How to Reduce Costs with Unified Communications?

Source: http://blog.arkadin.com/en/reduce-costs-unified-communications/
Author: Sarah McGovern
A major aim of many enterprises embarking on their digital
transformation journey is to reduce costs via new solutions and processes. And
the implementation of unified communications brings various opportunities for
such a cost reduction.
The consolidation of different communication and
collaboration channels in tools such as Microsoft Teams or Cisco WebEx Teams
enables employees to work with anyone from anywhere with any device. Thereby
companies can save on travel expenses, office charges and hardware costs.
However, the implementation of UC alone will not reduce
your costs. You also need to review the respective business policies. Often,
these are too rigid and outdated for modern working so that key benefits of
unified communications cannot be fully realised.
Here
are the main policies you need to consider to truly reduce costs when
implementing UC:
Travel
expenses
A major policy that your company will need to adapt is your
commuting and expenses policy. Consider how often employees travel and for what
purpose. Can employees’ travel time be reduced with unified communications? Identify
which journeys can be avoided and substituted with digital meetings.
Hardware
costs – BYOD
An increasingly popular trend in the market, which unified
communications facilitates through a multi-device interface, is Bring Your Own
Device (BYOD). BYOD enables employees to work from their own personal devices,
meaning companies can reduce costs by supplying less hardware.
If your company chooses to incorporate a BYOD approach,
it’s important that you adapt a security policy to accommodate this change.
Which extra security measures need to be taken if employees are using their own
devices? And which devices can employees actually work from?
When looking at BYOD it may also be worth looking at a BYOA
– Bring Your Own App – policy within your company. See our article on the topic
for more information.
Office
charges – work-from-home and hot-desking
Another key area where unified communications can
significantly reduce your company’s outlay is office costs.
With unified communications, employees have the freedom to
work-from-home, remotely or on the go, meaning your company can move to a
smaller office as less people work in the office itself. However, for flexible
working to be a success, your organisation must have the appropriate policies
in place.
Consider your company’s work-from-home and hot-desking
policies: How many days can employees work from home? Do home office days need
to be approved? If so, what’s the process? How do employees connect to the
company network securely?
You may also want to review your employees’ KPIs for remote
working to make sure everybody gets the most out of flexible working. Ensure
that your employees understand the best ways they can stay connected and
collaborate with their colleagues while away from the office.
If this enhanced flexibility means that many of your employees now choose to hot-desk, it’s essential that your organisation also has a set of guidelines that outline where employees can hot-desk, what privacy and security measures must they take when working in a shared space, and where employees should leave their personal items while hot-desking.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
To explore more about reducing costs or to speak to Arkadin, why not Register Free here for UC EXPO 2019?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________