The rise of hybrid working has made it essential for companies of all sizes to invest in effective cloud communication tools. These keep remote teams connected and productive. However, as budgets tighten and the economic climate looks more and more uncertain, all IT leaders will be keeping a watchful eye on the ROI of their technology stack.
One way to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for your communications infrastructure, is to consolidate all your tools and apps into one platform with one vendor. But that’s not the only benefit this approach can bring – read on to discover all seven.
1. Lower IT costs
When you deal with one reliable vendor for all your communications – phone, video, message, fax – your infrastructure is streamlined, and you don’t have to maintain multiple contracts with other vendors. This saves time and increases your team’s efficiency. It also means that integrating your services is easier and cheaper.
But how much difference does it actually make to your TCO? In RingCentral’s survey, our customers reported a 23% decrease in average telecommunication costs, a 20% decrease in hardware costs, and a 16% decrease in overall IT spend when they migrated to RingCentral MVP.
2. Easier account management
If you’re using multiple vendors to manage your communications right now, you’ll be spending a lot of time on account management. It’s inevitable, because for each vendor, you have to go through multiple processes:
- Selection
- Contract negotiation
- Contract management
- Onboarding
- Performance monitoring
- Payment.
That’s a lot of managing! But if you reduce the number of accounts you maintain, you reduce the workload. With a single vendor, you will still have to perform all these management functions of course, but only once – saving you a lot of time and money.
3. Improved productivity
By adopting a unified communications platform, you can prevent employees having to switch between accounts and apps all day. We know this harms productivity – two-thirds of employees say they lose an hour each day toggling between apps.
If you switch to one unified communications provider – and choose wisely – you should be able to integrate all your favourite communications tools and business apps into one system. This will simplify your everyday workflows and enable your staff to be more productive.
RingCentral allows you to manage all of your communications tools (from UCaaS to CCaaS) and access them from anywhere. We integrate with hundreds of popular business apps, including Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and Google Cloud. Our customers report a 32% increase in employee productivity as a result.
4. Smoother onboarding
It’s far easier to train new employees to use your software or equipment when it’s all in one system. Instead of spending time getting people set up and trained on multiple different systems, you can just do this once and then concentrate on your business goals – the things that will really add value.
RingCentral MVP lets you house all your information in one place, making it easy for you to import all your existing employees and assign them the right permissions across various communications channels (including phone, messaging, video conferencing, and your contact centre). You can get employees up and running in minutes, not hours or days. In fact, RingCentral customers reported a 25% decrease in onboarding (ramp-up) time.
5. Stronger security
Having your communication tools in one system helps to ensure they are secure, especially if that system is cloud-based. Cloud-based communication solutions benefit from regular updates, upgrades and maintenance, all of which keep things secure. If you’re managing multiple on-premises systems with different vendors, upgrades and patches will inevitably be slower, potentially leaving you more vulnerable.
RingCentral guarantees 99.999% uptime – which keeps you connected during outages and disasters – with end-to-end encryption and seven layers of security.
6. Better scalability for business expansion
Often, businesses outgrow their current systems and providers because they can’t easily accommodate more users or services. However, when you choose to partner with a single, established cloud communications provider, they can offer a scalable solution that grows with your business. You won’t need to hire new technicians, install new software, or change equipment.
Better still, that vendor already knows your unique business needs inside out. So rather than having to re-explain your requirements and constraints every time you need to scale, you can skip this and just get on with accessing the resources you need.
With RingCentral’s cloud-based solution, you won’t be limited by server space or a lack of bandwidth, so you can add new products or services without a hitch. You can even add new team members in seconds.
7. Better customer service
Last but definitely not least, is the benefit of smoother communications with your chosen vendor. Having just one provider will mean it’s easier to contact them when you need support or advice, so you’ll get answers faster. You won’t waste time logging and chasing multiple tickets or enquiries with different companies.
With RingCentral, you’ll have an account manager who makes sure you’re getting the most out of your service, as well as access to 24/7 support by phone, chat, and email.
RingCentral: your single-solution vendor
Your company can realise all these benefits and more, by switching to one cloud communications vendor. Choosing the right vendor for your business is crucial, so you build a long-lasting partnership that lowers your TCO and saves you time, as well as offering you reliability, security, scalability and increased productivity.
We can be your single-solution vendor. Find out more about RingCentral MVP, which offers message, video, phone and fax capabilities, all from one system.
Originally published 01 Sep, 2023
