Once again, us Brits were thwarted by a cold snap and many of us have struggled to get into work either due to congestion on the roads, cancelled trains or because our kids’ schools are closed and we need to stay at home look after them.
However the disruption to your daily commute caused by snow, should have almost no effect on your ability to get work done.
All you need is a laptop ,tablet or smartphone that gives you access to all the facilities you have in your office.
For telephony you can choose from a soft-phone (UC client), your mobile can be twinned with your desk phone and when someone rings your desk phone, your mobile rings at the same time and you can answer the call with either phone. If you want to you can make calls from your mobile such that the call goes via your office so that recipient sees the CLI of my office extension. Easy!
The technology of unified communications provides you with the ability to work from home – actually not just at home but pretty much anywhere – it has now become so good that you take it for granted.
Unified communications also provides a video conferencing system that provides the ability to talk to up 10 participants from all round the world.
The client on a laptop (with a camera, of course), iPad or iPhone is simple to install (often it seems to install automatically from an Outlook meeting invitation) and you don’t need any special license or user-configuration on the system to join a meeting. This means that you can simply invite someone to a video chat, they click on a link and you’re away!
UC collaboration tools can help you keep in touch, collaborate and stay productive when it is not practical to meet in person but face-to-face interactions are still easily the most efficient and productive way to work with others to solve problems and address opportunities.
The modern workplace can benefit hugely from the flexibility that Unified Communications provides but it doesn’t mean you have to close your offices, eliminate business travel or avoid your commute. People work best when working together in the same environment but when you can’t all be in the same place at the same time, UC is an excellent second best.