Technology is often a great equalizer for small to midsized businesses (SMBs), allowing them to compete with larger enterprises that have far more resources at their disposal. Few technologies do more to level the playing field than unified communications (UC) solutions.
Although SMBs often are constrained by budget and staff limitations, UC makes enterprise-grade communication capabilities accessible. It allows them to manage all essential communication channels cost-efficiently from a single, unified platform. In fact, SMBs are now the fastest-growing UC market segment, according to recent market research.
Here are some of the UC benefits that help small businesses operate more efficiently and become better positioned for growth:
- Employee experience. By integrating multiple communication channels such as voice, video, messaging and conferencing into a single platform, UC enables seamless, efficient and consistent communication and collaboration with colleagues. This streamlines workflows, reduces delays and enhances decision-making, thereby increasing productivity. Flexible communication options are particularly important for keeping hybrid and remote workforces connected.
- Customer experience. Allowing customers to choose the communication channel that suits them best leads to better engagement and improved satisfaction. When UC is integrated with key business applications, employees can easily access customer information, collaborate with colleagues, share documents and respond promptly to customer inquiries.
- Accessibility. With so many people now working outside the office, they need to be able to easily access data and applications from any location and any device. More than half of U.S. SMBs rank access to company resources from a smartphone as an important feature of a communications platform. UC solutions allow users to access videos, conversations, files, tasks, calendars, images and more through a common dashboard.
- Manageability. Most UC platforms offer centralized management consoles that allow administrators to control and monitor the system from a single interface. That greatly streamlines the management process — a key consideration for the many SMBs that have little or no internal IT staff.
- Voice quality. Despite the growing popularity of other communication channels, the telephone remains the preferred business communication tool for more than 80 percent of consumers, according to one recent survey. UC systems employ a number of Quality of Service mechanisms such as noise reduction, echo cancellation and traffic prioritization to ensure consistently high-quality audio.
- Automation. Virtual agents, speech-to-text capabilities, automated data entry and other AI-driven capabilities improve productivity by automating many manual tasks. For example, automated account provisioning tools can handle moves, adds and changes and streamline the process of onboarding new employees.
- Security. UC systems featuring end-to-end encryption, multifactor authentication and other built-in controls offer much stronger security than legacy PBX phone systems. Solutions with embedded AI features further enhance security. For example, machine learning algorithms can analyze grammar and syntax in texts and emails to spot likely frauds.
- Business continuity. UC supports continued operations during business interruptions by enabling dispersed employees to access communication and conferencing systems from any location with mobile phones or PC-based softphones. Voice mail can be managed through an email client. Built-in redundancy and survivability features ensure there’s no single point of failure.
Mitel is making it easier than ever for small businesses to realize the full benefits of enterprise-grade UC. The company now offers an SMB-tailored version of its powerful MiVoice Business UC platform. Designed for deployments for up to 150 users, Mitel’s SMB Controller enables all MiVoice calling features as well as integration with collaboration applications such as MiCollab, MiTeam Meetings, Microsoft Teams and Mitel Revolution.
Contact the business communication specialists at Verteks to learn more about Mitel’s UC solutions as well as our implementation and support services.
