“There are a number of vendor systems which offer full unified communications such as Ericsson’s EMS. From a single PC you can see all your faxes, voice mails, texts, e-mails all on one screen, as part of a fully unified operation.”
Phil says contact centres represent a growing area of business - from SMS to e-mail and voicemail all across a single work station - as they are utilising this kind of technology to generate additional sales and better interact with their customers. He believes one box solutions which are easy to set-up, operate and sell are the key driving force in this growing marketplace.
“A lot of end users out there today are aware of the buzz words and the technology of unified comms but they might not all fully understand everything and know exactly what they are looking for,” he explained. “It’s a bit like going out for dinner, but before you choose your meal you need to see the menu; so if a customer is not fully appraised of what technology is available he can’t assess the benefits to his business. This is why a dealer needs to adopt a consultancy approach. Gone are the days of just selling a standard phone system and concentrating on how many lines and extensions are required, that’s old news. It’s about identifying how a customer runs his business and what applications are available to make it run smoother and more efficiently for him.”