We have all been part of meetings where effective communication is cited as a key focus point for a business. This is nothing new, as communication has been a core part of business success since before even the telephone.

So why after all this time do businesses still need to invest to make sure they are getting it right?

Well, the main problem lies in the constantly changing nature of business communications, particularly in recent years the way we communicate has changed, both internally and with our external customers.

For example, in today’s fast-paced, technology driven world, customers have multiple ways to communicate with businesses and waiting longer than a few minutes for a response can be deemed unacceptable and result in a lost sale.

Add to these changes, the impending regulation updates including MiFID II in the finance industry and GDPR for the entire business community, the way we communicate is set to continue to change in the years to come.

To help businesses cope with this pace of change, Atlas have decided to use our 30+ years of experience delivering business communication solutions, to put together our guide on how technology can help ease operational and economic problems within your business.

Part 1 – Health Care

Having worked within the Health Service for over 30 years, we have strong ties within the GP community and we have found that in many ways the telephone is still their main form of communication. A practices ability to handle inbound and outbound calls is a recurring theme and with the increased use of telephony for GP consultations, capacity needs are only likely to increase.

This alongside the fact that trends within the telecoms industry towards hosted and SIP Trunking pose a greater risk for GPs than other industries, usually results in GP surgeries finding themselves stuck with their existing, aged legacy system and not benefiting from new technology options.

From our experience with major Health Care providers including long term ties with the Northern Trust, we would recommend that any of our GP customers have a mixture of ISDN and SIP lines installed for increased resilience.

Having dedicated lines for incoming and outbound calls means they have more failover options if any downtime occurs, helping to balance high uptime with low risk. With SIP Trunking, practice management also have more flexibility and options to manage their system to match the demands of their own individual practice, resulting in increased efficiencies.

Additionally, this move towards SIP helps to get practices ready for 2025 when BT have announced they will remove support for all traditional ISDN and PTSN lines, without having a large outlay of spending when this eventually occurs.

There is also the potential to utilise technology to reduce the cost of operating essential Call Recording capabilities. By running Call Recording in the Cloud rather than buying it as an extension of your current system, costs are dramatically reduced as some call recording extensions can be as expensive as the phone system itself.

Another factor which we have found can indirectly affect communication capabilities within Health Services, is budget. Having strong working relationships within the public sector for many years we understand these constraints and are willing to work with you to create a communications solution that suits all business needs including initial investment and running costs.

These options which include leasing, are further enhanced by the fact that we own and operate all our own infrastructure so have the ability to be more flexible on cost and maximise your investment.

If you have a specific question that is not covered in this piece, please contact us on 028 9078 6868 and a member of our team will be happy to help!

*This blog post is part of a series focusing on the changing nature of business communications and how technology can help address operational issues.