Digital Workspace

Streamline Contact Center and Videoconferencing for Your Small Business

With CDW’s Managed Collaboration Anywhere services, you can boost employee productivity, contain costs and improve optimization across your organization.

Lisa Schick

Lisa Schick is a collaboration solutions adviser for CDW, consulting on sales, planning and development of collaboration solutions for small businesses.

In today’s workforce, efficiency and collaboration are key. With the fast pace of digital work, many companies are looking for ways to streamline their contact center and video communications so that collaboration across environments is continuous, no matter where employees are located.

Here’s a look at how CDW’s managed collaboration services can help small businesses automate contact center processes and improve videoconferencing functionality.

Managed Collaboration Services for Help Desks and Call Centers

In the hybrid work environment, employees and customers need IT support more than ever. Managed Collaboration Anywhere services can be a powerful tool for streamlining contact centers and solving help desk support challenges for your business.

CDW’s collaboration portfolio helps IT leaders find the right technology for their needs. Working closely with advisers, small businesses receive support at each stage of the lifecycle, from designing and installing to orchestrating and managing the right solution.

It all starts with a series of conversations to determine the technology a small business has currently and the areas in which leaders want to improve. Then, we set a course to achieve those goals. This is also especially helpful for companies looking to make the transition from on-premises to the cloud, because that’s a major transformation — especially from a user experience perspective.

Click the banner below to receive remote work content when you register as an Insider.

The Benefits of Collaborative Services for Small Businesses

These services help small businesses offer a multichannel communication experience for their customers. It also ensures that your business can reliably work in any location. These services fall into two main categories: contact center and videoconferencing technology. These services can help address pain points and get a small business up and running.

Contact Center: Small businesses can automate their contact center processes and increase the speed at which they serve their customers. Based on select criteria, CDW experts help IT decision-makers determine the right provider, whether that’s Cisco Webex, Five9, Microsoft Teams or RingCentral. There’s no cookie-cutter template for this, as some organizations will need a whole new phone system while others might require only an upgrade.

We also help determine whether Unified Communications as a Service or Contact Center as a Service is the smarter choice, which will free up daily operations significantly so IT leaders have more time to focus on strategic initiatives rather than troubleshooting phone systems.

Videoconferencing: Working with an expert one on one, a small business can design, install and configure videoconferencing technology that suits its business needs and the uniqueness of any physical space. This may mean determining whether to install Zoom or Microsoft Teams or more hands-on assistance such as installing monitors and designing videoconference rooms to maximize connectivity and high-quality sound.

EXPLORE: Check out our 2023 list of 30 small business IT influencers worth following.

Create a Consistent Communication Experience from Anywhere

Once a small business selects the right solution and makes the move from on-premises to the cloud, it can expect improved agility and efficiency in video and calls, plus real-time upgrades and improved feature functionality. Some specific benefits include:

Maximized collaboration: Connect, communicate and strategize seamlessly.
Reduced administrative overhead: Minimize nonessential expenses.
Improved performance visibility: Track, measure and analyze your communications.
Reduced abandoned rates: Get direct customer support from an organized staff.
Reduced complexity: Handle less troubleshooting with automated processes.
Consistent global experience: Connect to anyone from anywhere.

LEARN MORE: How leveraging managed collaboration can streamline productivity.

Right-Size Your Calls and Video Needs for Your Organization

Beyond technical concerns, organizations also must address challenges around employee adoption, which are often far more significant than IT and business leaders realize. Everyone in an organization uses the phone system, so it’s important to get cross-departmental input on these decisions as you switch from on-premises to cloud phone or contact center systems.

In short, include stakeholders from across the organization in these conversations, because a sales or finance employee might use the phone differently than a department manager or IT professional. A collaboration platform must be flexible yet customizable to make sure you’re serving all areas of your organization.

This article is part of BizTech's AgilITy blog series. Please join the discussion on Twitter.