Once upon a time, people went to work. They would go to an office – the same one every day – conduct their daily tasks in a familiar space and go home in the evening. Today, that model seems almost quaint. We start working as soon as we roll out of bed, checking mobile devices to see if the workday started without us. Then, it’s off to the laptop to get a jumpstart on the day … and maybe pluck away at the keyboard during the commute. And, it isn’t unusual to do the same on the way home, with a final BlackBerry check before going to bed.

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Let’s face it: business users don’t get excited about new technology all that often. Implementations disrupt their day-to-day activities, and a new system comes with a learning curve … and change. A new solution makes it harder for employees to do their jobs (though only briefly), so it can be hard to get them on board. Occasionally, however, there is a technology that’s embraced almost immediately, as its value to the business is self-evident.

Cisco Unified Communications is among this rare breed: your end-user community will thank you for it.

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Every company could benefit from improved employee communication and collaboration. Even if you’re doing it well now, there’s always something that could be tweaked for better results. If technology is one of the reasons why your employees are having trouble collaborating effectively, take a look at Cisco Unified Communications. This solution pushes past four of the most vexing barriers to collaboration and communication that your employees face.

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Mergers and acquisitions make one thing certain: employees will be distracted. They worry about everything from changes in process to whether their jobs will continue to exist, making it difficult to focus on the day-to-day responsibilities that keep the company in motion. Yet, M&A remains one of the levers that many companies use to accelerate growth, particularly in markets where competition is fierce. So, if your company is relying on M&A to get ahead, you need a solution to help you mitigate the effects of “merger distraction.” Increase employee productivity overall, and you can counteract the effects of a major transaction.

Cisco Unified Communications can help you recapture some employee mindshare when the world feels like it’s upside down.

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In this series, we’ll focus on the implications of specific technology solutions for CFOs. Though they are the keepers of a company’s financial health, they don’t always understand the advantages that come with certain technology solutions, and IT professionals sometimes take a suboptimal approach when explaining these concepts to the finance team. This series is intended to help make those conversations easier and more effective.

You’re looking to improve employee collaboration and communication. The reasons are obvious: reduce travel expenses, accelerate project progress and access more company knowledge and experience when dealing with a particular challenge. This type of request typically comes out of the business area, and you conduct the technological due diligence to ensure that a particular solution – such as Cisco Unified Communication – meets your company’s specific needs. But, you still have to get the CFO on board … even if you and the business owner are in complete agreement on every point.

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You don’t need a Cisco-powered network to run its Unified Communications platform. As long as you have a sufficiently robust infrastructure, you’ll be able to take advantage of the collaboration capabilities afforded by this solution. But, it may make sense to implement Unified Communications on a Cisco network, if you have the flexibility in your infrastructure, budget and staff. There are hidden benefits that you may not recognize immediately, but they will be noticeable down the road.

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This must seem like a strange question. After all, it has nothing to do with technology. And, it’s not often that you find an empty conference room when you need one! Well, all this is about to change. With Cisco Unified Communications, you won’t need to cram everyone into a small room for a long meeting. Not only can you meet from your desk (or device, anywhere), but you’ll also have access to all the information you need to make that meeting productive.

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We may not be back to pre-financial crisis activity, but all signs are that the economy has taken a distinct turn for the better. And, it’s what you do early on in an economic recovery that can make a difference later. A smart move now will be amplified later, so it’s the perfect time to seize a competitive advantage. Collaboration and communication can provide a great starting point for implementing the tools that will lead to an outsized edge down the road. So, here are five tips from Cisco on how to take an early lead that will become a big one later.

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Cutting travel expenses has always been one of the top objectives for collaboration solutions. With the commercialization of the internet came the belief that we could connect effectively and make virtual meetings almost the same as the ol’ fashioned kind. As the underlying technologies have matured, we’re now able to do a lot more online than we were even a decade ago. The progress has been incredible … but could it be threatened by a recovering economy?

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With all the communications tools already on the market, it’s still difficult, sometimes, to put the right group of professionals together. The effort becomes even more complex when you include the need to share documents, collaborate on daunting issues or share ideas in real time. Somehow, many of the collaboration solutions fall short of delivering the ability to connect quickly and work together in real time without regard to business units and physical locations. With Cisco Unified Communications, however, you can take full advantage of the deep business and technical knowledge resident in your business, as though everyone involved were sitting in the same room.

In today’s well-connected and hyper-competitive marketplace – regardless of what industry you’re in – the ability to communicate no longer provides a competitive edge. Rather, it’s the price of admission. If you can’t pull together the right group of experts quickly, you risk falling behind … and ceding market share to the competition. It’s too easy to miss an opportunity when the pace of business is measured in seconds instead of days or weeks.

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