Historically, many companies have viewed the communication requirements for their contact centres and the rest of their enterprise, or "back-office" independently. The traditional stance has been that the contact centre requires specialised, cutting-edge communication technology, while the back-office only needs a PABX system.
The fact is that most companies can benefit significantly from having a unified communications (UC) platform throughout the enterprise. A UC platform enables seamless call transfers from the contact centre to the back-office, enables better supervision of satellite and branch offices, and offers a more cost-effective way of expanding.
Many companies locally and internationally have woken up to the possibilities of having one communication solution throughout their enterprise. Motorola is rolling out a global UC system that will ultimately connect its 90 000 employees, most of whom reside in the back-office.
Locally, Nashua Mobile runs its entire business on a UC platform, including its contact centre and back-office, and is extending this to the retail stores to enable improved supervision and reporting. Axiz also uses one platform for all its branch offices nationwide and in neighbouring countries. Today, over 60% of our customers purchasing a UC solution are implementing it throughout their business.
A key benefit of deploying one solution is significant cost savings. Some businesses have a misperception that installing a PABX for the back-office will be cheaper than extending their contact centre technology, but often it works out to be a lower cost per user to extend the UC platform. Companies can also save on the cost of integrating the PABX system with the contact centre technology.
Spreading out
With a UC platform implemented in the mainstream enterprise, future expansion becomes easy for the business.
Dave Paulding is Interactive Intelligence's regional sales manager for UK and Africa.
Having one platform throughout also allows the seamless transfer of calls from the contact centre to the rest of the enterprise. For example, a customer calling the contact centre may need input from an employee in finance. If the company has one platform, that call can be transferred to the finance team without the customer having to repeat the problem and all his/her identification and verification details.
With a UC platform implemented in the mainstream enterprise, future expansion becomes easy for the business. The system can easily extend to accommodate more users, and, importantly it can also accommodate remote and mobile workers.
In almost every business today, regardless of the industry, we are seeing a shift towards a mobile workforce. With a UC platform, those users can connect to the rest of the organisation. The "find me, follow me" capabilities of the platform enable "one number dialling" where a customer can call the employee on their office number, and the system will locate the person whether they are working from home, or travelling overseas.
By using a UC platform throughout the business, companies can also better monitor and manage their branch offices. At a glance, managers can see the availability status of employees at a retail store, for example, and ensure the staff are sticking to their designated work hours.
While UC technology was never only intended for the contact centre, it has provided an excellent test-bed for the solution which is now delivering significant benefits to businesses across the board.
* Dave Paulding is Interactive Intelligence's regional sales manager for UK and Africa.
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