Cloud: Your Go-to Strategy to Be More Professional and Productive

Productivity and professionalism – these are two pinnacles that every business strives to achieve. With the onset of cloud communications, maintaining the perfect balance between the two has become exceedingly possible. Cloud-based communications have become increasingly popular, and implementing this aspect of cloud-based technology will help you gain a competitive advantage.

With flat monthly rates and unlimited calling, a cloud based phone system will help decrease your operational costs. In addition to phone services and calling, there are other cloud communication services that focus on relationship management and collaboration. Since these technologies have moved to the cloud, they don’t cost as much as traditional physical equipment. As stated by AssetPoint, cloud communications “takes the risk out of implementing new software by eliminating large up-front investments and the need for major IT resource involvement”. With tools and resources such as these being easily accessible through the cloud, employee productivity is greatly boosted. Interdepartmental collaboration is also easily carried out, encouraging employees to be more dynamic and explore new ideas.

Cloud based communications also allow for increased mobility. This means that if business needs to be conducted from an area outside of the office, it is entirely possible to do so (provided device security is taken care of). Thus employees are able to work remotely should they need to. This way, productivity is maintained, as employees will be able to carry out their tasks from various locations. For example, consider this basic situation that many companies face. An employee goes to another city for a business trip. He manages to close the deal. Now, he needs to consult his company’s payroll accountant to fill out the required paperwork, exchange documents etc. Traditionally, in these situations, the employee would wait till he is back at the office and has the documents in order to present them to the accountant. Then, there would be a sufficient amount of back and forth, and he would have to once again present the final drafts to the client. With cloud based communications system however, the employee can access all of the paperwork in an instant, no matter the time and place, and communicate in live-time with the various teams involved thus cutting out a significant amount of wait time. As stated by New Voice Media, “Because the software is accessed via the cloud – any laptop, phone or computer can instantly connect.” In this way, cloud communications can be extremely effective in saving time thus boosting employee productivity. Furthermore, they help portray a sense of professionalism to the client due to swift and immediate results.

Barry Assaf, from Nexon Asia Pacific states in an interview, “One of the biggest issues for staff is how to stay on top of huge amounts of information all the time…When most of the day is taken up with meetings, customer requests, interruptions, and distractions, employees need to be able to work efficiently.” Cloud-based communications enable exactly this. With more millennials entering the workforce, the reliance on technology for communication has increased exponentially. Even so, millennials do not want to sacrifice experience of personal interaction, in real-time. Rather, they would love to work in an environment that allows them to communicate and work the way they want. Assaf encourages business to embrace these expectations. By utilizing cloud-based communications, “This behavioral change from slower response times to faster and more flexible work helps to increase productivity because employees are more easily contacted.”

For small business, especially tech-startups, cloud-based communications are particularly useful. These days, small business face growing competition. With this in mind, having a professional attitude is integral to success. Cloud-based communications, with tools such as lead scoring software that directs calls to the most appropriate agent harness that very same professional attitude. Since calls can be tracked, monitored and then analyzed, business are able to differentiate between calls and provide timely and relevant responses. This boosts productivity tenfold, with calls being seamlessly directed to the correct person. Also, these tools enable VIP callers to jump the queue, appealing to their sense of importance and in turn showing off a very professional approach. Finally with features such as Interactive Voice Response, cloud-based communications allow smaller businesses to appear “bigger” and more well-known. Minimizing confusion and maximizing productivity – this sort of effective communication allows small business to appear extremely professional, and will slowly help increase your company sales.

Implementing a cloud-based system thus has many benefits, and can surely help your business succeed. With all its advantages, we encourage you to be professional, and stay productive with cloud-based communications!