How to Set Up Efficient and Effective Remote Teleworker Support

There was a time when the idea of the teleworker was met with the challenge, "how do I know my staff are really working to full capacity and efficiency?" As the Internet and business technology have evolved, the concept of the teleworker has become the greatest single productivity and cost control opportunity for any business, of any size. This is beyond just field sales, as more and more companies are moving office workers to their homes in an effort to reduce the cost of maintaining facilities, and expand operations without adding more overhead or other growing costs. The question is now, "How do you set up efficient and effective remote teleworker support?"

For years, the teleworker solution was Virtual Private Networking and Windows login accounts. In theory, the idea works, but in practice, the technical overhead was a limiting factor. Modern, Unified Communications solutions that leverage VoIP technology not only increase the capacity of the systems, but they also afford greater control over access and functions. The first order of business is communications. Just because an employee can access his or her Windows account, does not mean that employee is connected to the office. A well implemented Unified Communications solution not only connects the teleworker as though he or she were in the office, but also adds far more functionality that just a phone number. Email, instant messaging and video are fully integrated, as are documents and collaboration.

Using advanced Unified Communication solutions, any phone number with a Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number can become an extension on your company network, which is the best part. This provides vital flexibility and can be extended to mobile access as well. When coupled with collaboration and document management, your entire staff can work from anywhere and the only loss is the coffee budget. This means being able to staff up when the office is full, expanding operations without planning for expanding facilities, and greater access to talent. The cost savings of these technologies is well established, and the benefit to productivity and capacity is an important gain to any company of any size.

For this much power, one might assume that it would involve a huge investment of time and capital, but this is a myth. Existing business infrastructure can be integrated, while the solution can be up and running in a very short time. The cost of implementation is effectively zero as many companies realize an immediate ROI by migrating from costly old phone systems and service to more cost efficient and effective VoIP based services. In addition, as overall expenditures and maintenance costs will drop and over time, the savings continue to mount. The only thing needed is the decision to move ahead while finding a partner or distributor who has a flexible Unified Communications solution ready to go. Start up time can be less than a week to achieve full functionality. Teleworkers are valuable assets, and the solution to connect them should not cost more than what they are paid. All businesses should employ a solution such as this, and the time to evaluate one is now.

As the premiere provider of innovative unified communication and mobile business solutions, Zultys empowers businesses to collaborate efficiently and effectively. Zultys MXIE technology integrates and manages all local and remote communication functions in a single interface, bringing together all aspects of voice, messaging, video, email, and fax.

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Mobility Management - Automation Is Key to Efficient Corporate Labor Performance

Government, business, and consumers are swimming together in a debt laden pool. All alike are being sucked into the vortex of an ever expanding burdensome financial debt load. The newspapers scream about deficits, businesses are rocked with one fiscal blow after another, and fear of the dreaded double dip is the elephant in your executive's board room. The knowledgeable use of automation is a real key to efficiently managing, competing and generally surviving in such dangerous economic waters.

Thirty years ago I was visiting a third world country. Early one morning I was awaken with a horrendous shrill metal scraping metal noise. It was a train derailing next to the Hostel I was staying in. A few hours later I looked out the window and saw a mass of humanity struggling to right the train and repair the mess with human power, animal power, simple levers and ingenuity. I was amazed at the controlled chaos I was witnessing and asked my translator, why not bring in some lifts, tractors, cranes and help all these poor folks out doing this dangerous labor in the extreme heat? My translator matter of factly said, "We have a billion people in this country. We choose not to use such equipment so we can provide our people the work they need".

Simply speaking it was just their way. It wasn't efficient, it wasn't safe, and it wasn't really even cheaper in the long run. It explained a lot as to why this country at that time was not able to compete in an international economy. Currently it is transforming itself into a developing powerhouse. This same country is becoming an automated, efficient, dominating economic entity as it is lifting millions of its people out of poverty and servicing many of the worlds corporate powerhouses. Telecommunications automation is one of the keys to this economic renaissance.

Telecommunications An Enterprise TOP Spend Category

Telecom is often one of the top spend categories most companies require. Wireless spend has recently surpassed landline corporate costs in the Telecommunications subset. Automation of your enterprises Mobility/Wireless Expense Management is as fundamental to your organizations competitiveness as an advancing third world country employing both cheap labor and automation to give it the edge it needed to propel forward into the world economy.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Aberdeen Group found the following Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) demonstrating why automating your enterprises Wireless Expense Management (WEM) efforts make a world of sense in a world of expense.

Best-in-class companies exhibited the following characteristics:

45 percent average productivity increase for fixed invoice reconciliation, audit and disputes41 percent average productivity increase for fixed procurement and service order tracking42 percent average productivity increase for mobile invoice reconciliation, audit and disputes40 percent average productivity increase for mobile procurement and service order tracking

Additional Aberdeen Findings reported;

Execute on Wireless Expense Management to Drive ROI, showed that best-in-class companies accomplished a:

31 percent decrease in the cost of monthly wireless voice services24 percent decrease in the cost of monthly wireless data services26 percent decrease in the cost of managing devices"

Automated Efficiency Saves Big Dollars on Corporate Telecom Spend

This important KPI data demonstrates that best-in-class companies lower telecom spend management as much as 40 percent. Extraordinary labor cost reduction will optimize a company's telecom management team's time and overall corporate spend. Such efficiency will free your human assets to focus on other critical areas of telecom infrastructure, delve into optimum capacity issues and evaluate additional expense management savings opportunities they have been too busy to investigate or uncover. Compounding your telecom team's optimization effectiveness while resulting in corporate savings will far surpass any costs incurred during the update while enhancing your ROI.

eProcurement and Help Desk Time/Cost Savings Generator

Another key efficiency generator is the Wireless Procurement and Help Desk modules of Wireless Expense Management. Employees will inevitably require new device activations and upgrades or at least Help Desk support on issues that arise. Combining the automated solution with a centralized data base useful for reporting and asset management, with a knowledgeable wireless support staff will allow your wireless end-users the opportunity to quickly communicate their issues, submit a ticket and get back to work. This wile your (or your outsource experts) wireless support team procures the devices or resolves the issues. This as your corporate personnell is diligently fulfilling their core responsibilities without needless distraction.

Optimal Team Performance

It is exceedingly important to integrate tested automated solutions with TEM/WEM Best Practices to give your management team the best possible chance for their team to perform optimally.

Whether your in-house team avails itself of the best TEM/WEM software available, you choose to outsource to those with the automated tools and the expertise to utilize it, or an intelligent blend of the two (we will call Smart-Sourcing); such knowledgeable use of automation may be as critical to your company's survival as it was critical for the country I visited so long ago reversing 1,000 years of decline while leaping into the 21st century.

Like my translator, your management team can undoubtedly explain many reasons why the status quo is the best your company can hope to achieve when it comes to telecom/wireless optimization. We've never did it like this before..., Such automation may be too costly..., we have no in-house expertise..., or even "We choose not to use such automation, so we can provide our people the work they need". However, if a third world country can turn it around and make such a leap forward with great benefit, your telecom management team can dynamically improve its efficiency realizing the terrific advantage automation coupled with industry best practices a Wireless/Telecom Expense Management solution can afford.

Let me know if I can help you determine how best your team can utilize a Telecom Expense Management or Mobility Cost Management solution.

About The Author: Gary is the Business Development Manager for Integrity Communications. With a wealth of telecom marketing experience, Gary provides useful insights for those seeking help with various telecom cost reduction strategies as they work to improve their telecom teams efficiencies concerning their business' telecom environment.

The Integrity Communications web site: http://www.integritycsi.com/ will provide quick links to a variety of telecom management discipline offerings. For additional important information feel free to check out Gary's Blog at: http://integritycsi.wordpress.com/

Ask about Integrity's ALL REWARD/NO RISK telecom analysis at your earliest convenience!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Sambursky

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