Three Reasons to Shortlist UC in 2010

After several notches of belt tightening, many experts are predicting that the first uptick in IT spending will begin in 2010. The global recession has effected dramatic change in many industries, and as business thaws, forward-looking organizations are strategizing on ways to emerge as winners. Many companies looking to retain customers and attract new ones are already considering how to enter other markets and retooling their current approaches. Mergers and acquisitions are oftentimes rife in this environment.

Whatever the business strategy, technology is a driving force, as technology continues to evolve from a keep-the-lights-on business unit into a core driver of business value. Unified communications (UC) is one technology that is helping organizations create business value now on a platform for future expansion. As organizations develop their business strategies for 2010 and beyond, here are three reasons to consider a new UC system:

1. UC can help your company deliver great customer service. Customers are notoriously fickle, and delighting customers has never been more difficult than now. Customers will only do business with companies that deliver exceptional customer experience, and UC is a vital tool to help ensure exceptional customer service and take advantage of sales opportunities. Self-service applications allow customers to do routine tasks at their convenience. A flexible UC system helps ensure customers always reach the right person at the right time, using their preferred method of communication—phone, email or Web-based chat. A virtual contact center helps companies leverage at-home agents for increased coverage and lower costs.
   
   The San Francisco Giants is one organization that invested in the downturn to improve customer service and streamline communications. The Giants rely on a ShoreTel UC system for communications and use ShoreTel Contact Center for ticketing, sales and customer service. "The Giants were seeking a state-of-the-art communications system that would transform the way our front office staff, the media, and our fans connect at AT&T Park. The ShoreTel system will help us all communicate more efficiently, provide enhanced capabilities for our staff and luxury suite patrons, and ensure the safety of our fans," said Bill Schlough, CIO, San Francisco Giants.
2. UC can help your company retain the best workers. Improving productivity has been the watchword of this recession. Retaining the best employees as the job market improves means giving them the tools they need to be highly effective in their roles. Investing in UC does just that, as it puts communication at their fingertips for more effective and convenient collaboration. With ShoreTel, users can easily manage communications from their computer, and seamlessly move between video, voice (wired or wireless) and instant messaging. Person-to-person video calls are easy and affordable. With ShoreTel Converged Conferencing, workers can easily turn a voice call into a full Web collaboration session at the touch of a button, and make audio conferencing, desktop/application sharing, virtual meeting rooms and online presentations a part of their everyday workflow.
   
   Integrating UC into key business applications also boosts productivity. For instance, integrating a customer-relationship management system with the call center put customer information at agents' fingertips, which in turn makes agents more responsive and effective. ShoreTel is based on open standards to integrate with leading CRM systems, including Salesforce.com, NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics. Integration between ShoreTel and IBM Sametime or Microsoft OCS also makes it simple for workers to collaborate and stay productive, whether working with fellow employees or external partners.
   
   The City of Oakland in California improved responsiveness to its constituents and boosted worker productivity after deploying a ShoreTel UC system. Integration between ShoreTel and the City's call-accounting software means it can charge back telephone costs and bill individual departments for toll charges. "The ShoreTel system is flexible enough to integrate with our call accounting software and create any kind of report we need whenever we need it," said Robert Glaze, the City's CIO. "The integration possibilities are interesting, considering how flexible ShoreTel is."
3. UC can help your company simplify IT. No doubt about it, cost pressures are ongoing. But IT can do more with less by untangling the complexity in their applications and communications systems. The ShoreTel UC system is easy to administer. Adds, moves and changes—a pricey activity with TDM PBXs—are easy, fast and highly affordable. When you invest in a UC system that doesn't add complexity to the network, you streamline communications as well as IT operations. With those resources freed, IT can work on projects that generate business value.
   
   Many companies face integration challenges after a merger or acquisition. The ShoreTel solution integrates easily with other systems, so organizations may use their existing phone systems where it makes sense, and roll out ShoreTel as time and budget permits. ShoreTel lets organizations of all sizes deploy UC at their own pace.
   
   For example, Ready Pac replaced a patchwork of PBXs inherited through two company acquisitions with a ShoreTel system. Communications are integrated across all locations, and the phone system significantly easier to manage. "Our three main criteria for comparison were cost, reliability and ease of management," said Jim Lyle, communications manager at ReadyPac. "ShoreTel's low total cost of ownership clearly demonstrated that ShoreTel was the best investment to meet our requirements."

As the economy recovers, businesses must continue to optimize costs to deliver financial results, but they also need new ways to feed competitiveness and profitability. Unified communications is one tool that can help organizations weather the economic storms and take advantage of sunny days ahead.

For more information on how ShoreTel can help your organization ring in the New Year with cost savings and productivity gains, contact your local ShoreTel reseller today.