The difficulties of running a multi-site business are clear. When organisations use traditional business phone systems, it's easy for communication between offices and employees to become impaired, and collaborative efforts suffer as a result.
Multiple business phone systems, multiple problems
Companies must make large investments in separate telephone systems at every site, and pay for the ongoing maintenance of each one. Updates and repair schedules for the systems are often different, and the cost of the organisation's communications budget mounts.
Further, when businesses grow organically, they will acquire a range of disparate hardware, solutions and service providers, none of which are integrated. Phone systems may be different depending on the location, which can confuse both employees and customers trying to reach the business.
Customers are often unable to contact relevant people on a single number, and redirecting them becomes difficult with so many separate systems to keep on top of.
Unified communications takes away all the difficulties of managing multiple business phone systems across several locations.Unified communications the answer for multi-site businesses
Does this sound familiar? Australia is so large that multi-site businesses here can suffer more than in some other countries from their communication difficulties. In fact, an essay published in the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies cites poor communications infrastructure as a key barrier to small business innovation in rural Australia.
However, there is a solution: unified communications (UC), which streamlines all of a business' communications, including video, phone calls, and instant messaging, as well as allowing for easy file sharing. UC can help multi-site businesses with two key areas: costs and customer service.
Costs
One of the biggest problems multi-site businesses face is the cost of maintaining their communication systems. IT people must be on-hand at each site in the event that something goes wrong, and they must deal with several upgrades at several locations all at once.
Unified communications, on the other hand, allows a business' tech team to manage the whole company's phone system from one location. Organisations pay for just one subscription, and because it uses the internet, international call charges are also eliminated.
Customer service
UC allows customers to access a business using just one number, no matter what office they are trying to reach. Direct transfers are also made much easier because of UC's centralisation.
File sharing means any information that's pertinent to the customer's call can be accessed quickly, leading to fewer minutes spent on hold. This also eliminates the problem of different information being located in different site databases.
The software makes it easier for employees going offsite to meet clients, as they can still use the same communication system and have access to the same information as if they were at the office.
For multi-site businesses operating in Australia, UC is a no-brainer. It will make managing your phone systems much easier, reduce costs, and improve customer service.
To find out more about Fonality's UC systems, contact us today.
