Technology Insights Blog

To borrow a phrase from Ghostbusters, UCaaS crosses the streams (or more accurately, combines them). It takes all the ways you communicate - phone, voicemail, email, social media, chat, texting, video conferencing, conference calls, screen sharing - and unifies them into one system that gives you access to everything in one place. And while merging these mediums, platforms and technologies could've created a mess, it resulted in a communication technology that's greater than the sum of its parts. 

Detailing the benefits of Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) to clients, customers, associates and anyone else who might benefit is a regular part of my day. And as a strategy for improving the way businesses communicate, it’s very powerful.

Change is hard. No doubt about it. It’s not as easy as flipping a switch to alter your behavior. Change is a multi-stage process as researched and developed by renowned psychologist James Prochaska, who identified five distinct steps that lead toward successful personal change:

You sit down at a big folding card table, break the seal on a new cardboard jigsaw puzzle box and pour out all the pieces. Ah ... that new puzzle smell hits you as you immediately turn over every piece to see their colorful sides. The edge pieces are the first to get attention. They’re easy to identify with their flat edges. After the border is assembled, you dive into the middle—and the picture begins taking shape ...

All the new hardware and software money can buy will not allow you to springboard past network issues. Reliable networks are what businesses want, but figuring out how to get one isn't always an easy path. If you’ve ever had phone lines or another business application fail because of environmental factors, you’ve experienced an unreliable network. Network reliability is a pretty hot topic these days, and for a good reason. It’s what keeps businesses functioning when they otherwise might not. While many businesses may start out with questions like what is network reliability?, I recommend starting with a question a little closer to home: 

How to get your people talking

When I begin working with a customer, the first thing we have to uncover is how their business communicates. What ways are employees talking to each other, and are your current means of communication supporting your employees and your business overall?

Among other things, it's the answers to those questions that will help to determine whether their business is better serviced by VOIP or Unified Communications. But before comparing these two options, let's take a brief overview of each ...

Have you ever noticed how the same discussion, explanation or recommendation can be received very differently depending on who you’re speaking to? Or, have you ever found yourself using different phrasing when speaking to one person or another? People interpret and respond to the world in different ways, and the more you understand an individual, the more effectively you’ll communicate with them.

UCaaS can be a real business game changer, and successful adaptation has a lot to do with implementation. Here's a look at how Marco handles implementation and what you can do to help your employees experience a smoother transition.

How often do you replace your cell phone? Nowadays, most people are going to get a new cell phone every one or two years. It’s at that point when a new version of their device is available, and their provider makes it possible for them to upgrade. For reference, the iPhone 3GS was released in June of 2009, and the iPhone XS was released in September of 2018. That’s twelve versions in nine years. What does this have to do with business phones? More than you might think …

We typically think of communication as the words we speak and hear, but in reality, just about everything we do is a form of communication. From facial expressions and tone of voice to hand gestures, we use much more than words to communicate. Luckily, our brains combine all types of communication in one central place so we can sort through it and prioritize what's most important.