Evaluating Communication Platforms for a Business: The Complete Guide

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Today’s modern business world is fraught with complexities and challenges for companies of all sizes. It’s a challenging environment that requires businesses to find ways to streamline operations and make better use of their resources. In many cases, this means finding new ways to connect employees to one another so they can work as efficiently as possible. Not only are businesses continuing to adopt digital communications more frequently than ever before, but the number of available communication platforms continues to grow at an astonishing rate. From cloud-based storage solutions like Dropbox and Google Drive, to video conferencing options such as Zoom and BlueJeans, there are now countless ways for businesses to communicate with each other in real-time online environments. If you’re currently evaluating communication platforms for your business, this guide will help you understand the pros and cons of each option available today.

What is a Communication Platform?

Communication platforms are designed to help employees communicate with one another in a more efficient, effective way. They provide a centralized location for employees to share information, ask questions, and interact with each other in real-time. Some of the most common communication platforms include: Email, Calendar, Video Conferencing, Document Sharing, Instant Messaging, and Chatting. As you evaluate communication platforms, you’ll need to understand what each platform offers and how it can help your business to work more efficiently. You should also keep in mind how important it is to choose a platform that the majority of your employees will be able to use. Communication platforms are critical tools for businesses to be successful. And as you’ll see below, modern communication platforms are incredibly robust and feature-rich.

Slack: The Beginning of the Collaboration Movement

Slack is undoubtedly one of the most well-known communication platforms in the world. In fact, Slack is now valued at more than $20 billion, making it one of the most successful startups in history. Slack makes it easy for employees to communicate with each other and share files and documents in real-time. The platform acts as a central hub for communications, and it allows you to integrate calendars, team chat rooms, and video conferencing into one location. Slack offers the ability to create channels, a feature that allows employees to create topic-specific chat rooms. This is an incredibly important feature that allows businesses to organize communications into easily searchable categories. And if you’re looking for a communication platform that can help you integrate with your existing systems and software, Slack is a great choice. The platform offers robust integration capabilities with many business tools, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office.

Email and Calendar Integration

Email and calendar integration is a critical capability that businesses need in order to remain efficient. This is especially important for businesses that rely heavily on remote employees. And while email and calendar integration may sound antiquated in comparison to modern communication platforms, modern business tools still include these capabilities. In fact, most communication platforms offer this capability, allowing you to integrate your email and calendars into the same platform. Because email is so widely used, it’s important to select a communication platform that allows you to integrate your email into the system. This feature allows employees to search communications that have been sent and received, both within the central platform and within email archives.

Google Hangouts: A Traditional Video Conferencing Platform

One of the first communication platforms that companies adopted was video conferencing. Video conferencing has been around for decades, and it’s one of the most mature communication platforms on the market today. And while video conferencing has been around for a long time, modern video conferencing solutions have become incredibly sophisticated. In fact, many video conferencing solutions now feature AI-powered smart moderation and transcription, as well as robust user experiences. And with the rise of cloud computing and the advent of communication platforms, video conferencing solutions have become incredibly easy to deploy and manage. However, Google Hangouts is a traditional video conferencing platform that is built on top of the Google Cloud. Although Google Hangouts offers some modern functionality and capabilities, it’s not quite as robust as newer video conferencing solutions. Video conferencing is incredibly important to businesses, but it’s important to evaluate the right solution for your company.

Skype for Business: A Steady Fixture for Remote Employees

Skype for Business has been a staple of Microsoft communication solutions for years. Now, Microsoft has rebranded the platform as Teams. While the name has changed, the core functionality remains the same. Microsoft Teams has proven itself to be a reliable communication platform for years, and it’s widely used by businesses across the globe. As a communication platform, Microsoft Teams is great for communicating with remote employees. However, it’s important to note that Microsoft Teams is more of a traditional communications platform than other solutions. If you’re looking for a modern collaboration solution, you may want to consider another platform. However, if your team relies heavily on remote employees, Microsoft Teams is an incredibly powerful platform that provides rich communication capabilities.

HapPhi: An Incredibly Rich Cloud Collaboration Tool

HapPhi is one of the most robust and feature-rich communication platforms on the market today. In fact, the platform is so robust that it’s often compared to a business operating system. HapPhi is a full-service collaboration tool that provides your business with everything you need to communicate and collaborate more effectively. The platform offers an incredible breadth of features, including: - Chat and instant messaging - Video conferencing - Voice and voicemail - Document and file storage - Email and calendar integration - CRM and customer support - Business analytics HapPhi is a cloud-based solution that can be deployed in any environment, regardless of your IT setup. This makes it a great choice for businesses of all sizes, as it can be scaled to meet the needs of even the largest companies.

Conclusion

Communication is the lifeblood of any successful business. However, communication is more than simply talking to one another. It also involves collaborating with one another, sharing information, and finding ways to become more efficient. In today’s modern business world, communication platforms are essential for companies to work more effectively. All of the communication platforms listed above are robust solutions that offer businesses a wide variety of communication options. And while each platform is unique, they all have one thing in common: They help companies to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

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