The work environment is evolving. But are your collaboration tools?

Over the past year and a half, most companies have had to rethink where and how they work — more than once. In Spring 2020, many companies suddenly found themselves supporting an entirely remote workforce. As things gradually moved in a better direction, they then had to decide whether to remain fully remote, adopt a flexible model where employees work both in the office and from home, or call for a full-time return to the office.

With everything in a continual state of uncertainty, many companies will likely need to change course again to adapt to whatever the future holds. To remain competitive in this ambiguous environment, they must provide tools that enable employees to seamlessly communicate and collaborate with each other — and customers — no matter where or how they’re working.

Unfortunately, many companies are using older voice solutions and piecemeal applications that are overly complex for IT teams to manage and don’t adequately support the new ways in which we work. To simplify solution management and ensure employees have what they need to be efficient and productive now and in the future, choose a modern communications and collaboration solution that has these three things:

• An all-inclusive platform: Look for a modern solution that provides voice calling, instant messaging, videoconferencing and other collaboration tools in a unified platform that can be accessed from any location or device. This will simplify solution management while ensuring an optimal user experience. A solution that also integrates with third-party applications like customer relationship management (CRM) systems is also important for supporting more seamless interactions with team members and customers.

  A cloud-based solution that is managed entirely by the service provider further simplifies solution management by eliminating the need for IT teams to maintain equipment and handle upgrades, maintenance and support.

• Enterprise-grade encryption: Securing connectivity across multiple locations can be extremely challenging. Look for a communications and collaboration solution that offers built-in, enterprise-grade encryption for chat, video and stored files. A solution where the service provider proactively monitors security and provides automatic security updates can be ideal for companies with limited IT resources.

• Dedicated, reliable connectivity:  Seamlessly connecting employees across phone, desktop and mobile devices requires a solution with an advanced telephony system and a modern, dedicated and private network. A network where voice and data traffic share the same bandwidth can cause congestion and degrade call quality, so choosing a solution that provides dedicated bandwidth for voice calls is critical. Also look for solution that can provide highly reliable performance and consistent service backed by a strong service-level agreement (SLA).

Read our e-book to learn more about why modernizing your communications and collaboration tools is so important, and what to consider when selecting a new solution to meet current and future needs.