Tag Archive for: communications

Microsoft Teams can make your meetings significantly more efficient. Teams allows you to simplify group working and makes collaboration a breeze. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that Microsoft Teams can assist you and your company before, during, and even after a meeting!

Before the meeting:

  1. First thing you need to do is to ensure everyone is on the same page. To accomplish this, share your meeting agendas and invites the attendees early. You can even chat with them before the meeting to answer any pre-existing questions.
  2. Invite external guests to the meeting. Whether you have a guest speaker or just a friend outside of the organization, you can ensure they can join the meeting with you! Send them a link in an email to join, and it is as simple as a click.
  3. Provide context and previous meeting notes to everyone who needs them. With Teams, you can quickly and easily find data from previous meetings and share them out as needed.

During the meeting:

  1. Start your meeting easily and quickly! With Teams, it is as simple as clicking ‘Join’ to join in on a meeting. You can easily use a one touch approach to start your meetings.
  2. Use video to make it more personal. You can even use blurred backgrounds or personal backgrounds to really add some professional flair. Imagine using your company’s logo as a background, it really allows more brand focus!
  3. Share and collaborate as needed easily. Being tied into the Microsoft 365 environment, Teams allows you to share information very quickly. Everything is seamlessly integrated.
  4. Record the meeting!

After the meeting:

  1. Share the recording of the meeting. Even if someone wasn’t able to make it to the normal meeting, you can share the recording so they can ‘attend’ later.
  2. Chat with the attendees. Teams allows you to be able to talk to everyone that attended the meeting.
  3. Schedule future meetings. Using Microsoft Teams, you are able to schedule meetings quickly and painlessly.

As you can see, Microsoft Teams will allow you to run a meeting more efficiently. You can schedule meetings, ensure everyone is on the same page, and collaborate with coworkers. Microsoft Teams is the new business standard, so try it today!

Microsoft Teams is helping businesses communicate and grow better than ever before. It is quickly becoming the standard for business communication. Let us explore five reasons that Microsoft Teams is the best tool to help your business communicate.

  1. Conversation Channels! You can dedicate specific conversation channels to certain topics. This makes it far easier to chat about specific issues within specific channels to virtually eliminate clutter.  You can even view which of your team members are in that chat so you can avoid awkwardness.
  2. Reduce email clutter! Everyone hates getting a thousand emails a day. No one wants to receive a dozen emails from coworkers talking about the same subject. Teams eliminates the need for that. With Teams, you can just shoot your coworkers a quick message while in the meeting and eliminate the clutter!
  3. Collaborate in real-time! Your workday can oftentimes be bogged down by multiple people trying to do things at once. With Microsoft Teams, you can get rid of these frustrations. Simply allow all your coworkers to work in one space and collaborate on Office docs all at once!
  4. Fast searching! How many times has a meeting come to a screeching halt while the presenter looks for an old message or email? With Teams, you can simply search through every message you have ever received in a fast and efficient manner. Click on the search box at the top and you will have your information momentarily. No more interruptions!
  5. Built-in integration with Outlook! With Teams, you no longer must kill time in a meeting trying to switch between Outlook and the meeting. With Teams, you have full access to Outlook and vice-versa. You can quickly share something between the two.

Microsoft Teams will allow you to maximize time and allow your business to communicate better. It is becoming the standard for businesses across the world, so try it today!

Instant Messaging has been around for a very long time. Many of us of a certain age will remember coming home from school and logging into AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) to chat with our friends. IM has been an integral part of communication since the early days of the internet. While most programs today have some form of instant messaging, Microsoft really has taken the lead in user-friendliness with its Teams platform.

What is Microsoft Teams?

As we have covered before, Microsoft Teams is a multi-use program that can do a lot of different things. One of the things it does best is also one of the easiest to use – instant messaging. Teams has become a major part of many businesses, quickly replacing many old and obsolete messaging platforms.

Let’s take a look at why Microsoft is the best choice for your business!

  1. It allows you to connect instantly! As is probably obvious, IM allows people to instantaneously connect with coworkers no matter where they may be.
  2. It reduces email clutter! Why send more emails to your coworkers when you can simply ping them? No one likes receiving dozens of emails about the same topic. Chances are, you can handle the issue more quickly with Teams.
  3. Work from anywhere! With the onset of COVID19 in 2020, businesses realized that they had to learn to adapt to a more modern work mindset. Remote working suddenly became far more important and useful. Microsoft Teams allows you to work from anywhere and feel like you’re still in the office.
  4. Access previous messages. If you’re like me, you generally have several dozen tasks you’re working on at any given time. This can become quite frustrating to deal with if you can’t find the messages a coworker sent you about one of those tasks. With Teams, you can easily search every message you have received, and quickly pull the relevant information into your workflow.
  5. Build team morale. This one is a little less obvious to most, but the choice of instant messenger can affect the employees of a company. Having the ability to send GIFs or memes to one’s coworkers can make an employee much happier! It seems counterintuitive but giving more freedom to people will absolutely make them work harder and happier!

Try Teams Today

Microsoft Teams is a great platform, and it can dramatically improve your work environment. Teams is one of the most well-polished and best options available today for businesses looking for an instant messaging application. Try it today and see what Teams can do for you!

Telecommunications is one field that has benefited greatly from recent innovations and developments. Since technology has become a means for companies to invest in the right business tools, advanced communication systems are now vital components for businesses focused on improving internal efficiency and productivity.

Among the communication systems available today, none has shown more suitability for business applications than VoIP. Many organizations are now adopting VoIP solutions to reinforce their communication infrastructure and reduce overhead costs. VoIP is also the cornerstone for unified communications (UC) – a system that integrates all business communication channels so they exist on a single platform.

Boosting business productivity through adopting VoIP solutions goes beyond cutting IT and communications costs. Here’s a look at how using VoIP drives productivity in the workplace.

Automatic call forwarding and digital voicemails

A VoIP system ensures that no calls go unattended, and no messages get lost. A majority of internal and external business communication still takes place over the phone despite the availability of other mediums such as email, instant messaging, and social media. VoIP systems help businesses manage call traffic by automatically routing incoming calls to the right people and enabling digital voicemails.

Automatic call forwarding ensures that every call reaches the intended recipient via whichever device is available to them. For instance, calls placed to the office can be redirected to a personal smartphone if they go unanswered using the Find-me or Follow-me forwarding features. Digital VoIP functions integrate voicemail with other mediums, such as emails and apps. The voicemail-to-email service allows employees to receive transcribed and raw voicemails directly to their inbox.

Additional features such as DND (do not disturb), Auto Attend, call screening, and monitoring help the organization save valuable time that would otherwise be wasted on non-essential calls. VoIP can help your business answer more calls, minimize call wait time, and improve accountability and responsiveness. Ultimately, this helps build stronger customer and co-worker relations.

VoIP motivates collaboration

The idea of remote working is gaining a lot of traction nowadays. This has created the demand for practical ways to bring remote workers together and keep them tethered to a central virtual workplace. VoIP connects all employees – both remote and on-site – to a shared data pool over a single network. Also, VoIP solutions allow for video conferencing, video calls, and shared-screen sessions that bring a sense of intimate participation in virtual meetings.

Having a communication system that supports collaboration at many different levels is an excellent way to get individuals and teams to work together as a collective unit. With guaranteed facilitation for cooperation, you can have a flexible workplace, which studies show improves employees’ morale, wellness, and productivity.

Easily access information from anywhere

Commercial VoIP services run on hosted platforms, which means they can be accessed and used from anywhere at any time. VoIP empowers mobility flexibility in the workplace, where employees can communicate and access business information while on the move, in the office, or even on vacation.

Hosted VoIP solutions promote staff mobility without compromising on personnel availability and collaboration in the workplace. Employees can communicate and share documents and files via their personal devices instantly, regardless of their location. Given that businesses have ever-changing needs, it’s essential to have a stable communication system that can be depended upon in any scenario.

According to Global Market Insights, the global VoIP market is expected to hit $55 billion by 2025; that’s a 12 percent CAGR between 2019 and 2025. The rapid growth of the industry indicates that more and more enterprises are leveraging the benefits of VoIP solutions. Don’t get left behind in taking advantage of what is clearly a must-have for modern businesses.

VoIP is an acronym that stands for Voice over Internet Protocol; also referred to as internet telephony, IP telephony, and Voice over Broadband (VoBB). From a fundamental perspective, VoIP is relatively simple technology; it allows the transmission of voice data packets from one IP address to another. In simpler words, VoIP supports the transmission of live conversations over the internet instead of the traditional telephony infrastructure.

The Idea of VoIP began in 1973 as an experimental network on the early ARPANET system. It wasn’t until 1995 when the first internet phone software was developed and used. Since then, VoIP has grown into one of the most disruptive cloud technologies and has completely revolutionized the telecommunication industry.

According to Statista, there were over 40 million business VoIP lines in the U.S. in 2018, and the number has grown exponentially over the last couple of years. So, why are businesses switching from traditional telephony to VoIP solutions? What are the benefits of using VoIP in a business environment?

Reduce communication cost

Perhaps the most attractive benefit of using VoIP is the significant reduction of communication costs, especially on international voice calls. Most VoIP providers only charge an initial installation charge for the equipment and a monthly or annual service subscription fee based on the VoIP package. The subscription costs are extremely low compared to traditional phone service bills whose rates depend on the usage and nature of calls.

Flexibility

VoIP is a flexible technology that can be implemented in a way that best suits a particular business model or workplace setting. Although many VoIP services provide the necessary hardware and software to enable VoIP, the technology can also be integrated into the existing IT infrastructure. For instance, VoIP services can be installed onto a personal computer and smartphone, which comes in handy with remote workers and improves communication efficiency and convenience.

The flexibility and versatility of VoIP also make it ideal for building unified communication systems for businesses. Companies can use VoIP as a big part of their communication structure, especially for handling voice and conference calls.

Exception service quality

VoIP technology offers superior communication services compared to traditional landlines and even cellular networks. As long as the internet connection is reliable and sufficient, then you never have to worry about dropped calls, latency, and poor delivery, making VoIP more reliable as well. Plus, the sound and image quality on both voice and conference calls is incredibly high. With enough bandwidth, you can even stream live high-resolution HD videos without any glitches.

On the other hand, the quality of service and reliability of conventional telephony systems can be adversely affected by several factors, including distance, bad weather, low-performance equipment, noise, and even natural disasters.

Scalability

VoIP is not a one-size-fits-all kind of service. VoIP packages encompass a variety of service levels and features, which are usually bundled or tiered together. Companies can choose precisely what they require from a VoIP provider depending on their communication needs. Packages come in a variety of sizes with features to accommodate various businesses. For instance, an office can purchase a VoIP package depending on the number of phones needed, the existing IT layout, and the exact features required.

The good thing about VoIP services is that they are scalable. If the business grows or shrinks its communication needs, then the VoIP service can be adjusted accordingly to accommodate the changes.

Easy installation and maintenance

Service providers have made it easy to install and maintain VoIP systems. You can easily install some VoIP systems on your own, even with little technical know-how. All you need to do is open an account with the VoIP provider, select a service package, and maybe install a few devices and some software and you’re done. Depending on the provider, the size of your enterprise, and the package selected, the whole process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Most VoIP providers host their services on the cloud, and also provide managed services either as a free service or a paid option. So, it’s the provider’s responsibility to ensure that the system is always available and working flawlessly. When it comes to maintenance on your part, all you have to do is update and patch your software and drivers occasionally.

Why VoIP is the way to go

By using VoIP instead of traditional phones, you’ll save a massive chunk of your communication budget, get better and more reliable services, and drastically improve your workplace collaboration. Businesses have to keep adjusting to new technologies to take full advantage of useful innovations and stay in tune with the times. VoIP is one such innovation that can’t be ignored.

Understandably, cybersecurity is a major concern nowadays, and routing sensitive business calls over the internet may seem counter-intuitive. But rest assured that the security protocols embedded in VoIP services are more than adequate to deal with any form of cyber threat. So there is really no reason not to adopt VoIP services for your business.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to learn more about VoIP, unified communication, and cloud-based services. We’ll appreciate hearing from you and also helping your business adopt modern digital solutions.

With the current issues of COVID19 in America, many companies have made the choice to work remotely. The issue of how to properly stay connected to your coworkers becomes readily apparent during this transition.

How can businesses expect their employees to properly stay in contact?

Microsoft Teams

Let’s look at the top 3 reasons your business should switch to Microsoft Teams!

Instant communication and collaboration

Teams, like many of its competitors, can help you communicate with your team instantaneously. What sets Microsoft Teams apart is its full-stack approach to allowing collaboration between employees. Teams not only lets you send messages to coworkers but full documents and pictures as well. You can send documents for coworkers to review, or spreadsheets for them to pour-over.

Automatic Cloud Backup

 Everything sent in Microsoft Teams is automatically backed up to OneDrive so you never have to worry about forgetting to save documents. When you send a spreadsheet or file over to a coworker to review, you can be sure that it can be recovered. They will be able to review it, edit it, and send it back quickly and efficiently using Microsoft Teams.

Video Calling

 Microsoft Teams allow organizations to keep connected like never before! While many applications allow you to video chat, Microsoft Teams helps you integrate Office 365 to communicate and collaborate better than any other alternative in the market. Imagine working from home with the little kids running in the background. Normally, this would kill the ability to show video, but with background blur in Microsoft Teams, you can hide all the chaos and just focus on business. Your coworkers will see just you, and you can all work together efficiently!

Get Microsoft Teams today 

Microsoft Teams is changing the way businesses work together. Regardless of where your coworkers may be located, you can work as though you are sitting next to each other. With Microsoft Teams, you have the ability to work remotely with the same peace of mind as working in the office.