Are traffic jams hindering your progress?

Everyone likes to be well-equipped both at work and in business. If people’s computers sit in the middle of their workstations, they still want desk phones on their left. "Multitasking" is partly responsible for this; however, the ability to communicate warmly and securely via hosted IP telephony explains the rest.

What’s good…and not so good

Studies about communication effectiveness show that voice exchanges, and even more visual interaction, are significantly richer in terms of the information transmitted. What’s more: they are more likely to get the message across. You have no doubt experienced this over and over again in your professional career. A good face-to-face interview, and even a telephone discussion, are generally much more fruitful.

You often have everything you need to achieve your goals with your customers and employees. You are skilled in sales techniques, have the expertise, provide quality services, make valuable arguments and provide opportunities. The problem lies elsewhere. First of all, it is the lack of mobility, which can sometimes prevent you from physically meeting your customers and prospects, such as congested roadways, snowstorms, distance and time, and personal reasons forcing you to stay at home, etc.

The difficulties may also reside in the fact that the company's computer system is aging or you don’t like conducting business over a cell phone. Oftentimes, web applications (FaceTime, for example) are not the same between you and your contacts. Public Internet networks are not always stable or reliable. Even Skype admits in its privacy guide that the content of its communications can sometimes "be accessible to the authorities!”

See who’s on the line

Is there a solution? The answer is yes. It is important to remember that the intent is not to avoid meeting your customers or communicating with them only via email and text. On the contrary, you have to see and hear them, but from a distance, without having to make expensive, time-consuming trips. How? By telepresence.

What is telepresence? Technically, you could say "videophone,” but in Canada, this term is synonymous with "intercom." In fact, telepresence is the ability for two or more users to see each other during their telephone conversation. The solution therefore requires a modern, high-performance telephone system capable of supporting office devices, making it possible to establish audio-visual links.

Cloud-based IP telephony, notably that provided by SBK Telecom, marks a new era: video, conferencing and other calls have never been so simple to make, as audible and clear, and as technologically advanced.

One of hosted IP telephony’s strengths is that it is very reliable. In the workplace, the smart platforms for new desk phones enable you to interact with your employees remotely as if you were right beside them. This hosted IP video telephony (in the cloud) is supplemented, depending on the device, by many different features, including call transfers, sending voice messages by email, viewing statistics, teleconferencing, simultaneous ringtones, etc.

Be efficient and think big with videoconferencing