Digital Transformation - What Lies Ahead
One of the chief highlights at the Mint Digital Decoded Conference was the exclusive view into the upcoming innovations being developed and hosted by...
TechnologyTata Communications' and Skype for Business Unified Communication package helps businesses optimise as they spread geographically
By: HT Brand Studio
Source: Pixabay (edited)
India's growing economy is at a crossroads between traditional, old-school business and modern innovations. Effective communication becomes key to growth, as businesses explore both global markets and venture into the interiors of the company as a means to maximise profits.
As businesses go both global and look deeper into the interiors for sustainable revenue growth, staying on top of the latest in communication technologies is imperative. Unified communications (UC) provided by Tata Communications and Skype for Business is the right mix of flexibility, reach and technical expertise for your business that helps you optimise efficiency.
Unified communications means integrating real-time services such as chat, audio, web and video conferencing, cloud connections, mobility, data and desktop sharing, call control, among others. Skype for Business solutions, which allows integration with Office as well as online meetings or calls with anyone who has a functioning internet connection or just a cell phone, is one popular application that enables UC.
Solutions for Skype for Business offered by Tata Communications can assist companies in this unchartered process of expansion. They provide the flexibility to deal with the constantly evolving requirements of businesses, while at the same time having the technical expertise and the reach and infrastructure to guide companies along their path.
They offer on-premise and hybrid solutions, in addition to two cloud offerings, one hosted by Microsoft and the other by Tata Communications themselves. The latter one also allows companies to manage their line of business (LOB) and work flow applications, in addition to a host of other features.
There are several top-notch service providers and systems integrators in the market that businesses can opt for, which means picking the appropriate provider can be a difficult task. However, Tata Communications, however, makes that tedious process of selection an easy one with its service, providing – in one go – a range of services that ensure smooth functioning to enhance productivity. Their Skype for Business model acts as a one-stop solution, with the added benefit of their sterling worldwide network, in addition to their commitment to quality as well as a legacy built over a long period of exceptional work in terms of providing "new-world communications".
The Tata Communications solution has a quality of service (QoS) and feature set that remains consistent and exemplary, functional internationally, even while roaming. Their disaster recovery solutions remain impeccable, providing regionally distributed failover and recovery of the complete solution when required. There's also an added emphasis on flexibility, with a solution structure that allows for sovereignty and regulatory solutions to be met in-house. End-to-End Service Level Agreements (SLA) offer complete management visibility and transparency, with consolidated reporting and billing.
Also, it's important for businesses to get manageable and beneficial SLAs in order to maximise efficiency. The industry, while rapidly progressing, is still plagued by inconsistencies that arise due to multivendor agreements and other incompatibilities. This can have a detrimental effect to QoS and the SLA, particularly when different vendors are employed globally with differing skill-sets. Globally, the regulations also waver considerably, as different countries and industries have different requirements for sovereignty, telephony, or security, which becomes hard to manage effectively.
While plenty of vendors do also offer adequate local solutions, it is important for businesses to approach unified communications, given the importance it holds, with a longer vision in mind. For instance, while local functionality is of course important, Tata Communications' global reach and infrastructure ownership allows the company to provide international functionality and QoS parity even while roaming. Further, they're able to consolidate customer vendors, reporting, billing, management, and SLAs, enabling greater ease of use.
High quality global support, with 24/7 problem resolution, interoperability and modular solutions, global network visibility, simplified billing and a singular point of accountability set Tata Communications' cloud-based solutions apart. They have managed to leverage their competencies across business units to enable greater control over customer services to optimise the experience. This, in turn, gives businesses the space to focus on aspects stretching beyond unified communications, as Tata Communications serves as a tool to assist in LOB application integration, thus helping businesses strategise toward developing competitive advantages and work flow efficiencies.