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TELUS Business

The 5-point ideal formula for successful collaboration

Tech Trends · May 1, 2017

According to PWC’s 20th Canadian CEO survey insights released earlier this year, “CEOs believe technology will completely reshape their businesses over the next five years” and 62% of CEOs expect “technology will disrupt their industry.” In the wake of these challenges, business leaders know that the rapid advancement of technology and consumer demands mean those who do not adopt new ways of working will be left behind.

So where do you begin? How do you re-think talent? Which technologies should you adopt and who manages them? What partners and services can you leverage?

Collaboration (voice, data, and video) is a great place to start.

The IDEAL formula to accelerate adoption of collaboration technologies

1. IDENTIFY

Consider the needs of your workforce. According to IDC, Canada’s mobile worker population was 13.3 million workers in 2016, or 73 per cent of the workforce.

As flexible or remote working become the standard, roles are being redefined and static teams are disappearing. Customer engagement and teamwork can be made more efficient with technology to make talent more productive. Simple areas, like virtualized meetings or having one number where customers and other stakeholders can reach you regardless of where you are represent great places to start. These early wins can offer benefits to your employees and your customers, while driving adoption of collaboration technology.

At TELUS, we launched our flexible work program in 2006 and employee engagement increased from 53 per cent in 2007 to 87 per cent in 2015. We’ve also managed to save more than 22.7 million kilometres in reduced commuting and 1.3 million employee hours, helping our environment and offering work-life balance.

2. DEFINE

Businesses that embark on a new collaboration platform need to define their requirements when it comes to reliability and scalability. The “devil is in the details” when it comes to implementation and support – planning is critical. As technologies converge (we’re using a digital phone that’s also integrated with an online video meeting app), businesses need to consider how it will be implemented, how to drive organization-wide adoption, and create a cultural shift through the use of technology at the same time.

Ultimately, communication is business and business is all about stable, reliable communication. “Always on” is the minimum requirement and having a partner that is in the business of “always on” is critical to support your digital transformation.

3. EXPLORE

Seventy-one per cent of Canadian businesses have implemented at least one element of a unified communications solution (voice, video, web conferencing, or instant messaging). However, most companies are early in their journey, with only 20% of organizations deploying unified messaging and less than 33% implementing audio conferencing.

Consider the costs. Calculate your current costs to connect your teams and systems – e.g. telecom, software, maintenance, support, hardware, travel expense, time and people. Then calculate your projected costs of adopting new collaboration technologies.

Whether you start small and scale up, or transform your whole landscape, consider total costs. This not only includes usage and support costs once you’re up and running, but also acquisition, implementation, and day 2 support costs in your new consolidated environment.

4. ADAPT

A business case hinges on one thing: adoption. Implementing and adopting new collaboration platforms will force change, but the benefits speak for themselves:

  • Organizations can  improve operational efficiency and drive productivity gains by saving up to 28 minutes per employee daily (1)

  • More than 75% of user organizations experience improved productivity of employees across geographically-dispersed locations due to voice and video conferencing (2)

  • 46% of user organizations realize travel savings of more than five days per employee annually (3)

To ensure a successful transition, both people and budgets that support legacy technology and travel have to adapt to drive change and adoption.

5. LOOK BACK

Remain competitive by regularly assessing how your business and technology are evolving. We’re in an exciting time where businesses can and need to change models to thrive and compete in today’s digital world. Collaboration is a critical enabling technology for digital transformation.

The number of users of collaboration technologies is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1% from 2014-2018.4 As Canada’s leading provider of hosted unified communications solutions, TELUS is uniquely positioned to help businesses grow. Learn more about our collaboration solutions.

Are you prepared for the disruption? Is your business in the IDEAL position?

Read more:

A roadmap to real "unified" Communications & Collaboration

Top 10 questions customers ask about Unified Communications (UC)

Sources:

(1) T3i Group Infotrack for Unified Communications (2013 & 2014)

(2-3) Research conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey on behalf of Cisco

(4) NBI/Michael Sone Associates Inc. Canadian PBX Services Market Report, 2016 edition

Authored by:
Steve Leslie
Steve Leslie