Elly Yates-Roberts |
The biggest challenge organisations face with digital transformation and hybrid working is not around the technology, but the cultural and behavioural changes that are required to enable employees to make the most of it.
The modern workplace is cloud first, but people need to come first if an organisation wants to transform productivity. Technology will not deliver results on its own. Therefore, it’s crucial for companies selling Microsoft Teams licences to pick a partner that will put the users first and train them to make the most of the capabilities it offers for unified communications (UC). Integrating telephony into Teams is an intrinsic part of a remote flexible working strategy, but 80 per cent of the benefits of UC come from individuals changing their behaviours.
Everyone is trying to work out how to connect efficiently in the hybrid world. Email and voice are no longer the only, or the best, way to communicate. As people return to the office, there is a danger they will fall back into old habits, which will lead to inefficient and disjointed communication for both them and their customers.
Gamma is the UK’s longest established Microsoft UC specialist, and our vision is to empower people to communicate and work smarter, together. We understand what a successful digital transformation looks like and have developed our UC success wheel to deliver results and reduce the risk of failure.
Each section of the wheel represents an important stage of a business’s digital transformation. From the culture and vision section to the aftercare section, it enables us to be confident in our process. Using the wheel as our guide, we structure conversations and actions with clients, ensuring a consistent approach and better results. Specifically, it allows us to thoroughly examine everything clients will need to plan and do. It makes certain they will have a successful project and positions the technology to best deliver the expected results.
To give clients the flexibility to adapt their existing comms environment, Gamma has designed CloudUCX, a collection of cloud solutions that enhances the standard Teams offering. It leverages Teams to make and receive external calls without requiring on-premises equipment.
CloudUCX also enables integration with contact centres and offers call recording for advanced communication scenarios. Teams should be fully used by every part of a client’s organisation, which is why we work with all the relevant departments to make sure there is a good user experience while keeping data secure, including IT and security, legal and compliance, and business users.
We have the proven ability to balance governance and ease of use. We enable clients to find the path between over-restrictive security protocols that stop license consumption, and Teams sprawl that creates inefficiencies.
We teach customers the etiquette of digital communication by training them to use each channel appropriately. This is not only internally, but also for external communications with partners and customers on Teams. For instance, if a message is a matter for group consideration and doesn’t need to be answered right away, it’s far better to put that in the team channel rather than email it. This lets members respond to it when it suits them and creates a forum where it’s easy to exchange insights. Behavioural changes like this transform the user experience and drive licence consumption.
A third of UK businesses already trust Gamma to deliver their voice traffic so we have the proven scale, experience and expertise to drive Microsoft Teams consumption for clients.
Richard McPhee is solutions director at Gamma
This article was originally published in the Winter 21/22 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.