How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses

HOW TECHNOLOGY POWERS AN AGILE BUSINESS.A GUIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

We are living in an era of unprecedented change. New technology is providing new ways of working and of doing business. Traditional business models are being disrupted across all industries, challenging the way that we all work. Think of Uber, AirBnB or Amazon, among many others. New competitors are emerging daily and no industry is immune.

The good news for small and medium business owners, MDs or CEOs is that small businesses are uniquely positioned to succeed in this increasingly competitive environment. Small businesses can change direction quickly; can promptly react to – or pre-empt – opportunities and threats; and can structure their ways of working to meet the demands of the modern world.

DISCOVER WHAT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS COULD MEAN FOR YOU.

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¹ The Microsoft Asia Pacific New World of Work SMB Study was conducted in March 2015 with 2,000 respondents working in small and medium enterprises with less than 250 employees in 10 Asia Pacific markets including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

It is vital that Australian small businesses make the most of these opportunities. A recent Microsoft study surveyed small and medium businesses placed Australia seventh in its New World of Work Index¹. This compared the capacity of employees to work flexibly and productively in the digital workplace, and involved 2,000 respondents from small businesses across 10 Asia Pacific countries.

Why is Australia placed so low? The technology that would enable small businesses to have the agility, flexibility and mobility they need is more accessible, reliable and secure than ever. But it seems Australian small businesses are not adopting technological solutions as quickly as others in other Asia Pacific region – often on quite limited budgets.

It may be that terms like ‘unified communications’, ‘cloud communication solutions’ and ‘online productivity tools’ are mystifying to some small business owners, MDs and CEOs. But these are just buzzwords. Ultimately, what’s required to meet the demands of the hyper-competitive landscape is technology that enables you to access all of your business tools – including your business phone – anytime and from any location, simply and seamlessly.

In this white paper we explore the problem, take the mystery out of unified communications solutions and give you a glimpse of what agile, responsive and flexible ways of working could mean for your business.

How technology powers an agile business. A guide for small businesses.

The Australia of the future has to be a nation that is agile, that is innovative, that is creative… we have to recognise that the disruption that we see driven by technology, the volatility in change is our friend if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.

Malcolm Turnbull Prime Minister, Australia


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CONSTANT CHANGE, CONSTANT CHALLENGESScenarios can be all too familiar to many small businesses.

The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.

John P.Kotter Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, Harvard Business School, in his 1996 book ‘Leading Change’

‘I’ll get onto that when I get into the office – that’s where I have the tools and information that I need.’

‘I need urgent input from the critical knowledge worker – I’ll call them three times on their mobile, send them an email, call their desk-phone.’

‘Establishing that call centre or remote office is a great opportunity but the set-up cost is too great. We just can’t justify it.’

Three document collaborators and three different versions

‘I left you a voicemail!’

‘Yes, but you left it on my desk phone. I haven’t been in the office for three days.’

‘I’m stuck in the office until I get this done.’

Outcome: Wasted time, needless travelOutcome: Wasted time, frustration, identical messages left on numerous devices

Outcome: Growth potential is limited, competitive edge impacted, advantage to competitors

Outcome: Confusion, risk of releasing an out-of-date document

Outcome: Missed opportunity, negative impact on reputation

Outcome: No flexibility, inability to meet other commitments, poor work/life balance, unhappy employees

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This ever-changing landscape puts pressure on systems and people in a number of ways:

• Customer expectations are increasing. Customers expect rapid responses to queries and requests. The level of service they experience will determine whether they continue to work with you and whether they recommend your business to others.

• Competition for top talent is fierce. Having a good work/life balance is important to most employees. Yet they’re increasingly required to be contactable outside work hours and being asked to do ‘more with less’. Critical knowledge workers can be lured by competitors offering better conditions – and their departure could really hurt your business.

• Needing to be more agile than the competition. Getting ahead of the competition is challenging – staying ahead even more so. Sometimes there is a limited window of opportunity to test out a new idea. But setting up the infrastructure for a new office or remote team can be costly and time-consuming.

• Losing business focus. If the small business owner or the managing director is involved in setting up and maintaining technology solutions, they have less time to spend on what’s important – running the business.

The risks of not embracing new ways of working – and the right technology to enable this – are clear. Business could be affected by poor customer service or the inability to innovate and respond to opportunities. Employees could be at risk if they can’t work the way they want to.

It is not all bad news, however. By embracing new technology and innovative ways of working, Australian small businesses have a unique opportunity to gain considerable advantage and to leap ahead of the competition.


Technology is fuelling the rate of change, with traditional businesses constantly being challenged. New competitors are appearing daily. The global, connected marketplace also means that local markets can be – and are! – serviced remotely by overseas players.

SOLUTIONTomorrow’s technology is here today – and is more accessible than ever

Technology might well be the disruptor, but it is also the solution. Vendors are levelling the playing field and making enterprise-grade solutions available to companies of all sizes. A complete solution brings together voice, email, instant messaging, presence information, video and office productivity tools (such as Word and Excel) into one, simple interface which is accessible through any device.

The benefits to small businesses include the ability to do the following:

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Collaborate with ease. True unified communications means tools such as email, social platforms, instant messaging, document creation and sharing, and virtual meetings are designed to work together, rather than being disparate pieces of software.

Jump on new ideas. Until recently, setting up a new office or a call centre to service a new segment meant buying new systems and physically installing them in a new location. With the cloud, you only need a network connection and a flexible pay as you go, pay as you grow model to get a new site up and running. Provide the experience your customers

expect. Having a single dial-in for all your devices means you’ll no longer have to worry about missing an important message. You can also have instant access to the files and information you need, and be able to quickly contact experts for support – the ‘presence’ functionality even tells you if they’re available right now!

Fit more into your day. Because you can access all your business tools – from email to video conferencing – from any location at any time, you won’t need to waste time driving back to the office for that important meeting or conference.

Enable better work/life balance. The ability to work at any time from any location means key staff will not only be more productive, but they’ll be better able to integrate work and life – an important indicator of job satisfaction for many.

Sounds simple? It is. It is also incredibly powerful and sophisticated.

So your choice of partner in implementing the solution is vital. Consumer-level solutions that are not designed to work together will not meet business standards and will introduce unnecessary complexity – you might end up managing four or five different systems that were not designed to work together.

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MYTH 4

‘I can’t run a contact centre in the cloud’

Not true. Often vendors focus on the core technology and other market players deliver more specialised solutions such as contact centres or receptionist consoles. This offers greater choice and flexibility of set-up, as is the case with the Microsoft Office 365 solution. A number of its independent software vendors provide contact centre solutions on a per agent, per month basis.

MYTH 5

‘You can’t trust the security of cloud solutions’

Not true. In many cases, the security profile of cloud solutions is better than a traditional small business on-premise set-up. When done properly, cloud security is provided by organisations that are entirely focused on just that – cloud security.

It’s vital that the technology partner you work with has an ‘in country’ solution where the server infrastructure sits in Australia. This helps to ensure quality of service in a way that an overseas set-up cannot.

Never be afraid to ask questions of your prospective partner about backups, disaster recovery and quality assurance.

MYTH 6

‘The total cost of ownership is too great.’

Not true. With the cloud, you pay for what you need and for what you use. And the benefits are enormous – you’ll always have access to the latest technology and automatic software updates. This means you’ll be able to keep up with the pace of change and with current industry best practice.

MYTH 1

Consumer solutions are fit for business

‘I use Skype to call my relatives so I can use it to handle overseas business calls.’

Not true. Skype that you use to chat to family and friends is not the same as Skype for Business. It doesn’t offer enterprise-grade security or the ability to handle online meetings involving large numbers of people. Consumer Skype might be free, but it offers no service guarantees. It is also often hindered by consumer-level internet connections.

This goes for all consumer solutions. They don’t have the flexibility to be tailored to your business. You need solutions that work the way you do, not the other way around.

MYTH 2

Cloud communication solutions are not reliable

Not true. Cloud communication solutions can be tailored to the individual requirements of the business. They can be configured to match or exceed the level of service possible through an on-premise network set-up.

MYTH 3

Cloud communication solutions are too costly to set up

Not true. With cloud communication solutions, you pay for what you use. You also pay as you grow – for example, if you need to expand to new premises. This model offers the flexibility for a staged implementation if that’s what suits your business best.

In most instances there is no up-front set-up cost for a new cloud-based solution. For more complex projects (for example, moving an old server Exchange set-up to the cloud) there will be some professional services fees – but these are usually under $10k.

As with most things, there are many technology solutions out there. Making sense of all the options can be complex and time-consuming. It is vital to focus on what you do best and work with someone who can set up the solution and tailor it to the way you work. Someone who can make what is a sophisticated solution really simple for you. Remember: solutions need to be simple and seamless for users to embrace.

To find out how Nexon Absolute ensures Skype for Business does exactly what you need it to, call us at 1300 800 000, email us at [email protected] or visit nexonabsolute.com.au

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NEXON ABSOLUTENexon Absolute is a cloud-based unified communications solution that encompasses Skype for Business and allows businesses to experience its full potential. It combines and integrates all your communication capabilities – voice, video, audio, web conferencing, instant messaging and desktop sharing – onto a single, easy to use platform.

Built on the Microsoft technology stack and bringing together leading security and call centre experts, Nexon Absolute is a complete unified communications offering. It replaces your PBX and enables enterprise-level voice features, it provides an integrated call centre functionality and works seamlessly with Office 365* subscription while leveraging the Exchange for voicemail.

*Don’t have Office 365 in place? No problem, we can help in setting it up.

Take control. Remain flexible. Embrace change.

Call us for a free, no-obligation demonstration of what Nexon Absolute could mean for your business.

Brought to you by Nexon Asia Pacific, Nexon Absolute is a sophisticated communication solution, delivered simply in a pay as you go, pay as you grow basis.

With 1000’s of users under management, Nexon Asia Pacific is proud to be the trusted IT partner to more than 50 Australian businesses – industries include retail, not for profit, government and financial services – and to be helping them operate with the flexibility and scalability they need to grow and prosper in the new economy.