As Americans join their families around Thanksgiving tables this year, many will reflect on their gratitude for family, friends, good health, and their jobs. Back at the office on Cyber Monday, SMB decision makers that worked to deploy a company-wide Unified Communications (UC) solution in 2014 are counting their blessings, too 🙂

Among mobility, productivity, cost savings, and automation, UC offers SMBs benefits such as voice communications with instant messaging, fax, conferencing, and plenty of other advanced business PBX features. The business improvements brought by these technology advances are causing the UC market to explode. In fact, the global mobile UC and collaboration market is expected to grow from $5.15 billion in 2014 to $17.38 billion by 2019, at a CAGR of almost 30%, according to MarketsandMarkets. What’s more, a significant majority of the top UC performers achieved a break-even return on their UC investment within the first year.

Let’s further explore why SMBs should be thankful for their UC solutions:

• Access to all business services even when out of the office: Your company experiences enhanced mobility when migrating to a cutting-edge UC solution. Phones can be configured to ring on multiple devices at once – a desk or softphone in the office and a mobile phone, for example, so users never miss an important call. Similarly, users can get all the information they need no matter where they may be. If you’re a growing delivery company and your employees are always on the road, they are able to access pertinent communication flows from wherever. And customers too enjoy this constant accessibility.
• Smaller bills compared to hosting on-premises: Hosted UC costs less for SMBs than on-premises solutions when you factor in equipment, software, and personnel costs. In addition, UCaaS relieves the SMB from having to manage its own telephony systems.
• More productive employees: Your workers can choose the communications method that makes the most sense for the exact task at hand. In many cases, these benefits extend to customers and business partners, as well. All of these capabilities add up to make employees more productive, able to get the information they need faster and make good decisions more quickly. With the ability to use the device of their choice to do their jobs, they also experience improved satisfaction.
• Seamlessly integrates with CRM: State-of-the-art solutions give you access to advanced reporting and statistics, which enable you to make better business decisions. Look for a system that has the ability to seamlessly integrate with your existing CRM platform, which gives your agents access to a 360-degree view of customers and their interactions with your company. As a result of CRM integration, your agents will be able to deliver a personalized customer experience. Seek out a provider that can leverage your existing systems to make the agents more informed and productive.

Is your business ready to migrate to a UC solution? Share your thoughts about a potential future move in the comments section below.

And, for those who celebrate it, happy Thanksgiving and don’t eat too much turkey 😉