The 4 Business Benefits of Unified Communications and Collaboration

The idea behind unified communications (UC) and collaboration are that members of an organization can use the same communication solution on any number of devices with a wide array of tools.

By committing to UC, businesses will vastly improve both their internal and external channels of communication. : 

Here are the most important business benefits you'll see by implementing UC

Employee productivity

Simply put: the easier it is for employees to communicate, the more productive they are. Not even considering teamwork and collaboration, an individual employee will collectively save lots of time when his business offers UC applications. 

"Employees at organizations using UC clients saves a surprising 32 minutes a day by being able to consult the best method for reaching a coworker before attempting to contact him/her. Also, while such applications help users throughout the organization, they benefit mobile employees even more."

When employees spend less time switching between communication channels, they have more time to focus on the business operations. Thus, employee productivity will increase across the board at the company. 

Better teamwork and collaboration 

Improving internal communication is one of the main reasons why businesses switch to UC in the first place. By making it easier for employees to talk to one another, businesses can promote teamwork and collaboration across different departments. 

When your departments and teams are all on the same page, the whole business wins. A great example of this is marketing and sales alignment. If sales representatives understand the marketing campaign and can speak directly with marketers, then they can communicate more effectively with leads. Moreover, marketers will be able to use insights from the sales team when planning their next campaign. 

Organizational agility 

At a micro level, implementing UC helps individual employees get in touch with the right people. On a macro level, it makes the entire organization more productive. According to TechTarget, the few minutes that each employee saves with UC add up and result in better business productivity: 

"When both employees and teams are more productive, the organization will be as well. This use case reflects the strategic value of UC, as these results have an additive impact on the business as a whole. To recognize how unified communications benefits business, however, the organization must view UC through the eyes of management, not just the IT staff. For management, communications may only have a utilitarian value, but when shown to drive productivity and better business outcomes, the UC value proposition will resonate."

Thus, implementing UC isn't just about getting employees to know each other better. Giving them a better means to communicate helps your entire business become more productive. This will eventually be seen in the bottom-line once employees get used to the new channels. 

Cost-savings 

And finally, UC applications aren't exclusively for big businesses with loose budgets. They're for organizations of all sizes that want to improve their internal and external communication. The reality is that implementing UC will help businesses save money in the long-run.

Although there's an upfront investment at the beginning, the long-term ROI is favorable for businesses. Instead of separate fees and costs for multiple communication systems, the costs would be reduced to a single cost. Businesses shouldn't view UC as a luxury for their employees. Instead, it's a smart financial decision to improve productivity and cut costs at the same time. Those cost-savings can then be reinvested in other areas of the business. 

To conclude, there are plenty of reasons for businesses to implement unified communications applications. By making individual employees more productive and collaboration easier, the entire organization will improve. In addition, businesses will save money in the long-run with UC, which will free up their budgets for other investments.