10 Things Every Virtual Office Needs

According to a study conducted by FlexJobs, remote work has grown 91% over the past 10 years. And that was before the COVID-19 crisis, which has even more of the working world doing so at home. Not only is remote work at an all-time high, but the need for a virtual office setup is too.

When the pandemic had employees all over the world quickly switching to a work-from-home arrangement, many were left scrambling for communication solutions and other cloud-based business tools. Luckily, technology has given us more freedom than ever before. Meaning you can run a business from your back porch as long as you have a few key essential tools at your disposal; even if you have just the internet and a computer, your office can be anywhere.

If you’re thinking about going virtual business for the long-haul or hiring remote employees, there are a few things you’re going to need beyond the internet and a laptop to be successful. Here are the top seven things your business needs to run a virtual office.

1. Updated and Modern Website

A current website full of rich content and a powerful strategy for generating web traffic is essential to any virtual business. A quick and easy method for creating your own website is WordPress. Whether you are tech-savvy or not, you can find a template and some plug-ins that will suit just about any business need.

2. Business Email Address

We recommend purchasing a domain (which you’ll probably have when you set up your website) for a personalized email address that represents your business and conveys a higher level of professionalism than an email address that ends in @gmail.com. Again, you want your customers and potential customers to know you’re legit.

3. Postal Address

Even though most people use the internet or cellular service to communicate and pay bills — and it really should not matter where you do your work — your customers need to know that you’re legitimate. A postal address, particularly a post office box, conveys legitimacy in a way that a free email address does not.

4. Virtual Business Phone Number

Virtual phone numbers, like those from Tresta, work by routing calls directly to your smartphone, allowing you to separate work calls from personal calls. You also benefit by boosting your business profile and presenting a polished, professional image.

5. Project Management Tool

You need project management software to help keep you organized no matter where you are in the world. Basecamp, Trello, and Monday.com are all great for organizing projects, tracking progress, and collaborating with others.

6. Customer Relationship Management Tool

A cloud-based CRM tracks all of your customer information and notes in one location. Consider options like SugarCRM, Zoho CRM, or Pipedrive to help manage your lead and customer relationships.

7. Answering Service

How can you run a business and personally answer every single call 24 hours a day? For your business to succeed, you need to have time to work. Let someone else pick up the phones, screen the callers, and forward you only the calls that will help your company grow.

8. Storage and Collaboration Solution

With a virtual office, you need an easy way to store, organize, and share files with your team and customers. Dropbox and Google Drive are among the most popular cloud-based file storage systems. Plus, they’re affordable and offer more capacity than you’ll ever need.

9. Cloud-Based Accounting Software

You can go with the standard of Quickbooks, or explore newer cloud-based options like Freshbooks. Having access to your financials, no matter where you are, is a great way to keep tabs on where your money is going.

10. Chat Tool

Perhaps you have a couple of people on your team who also work from home or in various locations around the world. A chat tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams helps to keep teams united and on the same page. They even offer video calling, making it feel like you’re all in the same room.

Remote work is here to stay. If you’re thinking about setting up a virtual office for your business, you’ll want to ensure you have the right technology on your side. Tools such as project management software and collaboration solutions are the answer to running a successful operation that keeps your clients happy and your business growing.

Source: https://www.patlive.com/blog/virtual-office-needs/

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Computer Telephony Integration

 

1.)

AMC Technology DaVinci DaVinci provides Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) to a library of pre-built applications + UXiPaaS (User Experience Integration Platform as a Service) built specifically for contact centers. As contact center needs evolve, organizations need to have access to extend or create new functionality, without waiting to be a part of a software roadmap. Get the benefits of CTI within your CRM like screen pop, click-to-dial, screen transfer, speed dial and more, but future-proof your contact center so you can expand and integrate how and when you want. PH: 18003904866 https://www.amctechnology.com/davinci

2.)

Call Center Studio Call Center Studio Call Center Studio is the world’s first call center built on Google and is one of the most secure and stable systems with some of the industry’s best reporting. It is one of the most full-featured enterprise grade systems (with the most calling features, one of the best call distribution, outbound dialing features and integrations—including IVR, AI Speech Recognition, blended inbound/outbound calling and includes Google’s new Dialogflow and Speech API. Call Center Studio is the absolute easiest to use (with a 10 minute setup), and is the price performance leader with lower equipment cost and less setup time. PH: +1 512-872-7565 https://callcenterstudio.com/

3.)

ComSys S.A. CLink for CRM and Call Center Integration CLink by Comsys is a middleware that connects in real-time the CRM and the contact center applications. CLink enhances the CRM with interaction management capabilities from the contact center that allow agents to work more productively across all communication channels. Comsys is a provider of οmnichannel customer engagement solutions that assist companies around the world in delivering unique customer experiences. For the last 15 years, Comsys designs and implements complex projects for clients from the outsourcing, financial services, telecommunications, and retail sectors. Comsys enjoys strategic partnerships with technology vendors like Cisco®, Aspect Software®, and Microsoft® for the delivery of innovative interaction management and contact center optimization solutions. PH: +302109241486 https://www.comsyscx.com/products/clink/

4.)

Consilium Software Consilium UniAgent™ Today’s call centers need their agents to work more naturally, and respond better and faster. Here, we talk about the innovations Consilium has made with the latest desktop and mobile agent releases of the UniAgent™ CRM connector. From small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies and governments across 110 countries, UniAgent™ comes into action right at the moment of reckoning, making every contact center experience engaging and personalized, powered by simplified customer identification and anticipating customer needs. UniAgent™ provides CRM integrations between all the Cisco contact center solutions (UCCX, PCCE, UCCE and HCS-CC) and over 20 CRMs, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365... (read more)Today’s call centers need their agents to work more naturally, and respond better and faster. Here, we talk about the innovations Consilium has made with the latest desktop and mobile agent releases of the UniAgent™ CRM connector. From small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies and governments across 110 countries, UniAgent™ comes into action right at the moment of reckoning, making every contact center experience engaging and personalized, powered by simplified customer identification and anticipating customer needs. UniAgent™ provides CRM integrations between all the Cisco contact center solutions (UCCX, PCCE, UCCE and HCS-CC) and over 20 CRMs, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Service Cloud & Siebel, BMC Remedy, Sugar CRM, ServiceNow, SAP C4C, FreshDesk, and more. Consilium UniAgent™ CRM connectors are proven in over 110 countries with thousands of agents globally. Enterprises are proactively working towards enhancing their Customer Experience (CX) strategy to optimize omnichannel interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. Consilium UniAgent™ is delivering this as a Connected Digital Experience, being at the center of the agent and customer interaction. The 8.0 release of UniAgent™ is designed to help organizations deliver intuitive, contextual and experience-driven customer service across voice and digital channels (chat, SMS and social media.) As we enter the next stage of the global pandemic, contact centers are faced with the prospect of permanently allowing at least some of their agents to be Work-from-Home agents, without reducing the customer experience (CX.) UniAgent™ Mobile (UA™ Mobile) provides a mobile phone-based solution for Work-from-Home (WFH) agents, and can also be used from tablets or PC’s, all without the need for installing anything or requiring VPN. UniAgent™ is now available in a cloud-hosted deployment model. Our choices of subscription-based or owned-license pricing gives the flexibility customers and partners need. UniAgent™ can reduce call handling time, accelerate resolutions, and allow for faster call processing to reduce customer wait times in queue. Contact centers can shorten the total time agents spend on inbound and outbound calls, increasing agent productivity by up to 25% by providing customer information to an agent's desktop at the same time the customer call arrives. This cost saving alone can provide a rapid return on investment (ROI). In addition, quick resolution of customer concerns is possible because agents can now use the historical information in CRM’s to shorten call hold times and quickly address the problem. Finally, simple on-screen click-to-talk capabilities are integrated into the CRM screen, allowing agents to initiate outbound calls quickly. Features and Benefits • Automatic logging: Administrators and managers get Cisco CUIC reporting of all agent activity, and voice and non-voice contact activity is also saved to the CRM. • Omnichannel federation: Support for voice, chat, email, and Universal Queue/UQ routing with Single-Sign-On supported • One-click dialing: Agents need only to click on a phone number once in the CRM to place calls, saving time and removing the possibility of dialing wrong numbers. • Pre-packaged integration: Allows pre-packaged integration between CRM’s and the Cisco Unified Contact Center solutions for fast, easy installation, and easy upgrades when Cisco Unified Contact Center and CRM product versions change. • Full telephony functions: All telephony functions in the CRM agent desktop including phone control, caller identification, and screen pops • Proven architecture: A robust, proven architecture that has been successfully deployed for governments and Fortune 500 companies since 2008. PH: (+61) 406 501 368 https://consiliuminc.com/product/UniAgent-crm-cti-connector

5.)

IntraNext Systems IntraNext Systems develops agent efficiency tools and data security software solutions for medium-to-large contact centers. Our Event Intelligence® Platform solutions include SmartCTI™, iGuard®, and SmartSIP™. SmartSIP is based on our patented SIP layer technology and provides a DTMF masking solution for VoIP environments. PH: 888.638.6398 https://intranext.com/solutions

6.)

Megacall CRM integration CRM We know how important it is for a business to obtain data from its customers and to manage them effectively, so we help small to large companies by integrating their CRM with the Virtual Switchboard. This type of integration will simplify the work of your team and improve the management performance of the contact list and its information. PH: +34 952 667 511 https://megacall.es/

7.)	NovelVox NovelVox CTI Connector NextGen Cisco Finesse, Genesys & Avaya Embedded CTI Connectors for Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, ServiceNow, Zendesk & more. PH: (+1) 301 202 3672 https://www.novelvox.com/cti-connector/

8.)

Teckinfo Solutions Pvt. Ltd. InterDialog UCCS InterDialog UCCS - a robust contact/ call center software that helps organizations provide a seamless customer experience across all channels in the customer service journey. All interactions from various channels come to a single unified queue on the InterDialog platform. With unified view agents get to see all historical interactions , enabling him to give a resolution quickly. InterDialog UCCS is a comprehensive Contact/Call Center Software with robust CTI, Unified Q ( ACD), Reporting, Unified Agent Management, Administrator, Supervisor - Monitoring (Pmonitor) https://www.teckinfo.com/call-center-software-contact-center-solution.php

 

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