This is an interesting and well informed article written by
Craig Rimmer, Area Sales Manager, Panasonic Business Communication Solutions
The telecommunication market is currently driven by the ideology that businesses should move to hosted solutions. These solutions support digital transformation strategies and can help enable regular, and frequent updates to technology, but that doesn’t make them the right choice for every business.
However impressive the technology may be, every organisation needs to balance the long-term cost, support and features of their chosen communications solutions alongside flexibility, scalability and business efficiency.
So, what might this mean for your business? For some, digital transformation will mean moving the business (almost) entirely to the cloud, where co-workers and partners can collaborate, share and communicate, building efficiencies for both the business and customers.
While this is a wonderful aspiration for many (and an opportunity and soon-to-be reality for some), I believe that the vast majority of organisations are likely to build hybrid strategies, encompassing some elements of this cloud-based vision while augmenting their already robust foundations.
The aim: “to deliver customer confidence and achieve greater business continuity with stronger security through a cohesive set of solutions that offer greater functionality, efficiency, productivity and collaboration.”
Communications technology is integral to any digital transformation initiative. A sales rep’ visiting a customer in a different country needs to be able to seamlessly maintain communications with their team. Or, perhaps your staff require the facility to attend video conferences or dial in to multi-participant calls from remote locations – all these stakeholders need reliable communications tools to ensure continuity and efficiency.
Another great example is the hotel industry. While chiefly concerned with the best guest service, happy guests and their appreciation of a great experience can only be achieved through first-rate communications. Whatever size the hotel might be, connectivity is at its’ heart. Optimizing housekeeping services, responsive guest communications, seamless check-in and check-out, quality meeting rooms and flexible conference services, or simply an efficient booking service. They’re all essential to your guests experience.
Sometimes organisations have a solution in place that they feel just ‘works for them’. But tell-tale signs your system may require updating reach far beyond that screen which looks like a 1980’s Digital Watch.
Although aware that new technology is available, organisations may be reticent to explore the idea of investing in a new system owing to perceived complexity and upheaval, and the cost implication of doing so.
Typically, however, we find that (so long as business needs have been accurately identified and solution specifications appropriately matched) investing in flexible communication solutions can enable great simplicity to the complex business. This in turn improves customer engagement and business efficiency.
Our approach is to provide a choice, or combination of on-premises PBX, cloud-based solutions and integrated multi-location network communication servers. This tailored solution provides scalability and supports the move to digital transformation while ensuring your business remains in control. Often, it’s those added extras that can mount up causing the costs to become cumbersome for large organisations. By investing in quality on-premises solutions, businesses can often gain feature-rich technology with a better long-term cost ratio.
Digital transformation is not about applying a new type of technology, nor is it simply about technological advancement. Rather, it is about harnessing new opportunities. Evolving your business to build your business.
I’m proud to say that solutions such as those provided by Panasonic, are enabling our customers the freedom and flexibility to communicate without limitation – anywhere, anytime.
Total digital transformation (with cloud-based/hosted solutions) definitely has its’ place, and may feel like the right choice for your business – but this is dependent on your individual business needs. When considering upgrading your communications solutions, we encourage businesses to work with a respected expert partner who can help assess full requirements as well as offer you choices that suit your long-term business vision.