Remote working has now become the norm. We are in unprecedented times, in my long years on this planet, I have never experienced times like this. As a business, you are discouraged from meeting your clients, your colleagues and even your friends. So how do we conduct business?

I remember starting a new job about 15 years ago and the new buzzword then was Unified Communications and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), it was going to revolutionise how we worked. All meetings were going to be conducted using Video Conference and all our telephone calls would be made over the Internet. Back then, there was one big problem – we didn’t have the Internet connectivity we have today. Another downside back in 2005 was business didn’t see the need for this technology and were not as excited as we were in the industry.

But now, it is a necessity and the good thing for business in 2020 is we now have the bandwidth, we now have the need and we are being driven by the latest pandemic to work from home as a lot of the country is now self-isolating.

Remote Working – How do I go about it?

If you read our last blog on the modern workplace then you will start to understand it is quite simple. We have the Internet, we have the technology and most end-users now have the knowhow. However, there is still one technology that most businesses are not utilising and that is video conferencing. There are lots of statistics as to why we should use Video Conferencing (VC).

  • 94% of businesses say VC increases productivity
  • 90% say VC makes it easier to get their point across
  • 89% agree that it reduces the lifespan of projects
  • 89% of end-users agree that it makes them feel more connected

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that a VC is just as productive as a face to face meeting. I would argue that it is more productive and cheaper because you still get interaction without the cost of travel.

Remote Working – how easy is it?

There is no doubt that if you want your employees to work remotely then you have to put in a lot of thought and some pennies aside to allow it to happen. You will need to think about the environment that they will work in, the IT hardware that they need. Cybersecurity becomes an issue when working away from the office as does productivity. Are they working or skiving? How do they interact with clients?

Remote Working – the answer.

I will now come back to earlier thoughts on Unified Communications – now is the ideal time to adopt this technology and one of the best and most cost-effective solutions is 3CX.

3CX is a Windows-based telephony system. This means it can reside on any Windows server and it doesn’t matter if it is on-premise or in the cloud. So from that perspective, it makes it perfect for business continuity. But, more importantly, it means users can take it with them wherever they want to work.

The soft client is installed on their laptops and they can be contactable as if in the office wherever they wish to work. For more ease of use, there is an android and iPhone application so calls to the 3CX system can be answered on their mobile. From a business point of view, a presence indicator will tell you if they are at their workstation or away, cutting the grass!

Because 3CX is one licence that includes every application, you don’t have to worry about what you will need in the future or just now. This means, included in the cost is Video conferencing as standard. Now every user can interact with their clients and customers without having to leave their home.

Using web technology, 3CX couldn’t make things any easier.

  • Clientless
  • On-Click conference
  • Interoperability with VoIP and Video
  • Bandwidth management and control

No matter what size your business is, video conferencing from 3CX is a cost-effective solution and could be the answer to a lot of your headaches over the coming months and years.

For more details, you can contact Unleashed on 0333 240 0565 or have a look at the 3CX website.