How IT Fuels Collaborative Business Success

(This is Part 2 of a two-part blog on collaborative technologies/communications.)

In Part 1, I weighed in on the rise of collaboration in business today – and what’s holding it back: Eight of ten professionals say they need to partner with others throughout the day. But, 86% of managers and workers say that a lack of collaboration/ineffective communications is tied to job failures. What’s clear is that more communication technology solutions are required to fully take advantage of what collaboration has to offer. Existing solutions could raise productivity by 20-25%, McKinsey Global Institute reports.

Every day at Fusion Connect, we’re seeing businesses of all sizes improve productivity, customer growth/satisfaction and brand awareness/loyalty thanks to augmented collaboration among employees, managers, vendors, partners and customers. They’re adopting Hosted PBX to greatly increase functionality at a much lower cost than traditional PBX systems. They’re discovering communications tools like Find Me/Follow Me and Visual Voicemail that enable them to constantly stay in touch with colleagues, partners and customers. With Find Me/Follow Me, users can be reached at one phone number, whether stationary office phone or mobile device. With Visual Voicemail, voice messages and faxes show up as emails in their Fusion Voice Manager Portal.

These are only a few of the advanced features that we offer.

Leading-edge, cost-effect email. Our Hosted Exchange allows for highly reliable, enterprise-class team collaboration in the cloud, giving users anytime/anywhere access to email messages, shared contacts, shared calendars, etc. You can manage shared contact lists from multiple email accounts. You can call up and share attachments, calendars, meeting schedules and more. Because it’s all in the cloud, we host these services for you and you connect to whatever you need securely and remotely. And because ActiveSync comes standard with all 25 gigabyte Hosted Exchange mailboxes, users can access their Exchange from up to ten devices!

And the reliability factor is huge. Fusion’s Hosted Exchange thrives on a rock-solid platform, utilizing a best-in-class build with companies like VMware, F5, EMC and others. You can liken it to driving a car with a terrific engine. Enterprise-class email also depends on a strong, reliable “engine” – because if it breaks down, your business comes to a halt. “On the cheap” hosted services can’t deliver the required accountability or performance. They’re notorious for crashing on customers all the time, in addition to inflicting a number of other sales and productivity-impacting problems. No business owner wants to endanger a sales transaction because their employees are subject to a shaky email service. That’s why Fusion’s Hosted Exchange for enterprises presents an appealing alternative that’s still affordable.

You get all of this for just $5.95 per mailbox. Really. We take all of the infrastructure implementation, maintenance, power/cooling and other associated expenses off of your hands. (And that includes geographically redundant disaster recovery/business continuity features.) You won’t have to pay your own people to take on these tasks, and you avoid budgeting for all of the equipment and operational expense.

As I mentioned in my last blog, you no longer have to worry about backing up corporate data either. We have additional best-in-class, automated, “set it and forget it” archiving features that are 100 percent compliant with many of the most stringent regulatory authorities today. They’re encrypted and cloud-based. They’re keyword-searchable, so your employees won’t have to manually search for an email from six months ago in retrieving it for a compliance auditor. They can quickly type in a keyword or two, call up what they need, and present it to the regulators with a completely validated time stamp – in a format that can’t be edited so it will hold up under any auditor or legal scrutiny.

Ease of transitional pain. Fusion’s Email Migration Wizard removes the traditional pain points of a major transition to a hosted email service, paving the way for seamless adjustments which won’t disrupt your business operations. Sales teams can continue doing business throughout the migration without issues. The migration wizard takes you through an easy, step-by-step process. We make sure you segue seamlessly to a hosted environment. That’s why so very few of our customers who opt to switch ever go back.

Data backup. Again, this is a “set it and forget it” benefit. Our Mozy data backup solution for desktops and servers dispenses with tape backups and automates everything into the cloud. You and your employees determine how often – and when – files, locations, folders, etc. are backed up. They can do it every hour. They can do it once a week. Everything is encrypted on your machine first, transmitted to our servers securely using SSL, and then can stay that way once it’s there. And, yes, you can access all your backed up files from mobile devices as well. We have an App for that. That way, if employees have to unexpectedly work remotely, teams can still access the files needed to continue collaborating while out of the office.

With our collaborative, hosted communications solutions, you’re paying a very affordable cost to acquire the priceless asset of time. Specifically, we mean the precious time of your tech people. It doesn’t matter whether you own a small shop or work for a large enterprise with an entire tech department. The more you can reduce your tech support’s burden, the better. Free up IT to spend time innovating and otherwise pursuing projects that make your company smarter, faster and more efficient, not waste time managing complex server infrastructure, outdated hardware or antiquated backup solutions.

As a result, you’ll establish a more collaborative environment for your employees. They’ll be happier and more productive. They’ll rapidly discover resources and processes which will eliminate bottlenecks and contribute directly to positive, bottom-line influencing impact. What business owner or manager wouldn’t want that?

If you agree, we’re eager to speak to you. So, please contact us, and we’ll help design a solution that gets your business back to business.

Microsoft Teams Calling Services

Microsoft Teams allows collaboration access to files and direct communication with your teams

Make calls to mobile devices and landlines through Microsoft Teams with Operator Connect.

Tech ROUNDUP

Expert insights, exclusive content, and the latest updates on Microsoft products and services - direct to your inbox. Subscribe to Tech ROUNDUP!

Is Your Internet Speed Performing As Promised?

Test your internet speed

Measure your internet speed and get insight on jitter and latency.