Four Technologies for Growing Your Business

Extension Mobility

Many workers today frequently travel between offices or job sites. They need to be mobile -- and so does the information they require to do their jobs. Wireless and mobile technologies increase efficiency and productivity by extending the footprint of your office, delivering information and applications to your employees when and where they need it.

Extension mobility is among the newer developments in wireless and mobile technology. In essence, extension mobility lets you allocate work spaces to employees on an as-needed basis, which can significantly reduce the costs associated with permanent office accommodations.

For instance, instead of assigning offices, cubicles and desks to individual employees, several different employees can share the same space on a rotating basis. Extension mobility also boosts productivity, as employees have full access to all their telephony features regardless of their location.

For extension mobility to be effective, you need the flexibility of an IP network. An employee can configure any IP phone on an IP network with their extension, along with all their individual phone and voice-mail settings. In effect, any IP phone becomes the employee's own while he or she is at that particular location. When they're done, they simply log off and the phone is available for the next mobile employee. This reduces both the cost and complexity of moving employees around as well as enables mobile workers to be productive regardless of where they physically are.

Customer Relationship Management

Since last month's column, "Tech Solutions That Keep Customers Satisfied," focused on CRM software, I'll just touch on it briefly here.

In essence, CRM technology helps improve customer satisfaction by enabling a business to better understand its customers, their habits and their needs. CRM software is particularly useful when connected, via software plug-ins, to a small business' IP telephony system.

For instance, when a call comes in, an IP telephony software plug-in automatically links to your CRM system. A pop-up window of the customer contact record appears on your employee's IP phone screen, their computer screen or both. This gives the employee access to essential data about the customer who's calling before the employee even picks up the phone.