Effective communication lies at the heart of every successful business venture, with the digital explosion transforming the way we work in virtually every field. The rise of smart technologies and digital conferencing tools have undoubtedly revolutionized the global business sector, with Frost & Sullivan’s 2016 report of the Global Web Conferencing Market forecasting growth at a five-year CAGR of 8.4 percent, bringing the worldwide industry value to US$3.6 billion within the next three years.

The CMI notes that in the UK alone, ineffective management could be setting businesses back more than £19 billion per year in total working hours lost. But where are business leaders losing out the most? According to the study of 2,000 employees, the most influential set-back lies in human interaction, with 33 percent of respondents citing inefficient communication as the most common waste of time.

This problem is by no means exclusive to the UK; a survey of 400 US companies with 100,000 employees also reported a loss of US$62.4 million per company, per year, due to a lack of adequate communication systems.

The implementation of technology is imperative if any business is to thrive, but there’s so much more to consider than the hard costs. It’s also important to factor in elements like poor usability every time employees use inadequate telephone systems. User experience (UX), for example, defines the way we interact with the products in our lives, and so plays a major part in both user acquisition and retention.

Above all, sound investments in UX will bring considerable business gains, with previous studies revealing that every dollar spent on UX contributes between two and 100 dollars in return.

An outstanding User Experience will be mirrored in the profits, making it increasingly important for organizations to bolster insight via transparent and actionable analytics, empowering employees with the right tools that work anywhere in the world.

“Undertaking workforce transformation is no longer optional for organizations. Employees will adopt devices and applications which enable them to be more productive and suit their preferred work style,” says Niloy Mukherjee, Vice President of APJ Client Solutions Product Marketing at Dell.

“The strategy which business and IT leaders adopt to align employee experience to improve customers experience while maintaining security and controlling costs will ultimately determine their ability to compete in the digital era,” Mukherjee concludes.

For international industry managers and directors, the priority is to ensure your enterprise is cutting the best deal in its Audio Conferencing platforms, eliminating unnecessary losses caused by flawed communication. To achieve this, officials must assess the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) involved.

TCO is a company model that strives to accommodate all the hidden costs, including things like workflow, fulfilment, distribution and obsolescence. Understanding the way your current telecoms provider burdens your business assets shouldn’t be a difficult task, but can be tricky to determine with so many variables left unseen.

A recent white paper from OpenVoice and EventBuilder seeks to help relieve this convoluted process, suggesting one consolidated and convenient solution: take the total cost of your invoices for the last three months, then divide by the total number of conference call minutes your company has used.

Total Invoice ÷ Total Audio Conferencing Minutes Used = Actual Cost Per Minute

With an impressive 89 percent of current OpenVoice customers claiming the software is easier to manage than existing market competitors, the effectiveness of the TCO model in Audio Conferencing tools for business undoubtedly speaks for itself.

While your telecom vendor may stand firm in the belief that the state of your current service is ‘just the way it is’, innovators have the power to inspire corporate success, empowered by the understanding that poor communication systems are no longer the way it has to be.

OpenVoice – audio conferencing that’s easy to use and manage. OpenVoice a product of LogMeIn, Inc. Our technology simplifies how people interact with each other and the world around them. To download the white paper discussed in this article please click here.