Maintaining and administering phone systems has not always been easy. And, as businesses need more and more functionality, phone systems have become more advanced to accommodate. Luckily, those tasked with phone system management will find many of their headaches eliminated by a Unified Communications (UC) system.
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Surveying thousands of IT managers, these UC features were identified as crucial for small businesses.
Source: Unified Communications Productivity Analysis, The Eastern Management Group.[/caption]
Deploying a New Phone System
One reason many hesitate to make any changes to their communications platform is fear of a costly and complicated transition. This can put significant stress on those in charge of phone system management. Concerns about budget and deployment downtime often plague conversations about new systems. Fortunately for system administrators and IT managers, UC can smooth this transition.
Interconnectivity with Legacy and Personal Equipment
One of the most significant ways that UC can simplify the setup and deployment phase of phone system management is robust interoperability. What this means is that, when working within a smaller budget, the new UC system can be deployed with existing equipment. This allows businesses to upgrade sooner to a better communications platform and spread out equipment purchases as funds allow.
Additionally, for remote workers, and even to fill in equipment gaps, a UC platform makes it easy to incorporate personal mobile devices into the network with softphone apps. This eliminates the equipment burden of providing mobile devices for remote workers, and the process is simple enough for most people to be able to pair their devices without lengthy hand-holding from IT.
Simplified Phone System Management
Programmability
UC makes moves, adds, and changes (MACs) easy. Legacy systems often required staff to be trained to run a proprietary interface exclusive to a particular manufacturer. However, many UC systems offer browser-based interfaces that allow system administrators to make changes and updates from a single portal from any physical location.
Application programming interfaces (APIs) make powerful integrations with other business tools (such as customer relationship management (CRM) and database softwares) much easier. These integrations allow UC systems a level of flexibility and versatility impossible on other platforms.
Routine Phone System Management
Day-to-day phone system management is simplified by the ease of configuring wide-reaching call rules. System administrators can easily program ring groups to distribute calls evenly and fairly across a sales or support team.
Additionally, when there is a problem, troubleshooting is easy with the desktop sharing and remote access. These allows system administrators to analyze and diagnose problems without leaving their desk. But such work is few and far between with a UC system. These platforms are intuitive enough for users to understand easily, and extensive on-demand training is available for those who need help. And most IP phones operate as “plug-and-play” equipment, allowing them to be moved as needed and simply plugged back into an ethernet port (eliminating the need for IT managers to reprogram extensions for every equipment move).
And, of course, the routine tasks of phone system management like updates and troubleshooting can be nearly completely removed from the system administrator’s plate by opting for a hosted solution. This model follows the trend of many tools migrating to a software as a service (SaaS) model.
Unified Communications as a Service
IT staff tasked with phone system management may find that administering communications on-premise to be a burden and conflicting with other duties. The phone, after all, isn’t the only tool a business uses. Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) can simplify phone system management to the point that even a less experienced administrator can look like an IT pro.
There’s a reason business tools and softwares are increasingly migrating to the Cloud, becoming hosted services. This move reduces capital expenditures, IT burdens, and long-term commitments. Unified Communications is no exception. UC as a Service is one of the fastest growing trends in telecommunications. This is hardly surprising as it allows businesses to take advantage of cutting-edge enterprise communications platforms without going over budget or burdening those in charge of phone system management with maintenance and updates. This affords system administrators the benefit of automating most aspects of phone system management.
Your Business Deserves UC
System administrators and IT managers have a lot to gain from moving to a UC phone system. But this is just one way your business can benefit from Unified Communications.
Read our free guide to learn 128 ways UC can improve your business, making you more competitive and more profitable. Click here to download your copy! 
