Realising The Benefits of Collaboration is a Walk in The Park…

Darren Sinden, Cisco Practice – Business Development Manager, avsnet

What if there was an easy way to improve customer experiences, achieve greater operational efficiency, grow revenues and drive market share?

Well there is… through technology and specifically through collaboration.

According to Cisco, collaboration is a chief enabler for an organisation’s top business objectives, however amongst the 300 global business leaders Cisco interviewed:

• 44% said that their business imperatives suffered if collaboration tools were used too little,
• 38% felt this happened when solutions were not integrated with other business processes or were too siloed,
• And 35% thought it was due to applications not being aligned with user preferences.

These figures are important, because these ‘business objectives’ include the fundamentals mentioned above – improving the customer experience, achieving greater operational efficiency, growing revenue and driving market share.

In addition to these outcomes, companies are also trying to address changing workplaces requirements. Static working environments are history and agile working is here to stay, irrespective of what the doomsayers claim.

Companies also want to take advantage of global opportunities before their competitors can.

These shifts in business culture, corporate strategy, working styles and processes are all enabled and supported by technology.

So, inevitably, there is an impact when technology fails to meet expectations.

At the core of this technology evolution is collaboration, the ability for teams to work together seamlessly regardless of location to achieve those business outcomes.

It is vital, therefore, that collaboration solutions are fit for purpose. To be effective, solutions must work in harmony and integrate with other collaboration applications, CRM systems, customer support platforms, and sales and marketing applications.

Given device proliferation in recent years, organisations also need to consider how their employees, customers, partners and suppliers want to collaborate with them. This means optimising mobile and in-person collaboration experiences – indeed, Cisco’s research found 47% of the global leaders they spoke to are already investing in mobile solutions.

Collaboration should not be complex, it should be effortless. The solutions that enable your desired business outcomes need to operate in tandem across the enterprise with a rock solid network, points our Managing Director shared recently.

Any ambitious business that gets these elements right will transform their company and make collaboration a simpler process and their workforce more productive.

The implementation of a business enabling collaboration strategy is a “Walk in the Park” when you have the experience we have. Call us… It costs nothing to talk and let’s see if we can help you realised the full business value of a collaboration solution.

P.S. If you want to see any of the numerous case studies we have that are testament to this claim, CLICK HERE and email me to see some of them.