Use Instant Messaging (IM) as a Business Solution — Brosix

June 17, 2019Instant Messaging

Enterprises face a growing number of challenges. And while oftentimes demands are sector-dependent and unique in nature, modern businesses nonetheless face common challenges, too.

The biggest challenge — ensuring effective communication. In fact, poor communication leads to wasted time, disengagement, reduced confidence, and costs companies millions each year.

Other issues like optimizing internal processes, establishing adequate administration and compliance, providing efficient and accessible customer support, and safeguarding company data all require thorough consideration for any enterprise to succeed.

Today, solutions abound. While consultations, in-depth planning and strategy sessions, and training and team-building opportunities are equally important in their own right, they’re often costly and impractical to implement on a regular basis.

A real-time communication and collaboration solution, however, such as an all-in-one business instant messenger, is more effective — not only mitigating many of the factors leading to poor communication, but helping modern businesses meet the challenges of operating in the digital age; and at a cost that won’t leave you in the red.

Find out how below!

It’s Unifying

Whether your employees are located centrally, remotely, or a mixture of both, a business instant messaging solution unifies team communication in real time.

Convoluted email chains, in addition to email’s inherent delays, as well as the hassle of phone calls, and the general isolation of remote work are all factors which cause communication to break down.

Real-time chat, however, like one-to-one text chat, group chat rooms, and voice and video mitigate these issues and more effectively keep everyone in the loop.

As the nature of the workplace changes, team chat provides an ideal space for on-the-fly discussion, short answer questions, or organizing employees and conversations by task, project, department, or location.

When coupled with voice and video capabilities, business instant messaging provides the best possible alternative when in-person communication is impossible or impractical.

It’s Cost-effective

Proponents of instant messaging are often quick to point out benefits such as fewer business trips, leading to reduced expenditures on travel, lodging, meals and so on. And that’s all true!

That said, business instant messaging provides your bottom line more than reduced travel costs. The right solution affords you the ability to reexamine overpriced phone plans, costly and complex software, hiring and employment strategies, and even the amount of office space you need.

It’s Mobile

More and more individuals are choosing to live in locations other than where they work. Others, due to the nature of their job, are required to conduct work out of the office. As a result, the ability to communicate in real time while on the go is more important than ever.

Mobile communication preserves a vital connection between those in and out of the office. An effective mobile app capable of working across devices and operating systems enables:

• Field workers on location to remain in the know
• Freelancers traveling between clients to stay informed
• Conversation to transpire even during increasingly lengthy commute and travel times

It’s Secure

$3.86 million. That was the average cost of a data breach in 2018 globally. And unsurprisingly, utilizing free consumer-grade chat apps to conduct work-related communication comes with major risks — both to privacy and security.

Business instant messaging better safeguards workplace communication and collaboration through enterprise-grade protection.

Brosix Instant Messenger, for example, provides:

1. Peer to peer channels to ensure network activity transpires between authorized users only
2. End to end encryption to secure the visibility of data and information solely between sender and recipient
3. Anti-virus and malware integration to further boost the safety and certainty of data transfers

It’s Authoritative

Ensuring productivity is more than just providing teams with a real-time communication tool. It’s about employing a solution with enterprise-grade features to administer and focus communication and collaboration.

For starters, consider a private team network. By authorizing network access on an individual basis, you reduce the likelihood of unwanted or disruptive outside interference.

What’s more, the capacity to regulate chat spaces, contact lists, and features empowers you not only with the ability to customize individual chat spaces, but with effective governance over who has access to which features and who can chat with whom.

It’s Versatile

The most effective business solutions are multifaceted, enabling channels of communication that are horizontal and vertical, as well as performance that’s cross-functional yet assured.

Mixing consumer-grade chat applications and team collaboration, on the other hand, complicates internal processes and can result in costly mishaps.

A versatile all-in-one solution facilitates meaningful communication and teamwork while, crucially, keeping company data, information, and processes in-house.

Chat spaces, for instance, foster greater transparency and more equal access by providing team members and management the opportunity to interact and collaborate more regularly.

Furthermore, pairing real-time communication with robust collaboration tools like screen sharing, whiteboards, and unlimited size file transfers:

• Simplifies processes like onboarding and support-related issues
• Facilitates cross-team collaboration on design, test cases, functional content, copy and more
• Allows for up to the minute feedback and insight
• Promotes dynamic brainstorming and ideation sessions
• Mitigates the risk of carelessness and mistakes which can leave your company vulnerable

It’s Compliant

These days it can be tough to keep up with ever-increasing regulations and compliance-related matters. Currently, though, regulations on both sides of the Atlantic dictate the archival of electronic communications. Relying on consumer-grade chat apps could leave you in violation of these regulations.

While chat histories help team members easily recall details and information from prior communications, chat history archives provide authority over what’s being communicated on the network and, vitally, keep you in observance of federal and state laws.

It’s Familiar

Workplace instant messaging comes with many benefits. As a business solution, though, the convenience of familiarity isn’t to be overlooked.

Efficiency is key when implementing new tech and processes. Overly complex tools and steep learning curves can slow teams down and hinder productivity. Besides, popular apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Messenger boast users in the billions. So the odds of your team(s) already knowing the tech and being able to dive right in are pretty good.

It’s Supportive

In addition to streamlining internal communication and processes, effective business solutions place equal value on enhancing customer success. The customer experience as we know it is changing. Business instant messaging ensures enterprises keep pace.

By connecting web site visitors and employees in real time, instant messaging more actively engages customers while allowing enterprises to more efficiently address customer needs.

Live Chat, as an example:

• Meets the customer on their level at their convenience, rather than holding them hostage to a lengthy phone call
• Provides employees the opportunity to formulate more accurate responses, as well as supply additional relevant content
• Frees team members to handle multiple chat sessions at once
• Allows for more personalized interactions

The Takeaway

Employing an effective business solution doesn’t necessarily mean breaking the bank on expensive fixes which may or may not target the root causes of inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

Today’s business instant messengers provide a multifaceted solution, capable of streamlining both internal and external processes on multiple fronts to effectively ensure enterprise success.

Originally published at https://www.brosix.com on June 17, 2019.