“The Next Big Thing”
Is there any business term more cliché than this phrase? Okay, synergy and disruption may be close but depending on your bandwidth you may have to shelve those two and circle back on a new brainstorm. Continuity. Paradigm. Okay, that’s the end of the jargon, I promise. Anyway, the next big thing isn’t always what initially is billed as such, furthermore, often times the next big thing only becomes well, big, once the mainstream picks up on it, despite an existing track record of success while flying below our collective radar. The point is that, occasionally, the next big thing actually is. Here’s what you need to know about how to communicate in business moving forward which, as you can suspect, is pretty darn big.
Bringing Personal to Commercial
We’ve observed and reported on the emergence of new communications tools for business before and none is bigger than the shift towards replicating the interface and use of personal messaging for a business platform. Specifically, instant messaging for work is increasingly the standard for intra-organizational communications. The trend doesn’t end there, though, because there is a growing field of platforms that combine to deliver truly unified communications for the modern business.
Here are the three best communications tools for your work computer from the past year:
- Business Messaging: Whether you use a platform like Slack or HipChat or have a less formalized method of just using the native messaging platforms within Gmail or Facebook, teams are showing near immediate adoption periods and increases in productivity with this familiar communications method.
- BYOD: “Bring Your Own Device” is the cost-saving approach to helping employees stay connected away from the office. By offering to cover or offset existing service plan charges, companies are resorting to BYOD to allow employees a virtually unlimited array of options to use the tools they want to get the job done.
- Desktop Softphone: Just like the hosted messaging apps, a VoIP Softphone that is employed as a part of a greater hosted telephone system is the mobile solution that ties together all other platforms. Requiring no maintenance, able to be replicated on any web-enabled computer or mobile device, and having the same streamlined interface that has become the norm for personal communications, modern business communications are propped-up on a sturdy backbone of the VoIP Softphone.
There will always be a lot of noise out there by products and services that claim to be the next big thing, but while they are trying to yell over each other, business is humming along by implementing these into a communications strategy. To learn more about the development, implementation, and technical specifications of these important tools, you can schedule a free personal tour of complete unified communications options for business.
