Getting Out of Chat: Unified Communications Milestones

    Platon Begun, CTI
    Contact Center Manager
    For a long time, 2 communication channels — telephony and email — served as communication tools. With the development of the Internet, a culture of communication through digital channels has emerged. Additional opportunities for communication began to appear: chats, instant messengers, the legendary ICQ, social networks, etc. They have gained avalanche-like popularity due to their functionality and have become popular among a wide audience. Nevertheless, the main user has become youth. When the young generation grew up and went to work, it brought to the offices a new communication culture that was adapted to solve work tasks, including communication with customers.

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    I seek you

    The heyday of ICQ (from the English. I seek you - "I seek you") came in the 2000s. By 2005, 500 million users worldwide were registered in this messenger (for comparison, the statistics for today is 12 million people).

    Also, if we talk about technological breakthroughs, this is certainly Skype, which was the first to show that you can make voice and video calls for free.

    All these means of communication were used both to save on communications and to save time. The messenger allowed you to correspond with several people at the same time, and it was not necessary to answer immediately. You could get a response much faster than email. People began to chat in chats in the same style in which they communicated in voice. An important factor in the same ICQ was the status of presence: it was clear that a person is online / offline, will he be able to answer immediately or not worth the wait.

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    There were many diverse agents for communication, everyone used different ones. And when the manager conducted working correspondence with different contacts, it often turned out that for this it was necessary to install several clients of various instant messengers. Accordingly, on business cards in contacts became more and more addresses for various communication channels through which you can find a person.

    Principle 3 in 1

    The concept of unified communications appeared on this wave. The simplest definition I have come across is: “Unified Communications (UC) is the consolidation of various communications and types of messages (telephony, email, messaging services, video conferencing, etc.) in a universal communicator with the function presence control. "

    In fact, by streamlining access to various channels and communication methods using one universal software client (communicator), we greatly facilitate access to communications, and the use of the presence control functionality allows other users to be informed of their current status (busy, free, preferred communication method and etc.). At the same time, you can see the status of other users and, based on this, choose the most effective way of communication.

    Advantages of the corporate system of unified communications

    The key features of unified communications can be distinguished:

    1) The client of unified communications is a kind of aggregator, which is a universal source of all necessary contacts. From there, you can initiate a web or video conference. This client has also integrated with the corporate calendar.

    2) The second important element is the presence status, which applies to all channels. You can track the status of an employee on the corporate calendar (vacation, meeting, etc.), understand at the meeting a person, at the workplace, speaks on the phone, is ready to chat or is busy. In our oversaturated life of communications, this greatly facilitates the process of communication between colleagues and customers.

    It is important to note that each company has a communication culture. If the company does not provide the usual means of communication, then new employees begin to use their own, because Putting a messenger is easy. The downside is that this is being done uncontrollably by the company, and there are risks in terms of information security, monitoring of working hours, etc. And when there is a corporate system, it, on the one hand, provides all kinds of familiar communications, and on the other hand, it is possible to control them. And you definitely need to train employees who have never met such a corporate culture of communication.

    Real savings

    The time spent on communication between employees is reduced due to the fact that, seeing the status of a colleague with whom you need to talk, you understand if you can call him right now? Or will it be faster in the mail or messenger? Remote means of communication allow you to save on business trips - time and money. Why go or fly, if you can call and even put together a conference using the video. This is a direct optimization of business processes and increasing the competitive advantages of the company in the market.

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    The benefit is achieved due to :

    - publication by employees of their accessibility status and preferred communication channels with them at the moment - this is 10% of the average working time for each employee;

    - Opportunities to put together a meeting using web and video conferencing between employeeslocated in different offices / cities, while there are tools for working together on documents, it is possible to train geographically distributed employees - it saves up to 20% -40% of the time;

    - conducting online presentations for clients using the service of web-conferences - 20% -40% of the working time;

    - operational access to corporate communication services from employees' smartphones - productivity improvement by 30% -50%.

    And increasing employee loyalty to the company by obtaining comfortable working conditions is priceless!

    This is a saving on spurious losses of time associated with trying to connect with a person who, for example, is now on vacation and does not answer, or at a meeting, and they called him one, two or three times. What for?

    Due to the accumulation of all channels in one agent, productivity increases, because manager more efficiently builds his working day and distributes the time of communication with colleagues and clients.

    Corporate social network is the next stage in the development of unified communications.

    Modern social networks are a trend that is also present in the corporate environment. Corporate social networks are the next derivative of unified communications. Thus, the first stage of evolution is from telephony to unified communications, and the second is from unified communications to socialization.

    Why do we need social networks? You can consult on any issues, use the "collective mind" - people share experiences, send links, it makes life easier.

    These same principles are at the core of corporate social networks. Let's imagine: an account manager, a seller met with a client, identified needs for solving certain problems, fixed everything at home - and what does he do next? He returns to the company and among his own experts begins to look for people who will help him formulate an offer for the client - they will advise him, help prepare a technical and commercial proposal (TCH), tell them whether the company solves such problems, which background.

    Here the question arises of the corporate knowledge base and the corporate environment for transferring this knowledge between employees - a single corporate social network. The manager can search for similar projects in the CRM system, look in the corporate directory of experts on this topic in the company, who can tell him how all this can be done, what projects were, etc.

    The corporate social environment is the next stage in the development of solutions for collaboration, which allows you to create a single social corporate network. In it, for certain tags, keywords, the account manager can find the projects himself, go to the experts, see the status of their availability, immediately contact someone, talk about the problem that he wants to solve for the client. Immediately find a corporate repository of TCH samples, case descriptions, completed projects on similar topics. And, having all this information, more quickly provide it and work with the client, providing high quality services and quick terms of preparation of relevant commercial offers.

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    All these aspects have competitive advantages when the company is not engaged in box moving (reselling goods), but, for example, system integration and providing solutions in the market that are assembled from various pieces (equipment, consulting services, etc.), when the company does not sell goods , which she purchased from the supplier, and the "brains" of her staff, the skills of her engineers.

    If we are talking about unified communications, then this is a certain client who gives communication channels on any device at any time. And corporate social networks, in addition, provide access from the same client to training materials, data about customers, completed projects, and characteristics of colleagues when the right expert is sought. This gives significant advantages, especially if the company is large - not 1 office, and not in the 1st country, and finding a free expert who could help you in solving your problem can be very difficult. Without the tools described here, the manager begins to turn to the management, more experienced colleagues, distracting them from work. And you can do everything yourself, and at any time from any device.

    Grow or die

    So that the company is constantly in development, collaboration solutions are a very convenient tool. Another question is what needs to be done as part of business processes so that the introduction of such a system is most effective? This is a matter of integrating communication processes into business processes. The company often has its own established structure of all kinds of tools - CRM-systems, ERP-systems, communication channels.

    First of all, the main "sponsors" of implementation should be operational, executive directors - those top managers who are responsible for the effectiveness of internal business processes. These should be people who solve the relevant profile tasks of the business, whose KPIs are achieved through the implementation of these systems. Accordingly, if we are talking about KC, then this is marketing and sales, as well as service. If we are talking about unified communications, then these are owners of banking products, whose sales are increasing due to the introduction of such things. Any implemented project should be financially efficient, which means that there are also general and financial directors.

    From the point of view of the deployment of these systems, the models can be different. The most effective is the cloud model. We can talk about both public and private clouds when a corporate system of solutions for collaboration in a private cloud architecture is being introduced as part of a holding or a large branched company.

    Conclusion of simple

    Communication is the circulatory system of any process in which more than 1 person is involved. Violation of this communication equates to disruption of the process. And the acceleration of communication proportionally increases its efficiency: labor productivity increases, the time spent on finding the right information or person decreases. Ultimately, all this leads to the creation of additional value for the company, which decided to introduce such things at home.

    Update July 08, 2019

    We announce the start of sales of the second release of the CTI Omni system - software for the contact centerdeveloped for the automation of business processes of omnichannel service, which allows you to efficiently process customer requests coming to the contact center from text communication channels.

    CTI Omni is a development of the CTI R&D Department and is part of its own product line for contact centers. It allows equally efficient use of all digital channels in contact centers, expanding opportunities for business growth.

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