Telephones and Ichiro

Ha, you thought CNR would go a whole week without blogging.  You were worried, I could tell.  Well don’t get mad because here it is.  Today I will be talking about, what else the benefits of a new telecommunication system, but just to spice things up I will also be talking baseball. For everyone in the northwest we have grown to love our favorite leadoff hitter Ichiro Suzuki just like you have grown to love your current telephone system.  (What? people don’t love their telephone systems!)  Well the point is that like a great hitter, a telephone system will start to decline with age.  I know, you think it will never happen but one day you will look up and you telephone system is now hitting .260 and can’t steal a base.  Wait a minute I’m getting my metaphors confused.  The point is that rather than wait until Ichiro breaks down and you need to replace him and get nothing, you should try and trade him and get something of value out of him while there is still value to be had. In the case of phone systems, you should plan a migration path that allows you to leverage your legacy system while still acquiring new equipment that will eventually replace the old system entirely (in right field hopefully)  CNR can help determine when and what your migration path should look like.  So don’t get stuck with a broken down system, that quits suddenly and leaves you with nothing,  instead start thinking towards the future now and be prepared for life without Ichiro, I mean, your old telephone system. 

Mobile Communications: Going Beyond the Convenience Factor

When it comes to mobile communications, most businesses take the following approach: 'Yes, we need to keep our employees in touch all the time. You never know where they need to be working. But let's get the best possible mobile plan and stick with that.'

There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but it is incomplete at best, and at worst risks missing out on some of the major developments that are transforming the way businesses of all kinds and sizes use mobile communication.

Here's why:

Mobile communications isn't just about making phone calls. Mobile communications has come a long way in just the last few years. Web-enabled smart phones, 4G networks, social media, location-based services, etc., have all seen to that. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the use of mobile phones is about a lot more than just talk:  the use of data applications on mobile devices is growing dramatically each year, from accessing the Internet and e-mail, to texting, taking pictures, recording videos and more.

Being mobile isn't just about traveling. Mobile solutions were once primarily aimed at business travelers, but today every employee is a potential mobile employee whether they are traveling, working from home or working at their business location, but not necessarily in their office.  Interestingly, even if they are in the office, they are still 'mobile;' by some estimates, as much as 60% of cellular calls are made and received while the user is in the office.

Being mobile isn't just about being reachable. People used to use a mobile phone so they could be reached quickly. Now, smart companies are factoring mobility into their business processes, from approval chains to juggling workforce requirements. Mobility can is still about convenience, but more and more it is about productivity and differentiation. 

How can you make mobile communications a strategic part of your overall business planning? The key is to look at your communications holistically-integrating and streamlining communications whether it involves the office communications system, voicemail, e-mail, IM, presence, calendar, smart phone capabilities, in-building wireless, etc.  By taking a holistic, unified approach you give employees the ability to

·         Move transparently and securely among all their communications channels.

·         Begin a communications thread on one device and pick it up later on another.

·         Synchronize e-mail, contacts, and calendar entries, call logs and text chats across all their devices.

·         Have one identity for making and receiving calls (i.e., when making a business call from home, the person being called sees the office number, not a personal number.)

·         Receive alerts on their mobile device when a voicemail is left at the office.

·         Get presence status on colleagues and others so they can be reached quickly.

·         Place calls over Wi-Fi, including when calling from a location out of the office, such as a hotel in a foreign country, eliminating toll charges.

They key to doing all of this is to manage your mobile communications through your office communications system.  This is what enables employees to take advantage of all of the features of their office communications system while the business manages and controls usage-for example redirecting mobile calls over the Internet to save on toll charges while overseas.

Mobile communications goes from being a convenience to becoming an essential part of an overall communications strategy.

For more information on cost-effective mobile communications, contact us at CNR

Is This You?

You keep hearing about all of the features that are now available in a new piece of software. They sound great, but not compelling.  You like the familiarity of what you now have and, truth be told, you don't want to lay out the money.

But then you do upgrade, and lo and behold you discover that you don't care about 95 percent of the new features. But that other five percent? Those features are so spectacular that they alone justify the entire cost of the upgrade and more.  Welcome to Economics 101. You have just experienced a variation on what is known as the 'opportunity cost.'

There is no escaping the opportunity cost (OC). We are always making choices and there is a cost to every choice. You accept your friend's invitation to a 'free' lunch-but in reality it's not free: you might have done something more productive with that time, such as meeting with a major client and winning a big sale or attending a class and learning a new skill.

Holding on to technology is a choice. You keep using the same computers, software, copiers, routers, etc. and in theory, you use the capital that would have gone into an upgrade to invest in other things that you deem more important.

Many businesses take this 'buy-and-hold' approach to their office communications system. They wait until it starts failing or they are moving and it is simply not worth the trouble to take the old system along.

But in recent years, this buy-and-hold approach to communications systems became suspect.  One factor was the accelerated depreciation on new capital equipment included in government stimulus efforts: many small businesses were 'stimulated' into upgrading their communications by the ability to expense so much more of the purchase and see it come off their taxes.

But an even bigger factor has been the growing recognition that there is a significant OC in holding on to your current system: you are foregoing the opportunity to benefit from the many advances that have taken place in small business communications.

How important is that to your business? Only you can decide. But if you value communications-if the phone, mobile, e-mail, IM, etc. are something you use every day, it's probably worth taking a close look at how business communications systems have changed in ways that can save you money, increase sales, keep customers more loyal, make your business more productive, etc. In particular, here are five key things to look at:

Unified Communications:  If communications is important to your business, you probably take advantage of many different communications tools:  the office phone system, mobile/cellular communications, e-mail, etc. Traditionally, all of these have been separate solutions that worked independently of each other. Not anymore. Today's small business communications systems get them all working together. A voicemail left on your office phone system can appear on your mobile phone. You can have calls ring simultaneously on your office phone, your mobile, your home phone, etc.  By unifying your communications, today's small business systems give you more options and more control.

Mobility:  Does the ability to work from anywhere appeal to you? Would you like the option to have all your communications tools available whether you are at home, staying at a hotel or simply down the hall in another office? With today's small business communications systems, being away from the office no longer means accepting watered-down communications. You can get access to all your tools-online phone book, speed dials, conferencing calling, unified communications, etc. from anywhere.

Customer Sale/Service:  Customers like to have their calls answered promptly. They like to be recognized. They hate having to repeat the same information over and over. The makers of today's small business communications systems have recognized all of this. There are dozens of capabilities in today's systems designed to turbo charge your sales and service,  from instantly routing and recognizing callers to connecting the phone system directly to sales programs (such as salesforce.com) so every customer interaction is smart and personal.

Conferencing/Collaboration:  Communications systems used to be designed for one-to-one communications: make a call, hang up and make another call. Not anymore. With more and more people working remotely, the ability to have team meetings on the phone is critical. Getting a dozen people on the line is as easy as getting one person, and you can also use your communications system to share files, conduct training, alert people to regularly scheduled meetings, etc.

Lowering Communication Costs:  For many small business, the savings in operating expenses-lower long distance charges, lower call handling costs, reductions in conference calling fees, the ability to use SIP trunks and share resources between offices-can alone justify the decision to upgrade a communications system.

Any one of these five capabilities can more than justify an upgrade. How much can you really benefit? CNR can offer a consultation to see how different communications capabilities can impact your bottom line. So let us help choose which new system is right for your business.