Feature: Professional Services
Are you ready for a change?
By Ted Palmer, Operations Director at BT Local Business for South Yorkshire and Humber represented by Cutler Communications Solutions Limited
boggling volume of information and knowledge. This in turn has created a necessity for businesses to transform the way
T
they operate. Transformations have been assisted by a family of other key related enabling technologies. Broadband, with ever increasing bandwidth capacity, has provided the motorways along which the information exchanges pass. Mobile devices have become communicating computers with voice conversations no longer being their primary purpose. Email, with its ability to attach files and documents, has become an essential means of inter business communication. Computing developments have supported a plethora of
his year saw the 30th anniversary of the birth of Sir Tim Berners- Lee’s WorldWideWeb. Together with the internet this technology has created the go-to place for easily seeking and sharing a mind
by 2025. This change will provide better quality of voice calls with more reliability, resilience and better integration of IP based solutions. Legacy services will not be available for purchase after 2021. How should businesses approach this change? With a multitude of
‘Computing developments
software releases improving business processes and collaborating tools. The “Cloud”, with data centres providing centralised data storage and application processing, is allowing businesses to move away from on premise asset ownership. The proliferation of Wi-Fi “hotspots” has facilitated out of office working. Voice transactions can now benefit from improved call routing options, voice mail and integral call recording, with facilities all programmable by in house users. This list is not exhaustive and areas discussed may not necessarily
have supported a plethora of software releases’
businesses operating across multiple markets, with multiple skill sets, there cannot be one solution that fits all. No doubt some business leaders will make a choice to reproduce the best fit solution to replace exactly what they already have. This decision will not provide any improved competitive advantage, but circumstances may dictate it to be the appropriate action. Leaders looking to gain an advantage should, with the help of their people, take a more “magic wand” approach. Using any available data, they should examine existing processes and identify any improvements that could be made if there were no inhibitors at all. An estimate should be made as to value of each potential gain. First processes to concentrate on for best early gains may be, all customer interactions, processes with effects on team member wellbeing, and those that control production including the supply chain. If decent data
is not available make sure that any future solution fixes this issue. On completion of the review consult suitably vetted suppliers with the
influence the nature of the business product being provided. However, in virtually all cases they do have the ability to enhance customer experiences, create good impressions of a business, improve the wellbeing of its team members and have a positive effect on the productivity of its processes. The degree to which adoption of best practice in these areas is achieved creates competitive advantage and ultimately improves profitability and sustainability. Almost all businesses have implemented the above technologies
in a basic form. They do have telephones, mobile devices, computers, email, internet access and probably a basic web presence. However, many have failed to invest in more advanced features. Businesses investing in these features have created competitive advantage over those with basic offerings. Potential cost and a concern about necessary skills sets have been cited by basic level users regarding failure to invest further. Solution adoption in the above areas is
scalable with investment decisions that mainly involve OPEX rather than CAPEX budgets, and implementation of improvements can be phased to avoid “trying to eat the elephant”. So achieving business improvement is no longer exclusive to large organisations. With the inherent characteristics of hard work and agility embedded in SME businesses, they now have opportunities to provide the same or better service and productivity improvements than their larger organisation competitors. An impetus for businesses to adopt more advanced features is
already in progress with an unavoidable requirement for change. BT has announced the closure of the aging Public Services Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) with a necessity for users to move to Internet Protocol (IP) replacement services
Autumn 2019 CHAMBERconnect 81
proven expertise, knowledge, reputation and experience to provide solution options (advice is normally provided at no charge). These options can then be reviewed by the leadership team to select the best fit option for the business. Implementation planning can then begin to ensure that the capabilities of the chosen solution are fully exploited to realise the expected benefits. This vital stage can get too little attention and an unsatisfactory outcome follows.
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