Some small and medium-sized businesses view global expansion as a "daunting task." Others see IP communications as a way to overcome those limitations
Want a bigger piece of the world? Some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) view global expansion as a "daunting task" for their limited financial and staff resources, says Raymond Boggs, vice president of SMB research for the global market intelligence firm IDC. Other SMBs, he says, see Internet Protocol (IP) communications--voice applications transported by IP--as a way to overcome those limitations.
Boggs recently talked to Cisco about how SMBs can use IP communications to successfully conduct business in multiple countries, with or without in-country offices.
Cisco: How can IP communications help SMBs expand globally?
Boggs: Serving international markets can add significant costs and complexities to your overhead. IP communications can help SMBs avoid that by improving productivity, reducing telephony costs, and providing telephony capabilities that enable them to compete more effectively.
A component of an IP communications system that is especially efficient for conducting business globally is unified messaging. Offshore customers, suppliers, and partners can reach you more easily using the method they prefer. Despite time zone differences, you can respond to them more quickly, because all your messages go into one inbox.
An IP communications system can also give you a sales and marketing advantage. You could link your IP communications system to a customer-relationship management (CRM) solution, giving call-center employees instant access to a caller's file. The employee might notice there are products the caller hasn't tried, for example, and immediately offer the caller a 10% discount.
Rich-media conferencing can be a convenient, cost-effective alternative to international travel. You can use it to do sales presentations or online seminars. It also makes it easy for global teams to work together across different time zones. People can collaborate online wherever they are. They can view the same video or documents at the same time, review them, and collectively make changes to documents in real time, rather than going back and forth.
Cisco: In what other ways can IP communications support global expansion?
Boggs: Offering around-the-clock telephone support can be an important differentiator for an SMB entering a new market. It helps you build positive customer relationships, which in turn leads to more recommendations of your product or service by locals.
You can use an IP communications system to cost-effectively establish a telephone support presence in other countries. You could set up a virtual, 24-hour support system to handle customer calls coming in from Singapore, for example. Rather than having a Singapore office with employees there to answer the phones, an IP communications system lets you place employees [who are fluent in English and Malay] anywhere in the world; they can even work from their homes. So it's easier to maintain a small call-center staff, with workers answering the phones in shifts. If your employees speak the languages of the international markets you're serving, all of this will be transparent to your customers.
Cisco: What resources does an SMB need to get these types of global benefits?
Boggs: You need a secure IP network as a foundation. On top of that, you're probably looking at $5,000 to $50,000 to add an IP communications system. The cost depends on various factors. For example: Will you have just a few people accessing IP communications from their PCs? Or will you have several hundred people using dedicated IP phones?
Designing, installing, and managing an IP communications system requires technical skills in data networking and telephony. You don't need to have all those skills internally. You can access to those skills through a channel partner, VAR, or other third party.
You could get your IP communications system up within a month. Or it could take three months, especially if you must train a lot of employees.
Devoting time and financial resources can be a challenge for SMBs. But a challenge is also an opportunity. The fact is, sooner or later, your company will probably need to address offshore competition. So why not take the lead, instead of waiting for it to happen? Why not become the disruptor, instead of being the disrupted?
James A. Martin writes for Cisco Systems.
