Today’s small and medium-sized businesses run on efficiency just as much as they do market share, and after a half-century of technological revolution, it’s no wonder they are looking for lower-overhead options for technology infrastructure than the traditional mainframe or corporate phone suit can offer. The hardware to support those features in a building can be quite expensive, and with the advent of VOIP, broadband internet, and cloud technology, many of the old infrastructure investments are becoming unnecessary. Here are three services your company can invest in to have the kind of polished customer communications they expect from global corporations, no matter how large or small your operation.
1. Phone Systems Operating in the Cloud
Complex phone hardware can be a thing of the past if you are ready to work with the right cloud phone service. Today’s systems have a variety of features, with service packages that range from VOIP and switchboard services fit for a single office to decentralized systems that can send calls between analog wireless phones and landlines, while also handling cell phone forwarding to app-enabled devices. With the range of services out there, it’s worth remembering that you get what you pay for, and that means you’ll get the best ROI out of cloud phone systems that deliver everything you need, without making you overpay for a lot of extra customer communications features.
2. Enterprise Resource Planning as a Service
While we are talking about cloud services, it’s worth taking a look at what recent offerings in the ERP sphere have brought to the table. While cloud ERP is hardly new, today’s innovative platforms are doing more to provide secure private service that connects, integrates, and analyzes resource use trends across multiple locations. This gives you better adaptability and more efficient resource use protocols by connecting various sites and directing the materials you have on hand where they can be used most efficiently. The right approach to ERP empowers the programs and initiatives that contribute the most to your company’s bottom line, so support for all of your operating sites can go a long way to delivering the ROI you want from your planning software.
3. Benefits Management Outsourcing
Not every service that helps your business do more with a leaner infrastructure depends on cloud technology. When it comes to benefits management services, not every great option uses the cloud, but a lot of them do. You can choose between services that handle everything, providing employees access through phone service and online management portals and those that integrate with your other in-house platforms to provide cloud benefits management from anywhere inside your company’s closed networks. Some services also offer both, and there are even cloud options for organizing benefits management to be more efficient when you are using in-house staff. With all that versatility, it should be easy to find the right fit.
What Makes a Good Tech Investment in 2020?
There are two trends that should be apparent from the examples above, and they can be used to judge future tech service options. The first is that they’re designed to give you access to a range of tools that would be expensive to develop for yourself, at a service price that makes them accessible to your company. The second? Well, the reason cloud services are so popular is that they are private and they can be used anywhere, so they allow a nimble business to operate on the move, making them ideal for companies that plan to evolve quickly.
- Get automatic updates
- Tech support and security patches handled by the provider
- Training and support for employees using the systems
If you’re getting ready to invest in your next business customer communications upgrade, look at what the new generation of cloud services can do for you.
