Is your communication technology for business ready to seize the opportunities ahead in 2022? Will your communications system be an invaluable asset in achieving growth — or a burden that limits your performance?

Many businesses are finding they are weighed down by technology choices they had to make quickly during the pandemic. In the face of shutdowns, communications software became the lynchpin to allow employees to keep collaborating, meet with customers, and work productively from home. And, with little time to assess communications platform pros and cons, they made quick purchase decisions that left them with:

• A mix of disjointed communications tools that are awkward for employees navigate
• Unanticipated costs associated with higher maintenance expenses and complex IT support
• Uneven performance, with some tools more reliable than others, creating dissatisfied customers and frustrated staff

Looking ahead, your business has the opportunity to evolve from worrying about ‘keeping things moving’ to focus on optimizing operations. As a dynamic, hybrid work environment becomes the new normal, it’s an ideal time to ensure you have a communications platform that’s designed — from the ground up — to deliver the reliability, agility, and efficiency you need to optimize productivity today and respond quickly to unanticipated changes tomorrow. To take advantage of that opportunity, you’ll want to make 3 smart choices:

1. Choose the best communications architecture
2. Select the right communications solution
3. Identify the ideal migration path for your business

#1 Choose The Cloud To Streamline And Strengthen Your Communication Technology For Business

The cloud is the easiest way to simplify and supercharge your communication for business technology. By consolidating disjointed communications tools into an all-in-one, cloud-based solution that offers team and video collaboration, mobility, and voice capabilities, you can unleash greater productivity and performance, while eliminating the cost and resource burdens of managing your current systems. A cloud-based communications solution:

• Is easier to manage and maintain: Flexible, scalable, and requiring little-to-no maintenance, cloud communications platforms allow your IT staff to focus their precious time on initiatives that will help you grow and stay ahead of the competition.
• Provides more for less: Your business gets more of the powerful features you need (and previously had to pay for separately) in a single solution that many businesses find to be more cost-effective.
• Removes uncertainty and costs: Cloud-based solutions eliminate large, up-front technology investments and unexpected repair costs. All you pay is a predictable and affordable monthly subscription fee.
• Remains effortlessly up to date: A cloud-based communication platform will give you the comfort of knowing your business will always benefit from the latest software capabilities and security updates, without requiring any work on your part.

#2 Choose The UCaaS Leader To Meet Your Needs Today And Tomorrow

Customer and employee expectations have permanently changed. Businesses have gained new confidence in their staffs’ ability to work from anywhere. Employees value the balance that hybrid working environments provide. And customers just want great service — and don’t care where the employee supporting them is working from.

For these reasons, business communications software will remain your foundation for employee productivity and customer service excellence. To grow and thrive in this environment, your business deserves a best-in-class, cloud-based business communications platform that’s intuitive to use, easy to scale, and designed to ensure employees can work productively from anywhere, any time, and on any device.

That’s why Mitel has embarked on a strategic partnership with RingCentral. The RingCentral MVP solution has been ranked a leader in the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant for seven consecutive years. Together, Mitel and RingCentral are empowering businesses of all sizes with the UCaaS solution that’s specifically designed to increase employee engagement, improve the customer experience, and provide unprecedented business agility.

• Increasing employee engagement: Your state-of-the-art RingCentral MVP communications solution will allow employees and customers to interact quickly, easily, and efficiently. Productivity-enhancing features like voice, video, messaging, SMS, mobility and file sharing in one app keep employees productive whether working from home, the office, or a hybrid of both. And by integrating your RingCentral system with the CRM, ERP, and support ticketing systems that your employees use every day, you can help them get more done without ever leaving those applications.
• Meeting higher customer expectations: When you enhance employee productivity with leading communications technology, it also improves your ability to serve your customers better and faster, wherever they are. If you want to augment your UCaaS solution with leading contact center capabilities, the Mitel and RingCentral partnership provides you with options. RingCentral’s NICE UCaaS solution is available to all UCaaS customers, and Mitel will continue to offer MiContact Center for Mitel on-premises, private cloud, and subscription customers.
• Achieving unprecedented agility: The pace of business has never been faster. So, it’s important to know you can count on the Mitel and RingCentral partnership to provide superior performance and reliability, so you won’t miss a beat today or tomorrow. In 2021, RingCentral earned Gartner’s #1 ranking among UCaaS vendors for ‘completeness of vision.’ So when you choose RingCentral MVP, you can be confident that they are already anticipating your future communication technology for business’ needs and preparing to add new, next-generation innovations to the platform.

#3 Choose A Trusted Partner To Customize Your Migration Path

If you create the right migration plan to the right cloud-based communication technology for business, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
Chances are, your business has already made investments in a communications platform. You’ll want a migration plan that takes that into consideration, so you’ll need the guidance of a trusted partner with extensive expertise in the full range of communications deployments — including on-premise, private cloud, and public cloud systems. That’s why you can trust Mitel and our experienced partner network to ensure a smooth transition that’s based on a custom migration plan and timeline for your business.

• You’re in charge: Mitel has a track record of being 100% customer focused. Let us do the heavy lifting. We start every customer migration by listening to your needs and understanding your existing investments, so we can provide you with a range of options to choose from.
• Investment protection: After evaluating your options, if the best plan for your business means staying with an on-premises or private cloud platform for the time-being, Mitel remains a global market leader in these segments and has a clear, innovative roadmap for these platforms going forward.
• Leading technology to facilitate your migration: Mitel’s CloudLink architecture is a tested and proven technology that helps customers enhance the performance of their existing investments while they migrate to the cloud. That’s why Mitel’s CloudLink architecture will become tightly integrated with RingCentral’s MVP solution, paving the path for Mitel on-premises customers to move to the cloud at the pace that is best for them.

Choose The Freedom To Focus On The Future

If the communications platform you put in place during the pandemic isn’t providing you with all the functionality you need to grow and meet new challenges ahead, now is an ideal time to press the reset button. Contact 4Sight Communications today so we can help you make the right choices for your business.

This blog post was first published by Mitel.