are physically working – which is just as critical now as it was during the pandemic. Remote and hybrid work environments have become the norm, and UC makes switching between in-office and at-home work seamless. Your team can have all the tools they need to keep your business thriving, so you don’t have to sacrifice safety, quality, or success.
Think about the meeting example. Even today, many companies are reducing in-person meetings in favor of video conferencing, making UC essential. If you had UC available pre-pandemic, you were better prepared for a world where in-person meetings just weren’t possible. Your learning curve was less than other companies who were not prepared. UC just makes it so much easier to perform all functions of business remotely or in a hybrid model.
Depending on your business, it may not be possible for all your staff to work from home. However, support staff, social media management, advisory services, communications, and more can likely all be done remotely – and done just as well – when you employ the right UC.
The way business trends are moving, remote and hybrid work is here to stay. Unified communications remain one of the best investments you can make to future-proof your company. Contact us today to get started!