The exciting opportunities UC is offering MSPs in a post-lockdown world

Friday, 05 November 2021 01:43

The exciting opportunities UC is offering MSPs in a post-lockdown world

By Stan Chizhevskiy, Access4

GUEST OPINION by Stan Chizhevskiy, Technical Director, Access4: With business life poised to return to some semblance of normality after a protracted period of harsh lockdowns, it’s time to take a health check of the measures put in place when the pandemic first began.

In early 2020, many Australian businesses were forced to switch their staff into work-from-home mode and quickly find ways to keep them connected and productive. In many cases mobile phones and personal laptops suddenly became critical business equipment.

For managed service providers (MSPs), the rapid changes that occurred proved to be both a challenge and an opportunity. On one hand MSPs also had to come to terms with staff working remotely, but on the other the trend opened up opportunities to generate new business.

Organisations quickly realised that staff relying on mobile handsets as a primary communications channel was not the best long-term option. They also knew that any existing, on-premise telephony platforms could not provide the level of support and service that was now required.

Short-term solutions

As a temporary fix for the challenge, many businesses turned to hosted communications platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. In some cases, a number of different platforms ended up being adopted as different groups and departments made different decisions on how to best collaborate and communicate.

Although this might have been considered as a temporary solution at the time, now – almost two years later – such services are still providing business-critical communication links. In other cases, staff still have little more than their office landline number that has been redirected to their mobile phone.

The opportunity for MSPs

As lockdown restrictions ease, many businesses are now beginning to plan for a future that involves hybrid working. Rather than expecting to return to ‘situation normal’ with all staff in the office, working from home will remain a reality, if only for a few days each week.

For this reason, a more permanent solution needs to be found for the challenge of communication and collaboration. Chatting across disparate platforms and mobile calls might have been a fine band-aid solution, but something more integrated and fully featured is now much more appealing.

As a result, MSPs are facing significant new opportunities to add Unified Communications (UC) services to their product mix. UC provides an integrated platform that can support voice, video, text, and collaboration services all through a single interface.

Rather than having to deploy and manage additional on-premise hardware and software, businesses can instead access UC capabilities “as-a-service” from the cloud. The result is faster deployment, reduced complexity, and ease of management.

Integration with other systems

In addition to providing their clients with access to a UC platform, MSPs can add additional value by integrating the platform with other systems, such as CRM applications, that a client may already have in place.

This can help to streamline the experience for customers when they interact with the firm. Details of previous calls and customer experience performance are readily available for contact centre staff which improves the experience and boosts loyalty.

In larger contact centres, such integration can lead to significant improvements in efficiency and reduced operational costs. If the time an agent spends with a customer can be reduced by just a couple of minutes, the flow-on savings can be significant.

Improving internal communications

When an MSP assists its clients to deploy a cloud-based UC platform, it also delivers benefits for internal communications. Thanks to features such as presence, staff can see when their colleagues are available and readily connect with them via chat, voice or video.

Rather than wasting time playing phone tag or needing to compose detailed emails, queries can be quickly resolved in real time.

Embracing the UC opportunity

For MSPs, the post-lockdown environment provides significant opportunity for growing additional revenue from their existing client base. Explaining the benefits of a cloud-based UC platform can lead to increased monthly subscriptions and much more satisfied and loyal users.

Consider how you might add UC to your product mix today. The biggest benefits are likely to be seen on your bottom line.

PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE

MORE INFO HERE!

INTRODUCING ITWIRE TV

SEE WHAT'S ON ITWIRE TV NOW!