Julien Rio, Associate Vice President, International Marketing at RingCentral discloses how to negotiate modern challenges
Modern-day SMBs have an array of challenges to overcome. For example, macro-economic pressures such as rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have caused SMBs to remain conscious of costs.
Another factor that is slowing down SMBs to greater efficiency and growth is the technology gap. Typically, SMBs have less resources to spend on technology that can streamline operations and aid growth plans. Indeed, inflation and recessionary pressures are dampening SMB tech spending, with recent research finding that only 36% of SMBs plan to increase technology spending this year. It’s therefore important that SMBs maximise the technology that they are investing in.
The switch from traditional office-centric workforces to the hybrid working model has only deepened this technology gap, making it difficult to maintain operations as usual and attract new customers. As 40% of SMBs will continue to work from home in some capacity throughout the duration of 2023, it’s imperative SMBs look at how solutions like Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) technology can support levelling up operations.
Utilising UCaaS to Meet Consumer Demand
One challenge for a small business is customers demanding frequent communication whilst staff are working from a remote location. There are several UCaaS solutions available to support this. One solution is for SMBs to utilise the right interactive voice response (IVR) for customer calls. Receiving inbound calls from potential customers can be tricky to manage without an IVR in place, and collaborating with colleagues spread out across multiple locations is more difficult without technology that is designed to enable it.
Today, even a sole trader can deploy IVR without the need for an in-house admin team to manage it. Cloud technologies now allow virtual numbers to be assigned to employees, making them available whether they are physically in the office, on the go, or working from home, without ever having to transfer calls from one device to the other. It also removes the need for maintaining a stock of hardware in one location, as this technology is accessible from any phone or computer.
Business Benefits of Cloud Technology
Cloud technology isn’t just a step forward for companies, but a victory for employees. With the right cloud UCaaS technology, it is easy to set specific working days and hours. This translates into a better work-life balance for employees. Small businesses can then also employ a distributed workforce across multiple countries but still easily collaborate without the complexity or cost of traditional “on-premises” solutions.
This enables smaller businesses to better compete with larger corporations. With cloud-based capabilities a SMB workforce can have private or group messaging conversations, share files and tasks, track projects and join a group call or video conference with just one click.
Consolidation is frequently regarded as the holy grail of any IT department, as it brings technologies together, lowering the number of providers, avoiding silos and complexity. Companies of all sizes can now access what was previously only available to a select few large enterprises with a CIO and a sizable IT team. Cloud technology now makes it possible for everyone to integrate their communication system with their CRM so that they can engage with customers effortlessly within their browser and make phone calls with just one click. To maximise efficiency, SMBs should consider the potential of UCaaS.
