A business’ operations are heavily influenced by the quality of its communications. However, the overwhelming number of options that are available today can make it challenging to decide how to invest in your technologies. Let’s talk about how you can identify which of your options are right for your business needs, and when the time comes to upgrade your communications.
What Tools Do SMBs Most Often Use to Communicate?
Our experience in dealing with the needs that small and medium-sized businesses have concerning their technology has given us some pretty invaluable insights. We’ve noticed that the majority of these businesses—particularly those working in the office—tend to use the following tools:
Businesses seeking reliable communications have generally defaulted to email, and for good reason. It’s relatively inexpensive to implement, highly personalizable, and cloud storage makes it far easier to keep these emails. It also doesn’t hurt that most—as in, more than two-thirds—of workers nowadays prefer email as their method of communication with teammates, clients, and vendors alike. This makes it extremely unlikely that email will be phased out anytime soon, barring some massive shift.
Furthermore, today’s businesses are freed of needing to establish, manage, and maintain a dedicated server in-house for their email needs. If they so choose, they can instead utilize a hosted email option like Microsoft’s Outlook or Google’s Gmail, which is hosted and maintained by the cloud provider via Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Telephone
While people admittedly use the phone to place calls less often, that is simply because there are more options now that don’t call for as much active engagement as the other options available today. Having said that, the relative speed and reduced chance of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a call makes them a solid option for businesses.
A telephone presence is a necessary element to any business, although its relatively high costs (particularly when mobility is involved) often make it less of a priority than other tools would be. For businesses that truly do require a phone system, however, a hosted VoIP platform is a great option. By hosting your telephone infrastructure in the cloud and paying on a per-user basis, your business can access reliable telephone services both in the office and while mobile.
Video Conferencing
As one of the countless innovations first appearing in science fiction only to be developed for practical use, video conferencing has swiftly taken its place among the more popular communication options. The rise of remote work practices made video conferencing all the more appealing, and it has now become ingrained in many businesses’ practices in either workplace.
Many of today’s available options incorporate a combination of VoIP and collaboration tools and deliver them to mobile devices, provided these devices can maintain a 3G or better data connection. As such, businesses are apt to use them heavily both today and tomorrow.
Unified Communications
Businesses that need even more advanced capabilities can take advantage of unified communication platforms. These platforms more or less do what it says on the box, integrating various communication and collaboration tools into a single approach. Not only does this make properly communicating easier and more convenient, these platforms also serve to:
- Enhance your users’ experience
- Improve your organizational productivity
- Provide a stronger performance through detailed analytics
- Reduce your long-term communications costs
Looking for better communication within your business? Give Pathfinders IT a call today at 610-854-1060! Our IT professionals can assist you in improving all aspects of your business technology.