Since March 2020, working from home has become standard for most office employees. In the past, working from home was misperceived with reduced performance, and thus why employers often discouraged this practice. It took a pandemic to prove these misconceptions wrong. Today, businesses reap the many benefits with a remote workforce, such as an increased productivity thanks to collaboration tools and cost reductions associated to maintaining a physical office space.
Technology plays a key role in making it easier to work from home. Just think how simple it became for employees to check their work emails from their laptops or smartphones. The availability of cloud telephony has also contributed to the accessibility of services that were previously available on expensive phone systems within the walls of a company.
Softphones like Microsoft Teams, for example, is one of many collaboration tools that facilitated working from home. This system allows users to make calls from a computer or a smartphone connected to an Internet network, thus allowing workers to work on the go.
Employees using Microsoft Teams, whether at the office or at home, have visibility into their teammates' availability statuses (online, offline, in a meeting, etc.) which can be useful for sending an instant message at the right time. The tool also enables users to screen share, transfer files, and make video calls – which became the new norm for holding meetings with two participants or more. In addition to being available from a wireless network, Microsoft Teams makes it easy to communicate with other internal users as it can be integrated to the company directory.
Microsoft Teams is undoubtedly an indispensable tool for boosting productivity, flexibility and responsiveness of employees. By integrating the tool to a cloud business phone system, desktops and mobile devices are transformed into a powerful phone system with the employees' associated business number.
Working from home isn't a trend that will fade away – employees are now accustomed to it and many expect to either work from home permanently or opt for a hybrid work schedule once the pandemic ends. Videoconferencing and teleconferencing gained widespread popularity in the last couple of years as employees around the world gather online for virtual meetings, training sessions and events. Companies need to provide the necessary collaboration tools mixed with cloud telephony if they want to keep up with this trend that is now entrenched in today's business world.
Cloudli Connect provides conferencing capabilities including full integration with Microsoft Teams. Give your employees the right tools to be efficient, productive and flexible while staying connected regardless of the circumstances. Contact us today to learn more about the different connectivity and collaboration tools Cloudli Connect has to offer your business.