#7 Can a Mobile or Remote Workforce Help You Reduce Operating Costs? (UCaaS/Collaboration Tools)
From the assembly line to the refrigerated delivery truck to the telephone to the microchip to the internet, as technology has evolved so, too, has business. History has shown that companies that do not adapt to incorporate rising technology trends find themselves replaced by those that do. Now, that’s not to say every business should jump on to the bleeding edge of technology. There have been plenty of technological fads that fizzled out, and no one is denying the wisdom in patience. Rather, businesses should not fear the changes that technology makes available; they should look toward them as opportunities to improve. In many cases, newer technologies not only afford ways to increase production but also lower cost.
Where once days of productivity lost due to moving between regions were measured in weeks, airplanes allow us to now count in hours. Where once written correspondence took days or even weeks to complete a single exchange, phone calls, e-mails and texting now accomplish more across further distances in mere minutes. And even today, web conferencing has been steadily rising in popularity as an alternative to in-person face-to-face meetings. As we will see more clearly defined in the near future, cloud-based collaboration tools allow us to consider changing not only how business is done, but where.
With unified communications services (UCaaS), web conferencing (including screen sharing, presence management tools, productivity tracking applications, and zero-trust network security, it becomes possible to free your skilled knowledge workers from their cubicles. Mobile workers are typically already well-liberated, but they might find even further freedom through the integration of fleet management tools, which can orchestrate a more efficient cycling of vehicles through the maintenance pool such as to minimize the required garage space. The combination of IoT sensors, Robotic Process Automation, and remote presence technologies means that it’s even possible to establish a remote position for many types of production workers. These technologies allow us to break free from one of the oldest constraining factors in business: operating space. We already know about the benefits of reducing the size and complexity of our IT closets by pushing our line-of-business applications up to the cloud. By making the same shift with employees, skilled knowledge-based businesses can dramatically reduce or even eliminate the need for office space. By enabling production and QA employees to monitor from remote positions, more square footage can be opened up on the floor for actual production, staging or even storage and transportation.
Even considering how dramatically world-wide business has changed recently, this idea will still be uncomfortable for many, and it will be inappropriate for many others. Yet, there are still many out there who began moving this direction in 2018, so the idea isn’t terribly new or radical. There’s only now a clearer case for how operating this way can benefit many types of organizations. Clearly, there are still a lot of factors that would need to be defined and discussed before any business could safely begin the type of transition necessary to move workers off-site and subsequently reduce space and expenses. However, when a company is able to execute this type of transition, the savings potential is phenomenal, especially when many organizations can reduce their operating space expenses (rent, lights, water, temperature, & maybe more) by over 50%.
The Comtel Group can help you explore whether this type of transition makes sense for your organization, as well as help you evaluate any of the technology services your business is currently consuming or might benefit from in the future. When you purchase these technologies as a service, up to 15% of your expense is paid in commissions to your sales agent. Make sure you select an agent that will leverage those commission dollars to your benefit. The Comtel Group offers our industry-disrupting “Provider Exchange Management’ service, which lets you apply those commission dollars to either subsidize the expert help you need or recapture them into your pocket. Either way, you lower your total IT budget.
