How To Get The Most From Your Business Communication System

Within an organization, a business communication system is critical to operational success. You need to have conversations, send files, and deal with other interactions daily. Getting the most from your system is essential. Fortunately, you can leverage your setup by following these six recommendations.

Right-Size Your Network

Especially if your team relies heavily on business audiovisual equipment, your network needs to be the right size. You have to get everything right, right down to the cables. For example, if you have 100 people using hi-def video for conference calls, you can't run that on old Cat5 cables. You will need a fiber-optic network.

The accompanying hardware has to support the business communication systems. You will need to acquire servers for video, audio, data, and calling. Likewise, your business will need suitable modems, routers, and switches.

Avoid Interference

Critical systems need to be directly wired to the network. Avoid using Wi-Fi and cell systems except when you're working away from the network. This will limit radio interference that can cause audio and visual communications to get blocky, stutter, or buffer.

Update Regularly

All your systems will run some sort of software. While updates may seem like annoyances, they can prevent unexpected problems. Subscribe all your systems to update channels so they can automatically grab and install new versions. You don't want to have a call fail to connect because your business communication system isn't on the same page as a customer's setup due to a lack of updates.

Maintain Overhead for Growth

It's never wise to play catch-up. That goes double if your team has outgrown the available business communication system. When you install equipment, work from 5- and 10-year growth projections. Plan to have some overhead so your team's size will grow into the available resources. Otherwise, you might have too many people on the system concurrently. That's when things usually start to get buggy or fail.

Never Focus Exclusively on Costs

Every business faces pressures on the cost side. However, saving money on a business communication system today could cost you years later. Pay for the right equipment for the job and avoid cutting corners.

Value Professional Support

These are fundamentally technical undertakings. Pay for professional support. Even if there's a person in the office who is the device whisperer, constantly leaning on them is a bad idea. They have a job to do, and providing support isn't it. Likewise, you could end up in a lurch if that person finds another employer, gets sick, or ends up too busy.