By now remote working has become business as usual for many organisations. Whether you have staff working away from the office full time, or you have a more flexible plan in place, many businesses are already seeing the productivity and motivational benefits that hybrid and remote working provides.
Studies also show that businesses that allow remote work are more successful, one reason being is that with no geographical restrictions for recruitment businesses now have a stronger pool of talent to draw from when hiring.
There are always ways to improve the process though. Remote staff often feel isolated from the rest of their team, or can sometimes be out of the loop on the latest internal processes, leading to potential customer service mishaps. Thankfully, technology providers are on hand to help, with the remote working revolution sparking a range of new innovations.
At Chrome we’re independent providers, meaning we find the best technology available today, and help UK businesses to make the most of them. Here are the services that we love right now.
Instant Messaging / Group Chats
99% of remote workers already use video conferencing services to stay connected with their colleagues and customers, but are you using instant messaging? This service is included in our business communications service alongside conferencing tools and can have just as much of an impact.
Being able to quickly message a colleague can recreate the great sense of collaboration that’s normally only reserved for an office environment. Just knowing that you can get a colleague to quickly look something over for you can really aid efficiency and reduces the chance of errors.
It can also have security benefits. Remote workers have become target for cyber-attacks, as they often won’t ask for a second opinion when a potentially suspect call or email arrives in their inbox. Having access to instant messaging, such as through our unified communications service, means staff can quickly share anything suspicious.
CRM Integration
Every industry will use specialist software to help them stay connected with their customers. Whether this is in healthcare businesses keeping records of patient contact details and history, or estate agents using previous viewing data to recommend new properties to their clients, there is an option for every industry. This is all managed through your customer relationship management software and being able to access this data remotely can be hugely valuable to your team’s productivity.
Our cloud communications platform integrates seamlessly alongside over 60 globally known and industry specific CRM services. Even if you use a custom-built or niche CRM, our team can develop a tailor-made solution specifically for you.
Cloud Computing / Office365
An effective collaboration plan is essential to the remote working experience. Your team needs to be able to reliably create, share and review files alongside their colleagues and customers. A cloud computing service like Office 365 allows this to happen with ease.
With Office365 or another collaboration service, your team can access their work files from the location and device of their choice. From here it’s quick and easy to share files with staff and even work on them in real time.
Office365 also comes with an Outlook subscription, which is perfect for scheduling meetings and calls alongside your colleagues. Our cloud communications service integrates with Outlook, allowing you to handle all your diary and calls, in one place.
Mobile Connectivity devices
Working remotely doesn’t always mean working from home. It might mean working on the train ride to the office or sharing files in a meeting outside of the office, in these circumstances you might not always have access to a consistent WiFi connection.
This is where our mobile connectivity products shine. These products include our 4G dongle, which can be plugged into a device of your choice to access a high-speed mobile connection. Whilst our MiFi device allows you to create a hotspot that multiple staff members can connect to, so that you can keep your colleagues online reliably.
WebRTC
One of the latest advancements in the world of remote working is WebRTC. This technology has been designed to make video conferencing more accessible than ever before. Instead of requiring customers to download an app or specific software in order to join video calls on their laptop or phone, they can simply click a link in an email invitation and join the call directly from their web browser.
This makes video calling far more accessible and simplified. With no need for any existing software or installations, people without much technical ability can still reliably access high-quality video conferencing services.
Xero Integration
We believe that any business process should be accessible remotely, even specialist financial tools. That’s why our cloud communications integrate alongside Xero accountancy software. Integrating alongside Xero means that you can automate key billing processes on the go, upgrading your business’ operational efficiency and keeping you informed no matter where you are working.
If you’d like to find out more about our remote working solutions, visit our website or get in touch at 03333 212 707.
