IP Phone Applications sell Unified Communications and IP Telephony… pt 2
Continuing with the applications theme, let’s now consider staff attendance…
A simple IP Phone application can enable staff to clock in and clock out, replacing paper-based or time-clock based systems. An enhancement incorporating voice authentication eliminates the possibility of fraud through employees clocking in for each other. Employees can also pick up messages and review timesheets, schedules and accrued benefits. Such an application saves time and money for the business, making tracking of employee attendance and productivity very simple. It also makes it very easy for a supervisor to identify who is on the premises at any given time.
For service businesses in particular, the failure of staff to arrive for work (due to sickness or other reasons) can be a regular source of business inefficiency. Not only does it leave a staffing gap, but it also occupies another potentially productive member of staff until cover has been arranged, making the business even more inefficient.
An application can be deployed to cover for this eventuality. This allows a supervisor to start an IP Phone application that identifies and calls-out automatically to potential cover staff in sequence until one accepts the shift, then it notifies the supervisor that the gap has been filled… a single press of an icon on the IP Phone resulting in the gap being filled without reducing business efficiency further in the meantime.
These are simple applications currently available from companies such as IPcelerate and ExtendTime, that address real customer issues and that are possible with a converged infrastructure. Instead of layering these on after making the sale – or giving others the chance to do so – incorporate discussion of your customer’s business challenges and initiatives into your sales approach. This will highlight applications and business processes that can be delivered more effectively over a converged network, demonstrating real value and positioning you as a trusted advisor offering guidance rather than a salesperson offering a set of products.