We have all heard the old adage: Time is money. But how exactly, as a business, can you save time in order to reap the monetary rewards? Simple, the answer resides in meetings.

Odds are, you are spending a lot more time in meetings than you previously thought. According to a research led by Real Business UK the average employee attends 207 meetings a year, amounting to 636 hours.

These statistics have risen since 2008 and are unlikely to decrease anytime soon, the meeting culture is well and truly ingrained in today’s corporations. It is now more important than ever to take steps in order to improve productivity and efficiency when it comes to meetings.

Unified Communications (UC) eliminates the complexity and troubleshooting associated with trying to connect different devices and technologies, making collaboration within your teams much simpler and faster.

In the end, you will be spending less time trying to make things work and more time focusing on working together.

Every Minute Counts

How often have you led or participated in a conference call that was delayed because another participant didn’t have the correct dial-in information or had difficulty viewing the presenter’s shared desktop?

Maybe in this instance only 5 or 6 minutes were lost, but throughout a business’ financial year, those numbers add up. Thanks to this handy calculator, created by the Harvard Business Review, it is estimated that in a meeting of 6 people earning £45,000 a year (including benefits), a five minute delay will cost £40. While this number may seem small on its own, if this happens every day it amounts to £10,000 a year – or roughly 22% of an attendee’s salary.

Unified Communications focuses on keeping meetings productive and especially cost-effective. Here are five ways a strong UC strategy can improve your business’ efficiency:

1.  Join with a single click. No more dial-in numbers, passwords and logins, users simply need to click on a button to access web, video and audio conferences.
2.  Available from any devices and locations. More and more, companies are allowing their employees to work remotely and on their own devices. Previously, these incompatibilities with HQ systems could lead to technical delays. Unified Communications eliminates these issues since it is designed to work across all devices (iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows etc.).
3.  Collaborate visually. Sharing your screen has never been easier thanks to UC, by staying into the same platform and simply sharing your desktop with remote participants, you allow better understanding of your main subject points. This, in turn, decreases the amount of time spent explaining certain ideas.
4.  Record, share and save time. Recording a meeting can increase efficiency by being able to use it for reference at a later time. It also allows participants who might have missed the meeting to be able to catch up without taking up another team member’s time.
5. Keep the meeting on track. By controlling side conversations thanks to the messaging feature, the presenter won’t be interrupted as much. Feedback left in the messaging panel will be discussed at the end of the presentation. Also, an agenda will help increase the productivity of the meeting by creating clear expectations and time constraints.

Time is money, by using these features your teams can save countless hours throughout the years and your organisation will definitely see financial results. With solid UC tools at their fingertips, your employees can better focus on what really matters – working together to get the job done.

Learn more about ShoreTel’s Unified Communications offering and discover how it could transform your business.