Coronavirus is a hot topic at the moment, not just on a personal basis but particularly in the business environment.
Coronavirus is of course, viral which means people need to avoid contact to avoid it spreading in addition to normal hygiene awareness. Currently the advice is to avoid social contact and remain an equitable distance from other people, e.g 2 meters, not shake hands and of course, adhere to (basic) hygiene rules. Not all businesses can afford the luxury of being 2metres from each other if their office space isn’t particularly large. What can a business do?
The main way you can help your business “fight” off the effects of Coronavirus is to ensure your business can run efficiently without everyone being in an office. Remote working is still a new concept for some businesses but now more than ever is an important time to try.
What does someone need to work, remotely?
To work remotely, someone’s basic set-up would be a laptop, broadband and be able to access all relevant systems for their job such as a CRM.
To take it further, you need a way to communicate or answer phone calls coming into the business, regardless of where staff are located. Should you have an IP Phone System, you can set up individuals at home with a handset, app on their mobile or simply a softphone on their laptop.
To ensure that everyone still works as a team and you still run efficiently; you need Unified Communications.
What is Unified Communications?
Unified communications is based on collaboration, wherever you are and seamlessly. For those businesses who affected by the coronavirus in some way, unified communications would enable businesses to operate without the need to be in the same office.
Unified Communications applications are collaborative tools, which allow you to communicate across your business. You can send instant messages to your team or individuals, share files, share calendars, conduct voice and video conference calls if need be, all from one application which can be access via any device. These are just the basics of what you would need to effectively collaborate, remotely.
Most unified communications tools take it even further, allowing you to collaborate externally, too as well as a host of other great features to ease the running of your business.
What do I need to have in place for Unified Communications?
This depends on the individual tool. Some unified communications tools aren’t available unless you have the same phone system in place. For instance, we supply a system called Horizon but you can only get Collaborate (their unified communications tool) if you have Horizon in place.
In most cases, to utilise a unified communications tool, you will simply need a good broadband connection.
How easy is it to set up Unified Communications?
Extremely easy. There is minimal set-up time involved and it can be rolled out very quickly, all being well, it could be a matter of days.