The unprecedented events of 2020 may have changed our working practices for good. Roles previously thought unsuitable for remote working, are being performed at home, in some cases more efficiently than they were in the office. In the short term, compromises have been necessary to keep businesses running on a limited budget. Longer term, many organizations will re visit their processes and technology to create a flexible, secure virtual workplace that can be managed effectively. Of course, the economic impact of COVID 19 will continue for some time to come, with many organisations favouring solutions that protect their existing investment and facilitate a progressive migration to cloud communications.
Choosing the right provider
With more than 30 years in the industry, Oak know a thing or two about business communications. Cloud is well suited to highly distributed organizations with multiple offices, home and mobile workers. The latest cloud communication services are more flexible, and reduce the complexity associated with traditional business telephony solutions.
Here are 5 things to consider when choosing a cloud communications provider:
- Beware, some cloud communication services are little more than legacy telephone systems hosted in a Data Centre. They do little to reduce your management overhead and often fail to deliver the ‘joined up’ audio, video and web collaboration necessary to support a virtual workplace.
- Don’t ignore the fundamentals. Take time to understand and specify your feature requirements. If ring groups, pick up groups and speed calls are important to your business, make sure your chosen provider has them covered.
- The headline price for a simple telephony user may look attractive. Look a little closer and the cost can escalate, especially if you have knowledge workers and contact centre agents with advanced requirements.
- Advanced call recording and analytics are lacking in many cloud offerings. When managing a distributed workforce, good management tools are vital to optimize resource utilization, uphold customer experience and manage compliance.
- If you’re on a mission to simplify business process through digital transformation, integration is a key, especially if you’re looking to leverage Microsoft Teams or communications enable your customer data.
How can Oak help?
Oak Innovation offers LogMeIn’s award winning ‘GoTo’ portfolio. They’re easy to deploy and can work alongside or replace your existing telephony solution. Businesses can begin with products like GoToMeeting, an audio, web and video collaboration tool, or Bold360, an AI enabled chatbot, alongside existing systems to enable remote working and improve customer experience. When the time comes, displacing your legacy telephone system is easy with GoToConnect.
- The ‘GoTo’ range of products are designed to be easy to deploy and simple to use. They address current environmental, social and economic concerns by providing the tools you need to build a virtual workplace.
- GoToConnect combines secure cloud telephony with GoToMeeting’s advanced collaboration to enable people to work from any location. We’ve got your contact centre agents and road warriors covered wherever they choose to work.
- GoToConnect includes many features that others charge extra for. This approach helps to create an agile environment, reduce complexity and minimize cost. Staff can choose to work from their computer, a mobile device or a traditional desktop phone.
- Oak Integration’s call recording, quality management and analytics help managers to get new starters up to speed faster, optimise resource utilisation and uphold service levels across a distributed workforce.
- GoToConnect can be integrated with a wide range of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, as well as PaymentAssist, our secure card payment service, to make life easier, reduce risk and improve service. Already a Microsoft Teams user? GoToConnect can integrate with Microsoft Teams too.
To learn about Oak’s cloud services, see https://www.oakinnovate.com/cloud-services
