Truly flexible…
Unified Communications is providing great leaps ahead for workers who want to or can work flexibly. Flexible working has become increasingly popular over the last two to three years, whether you are using it as a way to improve work life balance, reduce a long commute or complete a piece of work without the distraction of colleagues, it can provide tremendous benefits to individuals and the companies they work for.
The technology has provided an increasingly active link between office-bound employees and those working remotely, allowing remote employees to work on multiple projects with multiple interfaces into the organisation whilst managing varying task priorities. Working effectively with colleagues during periods where there is a physical distance between an employee and the organisation is now paramount, previously this had been technologically difficult.
Now, with the proliferation of broadband and new communications tools, employees can be as effective away from the organisation as if they are there in person. Applications and communications tools are advancing rapidly across corporate offices and can now be used effectively from any location. This is in part thanks to presence technologies that enable individuals to ‘see’ who is online via visible status indicators built in to applications that convey a user’s ability and willingness to communicate. When users are remote from the organisation this ability is an invaluable tool for enabling employees to effectively communicate with colleagues and see a visual representation of online users within their community.
Together with presence, instant messaging interfaces provide users with an extremely efficient communications channel to communicate with colleagues in real time. These interfaces enable users to ask direct questions to co-workers reducing the time employees would normally spend conversing on the phone. At Damovo we recognise the telephone is not substituted and so this type of interaction enables employees to escalate their interactions to voice, video or a collaborative session, sharing rich media or information with colleagues at a distance. The benefit of using such a solution now is that the telephone (your PBX extension) can be extended to your remote office environment, through the same application suite so all you need is a USB handset or headset to converse with your colleagues in the office.
Now remote workers can reduce their carbon footprint by travelling less and supplement their interaction with fewer in-person visits to the office, but not because of technological limitations. In fact, in the office they again use the same application suite but automatically with their co-located PBX extension.
Employees certainly need to be self-motivated and adapt their working methods but they can equally benefit from the Unified Communications tools that exist today enabling employees to be as productive away from the office as if they are there.
Never before have communications benefited remote users as much as office bound employees. These tools provide an integrated transparent experience for all users providing efficiency gains by joining unified messaging, e-mail, contacts, calendar, video, telephony, instant messaging and presence. Unified Communications simplifies your communications by logically combining previously separate services and features so that communication by any means is possible over any of your devices.
To understand more about new communication tools enabling flexible working please contact your Damovo account manager.
Thank you to all of you who have forwarded suggestions for subsequent instalments of Interpreter, these have been duly noted. Please keep up the suggestions and feedback to talktous@damovo.com
