Productivity & Efficiency Archives

HOW TO REGAIN YOUR BALANCE WHEN WORK AND LIFE COLLIDE

Many of us have worked from home, at least on an occasional basis. But few were prepared to transition from in-office to remote work as abruptly as we did during the spread of COVID-19. Yet, here we are: the pandemic has thrust us into a situation tha’s proving to be much more challenging than anyone expected.

It’s common for newly remote workers to find it difficult to stay focused and productive. Those who live alone face the additional challenge of dealing with the effects of extreme isolation. On the other hand, people with families struggle with almost zero quiet time as they share limited space with house-bound kids and spouses.

When team members can’t perform at full capacity, tasks take longer to complete and projects get delayed. If a colleague works at odd hours to accommodate a busy household, their colleagues may not get the information they need to perform their job in a timely manner. All of this creates a drag on productivity.

Over the past few months, we at Mitel have come to embrace the work-from-home culture, putting our unified communications technology to good use. In this time of social distancing, we’ve learned that embracing self-care and mastering virtual collaboration are the keys to getting our jobs done.

To help our customers and partners deal with isolation, work-life balance and productivity, we’ve gathered our best advice. If you work even a few of these tips into your daily routine, you’ll be well on your way to a less stressful and more productive remote-work life.

Feeling Isolated? Here's How To Connect

Even those with spouses or children at home can suffer from loneliness. We miss interacting with friends, going to the gym or grabbing a bite to eat at our favorite restaurant. Not being able to go into the office, see our co-workers and engage with them face-to-face only adds to our sense of loss.

How can remote workers overcome their feelings of isolation? We recommend the following:

Video Conference Whenever Possible.

Video conferencing is one of the most effective ways to maintain a face-to-face connection with your co-workers, and thus feel less isolated. In addition, video participants learn 200% more than with audio-only calls and absorb up to 40% more. That makes video conferencing good for our emotional state as well as our productivity levels.

Schedule Working Meetings.

Gather colleagues in a virtual meeting to collaborate on a project in real-time. With the ability to share documents on-screen, team members can provide instant feedback, brainstorm solutions to problems and apply their collective knowledge to fill in gaps. Shared workspaces, where employees can exchange files and documents, make collaboration easy – especially when working remotely. Team members can keep track of all work on a given project in one place and access it with one click.

Look For Connections In Your Surroundings.

A simple walk in your backyard listening to the birds chirp can give you a sense of connection to the living world around you. Mitel’s Regional Vice President Sue Anders makes it a point to do this periodically. Recently, she shared a photo of baby bird eggs in a nest and captioned it: “Change your perception of what a miracle is and you will see them all around you.” Sue’s LinkedIn feed includes more inspirational quotes and ideas to help you find joy and live in the present.

Schedule Virtual Connections.

If you plan for the times you’re most susceptible to loneliness, you’ll find it easier to avoid its trap. For example, if you’re loneliest in the evening, be sure to schedule a call with a friend or family member.

Kids And Spouses? Find That Work-Life Balance

Even while you feel isolated from your friends and extended family, you may also find you can’t get a moment’s peace. Perhaps you and your spouse are sharing the only home office space, and you’re distracted by their phone calls. Maybe your children are in constant need of your attention – either to help with virtual school or to act as a referee for yet another argument. Though it may seem impossible, there are ways to carve out some time for privacy.

Rearrange Schedules (And Stick To Them).

One of the few perks of virtual school is that you don’t have to follow the traditional school day precisely. If you need some quiet time for morning work calls, consider setting a schedule for your kids that puts some free time first, so you can participate in meetings without interruption. Alternatively, you may be able to adjust your working hours, logging some early morning or evening time that’s quiet, productive and just for you. Once set, be sure to stick to the schedule you’ve created. Kids thrive on routine, and they’re less likely to cause disruptions when they have clear boundaries set for school time, work time and playtime.

Use Call Recordings And Mobile.

If you need flex hours to tend to your kids, a unified communications solution allows you to record calls. That way, if you need to step out of a meeting to help with schoolwork, you can catch up immediately by listening to what you missed. You can also bring your mobile phone with you if you need to take your kids for a walk so they can let off steam. Even though you’re away from the house, you can still join in the meeting.

Create A Designated Workspace.

It’s all too easy for the lines to blur between parent, employee and spouse. A designated workspace can help set boundaries. When you’re in your “office”, ask others to knock before entering. When you step out, be sure to leave the work behind. After all, it’ll be waiting for you on your return.

Keep Your Kids Socially Active.

Social interaction is just as important for kids as it is for you. When they miss their friends and activities, encourage them to stay in contact through technology. You may very find less dissension within the ranks when they’re able to have virtual play dates.

Single parents have the additional challenge of navigating these waters solo. For example, there’s a greater chance their schedule may go out the window. You and your employer should keep in mind that communication and collaboration with your kids is just as important as it is with your co-workers. We have a special set of tips for single parents working from home to help manage it all.

For all parents, here are some additional tips to help you create a saner work-life balance.

Struggling With Productivity? Say No More

Before the pandemic, employees often said they were more productive when they worked from home. Why? Fewer distractions and meetings. But as they share their home office with family and cope with the anxiety of COVID-19, workers find daily distractions are more plentiful. As a result, it’s more challenging for them to stay productive.

Here are our top tips for staying on track and finishing that daily to-do list.

Carve Out Blocks Of Time.

It’s hard to stay focused with so much whirling around you. Setting aside designated blocks of time to work can help. Time chunking (or time blocking) is when you turn off your email and other messaging apps to concentrate on a specific task or project. Eliminating distractions will help you to get the job done faster, and often with a better result. A recent study found that when people can block out interruptions, there’s a 67% chance they’ll feel like they had a successful day, compared to a 44% chance when they’re interrupted frequently.

Create A To-Do List.

Before signing off for the day, write up a list of what you need to accomplish tomorrow. When you have the workday mapped out in advance, you’re more likely to stay on track and get things done. The same concept applies to meetings. A unified communications solution with an integrated agenda tracker will keep conference calls on schedule. You can even assign tasks to yourself and teammates, and track progress virtually.

Schedule Breaks.

It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re working from home. Before you know it, you’ve been at your desk (or dining room table) for several hours straight. Many employees fear being too distracted by household tasks, like laundry. But the opposite is also true: we spend all of our time at our desk. That’s why breaks are essential to productivity. Scheduling them into your day ensures you’ll actually take a breather and prevents them from getting out of control. We recommend 15-20 minutes to recharge without losing sight of the work still at hand. And make sure your breaks include stress-free, fun activities.

Other tips, such as a daily digital detox and focusing on the positives in your day and life, can help alleviate today’s overall stress and anxiety. We dig into these and other issues around the new work-from-home life in this post.

It’s an anxious time for employees around the world, and we’re all struggling to grapple with what comes next. The good news is that when it comes to your remote workday, there are things you can do to keep connections going, stay focused and be productive. The right combination of communications technology and daily habits can help you adjust to the new normal.

Source:Mitel

Want to learn more about one of the products or solutions mentioned above? Send an email to

Source:Mitel

THE WORKPLACE EVOLUTION: ADAPTING TO THE DIGITAL OFFICE

Meet the next generation of working styles. Changing demographics and evolving expectations of technology are transforming the workplace into a modern, but complex environment. It has presented IT teams with the challenge of both maintaining current systems and allowing for more effective processes. To stay competitive and support the needs of the business, choosing to adapt in the right way, with the right collaboration tool, is compulsory.

The Changing Face Of The Workplace

The workplace of today is unrecognisable from the past, and it’s still evolving at pace. No longer faced with the static nine-to-five office of 50 years ago, IT teams have had to adapt tools and devices to the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce that’s expected to reach almost 2 billion workers by 2022. Currently over half of employees work away from the office for half the working week.

For IT, the trend of flexible working brings added challenges and can mean time that could be dedicated to innovative projects is now reassigned. With work being completed from home, off-site locations and on the go, cafés are the second most popular place to work. This introduces new outside devices and networks to corporate systems, which can leave organisations vulnerable. Add to that the huge number of networked devices used for work tasks, which is predicted to reach 38.6 billion by 2025, and it makes the task of keeping devices maintained, up-to-date and secure even more complex and time consuming.

A totally virtual working space is an approaching reality – and with it comes the need for powerful connectivity. To stay productive across different locations and working hours, businesses rely on their IT departments to deliver capabilities that support effective collaboration and communication. Without it, work simply takes longer and results suffer.

The Connected Generation

The workplace shift goes beyond bricks and mortar. Younger generations are entering the workforce in droves, and they’re leading the digital revolution.

In 2020, Millennials and Generation Z, those born from the early 1980s to early 2010s, represent a significant proportion of the workplace. These generations have grown up in a world where the internet, smart devices and instant connectivity are ubiquitous, and they expect the same simple, connected communication platforms at work as they’ve been used to in other areas of their lives.

The frequency and fondness of communication varies depending on generation. Millennials, for example, often avoid face-to-face interactions in the workplace, with 55% preferring online messaging software and 28% choosing email to communicate. And for the Gen Z, frequency is key. Over 65% say they need regular feedback from their line manager to stay in their job. For IT, it means finding a simple way to accommodate these diverse preferences to ensure maximum productivity and inclusion.

The Race To Stay Ahead

These changes have brought an influx of applications and communication channels, which can negatively impact productivity. Using disparate systems will slow down a business. When systems aren’t compatible with each other, transferring data and knowledge from one program to another, or one person to another, can be arduous. And for IT teams, staying on top of management and training to use the systems takes even longer.

Plus, employees are less than impressed with the daunting number of channels at play. Almost a quarter of IT professionals have found that the communication options available can be overwhelming to staff. It also makes it harder and more time consuming to keep track of information, forcing a long search across platforms to find the details needed. The solution is simple: implement one easy-to-use tool.

Today’s IT departments are under more pressure than ever. From the growing demands of the workforce to disparate systems, the current day-to-day workload is both complex and time consuming. So exploring a solution that unifies communication into one platform across the whole business makes it simpler for IT teams to manage systems. It means they can reassign their time to innovative, future-looking projects while boosting overall employee productivity. Plus, it helps IT to contribute to business growth and gain added flexibility over the implementation of new systems.

Choose To Embrace The Future

The modern working world holds plenty of exciting opportunities, and collaboration in ideas and knowledge is essential to react to them. The right communication systems can facilitate a workplace that delivers exceptional customer experience and supports business growth in today’s fast-paced, decentralised environment. For mobile workers, three hours a week can be lost without using unified communications and collaboration tools.

At Mitel, we understand the pressure you’re under. Our unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions support IT teams – giving you the power to choose which systems to make available, and how to roll them out. It lets you have the choice of on-premise, cloud or hybrid, the choice of when to upgrade and which systems to make available to which employees.

We work with you to uncover your unique business requirements before tailoring solutions to meet them. It means the solution is adapted to your needs, powering efficiency in the areas you need it most, while making it considerably easier to manage.

Our approach is flexible and agile, and we work within your existing network – seamlessly integrating to eliminate technical complexity and make adoption simple. We’re here to help you drive business forward.

Source:Mitel

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Business Communication Mistakes To Avoid

Effective communication is at the heart of every successful business, no matter the size or industry. In today’s diverse global business environment, effective communication skills will definitely set you apart from your peers and competitors.

Here are some common communication mistakes we are all guilty of and it would be best to avoid:

Discussing Sensitive Information Through Email

How many emails do you send and receive a day… 10, 50, 100? It’s efficient and effective; without it, we’d all probably have a few problems to say the least! We are so reliant on email that it’s easy to forget the company privacy policy when trying to get through a busy day. However, with the leak of countless confidential emails belonging to prominent organizations over the last few months, now more than ever, it is important to think twice before we hit “send”.

Failing To Train New Employees On Their Desk Phones

It’s easy to assume that people know how to use their email client or smartphone, but what about their desk phone? With all of the models and variations out there, the features and functionality of a new desk phone may be completely new to your recent hire. That’s why it’s important to make sure they are trained on it. Any good business phone provider, including Introtel, will provide training services to your staff.

Failing to Respond to Voicemails

There’s no rule on acceptable time to respond to your voicemail messages. Instead of responding quickly with incomplete information, it is better to wait to respond when you are able to address everything in the message. Furthermore, if your caller asked you to call them back, don’t send an email. Likewise, if they give you the option to respond by email or by phone, use the method that best helps you communicate your point. The main goal is to give your caller the information they need, in the timeliest manner. In general, people in our offices respond to voicemails within the same business day or at most, up to one business day later.

Speaking More and Listening Less

To stay on top of any situation, stop speaking and listen. When you listen more than you speak, you open yourself up to learning and empathy — which in turn help you accomplish more.

Transferring Customers To Numerous Departments

Having dedicated representatives to take customer calls is one of the most important customer relationship management plans you can put in place. If you have ever called a company and been transferred to department after department, you understand how frustrating it can be. That’s why as a business, you should have a plan to deal with sales inquiries, complaints, and general questions. It may sound simple but all too often, businesses fail to plan for this and therefore risk losing customers.

Are you guilty of making any of the communication mistakes above? Let us know in the comments section!

By the experts at Introtel

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HOW THE CLOUD ACCELERATES CHANGE IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Digital Transformation, Productivity & Efficiency

The consumer sits on her sofa, tablet in hand, shopping for a friend’s perfect birthday gift. After finding a website that creates customized t-shirts, she spends a few minutes crafting her message and, with a few taps, sends the order.

But will it arrive in time for her friend’s birthday? The site promises a delivery within five days. The customer will receive emails notifying her of order completion and shipping status.

Ten years ago, this scenario was hard to imagine. Now it’s the norm. Customers expect the products they order online to be delivered to their doorstep – in perfect condition – within days. You have to wonder: How is manufacturing, distribution and the entire supply chain adapting to these expectations? What’s the future for supply chain management, and how is cloud communications accelerating these changes?

The Cloud In Product Design

When GE Appliances wanted to improve its design process, it opened lines of communication directly to its customers. GE’s FirstBuild website enables consumers to submit ideas and comment on products in development. They can even work alongside GE staff in the FirstBuild microfactory in Louisville, Ky. Products are developed, designed and manufactured all in the same location.

This trend of collaborating directly with customers is gaining speed. IDC predicts that by 2019, 50 percent of manufacturers will involve consumers in the design process using virtual reality, product virtualization and other cloud-based tools. It anticipates product success rates improving up to 25 percent as a result.

At the same time, a Gartner survey reports that a lack of visibility across the supply chain and difficulty with cross-functional collaboration are two challenges that remain to be solved. To overcome them, many companies are looking at “digital twins,” virtual versions of an actual product, system or facility that incorporates real information like the internet of things (IoT) or simulation data into the design process. According to Gartner, nearly 50 percent of the organizations implementing IoT reported either using digital twins or planning to use them in 2018. As a result, their supply chain stakeholders will use cloud communications to “see” the product, provide input and troubleshoot, increasing product success and reducing long-term costs.

Data, Data And More Data

Today’s businesses are awash in data. This can be good – or frustrating. Many organizations struggle with the amount of data they have to process quickly and effectively. The sources of data are many: IoT devices, inventory systems, customer feedback, logistics and weather conditions, to name just a few.
Industry clouds and cloud-based commerce networks help supply chain partners share and analyze data pertinent to their vertical, avoiding supply disruptions and improving the overall performance of all participants. Fundamental to this process is the use of open and flexible cloud architectures, which allows data to flow from both inside and outside the organization.

“The cloud provides the mechanism for not only data sharing, analysis, and collaboration or joint ventures but also integration with even more data sources, such as environmental conditions (weather or traffic) or customer demand signals,” explains IDC’s report. The research firm predicts that by 2020, three-fourths of all manufacturers will participate in industry clouds, while 80 percent of supply chain interactions will occur across cloud-based commerce networks.

Automation has a role to play in all of this, too. IoT devices can communicate automatically, processing data and responding in pre-determined ways without human intervention. This sequence of events, called edge analytics, uses cloud communications to execute actions, such as calling police or fire departments when a sensor detects conditions that warrant an immediate, local response.

Experts agree that cloud communications has revolutionized supply chain management and will continue to do so. Manufacturers, suppliers, designers and distributors can now collaborate and share data that wasn’t accessible just a few years ago. The result? Products that meet consumers’ demands and, ultimately, generate profit all along the supply chain.

Source:Mitel

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BETTER TOGETHER: UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS RETOOLS PRODUCT DESIGN

Productivity & Efficiency

Everyone loses when a product fails to meet customers’ needs. Design and engineering feel frustrated, suppliers lose revenue, manufacturing has to retool – and let’s not forget the customer, who didn’t get what he or she expected and thinks less of your company as a result.

One way to build the best product possible is to bring your suppliers, partners, internal design team, manufacturing and customers into the same room. Unfortunately, that’s a tall order because everyone is dispersed around the globe. It’s not always practical to get everyone together face-to-face.

Or is it? With unified communications (UC), it’s possible to have an all-hands-on-deck meeting. Here’s a look at how you can bring people together virtually.

4 Ways UC Enables A Better Design Process

BYOD. UC connects all stakeholders, no matter where they are or what technology they use. Need to bring together your manufacturing team in India, your New York-based designers and your engineers in Southern California? No problem. UC lets all participants connect, using their own devices whether they’re mobile, desktop or tablet. Users can even switch a conversation from one device and pick it up on another.

Collaboration tools. With UC, video conferencing creates a more personalized and trusting environment. Once connected, everyone is able to contribute effectively to the conversation and stay on the same page to. Product managers can share screens to display prototyping documents, analysis of user data, spec sheets and other discussion material. As the conversation continues, suppliers, partners and customers all contribute in real-time through messaging, chat and email, all over secure Internet connections.

Application integration. Data analysis is critical to the design and engineering process. When CRM applications and business intelligence software are integrated into the UC platform, manufacturers gain a more comprehensive view of customer requirements, issues and feedback. These insights align product development with customer expectations and lower the risk of failure.

Custom workflows. You use specialized software and workflows to manage your product design and manufacturing process. With these integrated into the unified communications solution, workflow is streamlined, enabling your team to manage projects, track progress on key goals, inform all participants and share key information, all from one application.

How The Cloud Brings All Stakeholders Together

None of this is hypothetical. In fact, Boeing uses cloud technology to bring product teams together in a virtual room at their Center for Applied Simulation and Analytics (CASA) lab in Huntsville, Ala.

CASA connects Boeing employees and suppliers from all over the world via cloud communications. It uses video conferencing, interactive display software, simulators and Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

“By allowing us to see, visually, what’s happening with the animated diagram, we can see exactly where and when something goes awry,” says Randy Krohn, Boeing Test & Evaluation software engineer. “It sure beats watching script flying by on a small terminal display.”

The technology also helps Boeing use analytics to get to market faster with a product that works for their customers. CASA “increases our ability to analyze the immense amount of data coming from our customers, markets and products to build the next-generation of products faster and better, and to help our customers understand the value of the data being captured,” explains Ted Colbert, Boeing chief information officer and senior vice president of Information & Analytics.

Boeing might be a little ahead of the curve in using this type of technology, but not by much. Fifty percent of manufacturers report that by 2019 they plan to collaborate directly with customers to design and improve their products, according to researcher IDC’s latest survey on global manufacturing, as reported in Industry Week. IDC predicts this will result in as high as 25 percent improvement in product success outcomes.

Thus, manufacturers that embrace UC now will be at a competitive advantage. By enabling all stakeholders to collaborate easily, they can bring essential input and perspective earlier into the design process. The result is a product that goes to market in less time, creates a better customer experience and generates more revenue.

Source:Mitel

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HOW UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS RELIEVES HEALTHCARE PAIN POINTS

Productivity & Efficiency

Around the world, healthcare consumers face more crowded emergency rooms, longer wait times for procedures and higher out-of-pocket expenses.
It’s not surprising. As the population ages, healthcare systems experience greater demand. And it’s not just patients who are growing older. Soon, healthcare professionals themselves will be retiring in record numbers, and new staff won’t be able to replace them one for one. Combine this with rising medical costs, changing payment models and a more competitive environment, and you’ll understand why many experts predict severe stress for the healthcare industry.

How can technology help? With unified communications (UC), cloud-based technologies can actually reduce costs, build stronger clinical outcomes and increase patient satisfaction.

Build A Strong Healthcare Ecosystem

“Healthcare organizations have begun to realize that healthcare should be organized around the patient, not the enterprise,” consulting firm Accenture said in its 2017 Digital Health Vision report.

Traditionally, separate entities – like hospitals and physician practices – focused only on their own organizations’ efficiency. But research shows that better patient health results not only from what happens during a procedure, but from how the entire system communicates with them before, during and after.

“There is a real recognition that the critical things necessary to keep a patient who is discharged from a hospital [from returning] in the same month, probably isn’t about the biology of what happened in the hospital,” explains Kaveh Safavi, Accenture’s Senior Managing Director, Health Industry. “But it might have everything to do with who’s going to take them to their appointment, who is going to help them get their drugs, (and) will they understand the drug instructions they were given.”

To provide this kind of holistic patient care requires communications technology that can allow all participants in the healthcare ecosystem to collaborate and share key information with ease.

Find The Right Platform For Your Needs

A good UC solution enables diverse devices (such as mobile and desktop) to communicate via voice, messaging and video. It allows participants to easily conference, collaborate and even share complex data, like medical records and reports.

It also needs to be compatible with third-party applications that are essential to healthcare’s core business processes, like billing and electronic record keeping. It should be scalable and flexible, so that as needs change, you won’t have to buy new software or hardware. With a push of a button, you should be able to add new features and increase capabilities.

When investing in a unified communications solution for your healthcare organization, consider these features:.

Telemedicine

Healthcare providers and patients both benefit from seamless communications. Providers can capture key consumer data at the same time as they offer today’s tech-adept consumers multichannel access to their physicians and medical information. Now, conversations can happen via text, video and chat, in addition to voice. “As technology affords greater opportunities for self-management, it’s empowering people to consume healthcare on their own terms,” notes Accenture.

A good cloud-based contact center does more than answer the phone. It can route inbound callers to the right party the first time, announce patients’ arrival at the facility – shortening wait times and reducing missed visits – and even automate appointment reminders to free up precious staff time and improve clinical results.

Personalized Care

Just as in the business world, patients have come to expect an easy, personalized flow of information when they contact their healthcare providers. Choose a UC-based contact center solution that integrates with your healthcare applications. When physicians have easy access to patient data, they can resolve issues faster.

Collaboration

One of the most powerful features of UC is the ability for geographically dispersed professionals to easily collaborate. A physician can begin consulting with a specialist via video with one click. Collaboration tools make it easy to share files and come to a faster, more informed decision for the patient. And no matter which devices are used, a common interface via the internet makes it possible for this communication to occur in real-time.

Unified communications opens a world of exciting possibilities for healthcare that will improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs, enabling medical professionals to give more effective care in a more timely and convenient manner for patients.

Source:Mitel