Without getting out of the chat: the stages of the development of Unified Communications
Platon Begun, Head of Contact Center CTI
For a long time, 2 communication channels - telephony and e-mail served as communication tools. With the development of the Internet, a culture of communication through digital channels has emerged. Additional opportunities for communication began to appear: chat rooms, instant messengers, the legendary ICQ, social networks, etc. They avalanche gained popularity due to its functionality and became popular with a wide audience. Nevertheless, the main user has become youth. When the younger generation grew up and went to work, it brought to the offices a new communication culture that was adapted to solve work problems, including communication with customers.
I seek you
The heyday of ICQ (from the English. I seek you - "I'm looking for you") came in the 2000s. By 2005, this messenger had 500 million registered users worldwide (for comparison, the statistics for today are 12 million people).
')
Also, if we talk about technological breakthroughs, this is certainly Skype, who was the first to show that you can make voice and video calls for free.
All these means of communication were used both to save on communications and to save time. The messenger allowed to correspond with several people at the same time, without necessarily answering immediately. It was possible to get an answer much faster than e-mail. People began to chat in chat rooms in the same style in which they spoke in voice. An important factor in the same ICQ was the presence status: it was obvious that a person is online / offline, will he be able to respond immediately or not wait.
There were a lot of various agents for communication, everyone used different ones. And when the manager kept working correspondence with different contacts, it often turned out that for this it was necessary to install several clients of different messengers. Accordingly, on business cards in contacts it became more and more addresses for various communication channels through which one can find a person.
Principle 3 in 1
On this wave, the concept of unified communications appeared. The simplest definition I met is: “Unified Communications (UC) is the consolidation of various communication tools and types of messages (telephony, e-mail, messaging services, video conferencing, etc.) in a universal communicator with presence control.
In fact, by arranging access to various channels and methods of communication using one universal software client (communicator), we greatly facilitate access to communications, and the use of the presence control function allows you to inform other users of your current status (busy, free, preferred method of communication and etc.). At the same time, you can see the status of other users and, based on this, choose the most effective way of communication.
Benefits of a corporate unified communications system
Key features of unified communications can be highlighted:
1) A unified communications client is a kind of aggregator that is a universal source of all necessary contacts. From there, you can also initiate a web or video conference. This client also integrated with the corporate calendar.
2) The second important element is the presence status, which applies to all channels. It is possible to track the status of an employee on the corporate calendar (vacation, meeting, etc.), to understand whether the person at the meeting, at work, speaks by phone, is ready to communicate or is busy. In our life oversaturated with communications, this greatly facilitates the process of communication between colleagues and with customers.
It is important to note that in every company there is a culture of communication. If the company does not provide the usual means of communication, then new employees begin to use their own, because put an instant messenger - it's easy. The downside is that this is done uncontrollably by the company, and there are risks for information security, monitoring working hours, etc. And when there is a corporate system, on the one hand, it provides all kinds of familiar communications, and on the other hand, it is possible to control them. And you definitely need to train employees who have never met with such a corporate communication culture.
Real savings
Temporary expenses for communication between employees are reduced due to the fact that, seeing the status of a colleague with whom you need to communicate, do you understand whether it is possible to call him right now? Or will it be faster in the mail or messenger? Remote means of communication can save on travel - time and money. Why go or fly if you can call and even put together a conference using video. This is a direct optimization of business processes and an increase in the company's competitive advantages in the market.
The benefit is achieved by :
- publication by employees of their accessibility status and preferred channels of communication with them at the moment - this is 10% of the working time on average for each employee;
- the ability to gather a meeting via web and video conferences between employees who are in different offices / cities, while there are tools for working together on documents, it is possible to train geographically distributed employees - saving up to 20% -40% of time;
- conducting online-presentations for clients using web-conferencing service - 20% -40% of working time;
- quick access to corporate communication services from employees' smartphones - an increase in productivity by 30% -50%.
And increasing employee loyalty to the company by getting comfortable working conditions is priceless!
This is a saving on the parasitic loss of time associated with an attempt to connect with a person who, for example, is now on vacation and is not responding, or at a meeting, and he was called one-second or third time. What for?
Due to the accumulation of all channels in one agent, productivity increases, since the manager more effectively builds his working day and distributes the time of communication with colleagues and clients.
Corporate social network is the next stage in the development of unified communications
Modern social networks is a trend that is also present in the corporate environment. Corporate social networks are the next derivative of unified communications. Thus, the first stage of evolution is from telephony to unified communications, and the second is from unified communications to socialization.
Why do we need social networks? You can consult on any issues, take advantage of the "collective mind" - people share experiences, send links, it makes life easier.
The same principles are laid in the basis of corporate social networks. Let's imagine: the account manager, the seller met with the client, identified the needs for solving certain tasks, fixed everything - and what does he do next? He returns to the company and, among his own experts, begins to look for people who will help him to form a proposal for the client - they will advise him, help prepare a technical and commercial proposal (TCH), tell you whether the company solves such problems, what background.
This raises the question of the corporate knowledge base and the corporate environment for transferring this knowledge between employees - a unified corporate social network. The manager can search for similar projects in the CRM system, look in the corporate directory of experts on the subject in the company, who can tell him how all this can be done, what projects were there, etc.
It is the corporate social environment that is the next stage in the development of collaboration solutions, which allows you to create a single social corporate network. In it, using certain tags, keywords, the account manager can find projects himself, go to the experts, see the status of their availability, and immediately contact someone to talk about the task he wants to solve for the client. Immediately find a corporate repository of TKP samples, case descriptions, completed projects on a similar subject. And, having all this information, more quickly provide it and work with the client, providing high quality service and quick preparation of relevant commercial proposals.
All these aspects have competitive advantages when the company is not engaged in box moving (goods resale), but, for example, systems integration and providing solutions on the market that are assembled from various pieces (equipment, consulting services, etc.) when the company sells non-product which she bought from the supplier, and the “brains” of her staff, the skills of her engineers.
If we are talking about unified communications, then this is a kind of client, which on any device at any time provides communication channels. And corporate social networks, in addition, provide access from the same client to training materials, data on customers, completed projects, characteristics of colleagues when the right expert is searched. This provides significant advantages, especially if the company is large - not 1 office, and not in the 1st country, and it is very difficult to find a free expert who could help you with your task. Without the tools described here, the manager begins to turn to management, more experienced comrades, distracts them from work. And you can do everything yourself, with it at any time from any device.
Evolve or die
For the company to be constantly in development, collaboration solutions are a very convenient tool. Another question is what needs to be done in the framework of business processes in order to implement such a system most effectively? This is a matter of integrating communication processes into business processes. The company often has its own established structure of various tools - CRM-systems, ERP-systems, communication channels.
First of all, the main “sponsors” of the implementation should be operational, executive directors - those top managers who are responsible for the efficiency of internal business processes. It should be people who solve the relevant core business tasks, whose KPIs are performed through the implementation of these systems. Accordingly, if we are talking about KC , then this is marketing and sales, as well as service. If we are talking about unified communications, then these are owners of banking products, whose sales are increased by introducing such things. Any project to be implemented must be financially efficient, which means that here are general and financial directors.
From the point of view of the deployment of these systems, models may be different. The most effective is the cloud model. We can talk about both public and private clouds, when a corporate system of collaboration solutions in a private cloud architecture is being introduced as part of a holding or a large branched company.
The conclusion is simple
Communication is the circulatory system of any process in which more than one person is involved. Violation of this communication is equivalent to a violation of the process. And the acceleration of communication proportionally increases its efficiency: labor productivity increases, the time spent on finding the right information or a person decreases. Ultimately, all this leads to the creation of additional value for the company, which has decided to introduce such things.
For a long time, 2 communication channels - telephony and e-mail served as communication tools. With the development of the Internet, a culture of communication through digital channels has emerged. Additional opportunities for communication began to appear: chat rooms, instant messengers, the legendary ICQ, social networks, etc. They avalanche gained popularity due to its functionality and became popular with a wide audience. Nevertheless, the main user has become youth. When the younger generation grew up and went to work, it brought to the offices a new communication culture that was adapted to solve work problems, including communication with customers.
I seek you
The heyday of ICQ (from the English. I seek you - "I'm looking for you") came in the 2000s. By 2005, this messenger had 500 million registered users worldwide (for comparison, the statistics for today are 12 million people).
')
Also, if we talk about technological breakthroughs, this is certainly Skype, who was the first to show that you can make voice and video calls for free.
All these means of communication were used both to save on communications and to save time. The messenger allowed to correspond with several people at the same time, without necessarily answering immediately. It was possible to get an answer much faster than e-mail. People began to chat in chat rooms in the same style in which they spoke in voice. An important factor in the same ICQ was the presence status: it was obvious that a person is online / offline, will he be able to respond immediately or not wait.
There were a lot of various agents for communication, everyone used different ones. And when the manager kept working correspondence with different contacts, it often turned out that for this it was necessary to install several clients of different messengers. Accordingly, on business cards in contacts it became more and more addresses for various communication channels through which one can find a person.
Principle 3 in 1
On this wave, the concept of unified communications appeared. The simplest definition I met is: “Unified Communications (UC) is the consolidation of various communication tools and types of messages (telephony, e-mail, messaging services, video conferencing, etc.) in a universal communicator with presence control.
In fact, by arranging access to various channels and methods of communication using one universal software client (communicator), we greatly facilitate access to communications, and the use of the presence control function allows you to inform other users of your current status (busy, free, preferred method of communication and etc.). At the same time, you can see the status of other users and, based on this, choose the most effective way of communication.
Benefits of a corporate unified communications system
Key features of unified communications can be highlighted:
1) A unified communications client is a kind of aggregator that is a universal source of all necessary contacts. From there, you can also initiate a web or video conference. This client also integrated with the corporate calendar.
2) The second important element is the presence status, which applies to all channels. It is possible to track the status of an employee on the corporate calendar (vacation, meeting, etc.), to understand whether the person at the meeting, at work, speaks by phone, is ready to communicate or is busy. In our life oversaturated with communications, this greatly facilitates the process of communication between colleagues and with customers.
It is important to note that in every company there is a culture of communication. If the company does not provide the usual means of communication, then new employees begin to use their own, because put an instant messenger - it's easy. The downside is that this is done uncontrollably by the company, and there are risks for information security, monitoring working hours, etc. And when there is a corporate system, on the one hand, it provides all kinds of familiar communications, and on the other hand, it is possible to control them. And you definitely need to train employees who have never met with such a corporate communication culture.
Real savings
Temporary expenses for communication between employees are reduced due to the fact that, seeing the status of a colleague with whom you need to communicate, do you understand whether it is possible to call him right now? Or will it be faster in the mail or messenger? Remote means of communication can save on travel - time and money. Why go or fly if you can call and even put together a conference using video. This is a direct optimization of business processes and an increase in the company's competitive advantages in the market.
The benefit is achieved by :
- publication by employees of their accessibility status and preferred channels of communication with them at the moment - this is 10% of the working time on average for each employee;
- the ability to gather a meeting via web and video conferences between employees who are in different offices / cities, while there are tools for working together on documents, it is possible to train geographically distributed employees - saving up to 20% -40% of time;
- conducting online-presentations for clients using web-conferencing service - 20% -40% of working time;
- quick access to corporate communication services from employees' smartphones - an increase in productivity by 30% -50%.
And increasing employee loyalty to the company by getting comfortable working conditions is priceless!
This is a saving on the parasitic loss of time associated with an attempt to connect with a person who, for example, is now on vacation and is not responding, or at a meeting, and he was called one-second or third time. What for?
Due to the accumulation of all channels in one agent, productivity increases, since the manager more effectively builds his working day and distributes the time of communication with colleagues and clients.
Corporate social network is the next stage in the development of unified communications
Modern social networks is a trend that is also present in the corporate environment. Corporate social networks are the next derivative of unified communications. Thus, the first stage of evolution is from telephony to unified communications, and the second is from unified communications to socialization.
Why do we need social networks? You can consult on any issues, take advantage of the "collective mind" - people share experiences, send links, it makes life easier.
The same principles are laid in the basis of corporate social networks. Let's imagine: the account manager, the seller met with the client, identified the needs for solving certain tasks, fixed everything - and what does he do next? He returns to the company and, among his own experts, begins to look for people who will help him to form a proposal for the client - they will advise him, help prepare a technical and commercial proposal (TCH), tell you whether the company solves such problems, what background.
This raises the question of the corporate knowledge base and the corporate environment for transferring this knowledge between employees - a unified corporate social network. The manager can search for similar projects in the CRM system, look in the corporate directory of experts on the subject in the company, who can tell him how all this can be done, what projects were there, etc.
It is the corporate social environment that is the next stage in the development of collaboration solutions, which allows you to create a single social corporate network. In it, using certain tags, keywords, the account manager can find projects himself, go to the experts, see the status of their availability, and immediately contact someone to talk about the task he wants to solve for the client. Immediately find a corporate repository of TKP samples, case descriptions, completed projects on a similar subject. And, having all this information, more quickly provide it and work with the client, providing high quality service and quick preparation of relevant commercial proposals.
All these aspects have competitive advantages when the company is not engaged in box moving (goods resale), but, for example, systems integration and providing solutions on the market that are assembled from various pieces (equipment, consulting services, etc.) when the company sells non-product which she bought from the supplier, and the “brains” of her staff, the skills of her engineers.
If we are talking about unified communications, then this is a kind of client, which on any device at any time provides communication channels. And corporate social networks, in addition, provide access from the same client to training materials, data on customers, completed projects, characteristics of colleagues when the right expert is searched. This provides significant advantages, especially if the company is large - not 1 office, and not in the 1st country, and it is very difficult to find a free expert who could help you with your task. Without the tools described here, the manager begins to turn to management, more experienced comrades, distracts them from work. And you can do everything yourself, with it at any time from any device.
Evolve or die
For the company to be constantly in development, collaboration solutions are a very convenient tool. Another question is what needs to be done in the framework of business processes in order to implement such a system most effectively? This is a matter of integrating communication processes into business processes. The company often has its own established structure of various tools - CRM-systems, ERP-systems, communication channels.
First of all, the main “sponsors” of the implementation should be operational, executive directors - those top managers who are responsible for the efficiency of internal business processes. It should be people who solve the relevant core business tasks, whose KPIs are performed through the implementation of these systems. Accordingly, if we are talking about KC , then this is marketing and sales, as well as service. If we are talking about unified communications, then these are owners of banking products, whose sales are increased by introducing such things. Any project to be implemented must be financially efficient, which means that here are general and financial directors.
From the point of view of the deployment of these systems, models may be different. The most effective is the cloud model. We can talk about both public and private clouds, when a corporate system of collaboration solutions in a private cloud architecture is being introduced as part of a holding or a large branched company.
The conclusion is simple
Communication is the circulatory system of any process in which more than one person is involved. Violation of this communication is equivalent to a violation of the process. And the acceleration of communication proportionally increases its efficiency: labor productivity increases, the time spent on finding the right information or a person decreases. Ultimately, all this leads to the creation of additional value for the company, which has decided to introduce such things.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/330992/
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