In the past few years, cloud-based communications have become more important than ever. Offering employees the option to work from home (or any location with internet access) is how many businesses have survived. In fact, 92% of employees expect to work remotely at least part-time.
If you’re on board for adding cloud-based communications to your business, it’s time to pick a provider. However, this can be easier said than done. While shopping around for a unified communications provider, there are a few things you should consider.
Services Offered By The Unified Communications Provider
Some basic features that unified communications solutions should provide include voice, video, messaging, and email communications at the very least. If your provider cannot guarantee these features, then their product is probably outdated and not what you are looking for. After all, one of the biggest draws of a unified communications solution is the ability to promote collaboration among coworkers.
Once you have found a unified communications provider with a great product, it’s time to make sure that they are providing the services that you and your business need. There are a number of services provided by unified communications providers. However, not all providers offer the same services.
As you search for your perfect unified communications provider, you need to consider what services they offer their clients. Most of the time, you can find this information right on their website. If you cannot find the service you are looking for on their website, don’t be afraid to give them a call to discuss the services they provide. Remember, just because this provider may be a great fit for your best business colleague doesn’t mean they are a great fit for you and your business.
Tip 1: Look for Service Level Agreements
Service Level Agreements, more often referred to as SLAs, are offered by unified communications providers as a contract to ensure you are getting a basic level of service. These SLAs cover a wide variety of topics that may become an issue if not addressed. Some of these topics include privacy and security as well as usage and uptime.
For example, some SLAs will include a guarantee of up to a 99.999% uptime. This is only a possibility for providers who offer a geo-redundant network. These networks have fail-safes in place in case of natural disasters and power outages.
Tip 2: Find Good Support
As you are looking for a unified communications provider, you should find out what support they offer. Great service providers will offer 24/7 support. This means that if your solution has any sort of issue, even in the middle of the night, your provider will be there to help you troubleshoot your issue.
Tip 3: Get Help with Migration
Migration is an important step to moving to a unified communications solution. Depending on what you currently use as your communications solution, it may be tricky to get everything set up in a timely fashion. A great provider will have a set procedure for migration including set up costs and a general approach for helping you migrate your communications to their product. They should be transparent and willing to discuss this process with you.
Tip 4: Find a Provider that Offers Tutorials
As you may know, change can be hard. There could be a learning curve whenever you start to use a new program and/or software. A great service provider will work with you to ensure that you can access your unified communications solution and utilize the features that you would like to use. Some providers even offer training to their customers as part of their migration.
The Unified Communications Provider for You
Here at Advanced Communications, we put you first. We know that finding a great provider that offers great services can be difficult. However, we want to be that for you. We will go above and beyond to make sure that we are a great fit for each other.
Not only do we provide the services listed above, but we also offer cloud-based solutions that are packed full of collaboration features to benefit your business. Contact us today to begin working with a company that truly cares about you and your business!
