How to assess your unified communications needs

 

Increasingly, leading enterprises are discovering that UC can substantially reduce the bottom line, as well as improve customer service, increase employee satisfaction, and enable better collaboration. Is UC right for your organization?

The following questions are designed to help you discover the extent to which unified communications (UC) can help your organizations.

Note: this tool is intended to guide decisions and stimulate focused conversations about risk management. For a complete assessment of your needs, please contact your Bell representative for the latest information on our offerings and sample consultation scenarios. You can also request to be contacted by a Bell representative by clicking here.

Cost

  1. What percentage of your workforce currently works from a home office or satellite office?
    1. None
    2. Less than 5 per cent
    3. 5-10 per cent
    4. 10-25 per cent
    5. More than 25 per cent
  2. What proportion of employee workspace is what you would call expensive real estate?
    1. All of it
    2. Most of it
    3. More than half
    4. Less than half
    5. Less than a quarter
    6. Very little
    7. None
  3. To what extent do employees travel more than 200 kilometres for business?
    1. 5 per cent or fewer employees travel frequently
    2. 5 per cent or fewer employees travel, but infrequently
    3. 5-10 per cent of employees travel, but infrequently
    4. 5-10 per cent of employees travel frequently
    5. More than 10 per cent of employees travel more than once per quarter
  4. Do you currently have a VOiP telephony solution in place, and if so is it a
    1. IP-PBX system?
    2. Managed VoIP service?
    3. We do not have VoIP?
  5. Do you currently make use of conferencing services?
    1. Yes, all the time
    2. Yes, on occasion
    3. Seldom
    4. No
  6. If so, what kinds of service do you make use of? Check all that apply.
    1. Audio conferencing
    2. Web conferencing
    3. Video conferencing

Customer service

  1. How are customer inquiries answered? Check all that apply:
    1. By Internet chat
    2. By email, the same day
    3. By email, within 24 hours
    4. By email, within a few days
    5. Immediately, upon contact (telephone)
    6. As quickly as wait times permit (telephone)
    7. Customers often leave a voice mail and are called back
  2. How does your organization most often communicate with customers? Assign a percentage to each.
    1. By email
    2. By telephone
    3. Face to face
    4. By instant messenger (IM)
    5. Using collaboration software
  3. Does latency (missed calls, waiting for voice mail or email reply, etc.) lead to missed connections, reduced sales or longer sales cycles?
    1. Yes, often
    2. Yes, but the extent is unclear
    3. We suspect so
    4. Don’t know
    5. It’s unlikely
    6. No
  4. How would you describe customers’ overall level of satisfaction in their direct dealings with your organization?
    1. Very high
    2. High
    3. Reasonable
    4. There are issues
    5. We need help
  5. To what extent are potential and existing customers frustrated with efforts to obtain information or resolve an issue?
    1. Very little
    2. Somewhat
    3. There are specific problem areas
    4. We need help

Employee satisfaction

  1. To what extent do employees collaborate directly across departments to get the job done?
    1. Regularly
    2. When necessary
    3. Occasionally
    4. Rarely
    5. It doesn’t happen
  2. To what extent do employees rely on peers for advice, support and knowledge?
    1. All the time
    2. To some extent
    3. They usually rely on managers
    4. There is little interaction
    5. None: ours is a highly competitive environment
  3. How would you rate satellite office or home-based workers’ sense of satisfaction and belonging?
    1. Same as head office
    2. Very good
    3. Not bad
    4. We bring them into the office to rekindle those feelings
    5. There is a definite disconnect
  4. What is your organization’s yearly employee turnover rate, either in a given department or throughout the enterprise?
    1. 0-2 per cent
    2. 3-5 per cent
    3. 6-10 per cent
    4. 11-15 per cent
    5. More than 15 per cent

Project collaboration

  1. How successful and efficient are you in finding the right resources for projects, human and otherwise?
    1. Almost always successful, and quite efficient
    2. Almost always successful, but it can take time
    3. We are successful 80 per cent of the time or better, and it is an efficient process
    4. We are successful most of the time, but putting together the right resource mix can take a lot of time
    5. We sometimes hire outside resources only to find that we had them after all
  2. How often are project members located in different places?
    1. Never
    2. On occasion
    3. Regularly
    4. Almost always
  3. Where project members are located in different places, how do they work together?
    1. By telephone and email
    2. There is usually one in-person meeting
    3. There are several in-person meetings
    4. One or more team members travel each week or for the duration of the project
  4. Are you currently using collaboration software, and if so how effective is it?
    1. We don’t have any
    2. It is extremely effective and we couldn’t be happier
    3. It is somewhat effective and creates efficiencies of various sorts
    4. It is not very effective, as it is underused
    5. Functionality is good, but it’s not user-friendly
  5. Have you experienced document versioning problems?
    1. Our collaboration software solves that problem
    2. We follow a protocol for versioning and don’t normally have issues
    3. We sometimes have problems
    4. It can be a challenge
  6. How much project time is spent on communication and getting organized rather than active project work?
    1. Almost none
    2. Less than 5 per cent
    3. Less than 10 per cent
    4. Less than 25 per cent
    5. More than 25 per cent
  7. Does latency (waiting for voice mail or email reply or similar) lengthen project completion time?
    1. Yes, significantly
    2. Yes, but it is unclear to what extent
    3. We suspect so
    4. Don’t know
    5. No

Want to learn more? For information on how unified communications solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you.