Posts

Top 7 Reasons Our Clients are Moving Voice & Collaboration to the Cloud

/0 Comments/in /by

Business leaders move their communications to the cloud for better mobility, quality, simplicity and reliability. They find it easier to add offices, users and features so they can grow, and they appreciate being able to customize how they connect with customers.

Decision makers are also motivated by their bottom line – they get more and spend less with the latest technology.

Here are 7 practical business reasons to make the switch to TCI’s popular, all-in-one Cloud Voice services.

1. Easy migration

Cloud communications isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavor. There are several deployment models available – Public, Private and Hybrid – and you can migrate your people to the cloud over time or as your business needs change.

2. No hardware, no headaches

Say goodbye to capital expenses, maintenance and service fees with hosted business communications. You get great call quality, industry-leading reliability and an easy-to-manage system with no upfront costs – everything you need for one low monthly price.

3. Free up IT resources

Don’t waste valuable IT resources on aging telecom hardware – we manage the hardware hassles and put your IT people to work on the projects that matter most. With Cloud Voice, you enjoy new features faster, you can add or remove lines in minutes, and you always stay up to date with the newest upgrades automatically.

4. Pay as you grow

With premises-based systems, you pay the price for less-than-perfect call capacity planning by having too little or paying for too much. With Cloud services, you always have just the right amount of call connections to ensure you’re paying for what you need and not a penny more.

5. Enable teamwork and collaboration

Bring all of your team meeting tools into one application – Your people can easily manage video calls and conferences, screen sharing and messaging to connect with in-house teams, partner and customers.

6. Get more done – from anywhere

Your staff can access the same powerful phone and collaboration features from their office phones or seamlessly move with their mobile devices to meet at your clients or work from home offices.

7. Keep your business running

TCI’s cloud-based hosting platform delivers ultra-high reliability and seamless disaster recovery, so you always stay connected to colleagues and customers.

Give your business a competitive Advantage… Get the tools your people need to serve customers better and save some money while you do it. Contact us now to schedule your TCI Cloud Services demo: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

It Only Takes One Person to Derail Your Team’s Progress… Tips for Considerate Collaboration

/0 Comments/in /by

What does it take to be a considerate virtual collaborator? It’s a combination of soft skills, communications and collaboration technology, and an awareness of the new rules of etiquette. These five tips will ensure you’re the team player everyone will fight to work with.

  • Break down silos – A considerate collaborator sets up a virtual workspace that’s dedicated to each specific project. Every project contributor should have single-click access, be able to upload relevant documents and share feedback instantly in one place, using web chat.
  • Don’t waste team time – Use a virtual workspace to tag relevant team members, alerting them to project updates and basic information. In this way, you will use your meeting time more effectively, focusing instead on only the more complex issues you need to discuss as a group. Share the agenda ahead of time and include the time allotted for each item. Then stick to the schedule.
  • Respect the distance – One of the pitfalls of mobility is that collaborators aren’t always aware if a team member is traveling on business or at a resort on vacation. Collaboration tools make it easier for colleagues to check the status or presence of other team members – and know when it’s appropriate to contact them. A considerate collaborator checks presence first, and if their colleague is unavailable, they look for the next person in line who can help.
  • Sharing isn’t always caring – While team members always need access to the right information, they don’t need to be bothered with every little detail. Clean up your team’s inboxes by making use of your collaboration tool to engage relevant team members in one-to-one or group chats. Streamline the conversation further within a workspace with @ mentions, which let you tag just the person you need, or with @all for information that affects the whole group.
  • Stay on track with tasks – With task-oriented collaboration software, team leaders assign individual tasks while also getting a bird’s eye view of all assignments within a workspace. The considerate collaborator adjusts workloads when too many tasks overlap. This helps keep the overall project moving forward.

These etiquette tips, along with the right collaboration software, will help everyone on your team stay on track to perform tasks more efficiently and complete projects faster.

When it comes to the collaboration tools your teams need to be effective, we’re ready to help get them connected. Get started today… Contact us at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

Unified Communications as a Service… 8 Ways it Makes Teamwork and Your Job Easier

/0 Comments/in /by

Collaboration doesn’t have to be a complex undertaking. With UCaaS, you get an end-to-end service that puts all your communications tools in one place. Here are 8 ways UCaaS simplifies collaboration – and will make your job easier…

  • Never lose your place with one-stop communication. UCaaS makes all your communications available from a single hub on your desktop. Keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.
  • Be as productive on the road as you are in the office. With a mobile app, employees can take the office everywhere and get the same experience on the road as they do at their desk. Whether in the office or on the road, they can join a meeting with a single click, without the need to enter those cumbersome participant codes.
  • Take the conversation smoothly from text to voice with ad-hoc meetings. UCaaS helps you connect with the one person who has the information you need – at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and follow through by assigning tasks.
  • Respond to important messages faster with visual voicemail. Nothing ushers in a greater sense of urgency – and stress – than checking your voicemail after a long morning of meetings. With visual voicemail, messages are transcribed and sent to email so you can scan and prioritize who to call back first.
  • Get to the right person at the right time. With presence, colleagues make their whereabouts known to everyone in the organization. So, when a customer calls asking the question only a subject matter expert can answer, everyone knows where and how to reach them.
  • Stay on-track by setting agendas up front. When you create a meeting invite, you have the option to create a timed agenda. Attendees know up front what will be discussed and how much time will be spent on each item. Your meetings stay on track and are more productive.
  • Live in your CRM. When you integrate your phone with your CRM application, salespeople never have to switch between the two. They stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.
  • Or live in Outlook or G Suite. Your UCaaS can also integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and G Suite, easing adoption of your new phone system throughout the organization.

With UCaaS supported by TCI, you can have seamless communications designed precisely for your collaboration needs. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

Too Busy? How Cloud Phone Systems Provide Time Saving Solutions for IT Managers

/0 Comments/in /by

Often working with limited resources and a small team, IT managers shoulder an immense set of responsibilities. In addition to implementing new growth initiatives, there are multiple systems to maintain and often multiple locations to support. With more users on the move, their jobs have only become more complicated.

Moving to a cloud phone system can go a long way toward alleviating this heavy workload and give your IT team more time to focus on higher level business initiatives. Here’s how…

  • Reduce Multi-Vendor Management – Managing multiple vendors not only impacts daily productivity, but outdated systems that are patch-worked together typically cannot deliver a consistent user experience, especially when you add different devices to the mix. Troubleshooting problems is more time-consuming, and because the systems may not be integrated, you’re not getting a consolidated view of your operations.
  • Lower Total Cost of Operations – Managing to budget is a core responsibility for every IT leader, and a cloud phone system can help you predictably meet departmental targets. By working with just one vendor instead of many, you’ll lower the total cost of operations by reducing the complexity of day-to-day management and time spent troubleshooting. You can also mix and match the customized features you need without paying for ones you don’t.
  • Future-Proof Your Business – One challenge with traditional phone systems is that the technology ages quickly. With a cloud system, you can always take advantage of the latest features and applications. Plus, there are increased opportunities for integration with other business applications. Employees can leverage new capabilities as they need them, without ever involving the IT team.
  • Headache Relief – By reducing complexity, a cloud phone system will save you time and allow you to focus on mission-critical IT tasks that drive productivity across the business. With easier implementations and uniform deployments, your IT team can spend less time training users and more time working on high-value projects. You might still have headaches, but they won’t be caused by your phone system.

If you’re an overworked and understaffed IT manager, wouldn’t it be nice to stop worrying about at least one of your systems?

If you’re thinking “yes,” then consider transitioning your business phone system to the cloud… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

7 Ways Cloud Voice & Collaboration Makes Your Job Easier

/0 Comments/in /by

Collaboration doesn’t have to be so complex… With TCI Cloud Voice Services all of your communications and collaboration tools are in one place, which means you can transition from one device or channel to another – and never lose a word in the process.

Here are 7 ways Cloud Voice simplifies collaboration – and makes your job easier:

  1. Never lose your place – All your communications are available from a single hub on your desktop, so you can keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.
  2. Work from anywhere, together – Everyone on the team can chat, share tasks and collaborate on documents within a single workspace, whether team members are at home, on the road, or in another country.
  3. Initiate ad-hoc meetings – Need information fast? Connect with the right people at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and assign tasks.
  4. Prioritize messages for fast response – With visual voicemail, messages are transcribed and sent to email so you can scan and prioritize who to call back first.
  5. Reach the right person at the right time – With presence, employees make their whereabouts known, so everyone knows where and how to reach them.
  6. Set agendas up front – Create a timed agenda so attendees know ahead of time what will be discussed and how much time will be spent on each item. Your meetings stay on track and are more productive.
  7. Live in your CRM – Salespeople never have to switch between their IP phone and CRM application. They can stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.

You can have seamless and reliable communications and collaboration without breaking the bank. Our service plans and pricing are flexible and designed to adjust to your business needs.

Let’s talk about how TCI Cloud Voice services can transform the way you do business. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

 

Improving Your Customer Experience… Consumers Want More Human Interaction

/0 Comments/in /by

According to the latest research, 8 in 10 consumers want more human interaction from businesses, yet 64% believe companies have lost touch with the human element of the Customer Experience, especially as they add more technology into the mix.

Here’s some practical advice on how you can humanize the Customer Experience in your business…

  • Create an engaged workforce by investing in more self-serve and automation options for customer service. By using chatbots, for example, to answer routine questions, customers can resolve issues on their own more quickly. Employees are then free to focus on the more unique and challenging customer interactions where their performance can add real value to the relationship.
  • Empower your workforce. Frontline employees know first-hand what irks your customers. Yet, many companies fail to tap this vital source of business intelligence. One way to fix this problem is to empower employees to suggest process improvements. As they become more invested in making customers happy, they’ll become more engaged and welcome opportunities to use their skills and creativity to solve problems and stretch further.
  • Provide tools that help employees succeed. Contact center agents usually bear the brunt of customer ire. And they get hit with a double whammy: Agents who can’t solve a customer issue on the first call find themselves on the wrong foot with the customer and their supervisor. To change this situation, an agent can deliver a more personalized and human interaction when CRM data is integrated with the communications solution.
  • Make collaboration easy by reorganizing the workplace to enable employees to collaborate on demand. They’ll not only be more productive, they’ll have the tools to build stronger internal working relationships with each other and with remote colleagues. Tools like web chat or video conferencing make the distance between home and office disappear.
  • Invest in training by incorporating tools such as personalization and self-service into internal portals and dashboards. Making it easy to access knowledge bases and subject matter experts will improve employees’ interactions with clients.

When employees are happy and engaged, they bring that outlook to every client conversation. Companies that focus on the employee experience first will deliver a stellar Customer Experience every time.

Let’s talk about next steps to improve your Customer Experience. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

4 Team Collaboration Trends Easing Email Overload

/0 Comments/in /by

Information overload can dilute employee engagement, drop productivity and raise turnover rates. Easing this burden requires having the right balance between communication, collaboration and technology without contributing to overload. Here are some trends to adopt that can ease the burden for your business…

  • Trend #1: Integration of Team Collaboration Tools – Rather than stretch email as a “one-size-fits-all” communications channel, it’s more productive to use team collaboration tools. From instant messaging and team workspaces to audio/video conferencing and desktop sharing, collaboration tools will transform the way you work and enable your teams to be more productive, whether they’re in the office or off-site.
  • Trend #2: Shared Calendars & Presence Capabilities – Many emails are from people trying to coordinate schedules. A better way to organize meetings is to adopt shared calendar functionality and integrate presence features. That way, colleagues will know instantly who is currently in a meeting or on the phone. Everyone will be more productive when group interactions are centralized into a single, synchronized workspace.
  • Trend #3: Document Collaboration – Shared document collaboration systems store and organize documents in a central online location. Team members can log into the system and edit, comment or review documents whenever they need to. With only a single instance of every document stored online, there’s no problem of multiple versions floating around or multiple emails causing confusion and delays. This makes teams more productive and businesses more efficient.
  • Trend #4: Unified Collaboration for Project Management – Projects don’t have to get bogged down with a disconnected array of messages and tools. Collaboration technology makes it easier than ever to keep up to date on projects, assign to-dos with deadlines and track the progress of team members within a single application. The entire team can have a common view of where the project stands and everyone’s roles and contributions.

Embracing one or all of these trends will reduce employee stress and lead to better, faster decision-making.

Email isn’t going away any time soon, but the deluge of information created by disparate systems is a factor you can control. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Managing Multiple Sites? Hundreds of Phones? How Cloud Voice Enables Corporate Communications

/0 Comments/in /by

Designed to support small businesses to large enterprises that require customized UC and Collaboration, TCI’s Cloud Voice solution delivers the highest levels of performance, reliability and security through its global, mobile-ready cloud platform.

TCI’s team of certified network engineers will design and deploy a voice solution that keeps your business operating at peak performance – no matter how many locations you may have.

Ideal for Multi-Office Environments

Managing Cloud Voice locations and users is easy. Your local administrators can add and move users from an intuitive, centralized online portal. You can extend feature and call flow control to users or manage their access.

Your users will appreciate having the same communications experience anywhere, anytime, and on any device. Applications and information can be accessed seamlessly from any location because they are delivered from the cloud. Advanced security protection ensures that sensitive data remains safe.

Collaborate Smarter

Users can bring Outlook, Notes, Google, Lync/Skype and other applications into the conversation for true unified communications. TCI also offers robust productivity-enhancing features, including presence-based awareness, instant video communication, visual voicemail, attendant console, and much more.

Maximum Flexibility & Scale

Regardless of company size, you get all the flexibility you need to create your own communications environment without the complexity of managing it yourself. Cloud Voice can easily be scaled up or down instantly, allowing your business to grow and add features at your own pace.

If your legacy phone system is holding back your business, let’s talk about Cloud Voice Service. Contact TCI today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.