Robert May, Managing Director of ramsac explains, “We believe it represents the next logical step of business communications. It’s an exciting technology that offers companies greater flexibility and takes much of the chance element away from making business calls.”
Ramsac says the way in which phone calls are handled within a large organisation has not essentially changed in decades. “Calls are either directed to an operator or perhaps to a direct extension, but the caller is very much dependent on the availability of the person they are trying to call or the knowledge of the person who actually answers.”
“For some organisations, that’s all they ever want to do with a phone,” adds Robert. “They want it to ring when someone wants to speak to them, and they want to be able to dial numbers. However, some organisations want to do more. They don’t want to have to re-type numbers from a database or a website into their phone, they don’t want to play telephone-tag with someone else in the company, they don’t want to have to remember to check their voicemail on their phone, they don’t want to have to use their personal phone when they work from home.”
The supplier continues, “Unified Communications brings voice communication into the IT system and gives benefits such as ‘Presence’, showing the availability of the person you are trying to call before you call them, and if needed, routing the call to a different extension or mobile phone as appropriate. Unified Communications allows an organisation to better manage incoming calls and make sure that callers reach the right person or have a good indication of when they will become available. It offers simple phone diverting, links your telephone availability to your status in your Outlook calendar, deliver voice mails to you by email wherever you happen to be working and allows you to select whether you want your direct line to call you at your desk, at home or on your mobile device.”
ramsac is so convinced by the benefits of Unified Communications that the company is already using the system internally to handle its own calls. This, they say, has proved to be particularly helpful during the recent snow when many members of staff had to work remotely or from home, due to the problems with travel.
“As an outsourced IT provider, ramsac offers a range of support services and in many cases acts as the IT department for clients, so working remotely is an essential part of the service we offer. Using Unified Communications enables ramsac’s team to be contactable via phone, as well as email and remote access, whenever they are needed, wherever they are – which is crucial for giving clients the peace of mind they need. In the recent bad weather our staff were able to work from home, login in to their telephone remotely and provide a normal level of service even though they were unable to reach the office.”