A strong communications strategy is an integral part of modern business, and the need for flexibility has never been more pronounced. After all, our world is mobilising - and this nomadic trait extends to the enterprise world. 

Employees are no longer shackled to their desks. Hosted phone systems, combined with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, has boosted the number of Australian telecommuters in recent years. In 2013, 5.6 million employees worked outside office walls, according to research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority - a number that has surely since risen. These days, the majority of IT leaders agree that not offering BYOD would place their businesses at a disadvantage. The growth of workplace mobility fuels the need for enterprise communications. The question is: How can this communication happen in an efficient and cost-effective way? 

Say hello to a unified communications (UC) solution. A strong UC system offers a means of organising, overseeing and maximising all the communications channels in your enterprise.

4 advantages of UC for your business

The benefits of having UC for your business are too numerous to spell them all out here. Instead, we'll focus on the four most important advantages:

• Takes the uncertainty out of guessing who's on the line: Business conference calls on traditional phone systems were a haphazard affair, with countless minutes wasted on the logistics of organising the various participants. Strong UC solutions, such as those offered by Fonality, eliminate this problem with Employee Presence, a feature that shows you in real time who's around, on the phone or offline.
• Gives employees the opportunity to work from anywhere: UC provides the vital link that ties a remote worker back to the physical office. With a host phone system,  remote employees can quickly access office communications platforms like phone, chat and voicemail through their laptops or mobile devices. This flexibility not only makes employees happier, it also increases the opportunities for business networking. Having more workers out in the world can promote your enterprise's visibility more than having everyone clumped in one office.
• Creates a more productive work environment: Almost two hours per day. That's the amount of time a single employee saves when his or her company adopts UC. What does two more hours of productivity look like? Moreover, what does two hours a day multiplied by every worker in a company multiplied by every workday in a year look like? We'll tell you what: A far more productive business.
• Leads to better administrative oversight: Factors like employee performance and the ability of your workforce to handle business-critical tasks are central to an organisation’s overall efficiency. A UC solution creates a system of oversight that makes it easy for business administrators to not only evaluate worker performance, but also train them better. Having this comprehensive view of your workforce can play a key role in determining when you need to add new hires.

With these benefits on the table, it's time to think about UC for your business. Get started today with Fonality.