There has been a significant migration to new communication tools such as VoIP platforms, meeting software, chatbots, and document sharing centers over the last two years. Many businesses made the switch to a work from home model. These tools have become more commonplace over the last decade and have now become an essential piece of digital transformation. Communication is key in all aspects of business, and keeping your tools up to date is a must. Here we take a look at six questions to consider when upgrading your communication tools.
How Reliable Is It?
It doesn’t make sense to make a switch to a tool that will be less reliable than your current solution. Most communications vendors will be transparent about expected uptime, and many of them leverage it as a selling point. Be sure to do your research and cross-reference any data you receive from a vendor with trusted industry publications. Decide what amount of potential downtime is acceptable for your organization and do a deeper dive into those tools that fit your requirements.
Does It Work With Mobile Devices?
In today’s business world, there is a great deal of communication that takes place through mobile devices. Ensuring you choose mobile-friendly tools will help keep you up to date with what is a growing trend. If your business has team members who work from home or need to be traveling for significant periods of time, this feature is a must. Being able to communicate with your clients and team members from any location even when they don’t have access to a computer is a significant advantage for your business.
How Quickly Can You Scale Usage?
Being able to scale your usage up and down quickly without incurring exorbitant costs provides your business with the flexibility to take on large projects at will. When it comes to telephony, this is where VoIP platforms hold a distinct advantage over traditional PBX systems. Adding additional lines can be as simple as a few clicks and does not require additional hardware. If your business frequently scales based on projects, this will be something to strongly consider when purchasing a new communications tool.
Is It Cost-Effective?
Finding a cost-effective solution that fits all of your needs is the goal of anyone seeking a new communication tool. It is important to look at this type of purchase with a long-term perspective and ensure you won’t require another change as your business grows. This is also why scalability should be factored into your potential costs. In most cases, switching to a VoIP platform will provide significant cost savings when compared with your current phone system. They also eliminate the need for new hardware or phones as they are cloud-based and softphones can be employed.
Will It Make Your Team More Productive?
The decision to purchase a new communication tool should factor in whether or not it will ultimately benefit your team as far as productivity and job satisfaction goes. Will this tool make their job easier and help them complete tasks more efficiently? Are there things they need to be doing that can’t be done with your current set of tools? You most certainly do not want to incorporate a tool that will hinder their work either. Be sure to discuss potential changes with your team to determine the impact this kind of change will make on them.
Does It Come With Adequate Support?
When purchasing any kind of new technology, you want to ensure you’ll have adequate support to help rectify any issues that arise. Does the seller offer in-depth onboarding and training assistance when you first purchase the tool? What kind of availability does their customer support team offer? Ideally, you’ll want to have them available during your company’s hours of operation to ensure you can have questions answered and things fixed when they need to be.
Through our strategic partnerships with both RingCentral and Amazon Web Services, Alto9 can offer solutions to help you establish both unified communications and business continuity.
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