How are unified communication platforms helping businesses in Africa?

One of the necessary parts of any business is communication. In African countries, as businesses are growing at the fastest rate and the economy is also moving upside down, businesses have started investing in the top technology tools to support the growth of their business. At this time, it is essential for these businesses to focus on communication and collaboration to stay connected with investors, partners, vendors, suppliers, etc.

Traditional communication tools like telephones, cell phones, etc. have several limitations and businesses cannot restrict themselves to those conventional business phone systems. Thus, businesses in Africa have to take a leap to the best technology driven communication tools that are trending not only in African regions but worldwide. Unified communication platforms are trending across the globe with the increasing demand for unified communication among customers, prospective clients, investors, and more.

Unified communication is no more a magnificent option to have for businesses in Africa. It is indeed a must have element in a business to grow and meet business communication needs. In multiple ways, a unified communication solution can benefit businesses in African countries.

What is unified communication?

It is a modern day communication instrument, which allows business professionals to use combined access to all major communication tools from anywhere, at any time they need. Unified communication lets businesses store all interactions in a single point system to make all business communication and operation quite easy and straightforward.

Unified communication and collaboration often define the progressive and modern nature of a business in Africa. UC&C stands for Unified Communication and Collaboration. It is a modern way of communication, which has various advantages to offer.

What is a unified communication system?

A unified communication solution is a platform that integrates all major communication channels and business communication modes within a single system. This includes the following communication channels:

•         Voice calling
•         Instant messaging
•         Conference calling
•         Screen sharing
•         Video callings
•         Social media
•         WhatsApp
•         Integrated business apps
•         Texting
•         And more

The major goal of unified communication platforms is to provide an integrated solution to all business users that are accessible from anywhere, at any time. Moreover, if a business person initiates an interaction on one communication channel and after some hours or days, communicates via another mode of communication, the platform will give the same user experience.

Similar to several other countries, countries in Africa, Unified Communication & Collaboration tools have started growing in popularity. The reason behind this trend is the bouquet of benefits it has to offer.

Top ways unified communication software benefits businesses in Africa

1. Excellent call management

Voice and video calls are commonly used in African businesses. Businesses in Africa work with multiple vendors, suppliers, partners, and more in multiple countries. It makes it difficult to manage calls from these different business associates. The systems with unified communication channel integrations help in managing these calls. The best solutions for unified communication consist of several features for effective call management. Some of the most popular features of this platform are automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, call monitoring, call transfer, call forwarding, and more. This helps African countries to remove the burden of managing calls manually.

2. Improve the efficiency of business communication and collaboration

As business and the economy grow, the need and demand for reliable communication and collaboration also grow. Thanks to a unified communication system that incorporates calling, messaging, texting, and even conferencing within a single system. It makes it easier for Africa to keep track of all interactions among all associates. Moreover, the same system can be used for a sales conversation, customer care, and even to give a live demo of the product. This helps in keeping records that can be referred to whenever needed to personalize conversations and lead them in a favorable direction.

These tools are effective not only to bridge the communication gap but also to encourage uninterrupted collaboration. Business representatives and team members can collaborate to brainstorm, discuss, make decisions, conduct board meetings, and have all other types of business conversations. This makes the remote working model indeed lively and reliable in countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, and more.

3. Optimize business operations

The unified communication platforms are loaded with amazing features to help businesses in Africa. One of the major benefits of a system supporting unified communication is that it helps in providing automation features. Automation can help in streamlining operations related to prospecting, sales, customer care, customer relationship management, investor and partnership relationship building, and more. Unified communication also helps in defining, monitoring, and optimizing different operations to improve the overall impact.

4. Excellent customer and partner satisfaction

A unified communication system not only provides the integrated system with all communication channels, but it also provides integration of different business apps. In fact, an expert unified communication software provider company can integrate any third party app or software with a unified communication solution. This can provide a holistic view of all interactions carried out by a business with a customer or partner or even a vendor and supplier. The integrated system gives a complete context to business representatives while having conversations. They can lead context driven conversations.

These solutions have autonomous features for clients so they can self serve themselves. This can augment the customer experience and partner satisfaction because they don’t need to wait too long for African business representatives to respond. Moreover, they can also check their own records and take autonomous actions to speed up various operations. This saves time for clients and partners, as well as business resources.

5. Reduce expenses

Automation, unified communication, and other amazing features help in directly reducing expenses. Businesses in Africa don’t need to manage and maintain individual business systems such as CRM, IP PBX, payroll management, conferencing solutions, etc. A holistic system and its powerful features reduce the cost of ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and management. Moreover, automation and similar features further help in reducing expenses. A unified communication system can be hosted over cloud platforms. This can further reduce the expenses of physical space, servers, and more. Some cloud platforms provide a “pay as you go” model.

All these advantages of using a unified communication solution reduce expenses and help in saving funds. These funds can be reinvested in the business to make some more vital business advancements.

Concluding notes

UC&C platforms are built to meet the growing and rapidly changing business communication and collaboration needs of African businesses. Not only big enterprises, but even SMEs in Africa can take advantage of these platforms. It helps them build reliable external and internal communication strategies. It also helps in leveraging several other advantages like better business positioning, branding, boosted agent productivity, access to actionable insight, and more.

We have been benefiting African countries with our excellent unified communication platforms. One of our most popular platforms in this sphere is our DialShree: call center solution. It supports all modern communication channels and can integrate other business communication application integration, too. We have been meeting the business needs of businesses of all sizes in Africa. This has given us the required skills and experience to meet business needs. Moreover, we also provide recommendations based on our experience with businesses in Africa.

To know more about our UC&C offerings and services, book a demo now!