The current landscape of cloud collaboration and unified communications for businesses

We’ve heard it time and time again: communication is the key to success. But with distributed teams, fully remote teams, and hybrid work on the rise, how will employees successfully communicate now? The answer: cloud-based collaboration and communication tools. 

With cloud-based tools, everything lives in a secure environment and employees can access information from anywhere at any time. These all-in-one solutions have been a game-changer for businesses and have helped them not only adapt but thrive in our changing workforce.   

However, not all tools are created equal.  

Isolated solutions = decreased productivity 

Many tools on the market don’t offer a well-rounded solution to accommodate a team’s many needs. Instead, they only focus on one area of the equation, which forces businesses to employ a hodgepodge of different collaboration and unified communication tools.  

For example, a business might use one app for chat, another for video conferencing, a third for project management, and a separate one for desk phones. Before you know it, a business has four different tools that employees have to navigate daily to complete their work. 

While these tools are supposed to help employees be more productive, employing too many solutions admittedly has the opposite effect: it can actually decrease productivity. 

Why is that? 

• When there are multiple tools, your employees have to constantly switch between different solutions, breaking their concentration and making it harder to get work done. 
• They will also be required to learn how to navigate the different interfaces, understand the unique features of each platform, and how to use each one to its fullest potential. 
• With no centralized place to access information, files will be spread across different platforms making it easy to lose track of important information or documents. 
• Additionally, employees will need a login for each platform which means more money from your budget to accommodate all the licenses.  

Our Chief Product Officer, George Mitsopoulos, said it best: “Those companies who scrambled to get different tools to meet their needs during the pandemic are now going to wonder why they are spending all this money on tools that don’t integrate well with each other. Instead, more and more businesses will look for an app—like our new b-hive Communicator—that brings all their collaboration tools together into a single, cohesive experience.” 

Learn more about what inspired our product team to create the new Communicator experience. 

Why you need an all-in-one solution 

An all-in-one solution like the b-hive Communicator app combines the features of several of the other tools and houses them under one easy-to-use platform. And, unlike most other all-in-one solutions, it also works with your desk phones. That means no more switching between multiple platforms to complete a simple task. Using Communicator, your team can call, text, chat, and video conference from a single window that’s all integrated with your business phone number.  

For a comprehensive guide on getting started with b-hive Communicator, check out our blog post here. 

One platform for all your team’s needs means: 

• Improved collaboration between teammates 
• Increased efficiency 
• The ability for employees to work from any device or location 
• More effective communication 
• One centralized location for all communications and documents  

Explore all the ways the new Communicator app can help your team be more productive:

Calling 

Using Communicator, you can easily call team members or customers directly from whatever device you are using—phone, laptop, tablet, desktop computer, or desk phone. And it’s incredibly easy to initiate a call.  

You just need to click on the phone icon and select your contact from the directory or add a new number. Once you push call, a softphone interface will pop up that mirrors the typical interface you are accustomed to, making it simple to hold, transfer, mute, etc. 

SMS messages 

It’s also simple to send a message to someone outside the company—like a customer, client or sales prospect—using an SMS message. For example, if you work in customer service and you need to respond to a customer query, you can send a one-on-one text message to that customer straight from your computer screen. And the best part is that no matter what device you send the message from, it will always come from your business phone number. 

Chat/group messages  

It’s never been easier to chat with coworkers. If you want to start a chat in Communicator, click the chat button and then select an employee from the company directory. Depending on how many people you need to collaborate with, you can either choose to create a private or a group chat. You can also name the chat and provide it a description, so you never lose track of which chat belongs to which project. Furthermore, if you need to go back and reference a past conversation or find a document that was shared within a thread, you can easily locate that information within your chat history. 

Video calling 

Your team needs a reliable and secure means of connecting with each other in real-time, even if they are in different locations. With the new Communicator, you can have up to 50 simultaneous video users on a video call and more can join as callers. Team members also have the ability to schedule meetings in advance using a unique meeting URL, and they can choose if they want the meeting to be public or private. Additionally, team members have added control when they create a meeting lobby since only they (as the host) can admit guests. Finally, your team has access to their full communication history including call recordings, chat history, and participants so they’ll never lose track of valuable information again. 

More flexibility 

As the workforce continues to evolve, flexibility is key. With Communicator, your employees have the freedom to communicate in the way that serves them best. For example, if a team member is chatting with a coworker but needs to speak in more depth, they can easily switch from a chat to a video call, without ever needing to navigate to another screen. Or if an employee is on a call discussing details of a project and they want to share their screen with their coworker, they can turn that discussion into a video call with a single click of a button. Plus, they can continue to use the chat function during the video call if they want to share links, notes, or just fun emojis. 

Personalized customer experiences 

Similarly, Communicator gives employees the flexibility to communicate in whatever way suits the customer best, helping to create more personalized customer experiences. If a customer prefers to text rather than speak on the phone, an employee can easily assist them via text. Or vice versa, if a customer would rather talk things through on the phone as opposed to a chat box, an employee can easily turn that chat into a phone call—all from the same window. And if an employee is on the phone with a customer and they need to send them some additional information, they can send a text containing that information while still on the phone with the customer. This allows employees to cater to each individual customer and put their preferences first, rather than treating every customer like they are the same. 

Helps simplify your workflow 

With Communicator, it’s never been easier to communicate and collaborate. And unlike many other all-in-one solutions on the market, it’s one of the few that also works with your desk phones. You can text, call, chat, or video conference all from one window, all within one app. Plus, everything lives in one centralized place, so you’ll never have to search on different platforms for important documents or communications again. 

At the end of the day, Communicator puts you in control and allows you to choose which communication or collaboration method suits you or your team best. Plus, with our brand new b-hive mobile app—available on iOS and Android devices—now you can carry your conversations with you. Place calls, send texts, video conference, and collaborate with your teammates—all from your business phone number.

If you’re looking to adapt to the new normal of remote work and set your team up for success, it’s time to say goodbye to your expensive, isolated solutions and hello to a new all-in-one solution, like b-hive Communicator.