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The advances in digital office phone systems over the last several years have been stunning, as unified communications has become more mainstream. A new NEC VoIP phone system can help reduce communication expense, cut down on travel, improve collaboration with employees, customers and suppliers and enable remote or mobile workers to work more effectively. All of these benefits are readily available with business phone systems in Houston and the surrounding areas.
1. Reduce communication expenses
Unified communications business phone systems enable inexpensive communications using VoIP, so employees can use a softphone or a small portable communications device to make and receive phone calls when on the road or working at home. You don’t have to pay for expensive hotel or home line phone calls, and employees enjoy the convenience of having a single contact number regardless of where they are. VoIP phones and softphones have all the features employees require, such as speakerphone, multiple lines, conference calling and stored numbers, so you aren’t compromising their productivity to save on communication costs.
2. Cut down on travel
Whether you choose an enterprise phone system or a small business phone system, unified communications can include video calls and conferencing, enabling your project teams to meet face to face without traveling. Unlike the cumbersome and expensive video conference services of the past, unified communications video conferencing is easy to set up and doesn’t require expensive equipment. It even works with existing cameras in your employees’ PCs, so you can try it without any risk.
If, like most companies today, you have facilities in multiple locations, don’t waste time and money shuttling employees back and forth for meetings or project updates. Save your employees from the wear and tear of traveling while you save on travel expenses by substituting video calls for in-person meetings. Video conferencing even improves the productivity of routine or impromptu meetings.
3. Improve collaboration with employees, customers and suppliers
You can effectively communicate about business issues, including new sales orders, global projects and global supply chain issues with your business phone systems in Houston. With today’s global supply chains, it’s important that you keep the lines of communication open. Unified communications enables your team to set up collaboration spaces by project that can help improve your product’s quality, time to market, and market acceptance. Suppliers can provide design suggestions that improve quality or reduce costs. Customers can comment on feature ideas that can help increase sales when you introduce new products, and your sales force can meet with customers face-to-face on a regular basis without travel. Your teams can build on ideas from everyone, regardless of time zone or language differences. Customers and suppliers can communicate about supply and demand fluctuations or supply chain disruptions instantly, and the team can jointly decide on the best course of action to ensure customer satisfaction.
4. Enable remote or mobile workers to work more effectively
Even with unified communications, some travel will always be desirable, but unlike in the past, travel outside the office doesn’t mean employees are out of communication. Equip employees with portable VoIP phones or softphones so they remain reachable, using the same number they use in the office. Remote employees look and feel like they are a real part of the organization when incoming calls are transferred directly to their business extension, rather than forcing callers to dial a separate home office number. It’s easy to set up conference calls or transfer calls between extensions with a digital business phone system featuring unified communications.
In addition, most unified communications systems can forward voice mail messages to an email address, so the recipient can listen to messages on their mobile phone or PC without having to dial in to retrieve them. They know right away that they’ve received a message, and they can listen to the message and return the phone call quickly and more easily.
Unified communication has made digital office phone systems more useful as well as more necessary than ever for business success.
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About the Author: Scott Resnick is a business phone systems expert and President of Today’s Telecommunications Industries, LLC (TTI) in Houston, TX. TTI is Houston’s leading provider of NEC business phone systems. To read more of Scott’s work, visit www.ttihouston.com/blog.
