Unified communications (UC) is helping countless businesses improve their communications, collaboration and productivity. It’s the perfect platform for both growing companies and those that need to scale their operations up and down to react to seasonal or market fluctuations.

Just about any type of business — small or large — can benefit from converging voice and data via a mobility-enabled, cloud-based UC strategy. Here are just a few examples of how different types of businesses can use UC:

Sales organizations can improve customer service by converging voice services with popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems like Salesforce. CRM information is immediately available on screen (computer or mobile device) when calls come in, and outbound calls can be made directly from the CRM system, making transcription errors a thing of the past. With UC, companies can also integrate voicemail and email, making it easier for sales reps to reach out and respond to customers. Plus, calls can be prioritized so customers’ calls ring directly through while unknown callers are directed to voicemail.

Hoteliers can operate more efficiently and increase guest satisfaction by not being tied to a desk phone. When UC is managed in the cloud, a hotel manager can forward incoming calls from her landline phone to her mobile phone, so she can address issues and answer questions no matter where she is on the property. She can also seamlessly transfer calls from one device to another without having to hang up and redial.  

Professional services firms like advertising agencies can enhance collaboration and share rich media assets with UC tools such as screen sharing, audio and video conferencing, virtual workspaces and smart whiteboards — all of which can be integrated with project management systems. Team chat lets account management, creative, and production personnel brainstorm together from different locations and get instant updates on projects in progress. Travel costs and time are reduced, and businesses can respond more quickly to client demands.

Manufacturers can streamline development and production processes with presence and instant communications functionality. For example, a production supervisor facing a problem on the manufacturing line can use presence information to easily find the product’s R&D leader, determine where he is and check his availability for an immediate call or a future meeting. With cloud-based UC, the days of leaving a message and waiting for a response are over, and downtime is reduced.

The convergence of voice and data in a unified communications platform has been helping businesses reduce their costs, improve their productivity and power revenue-generating initiatives for some time now. The latest UC platforms — driven by cloud-based advanced voice technology — and cost-effective productivity apps for businesses of all types and sizes, will make UC more intuitive and future-proof, making it easier and less costly for virtually any business to adopt UC without costly investments in premise-based equipment.