Digital transformation, otherwise known as “DX”, is the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing, business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. (Salesforce) Ever since it emerged, it has continued to roll in the business landscape and remained a hot topic among CIOs. These digital transformation initiatives are already underway at nearly 70% of companies, according to Nemertes Research.
What Digital Transformation Really Means to Businesses
As advanced new technology reshaping businesses in various ways, digital transformation proved to be not just hype. It could mean a lot to today’s business, regardless of their verticals and sizes. However, Only a few companies feel they’re getting digital transformation right. 70% of all DX initiatives do not reach their goals, according to Forbes. Perhaps the biggest hinder is that they simply don’t know how to define it for their own business. How and where to start? What does it require to give DX initiatives the best chance of succeeding?
The goal of digital transformation is not only to migrate away from the legacy system, but to embrace the great potential of the newest technologies to foster innovation, increase productivity, and improve customer experiences. For digital transformation to delivering real values to an organization, it needs to seamlessly integrate across departments, support a range of business needs, and be well-received by management.
Though strategies vary given different situations and specific needs, communication and collaboration have always been hallmarks of a successful business. Unified communications is essential for any business undergoing a digital transformation because of its significant impact on improving user experiences. A UC solution, coupled with an IP PBX system, sets a solid communications foundation for enabling a successful DX initiative. For most organizations, especially the SMEs, migration to a UC solution could be the very start of their digital transformation, which need not be complex and painful.
Unified Communications: A Vital Piece to the Puzzle
Gone are the days when the workplace was merely a physical space. Modern companies, especially those with distributed and mobile-first workers are calling upon UC solutions to streamline business communications. Unified communications is about making a wealth of communications channels into a single point of access. The idea behind is that employees can access the same communication system on multiple devices with multiple tools, but its benefits go far beyond convenience.
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Enabling Digital Workplace and Improving User Experience
The transformation not only happened upon technology. Pew Research Center found that millennials are the largest generation in the workforce today, making up 35% of the labor force. The modern workforce is becoming more agile and disjointed and the means of communication becomes more complex. CIOs often need to factor in employees’ shifting preferences and consider how to align the new technology with employees’ working habits. User experience is a priority to boost the long-term benefits of the digital strategy.
Given that, today’s businesses have begun to implement a new working environment, the digital workplace, to empower employees through collaborating, communicating, and connecting with others. 87% of CIOs believe digitally empowering employees can drive at least 5% additional revenue growth over 3 years. (Source)
Most employees are not willing to add more apps to a bunch of mobile and desktop apps they’ve already used on a daily basis. What they’re looking for is the consolidation of functionality. Unified communications integrate business phone systems, instant messaging, conferencing, unified messaging, file sharing, and more, all within a single system, ensuring a consistent user experience that employees expect.
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Increasing Collaboration and Engagement within the Organization
Unified communications is about making a wealth of communications channels and options into a single point of access, but the greater value lies in its ability to unify the organization across all departments. The more available and better connected your staff is, the more work they can get done.
With unified communications, on-premise, off-site and on-the-go workers are all reachable via the same business phone number through multiple devices. Saving time from switching between different communications channels, employees will have more time to focus on the business operation, thus improve efficiency and productivity. Employees who work for firms that make apps available and highly accessible spend 17% less time on manual processes, according to VMware. Virtual collaboration also replaces traditional boardroom collaboration in many instances. More than just telephony, instant messaging, file sharing, unified messaging, CRM integration, and more features offers more alternatives for employees in different scenarios and keeps the team on the same page.
As for the cost, although there’s an upfront investment at the beginning, the long-term ROI is favorable for businesses. Unified communications consolidates a slew of paid tools into a single, all-inclusive communication platform, reducing the additional capital investment on different 3rd party applications. In addition, the improved productivity and time savings resulted from the UC solution also have a direct influence on your bottom line.
Opportunities for MSPs, VARs, and Solution Providers
As digital transformation becoming the new norm, it is either staying current or get left behind. It is a great opportunity for MSPs, VARs, and solution providers to on-board more customers by introducing unified communications solutions as a logical first step of the DX journey. Besides, with the surge of cloud adoption, cloud-based unified communications also receive rising demands.
Yeastar offers on-premises and cloud-based unified communications solution, coupled with robust VoIP PBX systems, to meet various business needs. Both the migration to UC and digital transformation are strategic decisions, so if you would like to experience it before jumping on it right away, you can download our Linkus Unified Communications App for free, use it with our Cloud PBX free trial, and see how unified communications gives a boost to your business.
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