IT’S TIME TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

 

 

by Lauren Whiteman on April 13, 2021

 

It’s never too early to think about the future, especially when it comes to the ways you communicate to your teams and customers.

When the communications systems you currently have work just fine, it can be easy to put off updating them until a later date or even indefinitely. But in a world where communications technology is evolving faster than ever, for growing businesses, the timeline for considering what’s next for your tech may be coming more quickly than you think.

I’ve seen this play out in real-time. My grandmother was once very opposed to using a smartphone. To her, the flip phone she used worked just fine, and she didn’t need all the extras that came with smartphones. “All I want is a phone.” She would say. “You all can have fun with all that other stuff. I don’t need it.” This lasted for a few years, but as is the way with older tech, it eventually became too difficult to keep accommodating her request. Eventually, she had to get a smartphone.

My grandmother was unhappy about being forced to leave the technology she had come to trust. After a while, though, we started noticing a few small things happening. She was sending text messages and enjoyed receiving them in return. Where she was once only able to view pictures of family that we showed her on our phones, she had begun asking, “Can you send that to me? Will my new phone work with that?” If you ask my grandmother today what she thinks of her smartphone, she will tell you about the jokes the family sends back and forth through text. She’ll tell you that she can use her phone to do some light reading from her favorite book here and there. But mostly, she will tell you that she’s able to facetime with her new—and at the moment, only—great-granddaughter, who lives a few time zones away.

New communications technology led to new opportunities for my grandmother. In many ways, it’s the same for business owners. The ways people communicate since the pandemic began have changed. They had to, and businesses weren’t exempt from these changes. Suddenly capabilities that were thought of as “nice to have” became significant benefits to productivity and continuity, and in some cases, a lifeline.

However, people are resilient creatures. Business owners found ways to keep businesses running by adding capabilities for video collaboration, messaging, and mobility. While many plan to keep using them, some business owners found that these updates may not be compatible with their existing phone systems and now have a hodge-podge mix of costly technology and software that isn’t integrated. What’s more, the next time a world or life event occurs that has the ability to disrupt business operations, you’ll have to make quick pivots once again.

Or maybe not, if you begin thinking about the future sooner than later. Cloud communications solutions like MiCloud Connect offer built-in features that growing businesses would previously have had to pay for separately, such as mobile applications, video calls, chat, and contact centers. Transitioning to a modern system allows businesses to streamline current technology needs, save time and money, cut down on complexity, and create room to grow for whatever comes next.

I sometimes think of what could have happened if my grandmother had transitioned to a new phone sooner. How many more experiences might she have been able to partake in via facetime? How many more pictures and videos of loved ones would she possess? How much easier would it have been to interact with family that didn’t live nearby? While we may never know the complete answers to those questions, we do know that she is now fully in the loop and never has to miss another moment. When it comes to your business, does your current communications technology ensure that you won’t miss any of the big moments?

If you are a MiVoice customer, your technology partner has supported your business faithfully over the years.  Work with them to find easy solutions to ensure your organization stays on stable footing while planning for the future. You’ll be glad you did.