Unified Communications and VoIP: How Modern Business Communications Work

Unified Communications and VoIP: How Modern Business Communications Work

According to the folks at Gallup, more than 36 million people in the U.S. now work remotely at least part of the time with about half splitting their time between home and on-site. Remote and hybrid work has gone mainstream.

Even for those who still work primarily in the office, there have been changes as well, connecting distributed teams across multiple locations or new communication tools required to handle video conferencing and stay in touch with those working in the field.

Business communications have come a long way from people stuck in offices and cubicles all day answering their desk phones. Today’s workplaces need greater flexibility and a communication infrastructure that enables mobility.

Mobile phones filled the gap somewhat, enabling workers to stay in touch with customers on the go, but they organically lack the ability to stay connected to company resources. VoIP and unified communication fill this gap, giving workers access to the advanced calling features they had on their desk phones and a suite of tools to communicate and collaborate wherever they are working at the moment.

What Is Unified Communications?

Unified communications combines voice calling, SMS messaging, video conferencing, collaboration tools, mobile communications, and cloud-based communication management into a single platform. With the right infrastructure, employees communicate more efficiently across devices, locations, and communication channels through one integrated environment.

That’s one of the big benefits of unified communications. Companies can integrate communications into a single platform rather than having to switch between multiple software and cloud solutions. This is a bigger concern than you might think. One study showed that the average workers loses 100 hours per year just switching between platforms, and that doesn’t include the time it takes to move information from one platform to another, or things that got lost in all that switching.

VoIP unified communications can include:

• Voice calls
• Video conferencing
• Team messaging
• Mobile applications
• Presence indicators
• File sharing
• Voicemail management
• Call routing and forwarding
• Collaboration tools

Unified Communications vs Traditional Business Phone Systems

Traditional business phone systems were designed to handle voice calls and were typically built around an on-site Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and copper wires from the local phone company. If an organization wanted advanced calling features, it typically required a significant investment. It was expensive and wasn’t built for the way business is done today.

Here’s how traditional phone systems, still in place at many businesses today, compare to the advantages of unified communication.

How VoIP and Unified Communications Work Together

VoIP and unified communications are connected with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) delivering the cloud infrastructure that makes it work together seamlessly. VoIP is what lets you eliminate an on-site PBX and local phone company lines. By hosting the PBX in the cloud and using the internet to manage your calls, you get a system that works on any connected device.

This enables organizations to support:

• Remote communication
• Mobile accessibility
• Multi-location communication environments
• Centralized communication management

In practical terms, VoIP powers many of the unified communications benefits that workers need today, including:

• Making and receiving business calls from anywhere
• Accessing communications through mobile devices
• Joining meetings remotely
• Transferring calls across devices

It makes for a powerful and flexible solution.

Why Businesses Are Replacing Legacy Phone Systems

Besides flexibility and mobility, there are other benefits of unified communications and VoIP.

Eliminating the On-site PBX and Copper Lines

As noted above, the on-site PBX requires ongoing attention. Companies are responsible for managing and maintaining it. There’s a cost to that, both in hardware and time. Changes often mean physical connections must be rewired. In some cases, that means dialing up the local phone company, waiting several days for them to come make changes, and paying hourly fees for work.

Even if you can handle work internally, adding new extensions or changing configurations in your office might mean having to open up walls to access infrastructure or run new phone lines. With VoIP, you can manage everything in a secure cloud interface. This lets you scale quickly, adding or removing phone lines as needed.

If you haven’t already made the switch, you will need to do so fairly soon. The FCC has called for the retirement of copper lines. Already, some phone companies have pulled back and are no longer supporting traditional phone lines.

Cost Savings

Most companies switching to VoIP see significant reductions in their monthly bills, up to 50% in some cases. You also get flat-rate pricing rather than variable bills from the phone company so you can plan more efficiently. Your hosted VoIP provider also handles any required maintenance or upgrades to your cloud PBX.

Unified Communications and Collaboration

Besides these factors, companies are also upgrading their workflow to provide unified communications and collaboration tools for their employees. This is especially critical for those consider knowledge workers, where more than half now operate in hybrid workplaces.

Mobile VoIP and Device Flexibility

57% of workers now rely on smartphones as part of their daily business communications workflow. That may be a work phone or a personal device. Either way, one of the benefits of unified communications and VoIP is the ability to use softphone apps that connect to your business systems. So, even if an employee is using their personal phone, the business phone number will show up when they call. And, they can access the same calling features as if they were sitting at their desk.

These apps work on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers, enabling you to move between devices and remain connected to the same communication platform.

Collaborating Across Distributed Teams

Unified communications and collaboration helps teams working in difference places to stay connected and manage workflow more efficiently.

Here’s an example. A remote employee might get a call from a customer through a mobile VoIP app, transfer it to someone on-site, and then follow up with a text message to the customer to make sure the issue got resolved or hop on a video conference with both parties.

Work is seamless and flows smoothly, improving productivity and customer experience.

Improving Internal Collaboration

Unified communications benefits help internal teams coordinate and collaborate more efficiently as well. There’s no more guessing what platform somebody else is using. Slack? Teams? Email? Text? With centralized communications, you can improve:

• Response times
• Workflow visibility
• Remote collaboration
• Internal communication consistency

Better Customer and Client Communication

Customers increasingly expect fast and flexible communication experiences. Unified communications platforms help businesses improve responsiveness through:

• Intelligent call routing
• Mobile accessibility
• Faster communication workflows
• Better call management
• Centralized communication oversight

One study showed that connecting your communications to work across channels decreased customer wait times by 39% and reduced first-call resolution times by more than 30%.

Improving Workflow

Integrating your VoIP and UC systems with the workplace tools you already use also provides even greater flexibility. For example, being able to call directly from your Microsoft 365 email or working in your CRM and logging calls automatically.

Advantages of Unified Communications for Different Industries

UC platforms support a wide range of industries. Here are just a few:

Are VoIP and Unified Communications Secure?

Anything that’s hosted in the cloud must be secure, and VoIP unified communications is no exception. Today’s systems are secure, employing layered cybersecurity defenses to keep your communications and data safe, including:

• End-to-end encryption
• Multi-factor authentication
• Secure SIP protocols
• Access controls

The best VoIP and unified communications providers will host services on networks that are monitored 24/7 for both security and performance. These best providers will also have geographically dispersed data centers that provide seamless failover in the case of an outage.

E911 Compliance and Emergency Communications

With employees working across devices and in multiple locations, businesses must also consider E911 compliance requirements. Emergency crews must be able to accurately track someone’s location to respond quickly.

VoIP automatically routes calls to the right emergency center based on location and provides the 911 caller’s call-back number along with the location. In fact, the Ray Baum Act mandates that emergency calls provide what’s called a “dispatchable location,” meaning the floor, suite, or room number.

Xobee Hosted Voice and Unified Communications

Xobee’s hosted voice solutions help organizations strengthen communications through scalable cloud-based infrastructure that supports mobility, collaboration, centralized communication management, and remote accessibility.

You get flat-rate pricing and unlimited local and long distance in the Continental United States, Hawaii, and Canada. Other features include:

Xobee offers several options for IP-based desk phones as well as softphone apps you can use on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and other mobile devices.

Xobee provides affordable, enterprise-grade cloud VoIP systems that can accommodate your workforce regardless of where they are working. Xobee’s mobile-first approach ensures seamless connectivity between your office desk phones and mobile devices, so team members can work anywhere with a connected device. You get crystal-clear calling and reliable service, built on a redundant network for 99.999% uptime.

Xobee also integrates different communication channels into a single system. This includes:

• Voice calls
• Business SMS
• Instant messaging
• Video conferencing
• File sharing

FAQs About VoIP and Unified Communications

Explore how Xobee’s hosted voice and unified communications solutions can help your business. Call us or connect with a Xobee business communication specialist today to get started or request a quote.