One of the most important technologies that businesses currently use is their telephony system; it’s relied upon daily to communicate with customers via inbound and outbound voice calls. Ongoing innovation in the business communications industry is Unified Communications, a term that refers to unifying all streams of communication into a single platform to foster smarter analytics for business decision-makers as well as increase workforce productivity by improving user experience. Some of these businesses will have thousands of employees, others have fewer than five. However, all have a common need: good communication.

Without good communication, companies cannot share ideas. Companies cannot come together to avoid dangers. They cannot collaborate and thrive. 

What business communications tools are available for you? Which will suit your particular sector? Read our in-depth guide below to tools that are available to help you in 2020. 

1. Unified Communication Platform

A Unified Communication (UC) platform is a key part of a company’s communications infrastructure. Each company needs to provide a consistent user-friendly experience across its platforms.

This can be very difficult when they employ multiple tools from different companies. A single platform can provide the most intuitive and efficient experience. 

An effective UC will provide real-time feedback regarding the quality of a call. It will do this across every communications domain from platform through to endpoint. 

2. Persistent Chat

Real-time requires instant communication. Messaging services are a crucial part of the modern company dynamic.

You may have one office or have premises on several continents and timezones. However, the ability to share ideas and record all of this in a messaging app saves time. 

Teams can send and then lose Email threads. Or suffer because email does not allow the instant collaboration of multiple users. However, in persistent chat room environments that same functionality is available. This includes sharing attachments and conversation threads. 

Instant messaging means that workers can continue conversations from almost any location at any time. Employing this most fluid of communication technique will increase your business communication instantly.  

3. Intranet Software

Every organization company has information that should be available to each member. This could be anything from a code of practice to team-role guidelines.  The communication of this information is vital. It allows everyone to work from the same page and understand the same direction. Some of the common examples of intranet platforms are Sharepoint, Workplace by Facebook and Slack. 

Intranet systems are an excellent tool for making this available. Previously perhaps companies would send individual documents to team members. Now, by placing one copy on an intranet page and setting permissions to control who can see it, a company can share it instantly. It is simply good communication. 

Add to this the ease with which you can update Intranet pages. This means you can share company news instantly. This could include statistical updates, news, and new guidelines.

An organization can customize the central portal to their individual needs. They can also share it with both internal and external workers.

All companies wish to efficiently share data on a group and enterprise level. Intranet software is an essential foundation tool for this. 

4. Task Management Software

Business tasks come in all shapes and sizes. It could be the annual company meal, or it could be the purchase and conversion of new work premises.

Whatever the scale of the project, how can you ensure that everyone stays in the loop? How can key decision-makers keep up to date with the process and make informed choices along the way? Task management software is a key component of any active and developing business. 

Effective project management software makes information accessible to all organization members. Information is then shared amongst those according to their role. Its data should be understandable and exportable for presentations and records. 

It should clearly explain the expected completion date and also the predicted completion date. This means that shareholders know what to expect from the project. Directors and managers can see what tasks and stages are being managed. Further, they can see who is responsible and so identify bottlenecks.

Task management software allows clear and real-time communication of information regarding projects. It creates a greater awareness of responsibility in workers. Further, it empowers management with the information they need to make good decisions.

5. Issue tracking, and Ticketing Software

Regardless of their product or service, everyone can benefit from feedback. The key is to organize it and store it in a manner that allows you to apply its lessons. 

Some organizations do not retain customer feedback. This results in high customer service dissatisfaction. Also, the company does not benefit as a whole from this valuable information. 

Issue tracking and ticketing systems change this scenario. They allow each customer the opportunity to feedback their feelings regarding a product or service. This is then dealt with and responded to in an organized fashion. The customer feels cared for, the company improves as a result. 

Even software that provides an automated service gives acknowledgment of the customer’s communication. This communication is not lost but routed to the relevant persons to deal with it. It crucially ensures that this communication is not lost. 

6. Analytics Measurement

Company systems constantly provide feedback and other valuable information. However, it is difficult to translate it into improvements if you cannot clearly understand them. 

This information could be analytics based on sales campaigns. Or feedback from newly deployed technologies or even the quality of existing communication tools.

Analytics measurement can be a rich source of information. Do workers use the company intranet effectively? Do potential customers read blog posts on company websites? Are customers interacting with forums?

All of these are sources of vital information when identifying strengths and weaknesses. The deployment of software to measure them is crucial to the company addressing necessary areas. 

7. Internal Forums

In today’s world technology and information update very quickly. Because of this, documenting work experience is very important. But how do you document experience?

Internal forums are a good way to document progress and change in the workplace. It gives experienced members teams the opportunity to document the history of projects.

What solutions did they apply, why, and did they truly work or not? Newer team members can then read this and rapidly benefit from the experience of others. 

This experience is then archived and kept for an indefinite period of time. It can even benefit newly on-boarded workers. Companies can use it to train others,  long after their predecessors have left. 

8. Spaces

Organizations may have a single purpose and nature. However, there may be natural divisions such as geographical location or function. Each location needs to be able to feed information to the organization as a whole. Yet at the same time, they retain a “space” where they can discuss and share locally beneficial information. 

Enter “Spaces”. This concept allows companies to do just that. A company may have a broad presence across the US. However, it may have a single accounting department in Houston, Texas.

In order to retain the necessary information, the location has a “Space” of its own. This means it can retain Houston-specific information. Yet it does this without taking up memory resources of the broader organization. 

Communication does not only mean sharing information. It means sharing relevant information and saving people from unnecessary information. Spaces allow organizations to do this in an efficient manner. 

9. Effective Notifications

Effective communication is the send, receiving and actioning of good information. However, in many cases, we can send out information without knowing if others will truly apply it. This can lead to inefficient use of time as staff use working hours to chase up information and results. 

Effective notifications can change this situation. Organizations can configure them to confirm receipt of or in some cases confirm that a person has completed a task. 

10. Make Employee Profiles Available

Do you need a person with a specific skill set to assist with a project? However, are you worried that the HR department may not connect you with the right person to meet the need? Making employee profiles available is a method of expediting this process. 

Making staff profiles and their key competencies and skills available for general access is a good idea. It reduces the HR department workload considerably and smooths communication considerably. 

Connecting people to profiles makes many opportunities possible. It could be simply to consult on a technical matter. In other cases to invite collaboration or to assess potential staff. 

Effective Business Communications and Much More

Successful businesses thrive on entrepreneurship creativity and hard work. Entrepreneurship and creativity depend on good, efficient communication. If workers do not work together as a team then it will limit their efforts. 

If improving your business communications interests you, then we are here to help. We create solutions that are scalable and effective for companies in all industries. 

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