Virtual Office Solutions for Remote Workers
Empower your employees to work from anywhere
The nature of work is changing. For many, work is no longer a place, but it is an activity that is done from almost anywhere. More and more organizations are embracing the idea of remote or flexible workforces and it is not surprising that a variety of virtual office solutions are available to make working from outside the office easier. There is strong evidence that allowing some people to work from outside the office;
- Improves employee morale and retention
- Makes it easier to hire the best workers, not just the closest
- Reduces real estate costs
- Increases productivity
- Provides benefits beyond the enterprise like reducing traffic and minimizing carbon emissions
Challenges
Of course, remote work is not without its challenges for workers and management alike. We asked our clients about some of the challenges they face managing a mobile workforce and they said:
- Integration of people outside of the office with the normal communication structure is difficult, making remote workers feel disconnected or seem unavailable
- People dislike sharing home or mobile numbers with colleagues, prospects and customers
- It is tough to manage performance and quality when employees work in virtual offices and can’t be seen by their managers
- Remote workers are unable to take advantage of the most basic office phone system features like four-digit dialing, presence or even the simple act of transferring a call to someone else
- Sales people and “road warriors” can be even more difficult to manage than those who work from home because they are never in the same place for very long and communication conditions change
How ShoreTel Sky Can Help with its Virtual Office Solution
We believe that tools that enable seamless communication between workers, regardless of where they are located, are a key to the success of this new work paradigm. We offer several remote worker solutions:
- Our cloud based phone system make is possible for remote workers to have phones that are extensions of the corporate office system. This enables four digit dialing, call transfer, conferencing and all the other phone system features that employees enjoy in the office
- Workers can take their office phone home or use our virtual phone, the ShoreTel Sky Softphone, to manage calls on their computer, a true virtual office experience
- ShoreTel Sky Mobility is a mobile VoIP solution that enables your smartphone to act as an enterprise phone. Take and make calls without ever giving out your personal cell phone number
- The ShoreTel Sky Communicator enables desktop business IM & chat, presence and file sharing to seamlessly integrate mobile workers with the rest of the team.
- Our ShoreTel Portal with Intelligence gives management a clear view into the activities of each worker, no matter where they are. This is enhanced even further with CRM integration and Salesforce CTI.
- Are your remote employees responsive? Find out with our Live Answer Service Metric.
- Simplify everyday task like responding to voicemail and managing faxes with our voicemail to email transcription and fax to email services.
If you’d like to chat specifically about how your virtual office might benefit from the ShoreTel Sky solution, please just let us know.