5 compulsory steps your business must take to remain competitive

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19 virus) threat rapidly unfolds on our fast-paced, ever-evolving business environment, we have seen a significant number of business owners forced to put employees on furlough, dismissing employees from their current positions, or having to make the difficult decision to close down their place of work and businesses for good.

Uncertain times lie ahead for our global economy, and for those businesses that are still lucky enough to be open and hanging on by a thread, it’s crucial to adapt to our new way of living and working in order to survive. However, businesses need to ask themselves the question, ‘Is just surviving enough?’.

It is every CEO’s dream for their company to thrive in a competitive environment, therefore now so more than ever, businesses must move towards a more modern way of working to remain competitive at such a difficult time.

 

1 – Consolidate communications

Landlines, mobile, voice, video, text… there are a thousand apps and technologies that can connect you to your clients. This year, look at consolidating and streamlining them all using omnichannel Unified Communications to deliver a consistent service to customers no matter how they make contact.

 

2 – Simplify collaboration

Empower your employees anywhere and everywhere by giving them tools that support collaborative working. The ability to share information and work on data together allows them to be more productive and helpful to your clients.

 

3 – Think outside the office

The modern workforce is increasingly mobile, and you need reliable ways to stay connected with your team. Unified Communications allows you to seamlessly communicate using the most appropriate channel at any given moment, no matter where you are in the world. It will also help you to meet employee demands for increased flexible working.

 

4 – Break down silos

Finding ways to share data around the business will unlock new opportunities and help your employees to increase productivity. You should also be wary of adopting single-function applications that introduce new barriers to data sharing.

 

5 – Free up IT budget for strategic projects

Take the opportunity to consider how much of your current IT spend is “dead money”, propping up systems that frustrate your employees and limit productivity. What is the cumulative cost of IT spend and lost productivity? This will help you properly quantify the benefits of future investment in comms and collaboration tools.

 

Conclusion

If you wish to remain competitive in this ever-evolving environment, your company will need to make some necessary changes. Or more specifically, the ability to embrace and support regular change, in line with shifting consumer demands and priorities. The backbone of any such system is your communications, the ability to keep data flowing wherever it is required – and to assist your team to work more effectively and efficiently.

 

Learn more about the benefits of Unified Communications and how your business can stay competitive in our free eGuide: Creating The Modern Workplace.