Many businesses are making the switch to converged voice and data providers – and it’s little wonder why.
Having a single-source supplier for all communications needs makes sense on a number of fronts, not least because it means an instant cost reduction for businesses that make the switch. And significant cost savings will always be a selling point, especially for SMEs in today’s tough business landscape.
But it’s about more than just money. Being able to offer your customers a bundle that covers their telephony system, internet access and mobile data gives channel partners a unique opportunity to secure customer lock-in and build stronger on-going relationships with them in the long-term. For your customers, meanwhile, it brings a whole host of other benefits…
Staying connected and being agile
Connectivity is key. As more and more businesses switch to cloud-based operations, access to converged data/voice solutions with built-in business continuity will become ever more essential, because they help businesses to stay switched-on in all eventualities. Also increasingly important is being able to offer your customers business-only data solutions, so that their connectivity speeds are not slowed down by consumer bandwidth use.
What’s more, converged communications mean your customers can offer their own employees flexible working patterns, making their organisations as a whole more agile. If employees can access systems and data, and be contactable at all times, wherever they are in the world, collaboration and productivity never needs to stop.
Scale up – or scale down
Having data and voice packaged and delivered by a single provider will also make your customers’ businesses much more flexible, which goes hand-in-hand with a move towards more agile ways of working. Not only does it mean they’re no longer relying on old, cumbersome infrastructure, but also that they are able to scale up or down as and when they need to.
Scaling up might be required at particularly busy times, for example, or simply as a business grows its customer base. Scaling down, on the other hand, can come in handy at quieter times, ensuring businesses don’t waste money on services they’re not using. Converged, cloud-based data services make this possible by ensuring that your customers only pay for what they use.
One supplier, one bill, one point of contact
Converged data and voice services offer a business a holistic communications solution. But what makes it such a good thing? First off, the simple fact that it saves money. Consolidating services into one data/voice bundle means you can offer your customers a better deal – and as mentioned above, they’ll only be paying for what they use.
But it’s also a good thing in an organisational sense. It tidies up the process, saves time from an accountancy perspective and makes your customer more efficient overall. This is particularly useful and a big selling point for SMEs who are all-too-often time and resource poor.
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