As the unified communications industry continues to expand rapidly, VoIP solutions provider Teo remains the forefront of the wide array of capabilities powered by this innovative technology.
I recently had the chance to speak with Thomas Beck, director of Marketing and Business Development at Teo. In part one of this series, we discussed the way the unified communications space has transitioned in 2011, how Teo continues to distinguish itself from competitors and the most prominent hurtles employees are seeing when implementing VoIP solutions. This article will delve deep into the elements helping to drive mass UC adoption in 2012, some of the obstacles that companies need to overcome before successfully leveraging a UC solution and specifically how Teo can help, as well as what Beck predicts will be the biggest trends in the industry this year.
This year, the expectations from people’s consumer lives will continue to grow as they really are no longer willing to accept limited capabilities out of the office because they know it can be done. Companies like Teo are actually lowering the bar on the difficulty of adoption, making it easier for companies to take that step. It’s not half a dozen new servers or telecommunications companies that these users have to try to integrate; instead, having a single integrated solution just makes it that much easier to say yes.
A major obstacle businesses face when considering a UC solution is trying to imagine what it is going to be like with the new capabilities. “To be completely honest, working in this part of the industry we are always thinking, well what’s the next step we are going to take that’s going to shake things up? And through talking to a majority of the customers out there, they are coming from a world of basic digital phones, maybe even analog or Skype (News - Alert) and fax machines and nothing is really working together. So, it’s a hurdle to help them understand what the workplace could be like and helping them get a comfort level of ok there’s going to be change, things are going to be different but here are the 1,000 reasons why it’s going to be better,” Beck stated.
Beck added, “So many people have not looked at this sector as a way to improve productivity in their business and when they do they open up this huge world of opportunities and those opportunities create questions and then they go back to the drawing board and try to wrap their heads around it to see how exactly this is going to impact their business. We sit down with our customers at the beginning and talk to them about what these communication capabilities, offering them information on what it can mean to them in a real business fashion and stay out of the technical ins and outs as much as possible until we feel that they really understand the way that it changes the way they work. Once that is fully understood and makes sense to them, then we dive into the technical jargon.”
A business sector that is thriving on UC today is information workers, who make up the bulk of UC buyers and have for awhile for obvious reasons.
“We are seeing more adoption by additional disparate industries than just information where you are starting to see the capabilities being demanded by industry sectors that you wouldn’t expect such as manufacturing. Why do they need UC if they are molding plastic, shaping metal and making microchips? As most of these companies have a distributive manufacturing supply chain, several warehouses and multiple areas where they have manufacturing processes going around the world, UC helps these guys to be pulled together in real-time with zero loss of communications capabilities globally, producing real results for the companies to be able to be tied together tightly on the same dial plan and same presence network and being able to communicate anywhere they are.”
In essence, every business sector should implement UC technology in order to make money, Beck revealed.
“I’m asked this question a lot, what’s the one vertical or sector that should look at UC. I don’t mean be flippant; I am absolutely sincere that going to UC from a phone system is like going from a typewriter to a computer with word processor software. If you don’t have it, you’re going to start experiencing productivity disparities between your competitors that have made the jump to UC and you’re going to be left behind in a competitive way that’s detrimental to your company, so it’s time to get on board. If you don’t have UC, it’s like running your company on typewriters and rotary phones,” Beck commented.
In his opinion, the biggest trend in the UC space in 2012 will be the drive for mobility. Beck concluded, “Up to this point, with our competitors I’ve focused a lot on developing softphone clients for PCs and really tying together UC with the PC as the center point of communications. I think 2012 is the break out year where everyone really starts expanding their integration capabilities with mobile access.”
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.
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Jamie Epstein is a TMCnet Web Editor. Previously she interned at News 12 Long Island as a reporter's assistant. After working as an administrative assistant for a year, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web editor for TMCnet. Jamie grew up on the North Shore of Long Island and holds a bachelor's degree in mass communication with a concentration in broadcasting from Five Towns College. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Rich Steeves