Preparing for this Global Office release had me thinking about my days working at Input, Inc. As a global company back then, I had counterparts in the Frankfurt and Paris offices. I clearly remember the frustration of trying to collaborate on projects with these overseas offices. In fact, even a basic phone call was an effort. I remember hesitating more than once before making a call to the Paris office because I knew long-distance charges were very expensive. Management warned us about keeping costs down and staying in budget, so I would actually second-guess myself, wondering if my questions about the project were important enough for a call to my colleague in another office. Looking back now, I realize that the limitations of our local PBXs completely let us down. Without the ability to freely contact our colleagues, we were essentially marooned in our offices, isolated from the greater organization.

Today, more companies than ever are expanding into global markets, adding regional offices around the world to put their most talented employees closer to customers. How can this new generation of businesses avoid the pitfalls I went through?

To keep an organization working in sync, the most critical component is communications—it’s the lifeline for employees who must depend on their teams scattered among regional offices to get work done.

Being global these days means that it’s always business hours somewhere, with customers demanding responsiveness around the clock. Employees can’t afford to miss calls from clients, postpone contract negotiations because they’re waiting on key data to be re-sent, or arrive at the wrong meeting place because of delayed notifications. Reliable communications is what keeps your doors open and employees productive.

Communications is a unifier

The key is to connect all of your offices so it feels like everyone is in the same office. Strong communications mobilizes your employees to stay engaged and united, while reinforcing your established corporate culture. There’s no reason to lose that tight focus simply because your existing PBX system can no longer sustain the breadth of your broader organization.

Ideally, you want every employee to be able to use the exact same business tools as their colleague three time zones away with equal ease. And you’re looking for device flexibility and frictionless transfers from phone to computer to mobile devices no matter how people are communicating, whether by voice, text, web meeting, or collaboration.

You’d want to give every employee universal access to the same business tools because connected offices create a valuable shared company experience every employee appreciates.

The most streamlined and cost-effective way to connect your entire organization is to connect your global workforce with a single communications system deploy a single communications system across all offices. A cloud-based business system could do the trick nicely. Cloud systems go beyond geographic borders, and easily accommodate all the different ways your workforce expects to communicate.

And, maybe soon, people won’t even know what a “long-distance charge” is.

Check out RingCentral Global Office to learn more about the benefits of connecting your global workforce with a single communications system.