Modern entrepreneurs must act as survivalists in today’s increasingly cutthroat business environment. Recent technology is enabling business rivals to compete neck-and-neck, as newer, more efficient solutions for business functions—like communications—are constantly emerging. Case in point, the right up-to-date communications platform is paramount to a startup’s likelihood for success today. Entrepreneurs must, therefore, be especially shrewd when choosing the telephony to support their new business’s communications function.
As such, new business owners must address their key pain points—such as cost savings, scalability, mobility, maintenance and adequate collaboration tools—and find a well-suited communications system that can address each. Below are three innovative business communications technologies for entrepreneurs to consider:
Cloud PBX
A Cloud PBX phone system doesn’t require on-site hardware like a traditional PSTN would. With this advantage, new business owners can avoid productivity lulls and telecom fees caused by on-premises maintenance of copper wires. Many entrepreneurs don’t start out with a full IT management staff, so using a phone system, like Cloud PBX, which is managed and maintained by a MSP or IT Service Provider, preserves a small business’s time and resources. In addition, startups can easily scale their business as they grow and add more employees by adding phone lines and extensions through a hosted provider, rather than by adding physical wiring, which can also be time-consuming and costly.
Virtual PBX
A virtual PBX, much like a Cloud PBX, doesn’t require on-site management; rather, the phone system is software-based. This is a great option for mobile businesses or for startups that have geographically disparate employees. A virtual PBX offers the same functions as a regular business phone system, but employees can access dedicated phone lines, among other communications tools, from their desktops, laptops and mobile devices to stay connected while on the go or when working remotely.
Unified Communications
Unified communications (UC) are collaboration tools that small businesses can easily integrate into either their on-premise, virtual or hosted PBX systems. Rather than just communicate by way of IP telephony, UC gives entrepreneurs a state-of-the-art tool kit that will allow their business to communicate with the efficiency of a much larger, established organization. For example, employees can use instant messaging for near real-time communications that are less formal and more direct than emailing. Furthermore, features such as presence technology allow colleagues to see each other’s availability; this is most handy for streamlining customer calls as long hold times and unnecessary transfers can be avoided.
Entrepreneurs: Don’t get eaten alive out there. You too can keep up with the latest and greatest in business communications technology, you just need the right solution.
