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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

It's Simple: Today's Fast Just Isn't Fast Enough

It goes without saying that today just about every aspect of life is moving faster, and business communications is no exception. Customers expect instantaneous responses to their inquiries, faster turnaround from their suppliers, and improved versions of products more frequently.

The truth is, compared with tomorrow today's fast just isn't fast enough.

That's good news for small businesses, because it's an area in which they can really shine. Because of their size, small businesses have the ability to be more nimble, quick to respond, and simple and easy to do business with. Many large enterprises can't make that claim. As a business gets larger, complexity often follows, and complexity can greatly hinder speed and ease of doing business.

But while small businesses are less complex compared with their larger counterparts, they also lack the wide-ranging resources of a large enterprise. With that in mind, how can a small business deliver the kind of fast, personalized service that lets them better compete against their larger competitors?

One way is to break down the barriers that come with the abundance of communications options available to just about everyone - email accounts, instant messaging/chat, office phone, home phone, mobile phone. It's true we have more ways than ever to communicate with each other, but that can bring its own set of challenges - especially to a small business that has to do more with less. The answer to that dilemma, of course, is Unified Communications, a technology that simplifies communications by enabling employees to seamlessly use the most appropriate communications device at the most appropriate time.

That's the point - simplicity. Simplifying anything usually results in the process getting faster. Communications is no exception. (The good news is that while there was a time when only larger companies could take advantage of what unified communications has to offer - faster decision-making, greater customer responsiveness, reduced costs - today that's no longer the case. UC is readily available - and affordable - for just about any size business.)

All of which brings me to Avaya IP Office ... Over the past several years, we've taken a good look at our flagship product for small and medium enterprises with an eye toward simplicity, and in turn, speed. As we've made things simpler - with the product itself, how we bring it to market, and how our customers learn to use it - we've also increased how quickly we're able to do all of those things and more. Today, IP Office is simpler, easier and faster to sell and install, and easier for customers to understand, buy, learn and use.

For example, we've identified the key users in small businesses and built applications specifically for them: Mobile Workers, Teleworkers, Receptionists, Customer Service Agents. It makes it much simpler for customers to know what applications they need. These apps have turned what many customers thought was just a "phone system" into something else - a communications tool that can deliver measurable improvements to just about every area of their business, saving time and money and enhancing their ability to serve customers far better than they could ever have hoped to without them.

With our focus on simplicity, installations of IP Office are faster now, too - up to 75 percent faster. Our partners appreciate it - a shorter installation process means more time to serve and sell - and our customers are equally pleased. There are other benefits, too. For those adding a new IP Office system the Linux option enables them to save money and widen the gap from the already low total cost of ownership benefits of IP Office.

Simplicity and speed. Both of these will continue to be imperatives for IP Office. The implications are just too important across the board - for Avaya, our partners and our customers.

How are you addressing simplicity in your business? What have been the results of your efforts? I'd love to hear some great stories about how simplifying communications has helped lift your small business to greater heights.

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