How unified communications technologies can support long-term remote work

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Organizations implementing long-term remote work require unified communications. To ensure effective communication among employees, organizations need to adopt some communication tools.

Remote work is a reality for most organizations for the foreseeable future. The coronavirus outbreak this year has caused many organizations to close their offices and quickly deploy unified communications (UC) tools to support employees working remotely from home. But as the outbreak continues to spread, organizations need a strong unified communications (UC) strategy to better carry out long-term remote work.

This means organizations must not only deploy video conferencing applications to replace in-person, on-site meetings, but also carefully evaluate unified communications (UC) software to create work hubs that support employee communication and collaboration.

Teamwork contextualizes communication

Long-term remote work requires employees to communicate and interact in different ways. Team collaboration tools can provide remote employees with a work hub where communication can be centralized.

Most team collaboration tools offer video and voice capabilities, so organizations can escalate chat sessions to calls as needed. Third-party application integrations, including file storage, project management, and calendaring, can create a more contextual experience based on the team's work area. Leveraging these features to make team collaboration a work center can change employee workflows to better support long-term remote work.

Team collaboration can also mimic the more casual, cool chat style that is often missing from remote work communications. For example, employees can set up social channels to discuss interests and hobbies.

But organizations must carefully manage and control team collaboration tools. While organizations can standardize on one or two applications, most team collaboration vendors offer some free versions that users can download without permission or knowledge.

Adopting multiple team collaboration tools creates management headaches, especially in terms of security and compliance. Organizations planning to deploy multiple collaboration tools must ensure that they meet regulatory requirements. To avoid deploying shadow IT, organizations should conduct internal surveys before deployment to determine employees' communication and collaboration needs and ultimately determine the tools that meet those needs.

Organizations can follow these tips to support employees working remotely from home.

(1) Expand video communications across the organization

When the pandemic caused organizations to close their offices, video communications became the unified communications (UC) application that most organizations used to keep employees connected and maintain business continuity. More and more organizations are planning to expand video to other business areas.

A study by Nemertes Research shows that more and more organizations are investing in video conferencing software to increase employee engagement and make remote work more effective. While conferencing remains the primary use case for video communications, many organizations are looking to use video for training, employee communications, and municipal communications. Some organizations are also developing custom video applications for telemedicine and customer support.

Others are evaluating tools to better support collaboration in virtual meetings. For example, ideation becomes a challenge when remote workers can’t use a conference room whiteboard to brainstorm, take notes, or annotate designs.

The virtual whiteboard app can meet many ideation needs of remote teams. Its app features include project and workflow templates, cross-device access, and third-party app integration, including team collaboration and file storage.

(2) Mobile unified communications (UC) and software-based mobile phones enable voice calls anytime, anywhere

When organizations shut down their premises, employees were unable to use the landline phones that organizations use to talk to clients. But software-based alternatives allow users to take their business phone number with them anywhere. Softphones are replacements for landline desk phones that often include additional features like video and chat.

Software-based alternatives to landlines can save organizations money. Enterprise-grade landlines can cost $100 to $500 per month per unit, which can be a significant expense for large organizations. Deploying mobile phones as desktop clients or installing mobile apps can reduce hardware costs. Softphones and other software-based voice services can provide features that facilitate long-term remote work and save costs.

Mobile UC is becoming increasingly important as organizations look to provide a more consistent remote work communications experience. Many enterprise-grade services have become just as secure and reliable as traditional UC services and are more feature-rich.

Users can install mobile collaboration applications on their devices, log in with employee credentials and access their communication services. Mobile UC applications are easier to deploy in a home environment than PC clients, especially when the endpoints are not owned or managed by the organization. Mobile UC also allows users to switch between applications and devices with less disruption to communications.