Unified Communications (UC) has changed the way business is conducted. It helps improve collaboration, decision-making and productivity, and lets companies focus on managing their business instead of their communications infrastructure.

Today’s UC systems are a big step forward from the early days of UC. No longer tied to hardware deployed on your premise, newer UC solutions like Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ are cloud-based and mobile. Business communications can be routed through an easily downloadable desktop app providing one-click integration with common business productivity tools like customer relationship management, Microsoft Skype for Business, Office 365 and Google Chrome. In addition, from Google Play or App Store, an end-user can download the mobile application from Comcast to have desk phone features and functions on a cell phone.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are using Comcast Business VoiceEdge™, the cloud-based virtual PBX service that works where you work — office, home or on the road. Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ allows your employees to stay connected with customers and each other from anywhere for increased productivity and an improved voice communications experience.

Additionally, Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ works with the business applications employees rely on the most: text with readable voicemail, email with interoperability with Office 365 or cell phone access to your telephone directory, and desktop call features delivered via a mobile app. Here are a few examples.

Crystal Clear Voice—All the Time

Members working at Tigerlabs, a Princeton, N.J., co-working community, originally relied on their cell phones to make business calls. Now, Tigerlabs offers their community an important amenity thanks to Comcast Business VoiceEdge™: HD-quality IP phones from Polycom in all conference rooms, giving members an alternative to using their cellphones for important client collaboration conference calls.

Never Miss a Call

In the past, customers calling Catlett, Va.-based Golden Rule Builders, Inc., often got disconnected. They —weren’t able to leave a message or reach the company in the first place. Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ removed that hassle by providing voicemail at no additional cost, allowing incoming callers to leave a message. Golden Rule Builders is able to access these messages in multiple ways: desktop app, mobile app, dialing into voicemail, or by converting the voicemail to readable text. On-the-go employees can also stay connected, even when they are out in the field, thanks to the Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ Be Anywhere feature, which forwards calls to select phones such as personal cell or home phones.

Support Remote Employees

Philadelphia-based Maass Media helps companies collect, analyze and use marketing-generated data to make better business decisions and drive more sales. With Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ Remote Office, Be Anywhere and softphones, employees have the quality, reliability and speed needed to receive inbound calls to never miss a call. Because Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ calls travel over a separate circuit, they don’t compete for traffic with the company’s data usage, so calls can be completed clearly and reliably.

Scale as Businesses Grow

The Business Incubator, Utah’s largest business incubator, provides a collaborative workspace and a full range of resources to local entrepreneurs. To help its small business clientele grow, it needed to provide high-quality and secure voice services that could grow along with them, without requiring costly infrastructure investments and maintenance. The Business Incubator chose Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ for its flexibility and scalability. The HD-quality voice lines improve both employee and customer communications for Business Incubator clients, providing them with a professional voice alternative to cell phones while enabling features like Be Anywhere, which allows calls to reach cell phones when clients work outside the office.

Always Reachable

Chicago-based CLK Engineers wanted to make it easier for customers to reach engineers working in the field. Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ provides advanced call features like call forwarding, allowing the firm to send incoming calls to the field so they don’t have to miss an important client- or business-related call.

Better Customer Service

For Mattress 1, of Jacksonville, Fla., unreliable voice service from other carriers was affecting customer satisfaction. Mattress 1 switched from traditional voice services delivered by a mix of service providers to Comcast Business VoiceEdge™ nationally. With their prior phone service, advanced features like Call Forwarding, Auto Attendant and Hold Music were inadequate or nonexistent, and employees could only answer calls when they were near the phone. With Comcast Business VoiceEdge™, employees can stay productive even when they’re away from their desktop phones, accessing voice services via softphones and mobile devices. HD-quality voice using Polycom IP phones provides a clear connection between retail locations and headquarters. Plus, the company can review billable call detail records in real-time via a secure and private web portal.

Voice is an integral component of virtually every business process. Older UC models can rely on legacy premise-based systems that can be costly to maintain and hard to scale. With a mobile, cloud-based UC system driven by advanced voice features, businesses not only get cost-effective, transportable access to the communication and collaboration tools they need today, they are well-positioned to take advantage of future UC developments.