Sales Director
Workplace collaboration is more than ‘teamwork’. It’s staff coming together to share ideas, converse, boost morale and feel included. But in an era of remote and hybrid working, businesses are looking at new technologies to bridge the gap between remote and office-based teams. In this article, we’ll look at some of the ways VoIP can boost collaboration within your organisation.
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If you’re new to VoIP services, you can learn more in our article ‘What is VoIP and How Does It Work?’.
86% of employees say a lack of collaboration leads to failure in the workplace. VoIP platforms like T2K’s Gamma Horizon are designed to remove barriers like these, offering a flexible, reliable communication tool that’s both scalable and cost-effective.
VoIP also offers real-time collaboration between your staff, an essential component in the hybrid working era. It allows employees to access and share key information, while attending company updates and team meetings regardless of location.
For businesses embracing this new era – VoIP’s features are designed to ensure home-workers have the same access and input as everyone else. Through these services, 42% of remote workers feel they’re just as connected with colleagues as when they’re in the office.
VoIP offers high-quality video calling, allowing teams to have face-to-face conversations. This visibility helps remote workers to feel ‘part of the team’ during virtual meetings, where new processes or ideas may be introduced.
Alongside shared access to the same tools as other staff, video calling lets employees work together anywhere, boosting inclusivity and purpose within your teams.
Where video calling offers visibility, instant messaging promotes efficiency. With IM, staff can send real-time messages when problems require immediate resolution. It eliminates the need for long emails or calls, saving time and helping to lower your business’s carbon footprint.
The majority of VoIP IM services offer presence indicators too, letting you see who is available. This helps you gauge staff capacity for assigning workloads, while also understanding the specific expertise you have available.
VoIP solutions like T2K’s 3CX service offer integration, allowing your phone system to work alongside existing programs you may already be using.
With these integration features, your VoIP system can work in tandem with CRMs (like HubSpot or Salesforce) and email clients (like Outlook) - giving your teams shared access to a central database of information.
They eliminate the need to flick between different systems, instead having everything available in one location. It simplifies collaboration, removing the need to send data back and forth via email.
Project work often requires different departments to communicate and understand their role within the process. VoIP’s IM services allow you to set up project group chats while integrating with project management tools like Trello and Asana to boost efficiency during the planning and execution phases.
Though many VoIP solutions come with an inbuilt instant messaging facility; if you prefer to stick with a service you’re comfortable with, you can. VoIP allows integration with popular IM services like Microsoft Teams, Slack and WhatsApp, saving you the trouble of learning to use a new tool.
An incredible 67% of employees reported being more productive when using VoIP services remotely. This is - in part - possible with time-saving features like voicemail-to-email and call recording capabilities, allowing your team to offload tedious tasks and boost efficiency.
In the past, receiving a voicemail meant quickly scribbling down the message or listening to it repeatedly to get the point. Many VoIP services are now able to convert voicemails to emails, saving time and allowing you to share them easily.
It’s also a handy way to reduce customer response time. Instead of listening to and noting down voicemails, your staff can use the time to help customers in other ways.
VoIP’s call recording features allow you to capture real-time recordings. Staff can then refer back to calls for reference, while also allowing you to monitor your customer service quality and training needs via the analytics features.
Call recording can also be used to capture team meetings and training sessions. For team meetings, staff who can’t attend can catch up on updates or team developments. Recording a training session can also serve as a resource for new starters, while using your staff trainers elsewhere in the business.
Many VoIP services have mobile apps available. They allow staff, wherever they’re located, to access the same systems as on their desktop/laptop computer.
Alongside this shared access, VoIP mobile apps also allow users to make and receive calls on the go. This benefits both you and your employees, offering them increased flexibility, while you retain their availability should you need it.
For ambitious businesses, employing and retaining exceptional talent is paramount. VoIP allows you to remove the barriers around geographical location and even language - boosting inclusivity within your workforce.
VoIP’s broadband connectivity means that companies can recruit further afield. Workers no longer need to live close to an office, instead being able to work in a hybrid or remote capacity. This opens businesses up to talent and relationships they wouldn’t ordinarily have access to.
Should you want to recruit or collaborate internationally, some VoIP services offer real-time translation and transcription plugins. They allow all parties to understand one another with minimal technological or human intervention.
Outside of communication, many services include language localization, letting users choose the language they wish to navigate the system in.
While VoIP services help your workforce to collaborate efficiently, there are a few things to consider before upgrading to or choosing your new digital communication system.
While larger networks will be able to handle heavy usage, smaller businesses may want to check their network capacity. It’s worth looking into your bandwidth and latency settings, which when stable, help you avoid call dropouts, delays and reduced call quality.
For businesses upgrading to VoIP for its collaborative assets, it’s best to check what your new system is compatible with. While most VoIP services offer integration with popular software that you may already be using, it’s worth investigating first. This ensures you don’t waste money on a system that requires you to buy new, compatible applications and programs.
Businesses should consider whether the VoIP system they’re investing in will be able to meet their needs as they grow.
Think about the future in terms of new hires, location and how you plan to collaborate. Planning for the long term will help you understand if your chosen VoIP solution can be adapted for future upgrades and organisational changes.
For businesses that value staff input and teamwork, VoIP promotes collaboration, while removing the obstacles that prevent it. Access to video calling and integration with existing tools makes working together a breeze, while real-time communication means colleagues can interact wherever they are.
VoIP also encourages inclusivity, ensuring remote workers have the same access to relevant systems and support as other staff. Additionally, voicemail-to-email transcription and call recording help you eliminate unnecessary processes, in turn delivering a high standard of customer service.
As an upgrade for the fragmented ISDN telephony model, VoIP offers a user-friendly approach to customer and workplace communication.
Having worked for T2k for nearly 25 years, it's fair to say that Lee is an expert when it comes to all things telephony and business communications. Overseeing the commercial side of the business, he has helped the company evolve and grow through the decades. In recent years, and with the advent of VoIP and hosted telephony, Lee has made sure that T2k is at the forefront of technological developments. With a firm interest in helping businesses navigate the world of telecoms, Lee is responsible for the majority of the content on this website.
