Data

The IT Challenges Faced by SMBs Today

March 21, 2016 by wccadmin

Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) face a unique set of challenges on a daily basis. These businesses must be creative and resourceful with their technology spending in order to continue to grow and flourish despite financial and human resource constraints. Following are a few of the main areas of concern experienced by SMBs.

Keeping Data Intact

Losing data can bring an SMB to its knees and, quite often, out of business altogether. Without a data integrity specialist on staff, it can be quite difficult to manage the complexities of data flow, storage, and security. Failing to have a solid backup process in place makes the situation worse by creating an unnecessary risk of business collapse should a loss occur.

Managing Outages

Downtime is an expensive problem, costing hundreds to thousands of dollars per minute. SMBs are much more vulnerable to such a large financial loss than are bigger companies, especially when faced with prolonged outages. In addition, these smaller organizations typically lack the IT resources usually committed to system administration and maintenance. Those running the business without these critical resources are often unsure of how systems should be built and integrated, so may construct them in a less than stable architecture, leading to frequent downtime.

Antiquated Solutions

A wide variety of robust technologies exist today. Unfortunately, many SMB teams have limited knowledge of these new systems and fail to take advantage of their power, which can limit efficiency and productivity. As smaller companies must do more with less, this is an unfortunate obstacle to growth.

Using the Wrong Tools for Sales

Sales can be particularly challenging for SMBs, as they need both the right pitch and the right clientele. Lacking tools that can provide valuable information may mean that the sales staff is misdirecting its efforts. Modern data analytics can show trends, insights, and results in an extremely timely manner, but SMBs may not be capitalizing on these tools.

Enterprise-Sized Solutions Do Not Fit All

So many useful tools in the marketplace have been constructed to serve the big money forum: enterprises and major corporations. These applications and systems are complex and costly, which makes them out of range for most SMBs. Businesses of all sizes need workflow solutions, and SMBs must scour the landscape for affordable ways to handle everything from sales to HR, purchasing, and compliance.

SMBs have a particular set of needs since they may be limited by available resources. Acquiring affordable and easily managed IT solutions will help these smaller businesses succeed in an increasingly technical world.

Top 6 Issues with Unified Communications and How to Solve Them

August 14, 2015 by wccadmin

The communications field has had a rapid growth in the past few years, adding in wider solutions and new technologies to meet increased data needs. This can be confusing to companies in the beginning stages of purchasing Unified Communications (UC) systems.

Here are the six main issues to keep in mind when upgrading communications systems:

Initial research
Knowledgeable staff
Multiple global locations
Focusing on the long term
Necessary and unnecessary features
Effective security

Initial Research

The complex nature of UC infrastructure can lead to high initial costs. Smaller businesses and businesses with less capital may find that the up-front investment is too significant to work within their budget. Fortunately, by researching before committing to a solution, businesses can see what’s available, what will work for their company, and be affordable.

Knowledgeable Staff

Businesses should be aware that technology can change very rapidly, and IT professionals may not be able to keep up with the new demands. Retraining existing employees can be time-consuming and expensive, but a business can mitigate some of this cost by hiring flexible staff for the initial team. This means that the employees hired to support the UC solution should be capable of adjusting quickly to an increasingly mobile workforce, as well as be knowledgeable about video conferencing, instant messaging, and more.

Multiple Global Locations

Some industries, such as banking and hospitality, often have multiple locations on a global scale. This can lead to issues where the communications system at one location is incompatible with the system at a different location. Managing all communications under one vendor is preferable; having multiple vendors can not only be expensive, but also lead to a drop in quality of service.

Focus on the Long Term

It may seem easier to choose the least expensive solution, but businesses must keep future needs in mind when choosing a UC system. The goals that the business is working towards, in terms of growth and competitive advantage, should be kept in mind when choosing a vendor.

Necessary Features

Each business is unique and has different business and client needs. There is a wide array of offerings from vendors, but unnecessary features can distract the IT department and create customer confusion. Before choosing a vendor, businesses should discover and detail their unique needs. This will enable them to choose the vendor with the best-suited features and services.

Effective Security

Security is an extremely important part of a UC network. While an on-premise solution may seem like the most secure, this isn’t always true. Businesses looking to increase their security-especially smaller businesses-may find it easier to choose a hosted option where a vendor provides the security.

Hosted options as a whole are often a good way for a business to have the UC system that they need and want, without having to handle it all internally. A hosted solution can cut down on costs, increase security, consolidate communications networks across all locations, and support mobile employees.

Although a UC system may initially seem cost prohibitive and complex, businesses will be able to decide what works best for them if they do their research, know future goals, and work with knowledgeable professionals, both inside and outside the company.

The Advantages of Cloud Contact Center Agility

July 10, 2015 by wccadmin

Forbes has recently made it clear that the mid-size company is responsible for much of the US’s economical growth, covering nearly 44% of US job growth. Mid-size companies might be known for being particularly innovative, but they also have a reputation for competitiveness. They can be large enough to effectively command scale and small enough to be agile simultaneously, making them ideal for agile contact centers.

Improving Business with a Cloud Center

Cloud contact centers can drastically help improve business, helping separate businesses from less developed competitors in any industry. Cloud technology gives businesses more flexibility and can help them achieve more of their customer acquisition goals in the long run. Cloud contact centers can allow for more modernization in customer contact, bringing additional social media, mobile interactions and other digital channels to the forefront in customer communications. With cloud technology, your business will easily be able to move ahead of your competitors.

Innovative cloud technology can hugely benefit your company. You will be able to make customer interaction both simpler and more innovative, with customized mobile applications as well as more unique selling methods for your services. You will also be able to connect with customers via social media outlets, further improving customer interaction.

Many contact centers aren’t efficient enough to allow for effective communication with customers, but with a contact center utilizing cloud technology, you may find that your business improves the way you always wanted it to. Gone are the days when customers had to reach out to businesses, waiting for a response that could come days later. Customers expect quick and understanding customer service that comes through live chat systems, social media or phone calls.

Combine Technologies

Businesses can easily improve their contact centers by implementing the latest cloud technologies and generally improving their business operations, providing omnichannel engagement and other methods for personalizing customer interaction. One of the ways this improves customer and client communication is through additional transparency in operations. Clients will be able to understand how the companies they work with are helping them more specifically, and companies will be able to understand how their clients are utilizing their services.

With agile cloud contact centers, your customers will be able to communicate with you in a much more effective way. Companies using contact centers on the cloud will no longer have to worry about customers being unable to contact them when they want, as cloud contact centers allow for many different contact outlets.

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