As employees become more mobile, technology can help them control the flow of communications with clients and vendors through one point of contact for your business:

1. Leave the office, stay in touch
Employees today don’t necessarily work the same schedule in the same office every day and leave work behind when they go home. Unified messaging makes it easier to work from anywhere at anytime. Employees can receive e-mail, fixed-line voice mail, mobile voice mail, mobile text messages and faxes online or through one phone call. Before, checking all five channels of communication required two phone calls, one trip online, and a trip back to the office to check the fax machine’s paper tray.

2. Keep work flowing
Not only can employees check for messages on any communication channel, but they also can respond via the most convenient channel. In other words, if you log into your unified messaging inbox and hear a voice mail on your office phone, you can respond via e-mail or phone. If the content of the message is important to someone else, you can forward it. And if you want to listen to it later when you’ll be away from an Internet connection, you can save it to your desktop.