Collaboration Technology: Helping Small- and Mid-size Businesses Prosper in an Ever-Changing World

Typically, a centralized location housed executive offices and administrators, whose job functions usually encompassed sales, accounting, human resources, purchasing, marketing and other disciplines that formed the foundation of a successful enterprise. Dependent upon the specific business the company was in, one could usually find manufacturing and warehousing facilities, as well as a call center or customer service department either adjacent to or in very close proximity of the central headquarters site.

As cozy and familiar as this layout was, businesses eventually discovered that there were more productive and efficient ways to run things. The advent of the computer and communications technology have resulted in a seismic shift in how today’s business operates. Companies have reinvented their business processes in order to leverage new economic opportunities. And they are looking to new technologies, such as advanced IP (Internet Protocol) collaboration tools, as a viable means to increase productivity and efficiency while reducing costs.

Evolving Business Needs

In today’s business environment, companies are continually being charged to address three fundamental business drivers: generate more revenue, streamline operations and control costs. The concept of “less is more” has become the modern day mantra of businesses worldwide. Employees are working more hours, handling more responsibilities, and being asked to generate more results than ever before. At the same time, many companies continue to downsize personnel in order to keep costs down.

On top of these demands, technology also has dramatically changed the competitive landscape in many industries. Only a few years ago, a small manufacturing business may have directly competed for customers with similar firms in its direct geographic market—a city, county or state. Today, that same enterprise may be fighting for customers with manufacturers from across the United States, or even Asia and South America.

In addition, successful enterprises must continually look for every advantage to optimize profitability. That may mean entering new markets, off-shoring manufacturing, and outsourcing operations. Yesterday’s geographic boundaries mean little to today’s business owner.

These paradigms don’t just exist in “big iron” industries. Accounting firms, advertising agencies, the legal profession, even realtors now compete with both their neighbors as well as firms around the country. The opportunity for success has now become global.

So how do small- and mid-size companies compete in this new environment? Clearly, most do not have the resources to put people on planes continuously to chase leads and solve customer and supplier challenges. For a growing majority of these businesses, advanced IP-based collaboration, conferencing, messaging and telephony tools offer a cost-effective solution that enables them to improve business performance and increase the ability to address a constantly changing competitive environment.

A New Concept in Business Communications

“The concept of electronic collaboration as a useful and practical business tool really did not take off until the late 1990s, when the growth of the Internet made it accessible to a broad audience,” explained Scott Moule, general manager of Inter-Tel’s Collaboration division, a leading developer of advanced collaboration and conferencing solutions. “Collaboration tools are, of course, most useful in business settings that may involve mobile employees and remote locations. The proliferation of IP networks has resulted in making solutions such as ours extremely cost effective and reliable for businesses.”

Highly regarded for its ability to develop technology that addresses real business needs, Inter-Tel has been at the forefront of creating IP-powered collaboration and conferencing solutions. The company sees collaboration and conferencing as an intrinsic solution for businesses looking for new avenues to increase efficiency and control costs.

“Many of our customers face a similar set of circumstances,” said Craig W. Rauchle, president and chief operating officer of Inter-Tel. “They have employees who may be working at remote offices or at home. In many cases, they’re looking to reduce travel expenses and control costs. And, of course, they’re looking to deliver superior service to their customers. Many of these businesses have discovered collaboration technology as an effective vehicle to address these drivers and build their business.”

Collaboration tools usually involve three types of mediums: voice communications, such as conference calls; data communications, such as document sharing and messaging; and video- and Web conferencing. In their own right, each of these applications offers a compelling proposition to the end user. However, when used in concert, these tools can make a tangible impact on business performance while delivering a strong return on investment.

One of the most obvious needs for companies is the ability to confer with colleagues, suppliers, customers and others at a moment’s notice. Previously, businesses would schedule a pre-determined time to gather participants around various conference rooms, a telephone call would be placed, and the conference was under way.

As quaint and efficient as this scenario sounds, it bears little resemblance to 2006. Today’s conference calls are, in many cases, ad hoc, meaning that they are scheduled on the fly. Attendees may be in airports, in hotels, in their cars, and often times, in other countries. Regardless of their location, the need to bring geographically disparate people together on the fly to discuss opportunities or address issues is very real to today’s business owner. It could mean the difference in closing a sale, solving a client’s issue, or ensuring that vendors have the proper specifications to quickly deliver a product. Yesterday’s concept of having individuals work around the conference call schedule is no longer a viable option for many businesses.

Anyplace…Anytime

Conferencing usually falls into two categories: voice and video, also known as Web conferencing.

Voice conferences can involve participants in any number of locations, using a wide range of devices, including desktop phones, softphones and handheld devices such as PDAs. Individuals using Inter-Tel’s Audio Conferencing, for example, have numerous options as to how they wish to participate in a conference call. As a web-based solution, Inter-Tel Audio Conferencing can be easily set up to schedule calls remotely and notify participants by e-mail. The schedule of the call can also be embedded into a user’s Microsoft® Outlook® calendar. The Inter-Tel Audio Conferencing system can even be configured to call each individual participant to initiate the conference. In addition, the application features several layers of security, including password protection and SSL encryption.

Web conferencing works in a similar fashion, but offers a far richer communications experience. Using Inter-Tel’s Audio and Web Conferencing as an example, an administrator can also easily schedule a number of conferences—be it one-time meetings between team members and potential suppliers, or a series of regularly scheduled calls between professional sales people—from any location by using the application’s web portal. As an IP-based solution, it provides superior video resolution and sound quality, and also features multiple layers of security.

The real power in this application, however, is its ability to serve participants in virtually any location that has a wired or wireless broadband connection. Residing on the user’s laptop, Inter-Tel Audio and Web Conferencing can transform any location—airports, hotel rooms, remote and home offices, and even coffee shops—into conference rooms. As a result, employees often engage in more intimate, compelling and powerful conversations with the people they rely on for success.

“We’ve heard from many companies that have used Web conferencing to negotiate contracts and close sales,” said Moule. “They’ve found the technology to be a valid and efficient tool to use to initiate and maintain important relationships and to convey key messages.”

Communication plus Productivity

Another important element of advanced collaboration involves sharing documents, images, audio, data and even computer screens among multiple users. While audio- and Web conferencing bring people together to communicate, the collaboration piece is vitally important for businesses because it enables employees to actually produce work
in remote settings.

Inter-Tel Enterprise® Conferencing is an example of how collaboration technology can benefit organizations. Tightly integrated with its cousins -- Inter-Tel’s conferencing applications and Inter-Tel’s advanced IP communications systems -- Enterprise Conferencing is a SIP-based tool that allows team members to work together simultaneously, even though they may be on opposite ends of the globe.

Using a broadband connection, workers can share documents, such as word files, schematics and PowerPoint presentations, all in real-time. Files can also be transferred between users, and presentations and meetings can be easily scheduled through the application’s browser-based interface.

“Enterprise Conferencing is a perfect example of how businesses can use collaboration technology for a number of purposes,” said Moule. “Of course, bringing together disparate workers is an obvious benefit, but we also see many companies use the tool to deliver sales presentations, conduct training sessions and even interview potential employees. It is an extremely cost-effective vehicle to bring together multiple parties without having to incur the time and expense of travel.”

Improving Customer Service

Collaboration technology can also play a significant part in a company’s customer service operations. Inter-Tel Remote Support allows customer service and technical support staff to take control of a user’s desktop as a means to provide on-demand, spontaneous remote assistance to customers and prospects.

This web-based collaboration application is suited for customer service professionals as a vehicle to improve service and build customer loyalty. There are a number of features embedded within the application, including Web collaboration and videoconferencing.

The most compelling function of the tool, however, is its ability to have agents monitor and control a remote customer’s PC to resolve any number of issues. Once remote access is granted by the user, service professionals can easily manipulate the PC to demonstrate new features and functionality, co-browse the Internet to locate important information, and educate customers looking to resolve technical issues on their own.

Solutions such as Inter-Tel Remote Support enable businesses leveraging IP-based collaboration technology to increase productivity and enhance customer service, while greatly reducing the time spent on customer service calls and lowering operational expenses.

Collaboration in Action

One may wonder, “Okay, that’s how the technology works in theory. But in practical terms, how does collaboration actually benefit an enterprise?” To obtain a real-world perspective on the technology in action, consider the experience of ePartners, a worldwide software distributor based in Dallas.

As one of Microsoft’s most successful distributors, ePartners has a network of some 23 remote offices throughout North America and the United Kingdom to sell, service and support the myriad of business solutions that it provides customers. It is an action-packed, dynamic environment, where new products are frequently launched, sales strategies are quickly developed and teams of professionals are instantly dispatched to ensure that customers can reap the benefits of these new solutions as quickly as possible. Speed to market is critical for ePartners’ success; there is no margin for error.

As one might expect, seamless communication between the various ePartners sites is crucial. The company must regularly keep its associates apprised of new offerings and marketing strategies, as well as service and support programs. Every day brings new challenges and opportunities, and these may be reflected in daily sales promotions and incentives that capitalize on immediate opportunities, magnifying ePartners' reliance on seamless and transparent communications among its offices.

“Within our company, reliable and instant communication between our various locations is an absolute necessity,” noted Travis Grubbs, IT manager for ePartners. “We were using a variety of ASP services to handle conferencing and remote meetings. While the ASP solutions were technically sound, we found that the costs were prohibitive. Additionally, the nature of our business translates into substantial travel expenses, so anything we could do to alleviate some of those costs would also be embraced by the company. We learned that Inter-Tel released a series of premise-based collaboration applications. Our management was intrigued by the idea of integrating collaboration and presence capabilities into our core communications platform, and saw that as a possible means to help us reduce our reliance on both ASP services and business travel.”

Inter-Tel’s collaboration products provided ePartners with the functionality it needed to improve its business processes through Web and audioconferencing, desktop and file sharing, and recording and archiving features to preserve training sessions. In addition, Inter-Tel was able to integrate its collaboration solutions with advanced presence management capabilities that enable ePartners’ team members to define, control and prioritize how, when, where and from whom they receive incoming calls.

“The collaboration applications have paid for themselves,” said Grubbs. “Our managers are much more productive and efficient. They can initiate calls on the fly with their colleagues from any location, and can collectively write and edit proposals, make sales presentations and respond to customer needs much faster. And as we anticipated, we’ve found Inter-Tel’s solutions to be far more cost-effective than comparable ASP services.”

Improving Business Processes

“The experience of ePartners is not uncommon,” said Moule. “Our customers appreciate the way the technology positively affects everyday business practices, and they especially like the fact that these tools can save them significant sums of money.”

Each year, more and more small- and mid-size businesses are looking to expand into new markets, forge new relationships, attract knowledge workers in remote locations and compete with vendors that could range from large enterprises to one- and two-person shops. A growing majority of these firms are starting to embrace collaboration technology based on IP technology as one of the best tools they have to generate revenue, control costs, and ultimately, increase profitability.